So if there is something fundamentally wrong with our picture of the universe, there still is, more or less, and we will have to live with it for now.
Astronomy
NASA says the moon is shaking, shrinking
Moonquakes happen, and they are shaking up lunar geology, Also, SkyNet reveals, “NASA announced earlier this year that it wants to send the first woman, and the next man, to the moon by 2024.” They can call in at the Chinese lunar base for tea… ;
SCI-TECH NEWSWATCH: Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft has a loss of comms and fails in a Moon landing attempt
The newly re-elected Prime Minister promises that Israel will persist. See Jerusalem Post for details (vids are in Hebrew): Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft fails to land safely on the moon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at hand to watch the landing, said that Israel will continue to try landing on the moon. By JERUSALEM POST […]
BREAKING NEWS EVENT: First images of a Black Hole Event Horizon announced
A long-awaited development, thanks to an array of radio telescopes: BBC reports: Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy. It measures 40 billion km across – three million times the size of the Earth – and has been described by scientists as “a monster”. […]
Conventional non-ET explanations for Oumuamua
ut hey, like we always say, They Will Always Be Out There if you need them to be. Also, be kind to ET. He is somebody’s deity.
Researchers: The Moon made life on Earth possible
From ScienceDaily: Earth most likely received the bulk of its carbon, nitrogen and other life-essential volatile elements from the planetary collision that created the moon more than 4.4 billion years ago, according to a new study by Rice University petrologists in the journal Science Advances. “From the study of primitive meteorites, scientists have long known […]
Dark matter puzzle depends in part on whether our galaxy is an “outlier”
Twenty years ago, astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now there seem to be too many. Some information seems to be missing. A possible solution is that many of these galaxies are dwarfs formed by dark matter: Most cosmologists believe that dark-matter particles are “cold,” meaning that they move slowly. Because […]
What happened to astronomer Martin Gaskell, dumped for thinking that the universe is designed?
All’s well that ends well, this time. But calling off the pack might be an idea too.
Webcast: New Horizons flying by Ultima Thule New Year’s Day
For a far out New Year’s Day, try Ultima Thule, 4 billion km from the sun. “The object was subsequently designated 2014 MU69, given the minor planet number 485968, and based on public votes, nicknamed “Ultima Thule”, which means ‘beyond the known world.’”
Could giant marine animals have been wiped out 2.6 million years ago by a supernova?
In a puzzling extinction, something took out giant shark Megalodon and 36% of big marine animals generally. Researcher: “There really hasn’t been any good explanation for the marine megafaunal extinction. This could be one. It’s this paradigm change — we know something happened and when it happened, so for the first time we can really dig in and look for things in a definite way.
Researchers: Ancient peoples knew their astronomy, some of the oldest cave paintings show
From ScienceDaily: Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent studied details of Palaeolithic and Neolithic art featuring animal symbols at sites in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany. They found all the sites used the same method of date-keeping based on sophisticated astronomy, even though the art was separated in time by tens of thousands […]
Hubble’s Law name change urged, to recognize Big Bang pioneer, Fr. Georges Lemaitre
Belgian priest Lemaitre apparently got the idea, which “underpins modern cosmology,” two years before Edwin Hubble: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recommends that the law now be known as the Hubble–Lemaître law. In the 1920s, the Belgian described in French how the expansion of the Universe would cause galaxies to move away from Earth at […]
Moonmoons
You read the title right. Recently, some astronomers thought they had spotted an “exomoon,” a moon orbiting an exoplanet. There are, of course, bound to be some. But now Gizmodo introduces us to the concept of the moonmoon, a submoon orbiting a moon. One research team is taking on the possibility: The team’s short analysis […]
Astronomers: First possible exomoon is the size of Neptune, and orbiting a “Jupiter”
An MIT astronomer is 75% certain that an object previously suspected of being an Intro of exomoon (a moon orbiting an exoplanets) really is that: The first confirmed detection of an exomoon would mark a milestone in exploring planetary systems throughout the Galaxy. It would, among other things, allow scientists to test ideas of moon […]
“Compelling new evidence” claimed for comets generating phosphates for earliest life
From ScienceDaily: Little was known about a key element in the building blocks, phosphates, until now. University of Hawaii at Manoa researchers, in collaboration with colleagues in France and Taiwan, provide compelling new evidence that this component for life was found to be generated in outer space and delivered to Earth in its first one […]