Tag Archives: astronomy

From the far-right Christian site Charisma News: For the first time in the history of the United States, Election Day will fall on the same day as a blood moon. The Christian Bible makes mention of blood moons in both Old and New Testament writing. The cause for rampant interest among Christians in regards to a blood moon is that …

Via press release: The international NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe so far. U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled the image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, during a White House event on Monday 11 July. The image – which focuses on a spot in the …

Via press release from NASA: NASA is commissioning a study team to start early in the fall to examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) – that is, observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena – from a scientific perspective. The study will focus on identifying available data, how best to collect future …

Space.com reports: The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has done it again. The scientists who in 2019 gave us our first-ever direct image of a black hole are back with results a little closer to home. During joint news conferences held around the world today (May 12), they unveiled our first view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of …

The Verge reports: Astronomers just discovered a treasure trove of “rogue planets” — free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star but exist all by their lonesome in the depths of space. With masses comparable to that of Jupiter, the 70 or more rogue planets spotted throughout the Milky Way galaxy are the largest such group of cosmic nomads ever found. …

USA Today reports: A massive solar flare is due to hit Earth today, authorities are warning – potentially disrupting power grids and bringing the Northern Lights as far south as New York. The flare – officially known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) – was observed on Saturday on the side of the sun directly facing our planet and comes …

Reuters reports: Scientists said on Monday they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth. The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international …

Newsweek reports: Scientists have discovered a huge, mysterious mass of material beneath a large crater on the Moon. The mass is five times bigger than Hawaii’s Big Island and is located hundreds of miles beneath the lunar surface. Researchers led by Peter James from Baylor University, Texas, were studying the structure of the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This is an impact …

USA Today reports: To the moon? Nope, President Donald Trump says. Trump tweeted Friday that NASA should forget about going back to the moon and should focus on other things, like Mars. Trump’s comments came one day after NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the agency won’t be able to meet a 2024 deadline to land astronauts on the moon unless …

The Independent reports: An international scientific team on Wednesday announced a milestone in astrophysics – the first-ever photo of a black hole – using a global network of telescopes to gain insight into celestial objects with gravitational fields so strong no matter or light can escape. The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration …

The Associated Press reports: Here comes a total lunar eclipse and supermoon, all wrapped into one. The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. At the same time, the moon will be ever so closer to Earth and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual — a supermoon. …

Science News reports: Astronomers have spotted a second repeating fast radio burst, and it looks a lot like the first. The existence of a second repeating burst suggests there could be many more of the mysterious signals in the cosmos. The burst, called FRB 180814.J0422+73, is one of 13 newly discovered fast radio bursts, or FRBs — brief, bright signals …

The Associated Press reports: Curiosity and awe have greeted a complete lunar eclipse, the longest one of this century and visible in much of the world. The so-called “blood moon,” when it turns a deep red, was visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America when the sun, Earth and moon lined up perfectly, casting Earth’s …

The Associated Press reports: The moon is putting on a rare cosmic show Wednesday. It’s the first time in 35 years a blue moon has synced up with a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse. Hawaii and Alaska have the best seats, along with the Canadian Yukon, Australia and Asia. The western U.S. should have good viewing, too, along with …

The Associated Press reports: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years. Confirmation of Cassini’s expected demise came about 7:55 a.m. EDT. That’s when radio signals from the spacecraft — its last scientific gifts to Earth — came to an abrupt halt. …

Space Flight Insider reports: A large rock will fly past Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers). Asteroid 3122 Florence, named after modern nursing founder Florence Nightingale, is the largest object to make a close-encounter since NASA began tracking near-Earth objects (NEO) in the 1990s. “While many known asteroids have passed by …

The Verge reports: Eclipse day is finally here. Science experiments will happen, animals will freak out, and you won’t get a good picture without the right filter. But before all that, how do we actually watch this thing on the internet? First things first: find out what time the eclipse is for you. Input your zip code and it’ll tell …

Space.com reports: A whimsical parody of the Bonnie Tyler song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” highlights the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse that will be visible from the contiguous United States. Created by the Warby Parker eyeglass company, a music video for the fake song includes dancers dressed as the sun and the moon, dramatically prancing around an empty school …

NBC reports: Astronomers from NASA and the European Southern Observatory announced Wednesday that four new Earth-sized exoplanets have been discovered orbiting a star about 40 light-years away, and that three may contain liquid water and be able to sustain life. This star’s small grouping of planets now boasts the most Earth-sized worlds of any system astronomers have discovered, and the …

The Guardian reports: Humans are woefully unprepared for a surprise asteroid or comet, a Nasa scientist warned on Monday, at a presentation with nuclear scientists into how humans might deflect cosmic dangers hurtling toward Earth. “The biggest problem, basically, is there’s not a hell of a lot we can do about it at the moment,” said Dr Joseph Nuth, a …