Space and astronomy news
Space tourism here is here to stay, and will likely remain a permanent fixture of near-Earth activities for the foreseeable future. But is it worth it?
Continue reading “Space Tourism: The Good, The Bad, The Meh”
Despite the fact that our universe is old, cold, and well past its prime, it’s not done making new galaxies yet.
Continue reading “Yes, Virginia, The Universe is Still Making Galaxies”
An 11-page document that’s attributed to a Pentagon whistleblower has provided new cases in the controversy over unidentified anomalous phenomena — also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs.
The document, released today in conjunction with a House subcommittee hearing on UAPs, lays out details about what’s said to be a special access program called Immaculate Constellation. It accuses officials in the federal government’s executive branch of a “criminal conspiracy” that has been managing issues surrounding UAPs and evidence for non-human intelligence “without congressional knowledge, oversight or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.”
Over the past few years, the Department of Defense has become more open to discussing UAP reports publicly, while insisting that there have been no substantiated reports of alien visitations. During today’s hearing, lawmakers called on the Pentagon to be more transparent in its investigations.
Continue reading “Congressional Hearing Fuels Fresh Debate About UFOs”
There are good reasons to keep an eye on the Leonid meteors this year.
It’s still one of the coolest things I ever saw. I was in the U.S. Air Force in the 90s, and November 1998 saw me deployed to the dark skies of Kuwait. That trip provided an unexpected treat, as the Leonid meteors hit dramatic storm levels on the morning of the 17th. Meteor came fast and furious towards local sunrise, often lighting up the desert floor like celestial photoflashes in the sky.
Once every 33 years or so, the ‘lion roars,’ as Leonid meteors seem to rain down from the Sickle asterism of the constellation Leo. And while the last outbreak was centered around the years surrounding 1999, there’s some interesting discussion about possible encounters with past Leonid streams in 2024.
Continue reading “Is an ‘Off-Year’ Leonid Outburst in the Cards For November?”
One of the most difficult challenges when assembling a telescope is aligning it to optical precision. If you don’t do it correctly, all your images will be fuzzy. This is particularly challenging when you assemble your telescope in space, as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) demonstrates.
Continue reading “How Webb Stays in Focus”
Massive stars about eight times more massive than the Sun explode as supernovae at the end of their lives. The explosions, which leave behind a black hole or a neutron star, are so energetic they can outshine their host galaxies for months. However, astronomers appear to have spotted a massive star that skipped the explosion and turned directly into a black hole.
Continue reading “A Star Disappeared in Andromeda, Replaced by a Black Hole”
About half a century ago, astronomers theorized that the Solar System is situated in a low-density hot gas environment. This hot gas emits soft X-rays that displace the dust in the local interstellar medium (ISM), creating what is known as the Local Hot Bubble (LHB). This theory arose to explain the ubiquitous soft X-ray background (below 0.2 keV) and the lack of dust in our cosmic neighborhood. This theory has faced some challenges over the years, including the discovery that solar wind and neutral atoms interact with the heliosphere, leading to similar emissions of soft X-rays.
Thanks to new research by an international team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), we now have a 3D model of the hot gas in the Solar System’s neighborhood. Using data obtained by the eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS1), they detected large-scale temperature differences in the LHBT that indicate that the LHB must exist, and both it and solar wind interaction contribute to the soft X-ray background. They also revealed an interstellar tunnel that could possibly link the LHB to a larger “superbubble.”
Continue reading “eROSITA All-Sky Survey Takes the Local Hot Bubble’s Temperature”
A new space-based telescope aims to address a key solar mystery.
A new experiment will explore a region of the Sun that’s tough to see from the surface of the Earth. The solar corona—the elusive, pearly white region of the solar atmosphere seen briefly during a total solar eclipse—is generally swamped out by the dazzling Sun. Now, the Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) will use a coronagraph to create an ‘artificial eclipse’ in order to explore the poorly understood middle corona region of the solar atmosphere.
Continue reading “CODEX Coronagraph Heads to the ISS on Cargo Dragon”
Space debris, which consists of pieces of spent rocket stages, satellites, and other objects launched into orbit since 1957 – is a growing concern. According to the ESA Space Debris Office, there are roughly 40,500 objects in LEO larger than 10 cm (3.9 inches) in diameter, an additional 1.1 million objects measuring 1 and 10 cm (0.39 to 3.9 inches) in diameter, and 130 million objects 1 mm to 1 cm (0.039 to 0.39 inches). The situation is projected to worsen as commercial space companies continue to deploy “mega-constellations” of satellites for research, telecommunications, and broadband internet services.
To address this situation, researchers from the University of Kyoto have developed the world’s first wooden satellite. Except for its electronic components, this small satellite (LingoSat) is manufactured from magnolia wood. According to a statement issued on Tuesday, November 5th, by the University of Kyoto’s Human Spaceology Center, the wooden satellite was successfully launched into orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This satellite, the first in a planned series, is designed to mitigate space debris and prevent what is known as “Kessler Syndrome.”
Continue reading “Japan Launches the First Wooden Satellite to Space”
In 1963, the Arecibo Observatory became operational on the island of Puerto Rico. Measuring 305 meters (~1000 ft) in diameter, Arecibo’s spherical reflector dish was the largest radio telescope in the world at the time – a record it maintained until 2016 with the construction of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. In December 2020, Arecibo’s reflector dish collapsed after some of its support cables snapped, leading the National Science Foundation (NSF) to decommission the Observatory.
Shortly thereafter, the NSF and the University of Central Florida launched investigations to determine what caused the collapse. After nearly four years, the Committee on Analysis of Causes of Failure and Collapse of the 305-Meter Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory released an official report that details their findings. According to the report, the collapse was due to weakened infrastructure caused by long-term zinc creep-induced failure in the telescope’s cable sockets and previous damage caused by Hurricane Maria.
Continue reading “New Report Details What Happened to the Arecibo Observatory”