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Astronomy (General/Chat)

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  • Senate Republicans aghast at Perdue's false election claims in Georgia governor race

    05/10/2022 2:59:35 PM PDT · by Paladin2 · 31 replies
    CNN +? ^ | 5/10/2022 | By Manu Raju and Alex Rogers
    "The election in 2020 was rigged and stolen," Perdue asserted at a recent debate. Perdue's former Senate GOP colleagues, however, are less than impressed. "It's absurd," said Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, when asked about the remarks of Perdue, his former colleague. "I think the effort to try and overturn an election when there is, at this stage, no evidence of widespread fraud is detrimental to democracy and insulting to the American public." "Hell yes," one of Perdue's closest Senate friends told CNN when asked if he was surprised by his ex-colleague's campaign transformation. "I don't know whether he believes...
  • The 'yellow brick road' to Atlantis? Deep-sea researchers spot incredible rock formation while exploring the Pacific Ocean floor near Hawaii

    05/10/2022 2:15:57 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 36 replies
    Daily Mail UK ^ | Tuesday, May 10th 2022 | Sam Tonkin
    They said: 'What may look like a "yellow brick road" to the mythical city of Atlantis is really an example of ancient active volcanic geology!' Deep-sea researchers have spotted a rock formation that resembles a 'yellow brick road' off coast of HawaiiThey said: 'What may look like the road to Atlantis is really an example of ancient active volcanic geology'Feature was located in Liliʻuokalani Ridge in the Papahānaumokuakea Marine National Monument in PacificThe crew of Exploration Vessel Nautilus caught sight of the formation and described it as a 'yellow brick road'
  • Incredibly Sharp Webb Space Telescope Test Images Hint at New Possibilities for Science

    05/10/2022 9:33:30 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 58 replies
    May 10, 2022 | By ALISE FISHER, NASA
    Webb MIRI and Spitzer Comparison Image Comparison of a Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument image of the Large Magellanic Cloud and a past image of the same view using the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right) ************************************************************************ NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of...
  • NASA reveals 1,600-foot asteroid will make ‘close approach’ to Earth in six days

    05/09/2022 4:50:37 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 34 replies
    ny post ^ | May 9, 2022 | Jamie Harris
    Thankfully, it will still be well over 3.5 million miles away, so there’s nothing to panic about. Experts believe the asteroid is somewhere between 240 and 535 yards wide. At the maximum possible length, that would make it bigger than the Empire State Building, the Shard and the Eiffel Tower. It would dwarf the Statue of Liberty too. The space rock — officially known as 388945 (2008 TZ3) — is expected to make its closest approach on Sunday, May 15. Last time it paid a visit was in May 2020. Back then it came even closer, at 1.7 million miles...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - A Martian Eclipse: Phobos Crosses the Sun

    05/09/2022 1:25:52 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 9 May, 2022 | Video Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU MSSS, SSI
    Explanation: What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken from the surface of Mars a month ago by the Perseverance rover. Phobos, at 11.5 kilometers across, is 150 times smaller than Luna (our moon) in diameter, but also 50 times closer to its parent planet. In fact, Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into Mars within the next 50 million years. In the near term, the...
  • NASA wants to send nudes to space in order to attract aliens

    05/09/2022 3:15:03 AM PDT · by Trillian · 31 replies
    Chron ^ | May 6, 2022 | Ariana Garcia
    The images were revealed as part of study included in NASA's 'Beacon in the Galaxy' project. Hey E.T., you up? NASA is planning on launching nude images into space as part of its latest attempt to make contact with other intelligent life in the universe, according to a study recently released by the space agency. However, the proposed unsolicited pictures won't be graphic photographs of actual naked human like you might think. Instead, they are basic anatomical drawings of a man and a woman accompanied by a depiction of DNA. The humans are waving, likely to make them seem more...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: The Inner Rings

    05/08/2022 4:41:08 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 8 May, 2022 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope
    Explanation: Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have two? To begin, the bright band near NGC 1512's center is a nuclear ring, a ring that surrounds the galaxy center and glows brightly with recently formed stars. Most stars and accompanying gas and dust, however, orbit the galactic center in a ring much further out -- here seen near the image edge. This ring is called, counter-intuitively, the inner ring. If you look closely, you will see this the inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar that runs horizontally across the galaxy. These ring...
  • May’s full Flower Moon will be a super blood moon total lunar eclipse

    05/07/2022 8:17:38 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 19 replies
    mlive.com ^ | May. 06, 2022 | Mark Torregrossa
    The total lunar eclipse will start Sunday, May 15 at 10:27 p.m., according to Mike Narlock, head of Astronomy at Cranbrook Institute of Science. Narlock says the progression to the total lunar eclipse will take a while. The totality portion of the lunar eclipse starts at 11:29 p.m. Sunday and lasts until 12:53 a.m. Monday, May 16. First, this month’s full moon is called the Flower Moon. It’s easy to understand why this moon has that name... The full moon is also a super moon. ... On May 15, the moon will be in the spot of its orbit where...
  • NASA’s Ingenuity in Contact With Perseverance Rover After Communications Dropout

    05/07/2022 6:08:51 PM PDT · by Ezekiel · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | May 06, 2022 | David Agle
    NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU. Download image ›On Thursday, May 5, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation that the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter had re-established communications with the Perseverance rover. Earlier in the week, the rotorcraft had missed a planned communications session with the rover – for the first time in over a year of operations on the Mars surface. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance as the base station that enables it to send data to and...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Firefall by Moonlight

    05/07/2022 5:19:36 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 7 May, 2022 | Image Credit & Copyright: Tara Mostofi
    Explanation: On certain dates in February, an elusive firefall can be spotted at sunset in Yosemite National Park, when water flows, the weather cooperates and the direction to the setting Sun is just right. Often photographed from vantage points below, at the right moment the park's seasonal Horsetail Fall is isolated in the shadows of the steep walls of El Capitan. Then, still illuminated with rays of reddened sunlight the waterfall briefly takes on a dramatic, fiery appearance. But a Horsetail firefall can be photographed by moonlight too. Even more elusive by moonlight, the firefall effect can also be seen...
  • SpaceX Brings 4 Astronauts Back to Earth After 6-Month Stint on International Space Station

    05/06/2022 8:46:20 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 7 replies
    Associated Press via Epoch Times ^ | 05/06/2022 | Katabella Roberts
    A four-member team of astronauts launched to the International Space Station by SpaceX touched back down on Earth in the Gulf of Mexico on May 6.The return via a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule came just one day after the group undocked from the space station following a six-month mission in which they conducted science experiments and did maintenance.Dragon and Crew-3 astronauts consisted of Raja Chari, a U.S. Air Force combat jet and test pilot who served as mission commander, Tom Marshburn, a medical doctor and former NASA flight surgeon, Kayla Barron, a U.S. Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer, and...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 3572 and the Southern Tadpoles

    05/06/2022 2:33:59 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 6 May, 2022 | Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Taylor
    Explanation: This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds along side the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster it sails far southern skies within the nautical constellation Carina. Stars from NGC 3572 are toward top center in the telescopic frame that would measure about 100 light-years across at the cluster's estimated distance of 9,000 light-years. The visible interstellar gas and dust is part of the star cluster's natal molecular cloud. Dense streamers of material within the nebula, eroded by stellar winds and radiation, clearly trail away from the energetic young stars. They...
  • Sun Blasts Out 3 Powerful Bursts of Energy in Last 24 Hours [1 X and 2 Ms]

    05/05/2022 3:03:49 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 9 replies
    scitechdaily.com ^ | MAY 4, 2022 | NASA
    HOME SPACE NEWS Sun Blasts Out 3 Powerful Bursts of Energy in Last 24 Hours TOPICS:NASASolar Dynamics ObservatorySolar FlareSun By NASA MAY 4, 2022 NASA SDO Solar Flare May 4 2022 NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the center of the image – on May 4, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, and which is colorized in yellow. Credit: NASA/SDO In the last 24 hours, the sun emitted two M-class solar flares and one X-class...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble

    05/05/2022 2:59:26 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 5 May, 2022 | Image Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby
    Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the northern springtime constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. This deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in fainter, gigantic, bubble-like shells. The shells...
  • New black hole sonifications with a remix are now available for listening

    05/04/2022 10:59:02 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 17 replies
    phys.org ^ | 5/4/2022 | NASA
    Since 2003, the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound. This is because astronomers discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster's hot gas that could be translated into a note—one that humans cannot hear, some 57 octaves below middle C. Now a new sonification brings more notes to this black hole sound machine. This new sonification—that is, the translation of astronomical data into sound—is being released for NASA's Black Hole Week this year. In some ways, this sonification is unlike any other done before...
  • astronomy Picture of the Day - Planets Over Egyptian Pyramid

    05/04/2022 2:29:39 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 4 May, 2022 | Image Credit & Copyright: Osama Fatehi
    Explanation: The early morning planet parade continues. Visible the world over, the planets Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn have been lining up in the pre-dawn sky since mid-April. In the featured image taken last month, these planets were captured over the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the Saqqara necropolis of Egypt, the pyramid was constructed in the 27th century BC and is one of the oldest pyramids known. The two-image composite includes a foreground image taken during evening blue hour, and a background image captured from the same location the following morning. The morning...
  • Deep Breath: Asteroid 2009 JF1 Won't Smack Into Earth on May 6...The asteroid's path had been mysterious, but scientists have it sorted out.

    05/04/2022 10:16:04 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 24 replies
    Cnet ^ | May 4, 2022 | Amanda Kooser
    This is an illustration of an asteroid. NASA/JPL-Caltech ===================================================================== I was cruising through the Google News science section this morning when a story popped out saying NASA has estimated a space rock the size of the Great Pyramid may hit our planet on May 6, and even that an impact is "likely." That's the kind of message that can get your adrenaline pumping. But don't fear. Asteroid 2009 JF1 won't be smacking into us. A quick peek around Twitter shows people expressing concern about the headlines, many of them asking the same question: Will it hit Earth? Fortunately, it will...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Mercury's Sodium Tail

    05/03/2022 4:09:47 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 13 replies
    APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 3 May, 2022 | Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer
    Explanation: That's no comet. Below the Pleiades star cluster is actually a planet: Mercury. Long exposures of our Solar System's innermost planet may reveal something unexpected: a tail. Mercury's thin atmosphere contains small amounts of sodium that glow when excited by light from the Sun. Sunlight also liberates these atoms from Mercury's surface and pushes them away. The yellow glow from sodium, in particular, is relatively bright. Pictured, Mercury and its sodium tail are visible in a deep image taken last week from La Palma, Spain through a filter that primarily transmits yellow light emitted by sodium. First predicted in...
  • Watch A Helicopter Catch A Rocket Returning From Space

    05/03/2022 11:54:19 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 16 replies
    https://www.iflscience.com ^ | 03 MAY 2022, 12:27 | Dr Alfredo Carpineti
    VIDEO AT LINK................ Rocket Lab has successfully grabbed a rocket coming down from space with a helicopter. The impressive feat is a new way to make sure that rockets don’t end up in the ocean, on the ground, or simply burning up in the atmosphere. The launch was delayed by a few days and the rocket eventually took off from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 18:49 ET on May 2. To emphasize the company’s connection to the Southern Hemisphere country, the mission was named “There and Back Again” in homage to The Hobbit. The world imagined by Tolkien has now...
  • Pieces of ‘fireball’ meteor that exploded over Mississippi are being found, NASA says

    05/03/2022 7:07:46 AM PDT · by DUMBGRUNT · 4,270 replies
    NOLA.com ^ | 2 May 2022 | MARK PRICE
    Meteorites are not ‘flaming rocks of doom,' NASA says The “bright fireball” was traveling at 35,000 mph when it exploded at 8:03 a.m. with the “energy equivalent of 3 tons of TNT,” according to NASA Meteor Watch, the agency's project that tracks fireball activity. “Existing law states that any meteorites belong to the owner of the property on which they fell; out of respect for the privacy of those in the area, we will not disclose the locations of these finds,” And finding anything of value is likely harder than you think. “The pieces from this object were way too...