The next couple of nights will offer early-morning sky-watchers the opportunity to view our nearest planetary neighbors (going outward from the sun) appearing to be separated by only about the width of a full moon.
Astronomy
At Astronomy Now: MeerKAT paints a mesmerising portrait of the Milky Way
The stunning imagery shows previously known and newly-discovered features, including supernova remnants, huge magnetised radio filaments and the blazing inferno surrounding the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the core of the galaxy.
Eric Hedin and our cultural moment
UD welcomes our new News anchor. As a starter for reflection, let’s clip from his current book: Naturalism holds that nature is all there is,and that the order of the universe, including the order of the living world,is merely the result of the laws of nature, or, as some put it, of “chance andnecessity.” [Jerry] Read More…
First images of the black hole thought to be at the center of our galaxy released
Researchers: The image gives greater insight into the mysteries of black holes and further confirms Einstein’s long-standing theory of relativity.
FOR REFERENCE: Globular Cluster M55 as illustrating apparent aging of our galaxy (& cosmos)
It seems helpful to illustrate cosmological scale apparent aging as stars depart main sequence: An idealised, Hertzsprung-Russell chart for Hydrogen-rich balls prone to become fusion furnaces is: Here is a comparative plot (for open clusters), constructing a “clock” by projected pattern as a cluster ages, in effect seeing what is left as a candle burns Read More…
The James Webb Telescope launched today, to study primordial galaxies
It is bound to shed light on many current mysteries and controversies — and to create new ones instead.
Is Sarah Salviander going to make a difference in science?
Of herself she says: Astrophysicist. I have a PhD in Astrophysics and worked for many years in academia as a scientific researcher. Though I am currently focused on ministry work, I am still active in astrophysical research. Visit my research page here.
Wokeness isn’t new: Apparently there was such a thing as Marxist astronomy
Pannekoek would have been a stalwart, had he lived, in the war on math.
What’s the story with the strange signals from the galaxy’s center?
Astronomers: “The brightness of the object also varies dramatically, by a factor of 100, and the signal switches on and off apparently at random. We’ve never seen anything like it.” (We will soon be in a better position to find out what it is because the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope will be commissioned within the decade.)
Pluto is still planet in the eyes of many
Grossman: “… since 2006, we’ve learned that Pluto has an atmosphere and maybe even clouds. It has mountains made of water ice, fields of frozen nitrogen, methane snow–capped peaks, and dunes and volcanoes. “It’s a dynamic, complex world unlike any other orbiting the sun,” journalist Christopher Crockett wrote in Science News in 2015 when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto.”
Does the next 30 years of astronomy depend on a single report?
Does the next 30 years of astronomy in the U.S. depend on a single report? So they say. And all isn’t well.
Recently discovered giant arc of galaxies may “break” Standard Model in cosmology
Lisa Grossman: This model assumes that when you look at large enough volumes of space — above about 1 billion light-years — matter is distributed evenly.
Saturday night: Ex-Pentagon whistleblower warns of UFO 9-11
The remarkable thing is that we haven’t found so much as a fossil bacterium in recent Mars samples. The belief that whatever’s weird out there must be aliens is a sheer act of faith. The same people who would dismiss massive evidence for design in the universe and life forms believe in ET with no evidence at all. That’s probably because, at heart, their commitment is one of the few types of religion that naturalism permits.
Then, they came for Sir Isaac . . .
Newton. The latest year zero reset target, as Telegraph reports: Sir Isaac Newton has been labelled as a potential beneficiary of “colonial-era activity” in draft plans to “decolonise” the engineering curriculum at Sheffield University. Students learning about the mathematician and scientist’s three laws of motion, the core of modern physics, could see changes in their Read More…
Researchers: Radioactive snowflakes will destroy stars!
A pair of researchers with Indiana University and Illinois University, respectively, has developed a theory that suggests crystalizing uranium “snowflakes” deep inside white dwarfs could instigate an explosion large enough to destroy the star. (No, it doesn’t matter much but it’s Saturday night.)