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    Category Astronomy/Space

    A Solar Gravitational Lens will be Humanity’s most Powerful Telescope. What are its best targets?

    October 11, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of a simulated Earth, at 1024×1024 pixel resolution, at the distance of Proxima Centauri,at 1.3 pc, as projectedby the SGL to an image plane at 650 AU from the Sun. Credit: Toth H. & Turyshev, S.G.

    One of the central predictions of general relativity is that a massive object such as a star, galaxy, or black hole can deflect light passing nearby. This means that light from distant objects can be gravitationally lensed by objects closer to us. Under the right conditions, gravitational lensing can act as a kind of natural telescope, brightening and magnifying the light of distant objects. Astronomers have used this trick to observe some of the most distant galaxies in the universe. But astronomers have also thought about using this effect a little closer to home.

    One idea is to ...

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    Citizen Scientists Enhance New Europa Images from NASA’s Juno

    October 7, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    TOP: This pair of images shows the same portion of Europa as captured by the Juno spacecraft’s JunoCam during the mission’s Sept. 29 close flyby. The image at left was minimally processed. A citizen scientist processed the image at right, and enhanced color contrast causes larger surface features to stand out. Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Navaneeth Krishnan S © CC BY

    BOTTOM: This highly stylized view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was created by reprocessing an image captured by JunoCam during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29. Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Kevin M. Gill / Fernando Garcia Navarro CC BY 2.0

    Citizen scientists have provided unique perspectives of the recent close flyby of Jupiter’s icy...

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    Impact that Killed the Dinosaurs Triggered ‘Mega-Earthquake’ that Lasted Weeks to Months

    October 7, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    Deformed spherule-rich layer at Gorgonilla Island (Colombia) showing that seismic activity persisted for weeks or months after impact. Credit: Hermann Bermúdez. Click on the image for a larger version.

    66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. New evidence suggests that the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake so massive that it shook the planet for weeks to months after the collision. The amount of energy released in this mega-earthquake is estimated at 1023 joules, which is about 50,000 times more energy than was released in the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004.

    Hermann Bermúdez will present evidence of this “mega-earthquake” at the upcoming GSA Connects meeting in Denver this Sunday, 9 October...

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    Astronomers find a ‘Cataclysmic’ Pair of Stars with the Shortest Orbit yet

    October 6, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The huge sun-like star, left, looks like a blue balloon that turns orange as it’s being sucked into the tiny white dwarf’s orbit. The white dwarf looks like a mini-galaxy, with a blue center and orange rings. The background is black with tiny stars.
    Caption:An artist’s illustration shows a white dwarf (right) circling a larger, sun-like star (left) in an ultra-short orbit, forming a “cataclysmic” binary system.
    Credits:Credit: M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

    The stars circle each other every 51 minutes, confirming a decades-old prediction. Astronomers have discovered a stellar binary, or pair of stars, with an extremely short orbit, appearing to circle each other every 51 minutes. The system seems to be one of a rare class of binaries known as a ‘cataclysmic variable,’ in which a star similar to our sun orbits tightly around a white dwarf — a hot, dense core of a burned-out star.

    A cataclysmic variable occurs when the two stars draw close, over billions of years, causing the white dwarf to start acc...

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