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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers Reveal Best Image yet of Mysterious Odd Radio Circles in Space

    March 22, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Data from SARAO’s MeerKAT radio telescope data (green) showing the odd radio circles, is overlaid on optical and near infra-red data from the Dark Energy Survey. Credit: J. English (U. Manitoba) / EMU / MeerKAT / DES(CTIO)

    Astronomy’s newest mystery objects⁠—odd radio circles, or ORCs⁠—have been pulled into sharp focus by an international team of astronomers using the world’s most capable radio telescopes.
    When first revealed in 2020 by the ASKAP radio telescope, owned and operated by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, odd radio circles quickly became objects of fascination. Theories on what causes them ranged from galactic shockwaves to the throats of wormholes.

    A new detailed image, captured by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT radio telescope and publ...
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    Scientists may have Solved Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox

    March 19, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: CC0 Public Domain

    Researchers may have solved Professor Stephen Hawking’s famous black hole paradox—a mystery that has puzzled scientists for almost half a century.

    According to two new studies, something called “quantum hair” is the answer to the problem.

    In the first paper, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, researchers demonstrated that black holes are more complex than originally thought and have gravitational fields that hold information about how they were formed.

    The researchers showed that matter collapsing into a black hole leaves a mark in its gravitational field—an imprint referred to as a “quantum hair.”

    In a follow-up paper, published in a separate journal, Physics Letters B, Professor Xavier Calmet from the University of Sussex’s Sch...

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    Mon, It’s Springtime on Mars, and the Dunes are Defrosting

    March 18, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Ice covered dunes in Kaiser Crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

    In Mars’ northern hemisphere, springtime has arrived, and observations from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Experiment) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured partially defrosted dunes on the western slope of dunes inside Kaiser Crater.

    In the winter, the dark sand dunes are covered in a blanket of white seasonal ice, which you can see in the image below. But this image actually shows the beginning of Martian springtime, where the sunny side of the dunes had just begun to thaw. The lead image shows even further thawing, with the darker dunes showing through.

    “Bright patches of frost (white in enhanced color) are clearly visible and are made up of water and carbon dioxide ices,” w...

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    NASA rolls out its Mega Moon Rocket—here’s what you need to know

    March 18, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This handout illustration courtesy of NASA released on October 22, 2020 shows Nasa’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), in its Block 1 crew vehicle configuration that will send astronauts to the Moon on the Artemis missions.

    NASA’s massive new rocket is poised to make its first journey to a launchpad on Thursday ahead of a battery of tests that will clear it to blast off to the Moon this summer.

    It will leave the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (2100 GMT) and begin its glacially slow, 11-hour crawl on a transporter to the hallowed Launch Complex 39B, four miles (6.5 kilometers) away.

    Here’s what you need to know.
    Huge rocket, huge cost

    With the Orion crew capsule fixed on top, the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1 stands 322 feet...

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