Search

Supernova explosions, although rare, can have an impact on Earth. Astronomers consider a supernova within 160 light-years to be close, even though it is still a vast distance. Recent research has found elevated levels of iron-60, a radioactive isotope created in supernovae, in ancient sediment layers on the ocean floor. These findings suggest that Earth has been bombarded by nearby supernovae multiple times over the past nine million years. While the amount of debris reaching Earth is relatively small and not a significant danger, it is remarkable that remnants from exploding stars so far away have reached our planet. [Extracted from the article]

Astronomers have made significant progress in understanding how planets form thanks to advancements in technology and observations. Previously, theories about planet formation were speculative and often considered "wacky." However, with the use of telescopes and digital image-processing techniques, astronomers now have hundreds of observations of embryonic planetary systems. These observations have revealed that stars form in gas clouds called nebulae, which collapse under their own gravity to create protostellar disks. These disks eventually cool and begin the process of planetary formation. Recent observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have provided even more detailed information about planetary systems emerging in nearby nebulae. The study of planetary birth is rapidly evolving, and these new observations are helping scientists understand the connections between different planetary systems and our own solar system. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the phenomenon of pareidolia, which is the human brain's tendency to see patterns and recognizable shapes in random stimuli. It specifically focuses on examples of pareidolia in astronomy, such as the "face on Mars" and various nebulae and galaxies that resemble familiar objects or creatures. The author emphasizes that while pareidolia can be entertaining, it is important to distinguish between real patterns and mere illusions in order to maintain scientific accuracy. [Extracted from the article]

This article from Scientific American explores the vastness of space and the difficulty of comprehending its scale. It explains that distances in space are measured using units such as light-years, which can be difficult for the average person to grasp. The article provides examples to help readers understand the distances between objects in our solar system and beyond, including the moon, the sun, and other planets. It also discusses the size and distance of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters. The author acknowledges that even astronomers struggle to fully comprehend these scales, but emphasizes that through math, physics, and our brains, we can still gain understanding of the universe. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the search for an Earth-like exoplanet, also known as Earth 2.0. While there have been discoveries of Earth-size exoplanets, finding an exact replica of Earth is unlikely due to the many random variables involved in planetary formation and evolution. The article emphasizes that the search for Earth 2.0 is not just about finding a habitable planet, but also about understanding how planets form and differ from those in our solar system. Discovering an Earth-like exoplanet could profoundly change our perspective on the universe and help answer the question of whether we are alone. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the use of lasers in the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Chile. The lasers are used to fine tune the telescope's resolution by creating artificial stars. The lasers emit a specific color that is absorbed by sodium atoms in the atmosphere, causing them to glow and create a small point of light. The ELT measures the changes in this spot of light as it passes through the atmosphere and adjusts a mirror to counteract the "twinkling" of the star, allowing for sharper vision. This process, called adaptive optics, is common and should enable the ELT to have better vision than the Hubble Space Telescope. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the construction of increasingly larger astronomical telescopes and the limitations that come with it. While space telescopes like the Hubble and James Webb are limited in size due to the constraints of launching them into space, ground-based telescopes can be much larger. However, building monolithic telescopes beyond a certain size becomes difficult and expensive. To overcome this, astronomers have turned to segmented mirrors, which can be combined to create larger telescopes. The article focuses on the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will be the largest visible- and infrared-light telescope upon completion in 2028. The ELT utilizes segmented mirrors and adaptive optics to overcome the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere. The article also mentions the possibility of future technologies, such as interferometry or lunar observatories, that could further expand the capabilities of telescopes. Overall, the ELT represents the forefront of astronomy, but the potential for even larger telescopes in the future remains. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses a unique perspective of a solar eclipse from the moon. It describes how a Japanese company's lunar mission captured an image of the moon's shadow sweeping across Earth's face from a distance of 400,000 kilometers. The image shows the moon's gray surface with Earth's blue disk near the lunar limb, along with white clouds and brown splotches representing Australia and part of Asia. The article raises the question of what to call this phenomenon and suggests that as human exploration of the moon progresses, a proper name may be determined in the future. [Extracted from the article]

"The Milky Way's Secrets," by Phil Plait, explores the formation of spiral galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. The leading hypothesis suggests that spiral patterns are created by density waves, regions of slightly higher density in a galaxy's disk that move at a different speed than the stars. These density waves cause gas clouds to collect and collapse, forming new stars. The specific characteristics of spiral arms depend on various factors, including the amount of gas, the galaxy's mass, recent collisions with other galaxies, and the rate of star formation. While this field of research is complex and still not fully understood, astronomers continue to study and explore these phenomena. [Extracted from the article]

The James Webb Space Telescope has been used to study the Crab Nebula, a remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred over 900 years ago. The nebula is a cloud of debris that was ejected from the explosion site and has expanded to a size of over 10 light-years. The telescope's infrared imaging has revealed different structures within the nebula, including dust and synchrotron radiation. Astronomers hope that these observations will help answer questions about the origins of the nebula and the star that created it. [Extracted from the article]

NASA is facing funding challenges from Congress, which releases limited funding each year, hindering the agency's ability to pursue long-term missions. One such mission is the Mars sample return (MSR) mission, which aims to bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth for study. An independent review board found that the MSR mission is unlikely to be ready for launch by 2028 and would cost $10 billion. Despite the challenges, increasing NASA's budget would allow the agency to pursue its mission goals and make significant scientific discoveries. [Extracted from the article]

The case Kitz miller v. Dover Area School District brought this effort to national attention when creationists attempted to push an ID book as an alternative to a biology text in classrooms. Climate science deniers make the Apollo deniers look quaint. RECENTLY I WAS IN THE ATTIC of my house, going through old possessions in preparation to move across the country. [Extracted from the article]

It might not include frozen moons of gas-giant planets or worlds where life as we don't know it may evolve, but as long as we are aware of these limitations, it's still handy. An illustration of TOI-700 d, the first Earth-size habitable-zone planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. ASTRONOMERS HAVE, SO far, discovered nearly 5,500 exoplanets - alien worlds orbiting alien stars - with more than 7,000 candidate planets still waiting to be confirmed. [Extracted from the article]

Without going into too much technical detail, cell phones emit a weak signal that can be detected by a nearby tower, which in turn emits a much stronger signal to send the transmission along. There are very few towers in the Pacific Ocean nations, compared with a huge number in the U.S. And there are more towers in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern, so our alien friends would see a different signal depending on where their home star is located in the sky. If the alien tech is the same as ours - with a radio telescope as big as the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia - our overall cell-phone signal is still far too weak to be detected from any of the three stars. [Extracted from the article]

The iconic Orion nebula, visible to the naked eye and the birthplace of hundreds of stars, is only one small part of this gigantic stellar factory. The researchers reason that at least one supernova must have exploded near the still-forming solar system to create the radioactive elements seen in ancient meteorites, so - because of the relative rarity of such events - they conclude the sun's birth cluster must have been very large to ensure, statistically, that this could occur. We've seen tremendous leaps in our understanding of how stars form, but, ironically, we still have some pretty fundamental questions about our nearest and dearest one - such as whether the sun was born solo or along with a huge passel of other stars. [Extracted from the article]

This effect is light pollution - human-generated illumination cast up into the heavens - causing the sky itself to glow and washing out the stars. To find out, a team of scientists led by light-pollution researcher Christopher Kyba of the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam turned to what may seem like a weirdly obvious detection method: human beings. When I was a kid, my family lived in suburban Washington, D.C. This location made being a budding amateur astronomer tough; most stars were invisible against the overhead glare from city lights. [Extracted from the article]

Ten years ago, as the sun rose over Chelyabinsk, Russia, the sky exploded. Since the Chelyabinsk impact, two spacecraft have not only approached small asteroids but also collected samples from them; one, Hayabusa2, already dropped off its samples back at Earth, and the other, OSIRIS-REx, will do so later this year. To that end, in November 2021 nasa launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which slammed a half-ton impactor into the 170meter-wide asteroid Dimorphos - a moon of the larger asteroid Didymos. [Extracted from the article]

Called a mantle plume, it may be a relatively new feature in Mars's interior, one that has analogues on Earth. THE UNIVERSE For decades planetary scientists assumed Mars was dead. [Extracted from the article]

Not too long ago we knew of only two astronomical neutrino sources: the sun, where neutrinos are created in the nuclear fires of its core, and Supernova 1987A, a relatively nearby exploding star that emitted a transient flash of neutrinos once and then was gone. In the zoo of subatomic particles, neutrinos are strange beasts. [Extracted from the article]

The breadth of the repeated spiral patterns--starting practicallyon top of the stars and stretching so far away fromthem--indicates this dust originates near the stars and then travels tothe depths of interstellar space, something astronomers weren'tsure could occur in such a system. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), however, has farkeener eyesight than we mere humans, plus it peers at the cosmosin infrared wavelengths far beyond what our eyes can see.Astronomers recently pointed JWST at the twin stars in WR 140,and what it witnessed was absolutely spectacular. [Extracted from the article]

A GRB this close means that astronomers can analyze the light they see from it in more ways than usual. In early October 2022 a wave of high-energy radiation swept over Earth from a gamma-ray burst, one of the most singularly catastrophic and violent events the cosmos has to offer. These "light echoes" happen when light hits dust clouds just off our line of sight to the GRB - so we see them to the side, next to the bright point in the sky. [Extracted from the article]

The astronomer sat in the chair, fidgeting. He was nervous--he had never pitched a movie to a studio executive before. Frankly, he was amazed that the studio had even agreed [...]

WHEN I WAS A KID, I used to wonder if there were any real Martians. I watched a lot of TV and movies, including just about every science-fiction flick ever […]

The author discusses planets, their definition, and discoveries of objects that may qualify as planets, asteroids, or satellites. The author qualifies planets as being round or spherical and large, but not necessarily orbiting a star. The author mentions the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and its definition of a planet conceived in 2006.

A roundtable is presented in which the topic of researching extrasolar planets for signs of life is discussed. The discussion includes Gibor Basri, astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley; John A. Johnson, astronomer at Caltech; Sara Seager, planetary scientist and astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Tori Hoechler, astrobiologist at the Ames Research Center. Topics include habitability on other planets, funding for research, and how life is detected.

The article presents discussion concerning the astronomical search for vulcanoids, or small planetoids between the orbit of Mercury and the Sun. Details are given noting the apparent emptiness of the region and why such a phenomena is illogical. The efforts of both historical and contemporary astronomers to find the bodies are described. Several theories are presented suggesting that planetoids may be in the region but invisible to astronomical observation instruments.

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/dec/in-which-we-define-what-a-planet-is

IT'S HAPPENED to most all of us at one time or another: You step outside at evening twilight--perhaps to set up your telescope--and you chance to look east just as […]

Robert Zubrin, 305 pages, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 1999; ISBN 0-87477-975-8; hardcover, $24.95. Make no mistake; Robert Zubrin knows his rocketry. He is the founder of the Mars Society [...]

Q: I was tempted to purchase a 28-ounce meterorite for $500, but didn't because I wasn't sure of its value. How much per ounce should one expect to pay for […]

WHEN NASA SENT VIKING 1 to look at Mars in 1976, astronomers got a surprise: Mars looked back! The Cydonia region of the Red Planet's northern hemisphere features the usual [...]

As you get older, you think more about the effects of gravity. Trust me! Climbing a long light of stairs becomes a little more daunting, for one thing. My belly […]

Ah, September, when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere finally start to ease down a bit. Sometimes where I live the weather can be unpredictable, broiling one day and chilly the […]

Imagine yourself sitting on a chair in a large, smoke-filled room. The smoke is so dense that you can see only a few feet before everything around you becomes hazy [...]

In the early 1930s, astronomer George Ellery Hale had to find a site for a mammoth 200-inch telescope, which, once built, would be the largest in the world. After an […]

AH, SPRING! The trees are blooming, the birds are chirping, the eggs are standing on end.... Springtime has always prompted weird rituals in humans, but the strangest of them all […]

ONE DAY IN SCHOOL we had a lesson on how to write a business letter (remember those?). At the end we were told where to put our return address on […]

MY DAUGHTER, who's nine, is starting to ask tough questions. Not about the birds and the bees or where she came from. Oh no, not her--she wants to know whether […]

WHERE I LIVE IN Northern California, we have two seasons: "rainy" and "dry." If you live somewhere else, chances are you have to deal with an extra season or two: […]

LET'S GET THE CONCLUSION of this article out of the way right now: Astrology is a sham. I've been saying astrology is a sham for years, as have a lot […]

ASTRONOMY IS FULL of coincidences. Sometimes, when I'm outside, I'll look up just in time to catch a bright meteor streaking across the sky. Or I'll turn around at the […]

DO YOU REMEMBER May 5, 2000? I sure do: it was the date Earth wasn't destroyed. OK, maybe you could say that about every date. Earth wasn't destroyed yesterday, it's […]