Part of the closest star-forming region to us, known as the Chamaeleon Complex, has been illuminated by the light of young stars in this artwork by nature captured by the Dark Energy Camera. Continue ReadingStar-forming cloud Chamaeleon I looks like a cosmic masterpiece in new Dark Energy Camera image (video)
When the Sun becomes a red giant, will the outer planets and moons become more temperate and conducive to Earth-like life? Terrence A. MurrayCincinnati, Ohio When the Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel and expands into a red giant, it will eventually encompass the innermost planets of the solar system, out to about Earth’s orbit.Continue reading “When the Sun becomes a red giant, will the outer planets and moons become more temperate?” The post When Continue ReadingWhen the Sun becomes a red giant, will the outer planets and moons become more temperate?
A USC-led research team has created a series of supercomputer-simulated twins of our Milky Way galaxy—which could help scientists unlock new answers about one of the biggest mysteries in the universe: dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up about 85% of all matter in existence.
The Fujifilm X-T50, with its powerful 40.2-MP sensor and excellent creative functionality, is a great beginner camera for astrophotography. Continue ReadingFujifilm X-T50 review
The ICON model can be used for weather forecasting as well as climate predictions and long-term projections. So far, however, the different applications have been developed separately. An initiative that aims to bring the two closer together has presented first results in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
The first images of an artificial solar eclipse from ESA’s Proba-3 mission have been unveiled. Continue ReadingBehold! 1st images of artificial solar eclipse captured by ESA’s Proba-3 mission
An international team of scientists led by astronomers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison has produced the most accurate measurement of the gases swirling around young stars and how their mass changes over time. The discovery joins many pieces of a puzzle that may reveal which kinds of planets form—rocky Earth-types, gas giants like Jupiter, or balls of ice in the Neptune mold—as star systems mature.
Very massive stars (VMSs), which typically has masses about 100 times that of our own Sun, are critical components in our understanding of the formation of important astronomical structures like black holes and supernovae. However, there are some observed characteristics of VMSs that don’t fit the expected behavior based on the best models we have of them. In particular, they hover around a relatively limited band of temperatures, which are hard to replicate with typical stellar evolution models. A new paper from Kendall Shepherd and their co-authors at the Institute for Advanced Study (SISSA) in Italy describes a series of new models based on updated solar winds that better fit the observations of VMSs in their natural environment, and might aid in our understanding of the development of some of the most fascinating objects in the Universe.
During its commissioning phase, NASA’s [*Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere*](https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/) (PUNCH) mission captured high-resolution images of a [Coronal Mass Ejection](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/coronal-mass-ejections) (CME) in greater detail than was previously possible.
LUNAA Journeys (St. LUcia National Astronomy Association) is looking to address an all too common problem in the global astronomical community. Too often, participation in astronomy is seen as cost prohibitive, the sole pursuit of large universities or organizations that can afford to build a large modern observatory, or launch the Hubble Space Telescope. This is unfortunate, as there’s never been an era of more readily accessible information, out there in terms of astronomy and skywatching.
A new landmark study has pinpointed the location of the universe’s “missing” matter, and detected the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) on record. Using FRBs as a guide, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and Caltech have shown that more than three-quarters of the universe’s ordinary matter has been hiding in the thin gas between galaxies, marking a major step forward in understanding how matter interacts and behaves in the universe.
Send your birthday love to Planet Bob as we reminisce about this spirited post-apocalyptic gem. Continue ReadingTitan A.E. came out 25 years ago, and history has been kind to the infamous flop that killed Fox Animation Studios
Binary neutron star mergers, cosmic collisions between two very dense stellar remnants made up predominantly of neutrons, have been the topic of numerous astrophysics studies due to their fascinating underlying physics and their possible cosmological outcomes. Most previous studies aimed at simulating and better understanding these events relied on computational methods designed to solve Einstein’s equations of general relativity under extreme conditions, such as those that would be present during neutron star mergers.
I have been researching the possibility of living on Mars for several years. But it took an invitation to give a talk about space at HMP Erlestoke in England—a category C men’s prison—to make me realize that there are a surprising number of similarities between the challenges that would be faced by would-be Martians and daily life in jail.
The M-class flare was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection currently forecast to land Earth with a glancing blow on June 18. Continue ReadingPowerful solar flare erupts from sun triggering radio blackouts across North America (video)
China has sent several small spacecraft into specialized lunar and cislunar orbits to test communications, navigation and orbital dynamics for planned Earth-moon infrastructure. The post China lays foundation for cislunar infrastructure with spacecraft in novel lunar orbits appeared first on SpaceNews.
Dark matter “lampshades” could slip between Earth and distant stars, causing tiny amounts of dimming that may help explain one of the greatest puzzles in science. Continue ReadingDark matter ‘lampshades’ dimming stars could solve one of the greatest scientific mysteries
In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Dave Eicher invites you to head out on the evening of June 16 to observe a close passage of the star Regulus by Mars. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion and sits at the bottom of that figure’s “backward question mark,” which is the Lion’s head,Continue reading “This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Mars passes the star Regulus” The post This Week in Astronomy with Continue ReadingThis Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Mars passes the star Regulus
Astroscale, the space junk removal venture, announced a British government contract June 16 worth about $7 million to deploy a pair of cubesats in 2027 to monitor space weather while tracking other objects in low Earth orbit. The post Astroscale secures UK defense contract for space weather, object-tracking mission appeared first on SpaceNews.
