Free Republic

Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. It is elliptical, or slightly oval-shaped. This means there is one point in the orbit where Earth is closest to the Sun, and another where Earth is farthest from the Sun. The closest point occurs in early January, and the far point happens in early July (July 7, 2007). If this is the mechanism that causes seasons, it makes some sense for the Southern Hemisphere. But, as an explanation for the Northern Hemisphere, it fails miserably.In fact, Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with seasons. The reason for seasons was explained in...

A Harvard astrophysicist who believes the Manhattan-sized comet hurtling towards Earth could possibly be fueled by alien technology has invited Kim Kardashian to join his research team — after she got a quick response from the federal government. Kardashian asked NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy on X last week to spill the “tea” on 3I/ATLAS, the mysterious interstellar comet that’s baffled scientists like Avi Loeb with its anomalous qualities. “Great question!” Duffy promptly responded to Kardashian’s query. “@NASA’s observations show that this is the third interstellar comet to pass through our solar system. No aliens. No threat to life here...

Behind the Sun, the comet appears to show signs of acceleration beyond what is expected by gravity. And for reasons not yet clear, it appears to have changed color. Ateam of astronomers monitoring interstellar object 3I/ATLAS have found something a little surprising. Our third confirmed interstellar visitor appears to have changed color for the second time. Meanwhile, another team finds that the comet has begun to show signs of non-gravitational acceleration as it approached perihelion. For those of you who haven't been following the story of our third interstellar visitor, on July 1, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert...

Is every "now" the same? Does the past, present, and future all equally exist? Am I having a crisis? The Andromeda Paradox - When is "Now"? | 11:09 Kyle Hill | 2.64M subscribers | 1,021,227 views | August 7, 2020 Andromeda Paradox [YouTube search]

Astronomers recently spotted two unprecedented plasma jets blasting out of a supermassive black hole and into space beyond its galaxy. The two extremely powerful plasma jets are the largest ever seen, measuring 23 million light-years from end to end. This distance would cross approximately 140 Milky Ways arranged side by side. Researchers who spotted this unprecedented phenomenon called the pair of plasma jets “Porphyrion” after a giant in Greek mythology. The two jets originate from the top and bottom of the supermassive black hole and have the combined power of trillions of suns. What exactly are black hole jets? Black...

Scientists have recreated the conditions inside a young planet, with magma and hydrogen, and uncovered a surprising way water might form. In the early chaos of planetary formation, before crusts cooled or atmospheres settled, water might already have been bubbling into existence. Not from icy comets or far-flung asteroids, but from the blistering union of magma and hydrogen gas. That’s the picture emerging from a new study led by Carnegie Science researchers, who’ve managed to reproduce the extreme conditions of young rocky planets in a lab. Their results suggest that planets may be able to make their own water, deep...

A meteorite discovered in Northwest Africa... Scientists say this ancient rock -- formed more than 4.56 billion years ago -- proves that planet-building processes in the outer reaches of the solar system began just as quickly as they did closer to the Sun.In a study published in Communications Earth & Environment, researchers analyzed a rare meteorite known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 12264, revealing that the body it originated from -- a fully formed protoplanet beyond Jupiter -- was already active during the very dawn of the Solar System.The findings challenge the prevailing assumption that outer Solar System planets formed more...

Defying expectations that binary systems are unlikely areas for planet formation, an international team of researchers has now identified a trio of Earth-sized exoplanets 190 light-years away in the TOI-2267 system.How these planets could form and maintain their stability in such an environment is a significant question for astronomers. The stars within this system are only separated by eight astronomical units (AU), far closer than the tens to hundreds of AU theoretically demonstrated to provide a stable planet-forming environment in earlier work...The system in question is unusual not just for its planets but also for the extremely tight orbit of...

Jinlin Crater A team of scientists has uncovered evidence that a massive asteroid strike created a prominent crater in southern China’s Guangdong province roughly 10,000 years ago, during a period of rapid human development. The Jinlin crater, situated near Zhaoqing city, marks only the fifth confirmed impact site in China and the very first identified in the country’s southern region. Measuring approximately 2,950 feet across, the tilted, bowl-shaped formation suggests it was formed by an extraterrestrial object roughly 100 feet in diameter, unleashing an explosion comparable to dozens of atomic bombs. Researchers believe the impact would have had a profound...

There's no way around it, so I'm just going to say it, we can laugh, laugh some more, and move on. Then share it with our friends and family and laugh again. Uranus smells like farts. Seriously. That's not some childish joke (but come on, it's kinda funny). That's straight from scientists at the University of Oxford, who published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy on Monday. Researchers studied Uranus using a giant telescope in Hawaii known as Gemini North. What they found was - ahem - unfortunate for the planet that is already the butt (hehe) of...

video https://www.accuweather.com/en/videos/scientists-confirm-uranus-smells-like-rotten-eggs/y5nhc0zje62dorleahhurgganpwvljc_

Researchers have long wondered about the composition of the clouds high up in Uranus' sky — specifically, whether they're dominated by ammonia ice, as at Jupiter and Saturn, or by hydrogen sulfide ice. The answer has proved elusive, because it's tough to make observations with the required detail on distant Uranus. (Not only are Jupiter and Saturn closer to Earth, they have also hosted dedicated orbiter missions. Uranus has been visited just once — a brief flyby by NASA's Voyager 2 probe in January 1986.) Irwin and his colleagues studied Uranus' air using the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS), an...

ROSINA, the mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft gives scientists an idea how comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko smells like: it stinks. (Photo : ESA - C. Carreau/ATG medialab) Given its distance from the Earth, it seems far-fetched to have an idea what comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target comet of the Rosetta mission, smells like. The Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency has so far hinted scientists on how the comet looks like but it appears that the robotic space probe isn't just equipped to take images. It also has an instrument on board that can give scientists clues on what the comet...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * Time travel is deterministic and locally free, a paper says—resolving an age-old paradox. * This follows research observing that the present is not changed by a time-traveling qubit. * It’s still not very nice to step on butterflies, though. ======================================================================= In a peer-reviewed paper, a scientist says he has mathematically proven the physical feasibility of a specific kind of time travel. The paper appears in Classical and Quantum Gravity. Germain Tobar and Fabio Costa, both of the University of Queensland at the time of the paper’s publication, worked together on...

We often imagine our galaxy as a serene, spinning disk of stars, a celestial carousel of light against the black velvet of space. This comforting image, however, is an illusion. From our tiny vantage point, embedded within one of its spiral arms, we are only now learning that the Milky Way is a place of profound and dynamic movement, a living entity that breathes and shudders on a scale almost impossible to comprehend. The latest revelation, born from the unparalleled data of the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, is not just a wobble or a tilt, but a colossal,...

Astronomers have found signs that the small icy world Chiron, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, may be forming a new ring system in near-real time. ================================================================ an illustration of Chiron with rings An artist's conception of the small icy world Chiron, which orbits between Saturn and Uranus and may be building its own ring system. (Image credit: Observatório Nacional/MCTI/Chrystian Pereira) In a universe where change usually unfolds over eons, astronomers have gotten a rare front-row seat to watch a small, icy world beyond Saturn build a brand-new set of rings in real time. A team of Brazil-based astronomers found that...

Astronomers have discovered a 2,300-foot-wide (700 meters) asteroid hidden in the sun's glare, and it’s whizzing through our solar system at a near record-breaking pace.The skyscraper-size asteroid, named 2025 SC79, loops around the sun once every 128 days, giving it the second-fastest asteroid orbit in the solar system. It is also only the second known space object that orbits entirely inside of Venus' orbit, occasionally even crossing the orbit of Mercury.Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Science research institute in Washington, D.C., first spotted 2025 SC79 on Sep. 27...To put its 2,300-foot diameter in context, the so-called "city-killer" asteroid...

NATIONAL MOLE DAY We'll eliminate any visions of a burrowing creature celebration immediately; National Mole Day recognizes a special number in chemistry. Chemists and chemistry students mark the occasion each year on October 23rd. #NationalMoleDay More specifically, the celebrations take place between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM. In the U.S., the time and date are written 6:02 10/23. The time and date are derived from Avogadro’s number. Avogadro's number is approximately 6.02×10^23. Hence, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole of a substance, one of the seven base SI units. A mole is a unit of...

Comet 3I/ATLAS is heading toward a rare encounter with NASA’s Europa Clipper, offering a unique opportunity to uncover secrets of the cosmos. © Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, currently on its way to Jupiter, may soon encounter a unique scientific opportunity. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is about to cross the path of the spacecraft’s trajectory, potentially showering it with charged particles from its ion tail. This rare alignment could provide the closest look yet at material from beyond our solar system, offering a glimpse into the distant star systems where such comets originated. A...

Explanation: It is one of the more massive galaxies known. A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous island universe shows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way and captured by this...