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    Category Astronomy/Space

    How to Defend the Earth from Asteroids

    April 21, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space


    The NEOWISE space telescope spotted Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina speeding by Earth on August 28, 2015. This comet swung in from the Oort Cloud, the shell of cold, frozen material that surrounds the Sun in the most distant part of the solar system far beyond the orbit of Neptune. NEOWISE captured the comet as it fizzed with activity caused by the Sun’s heat. On November 15, 2015, the comet made its closest approach to the Sun, dipping inside the Earth’s orbit; it is possible that this is the first time this ancient comet has ever been this close to the Sun. NEOWISE observed the comet in two heat-sensitive infrared wavelengths, 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which are color-coded as cyan and red in this image...
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    Hubble celebrates its 29th Birthday with unrivaled view of the Southern Crab Nebula

    April 20, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is the Southern Crab Nebula — Hubble’s 29th anniversary image.
    Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI

    This incredible image of the hourglass-shaped Southern Crab Nebula was taken to mark the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 29th anniversary in space. The nebula, created by a binary star system, is one of the many objects that Hubble has demystified throughout its productive life. This new image adds to our understanding of the nebula and demonstrates the telescope’s continued capabilities.

    On 24 April 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the space shuttle Discovery. It has since revolutionised how astronomers and the general public see the Universe. The images it provides are spectacular from both a scientific and a purely aesthetic point of view.

    Each year the telesco...

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    Explosion on Jupiter-sized Star 10 times more powerful than ever seen on our Sun

    April 20, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A superflare on an L-dwarf. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

    A superflare on an L-dwarf. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

    A stellar flare 10X more powerful than anything seen on our Sun has burst from an ultracool star almost the same size as Jupiter. The star is the coolest and smallest to give off a rare white-light superflare, and by some definitions could be too small be considered a star.

    The discovery, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters as the version of record today (17 April) and sheds light on the question of how small a star can be and still display flaring activity in its atmosphere. Flares are thought to be driven by a sudden release of magnetic energy generated in the star’s interior...

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    NASA’s Cassini reveals surprises with Titan’s Lakes

    April 19, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This near-infrared, color view from Cassini shows the sun glinting off of Titan’s north polar seas.
    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho

    On its final flyby of Saturn’s largest moon in 2017, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gathered radar data revealing that the small liquid lakes in Titan’s northern hemisphere are surprisingly deep, perched atop hills and filled with methane.

    The new findings, published April 15 in Nature Astronomy, are the first confirmation of just how deep some of Titan’s lakes are (more than 300 feet, or 100 meters) and of their composition. They provide new information about the way liquid methane rains on, evaporates from and seeps into Titan – the only planetary body in our solar system other than Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface.

    Scientis...

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