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Previously unseen video footage has been helping scientists learn more about the fate of the airship. One of the 20th Century's most infamous disasters, the destruction of the Hindenburg - a large German passenger airship - occurred following its arrival at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey in May 1937. The huge hydrogen-filled airship was carrying 97 passengers at the time, of which 37 lost their lives when the vessel inexplicably burst into flames and crashed to the ground, bringing with it any remaining confidence in airship travel in general. Although it is obvious that the gas...

Almost 35 years ago, scientists made the then-radical proposal that colossal hydrogen bombs called novae go through a very long-term life cycle after erupting, fading to obscurity for hundreds of thousands of years and then building back up to become full-fledged novae once more. A new study is the first to fully model the work and incorporate all of the feedback factors now known to control these systems, backing up the original prediction while bringing new details to light. Published this week in the journal Nature Astronomy, the study confirms that the novae we observe flashing throughout the universe represent...

According to reports in The Astronomer's Telegram, a star in the region of the constellation of Cassiopeia has just gone nova, and the glow is still visible in the night sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and have even a basic telescope, you might want to head out and point it in that direction. The first detection was made on 18 March 2021 by amateur astronomer Yuji Nakamura from the Mie Prefecture in Japan. In four frames captured using a 135-millimeter lens and a 15-second exposure, a bright, magnitude 9.6 glow was visible where none had been just...

The nova (left) and the same patch of sky four days earlier. (Yuji Nakamura/NAOJ) According to reports in The Astronomer's Telegram, a star in the region of the constellation of Cassiopeia has just gone nova, and the glow is still visible in the night sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and have even a basic telescope, you might want to head out and point it in that direction. The first detection was made on 18 March 2021 by amateur astronomer Yuji Nakamura from the Mie Prefecture in Japan. In four frames captured using a 135-millimeter lens and a...

An amateur astronomer just spotted a strange new object in the sky. And it’s bright enough for you to see with binoculars from your backyard. The discovery image (left) of a new nova that recently appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia. The right image shows how the same region of the sky appeared just four days prior. Yuji Nakamura At around 7 P.M. JST on the evening of March 18, Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Nakamura spotted something strange: A new point of light in the familiar constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. Researchers at Kyoto University quickly followed up using the 3.8-meter Seimei...

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced Tuesday that northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, D.C., will begin the next phase of reopening as the spread of coronavirus appears to be slowing in the region. The new guidelines, which go into effect Friday, allow the opening of restaurants for indoor dining at half capacity and allow gyms and fitness centers to reopen indoors at 30 percent capacity. Social gatherings now have a maximum of 50 people, up from 10 people allowed under phase one. Religious gatherings can take place at 50 percent capacity. Wearing face masks, social distancing and working remotely are...

Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine, is nowhere near ready to reopen Friday when Gov. Ralph Northam plans to begin lifting shutdown restrictions, the region’s top elected officials said Sunday, citing the continuing increase in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. In a joint letter, the elected leaders in Northern Virginia’s five largest jurisdictions — representing nearly 2.4 million residents — told Northam (D) they are unwilling to lift restrictions in place since late March, which the governor plans to do in a limited capacity Friday in hopes of reviving the state’s ailing economy. Northam announced last week that he will begin...

A controlled burn occurring at Marine Corps Base Quantico Sunday afternoon near the Stafford and Fauquier county line is causing moderate to heavy smoke conditions in Prince William County and other areas of Northern Virginia, Maryland and D.C. The U.S. Forest Service is conducting the controlled burn of about 2,000 acres in the area. Individuals with respiratory illnesses or medical conditions that are aggravated by smoke should remain indoors until smoke conditions clear, according to the Prince William County Police Department. The controlled burn is expected to last two days. The controlled burn appears to have caught local jurisdictions off...

Supergiant star Betelgeuse has been getting dimmer at an unprecedented pace over the past few months, leading some astronomers to wonder if it might be in the process of the collapse that precedes a supernova explosion. But there are other possible explanations, and we should have a better idea of what's happening to the massive star by the end of the month. Betelgeuse has no more than about 100,000 years left to burn and could start its death throes just about anytime between now and then. When it does go supernova, it's expected to result in a dramatic light show...

Gravitational waves are caused by calamitous events in the Universe. Neutron stars that finally merge after circling each other for a long time can create them, and so can two black holes that collide with each other. But sometimes there's a burst of gravitational waves that doesn't have a clear cause. One such burst was detected by LIGO/VIRGO on January 14, and it came from the same region of sky that hosts the star Betelgeuse. Yeah, Betelgeuse, aka Alpha Orionis. The star that has been exhibiting some dimming behaviour recently, and is expected to go supernova at some point in...

Currently, the faint star V Sagittae, V Sge, in the constellation Sagitta, is barely visible, even in mid-sized telescopes. However, around the year 2083, this innocent star will explode, becoming as bright as Sirius, the brightest star visible in the night sky. During this time of eruption, V Sge will be the most luminous star in the Milky Way galaxy. This prediction is being presented for the first time at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, HI, by astronomers Bradley E. Schaefer, Juhan Frank, and Manos Chatzopoulos, with the Louisiana State University Department of Physics & Astronomy. V...

Climate change protesters shut down some intersections from Capitol Hill to downtown Washington Monday morning in the latest of a series of rallies around the world designed to force policymakers to respond to Earth’s rising temperatures. Organizers of Shut Down DC urged “climate rebels” to flood the District’s streets Monday to bring “the whole city to a gridlocked standstill,” according to the group’s website. The website included a map of so-called “climate criminals” that includes “corporations, lobbyists, trade cartels, and government institutions that are most responsible for creating the climate crisis.” By 8:30 a.m. Monday, health-care workers and other activists...

In a Northern Virginia swing district that is one of the most watched in this midterm election, one-quarter of the electorate can’t really say what they think of state Sen. Jennifer Wexton. But in most polls, the Democrat is comfortably ahead of Rep. Barbara Comstock, the two-term Republican who is ubiquitous. That phenomenon says plenty about this particular moment in this particular suburban district across the river from Washington, heavy with college-educated, affluent voters and growing immigrant communities. Voters in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District say they want to vote for a Democrat — any Democrat — as a check on...

Twenty-nine of the top 30 areas with the most million-dollar homes are in California or NYC's Tri-State Area. Eight of the ten wealthiest towns are in California and New York State. Forty percent of the nation's billionaires live in California, New York State, and Connecticut. But the Washington, D.C., area dominates the list of highest-earning counties, claiming six of the top ten and 13 of the top 30. Why?

Anyone else watch nova this evening? It did seem to make a somewhat good case though at the same time seemed to duck confronting skeptic arguments directly or at least so it seemed to me. I am not following this at a level of detail that I feel competent to debate one way or another so I am curious for others' reactions.

Strangers I meet are always surprised when they discover they’ve met a third-generation Northern Virginian. “Wow, a native!” they exclaim, “you don’t meet many of those!” This surprise is often accompanied by a strong opinion about NoVA, as it’s often called—they suggest that the area just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. has little regional identity or unique culture, or little worthy of praise. It’s quite a bracing commentary to hear about one’s home. Yet I contend that whatever deficit in cultural identity NoVA may have has been accrued by the technocratic elite that has come to dominate the...

A proposed City of Richmond School Safety resolution asks Congress to ban “large-capacity ammunition cartridges.” The proposed resolution also calls on Congress to “ban the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession, and use of assault weapons.” It also asks to implement “universal background checks.” Such checks would require a background check for a private sale just like the background check currently required for a retail purchase. Ironically, almost every high-profile firearm-based attacker acquires his or her gun via background checks at retail sales, so such an expansion would do nothing to prevent future attacks. To date, attackers that do not acquire firearms...

X-ray observations are consistent with radiowave data reported last month by another team of scientists, who also indicated that it was continuing to brighten during the three months since the collision. During this same period, X-ray and optical observatories were unable to monitor GW170817/GRB because it was too close to the Sun at the time. However, once this period ended, Chandra was able to gather data again, which was consistent with these other observations. As John Ruan explained: “When the source emerged from that blind spot in the sky in early December, our Chandra team jumped at the chance to...

The modern search for the Star of Bethlehem began with Johannes Kepler (imperial astronomer for Rudolph II of Germany), who shortly before Christmas in 1603 observed a conjunction (pairing) of Jupiter with Saturn from his observatory in Prague. That this occurred in the constellation of Pisces he thought was important as well – perhaps recalling Rabbi Isaac Abarvanel's belief, noted in his 15th-century commentary on Daniel, that not only does a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn foretell important events, but in Pisces this holds a special significance for Israel; and such an event might even foretell the coming of the...

For the first time, two neutron stars in a nearby galaxy have been observed engaging in a spiral death dance around one another until they collided. What resulted from that collision is being called an "unprecedented" discovery that is ushering in a new era of astronomy, scientists announced Monday.