Items tagged with astronomy
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), conducted the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise this week. The tabletop exercise gathering aimed “to inform and assess the ability as a nation to respond effectively to the...
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As June brings the heat of summer, it also brings the Strawberry Moon, and the earliest summer solstice in 228 years. The last time the summer solstice arrived this early was in 1796, when it took place at 1:45pm ET on June 20.
The summer solstice will begin at 4:50pm EDT on Thursday, June 20 (today), and with it...
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According to NASA, there are several airplane-sized asteroids hurtling toward Earth this week. The largest of the five is estimated to be 110 feet in size, while the closest will come within 447,000 miles of Earth.
It is not uncommon for large asteroids to go zipping by Earth at a safe distance. This week, however...
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With summer coming in hot, it is time for cookouts, camping trips, and of course, fireworks. But this summer, NASA says to be on the lookout for a different type of fireworks, a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to see the results of a nova explosion in the night sky.
T Coronae Borealis, also known as the “Blaze...
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Star Trek fans may be disappointed to learn that Spock’s home planet of Vulcan has turned out to be an illusion. While the planet Vulcan may not exist in real life, Spock’s star system, 40 Eridani, is very real.
Star system 40-Eridani is located 16.5 light-years away from Earth, and NASA says its primary star can...
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Stargazers will be able to view six of the Solar System’s planets form a straight line as they take their place in a parade of planets. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus will all take part in the parade, with Venus being the only one absent.
While the recent aurora that stretched across much of...
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NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) made its first ever startling discovery of a free-floating rogue planet, and NASA says it is hunting for more. While TESS will continue to be on the lookout for more rogue planets, the space agency is hopeful that its upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will...
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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is celebrating the completion of the largest camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics. The mammoth 3,200-megapixel (3.2-gigapixel) prime focus digital camera will soon ship to Chile and be mounted on a telescope inside the Rubin Observatory.
The Legacy Survey of Space...
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A new study from a survey of 91 pairs of twin stars named C3PO sheds new light on the so-called “three-body problem” that has befuddled scientists for centuries. At least 8%, or 1 in 12, of twin stars in the study show chemical anomalies that indicate one star had gobbled up planetary material that once orbited it...
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Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile spotted an indelible mark on the surface of a white dwarf star that has an appetite for destruction. Researchers believe the scar left on white dwarf WD 0816-310 is a concentration of metals imprinted on the star’s...
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The discovery of a second universe-defying megastructure in the remote universe is making astronomers rethink some of the basic assumptions about cosmology. The Big Ring is the second of these ultra-large structures to be found by PhD student Alexia Lopez.
The Big Ring is located 9.2 billion light-years from Earth...
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The last full moon of 2023, often referred to as the Full Cold Moon, will brighten the night sky and the holiday festivities. This month’s Cold Moon got its moniker after a Mohawk name that referenced the chilly conditions during this time of year.
December’s full moon will be at its fullest on December 26, and is...
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The Ursid meteor shower will be the last chance to catch a falling star to wish upon for the wanted gift to be left under the tree on Christmas morning. That's because the celestial light show is the final meteor shower of 2023, and it's predicted to peak during the early morning hours of December 23, 2023.
The...
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NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and several other telescopes are getting into the holiday spirit with two mind-blowing images from space. While images of NGC 2264 and UGC 8091 may only appear to some as tokens of holiday spirit, astronomers are seeking much more information from them.
The...
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Astronomers have found a key ingredient for life in the outer reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery challenges our understanding of the origins of the element and potentially extends the galactic habitable zone.
The element that was found in a very unexpected location by a group of astronomers from the...
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As we get ready to close out the year, the Leonid meteor shower is going to reach its peak tomorrow morning, November 18th. While the shower might end up being a bit of a quieter one, there is still the opportunity to see a handful of meteors every hour while taking in the gorgeous night sky in all its glory.
The...
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The Taurid meteor shower kicks off the month of November for skywatchers. At its peak, the Taurid meteor shower is expected to showcase about ten meteors per hour, with the Leonids meteor shower following shortly after with an estimated ten to fifteen per hour.
The Taurid meteors consist of two streams, the South...
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In true Halloween fashion, a comet twice the size of Mount Everest and that earned the nickname the “Devil Comet” is heading toward Earth. The comet, which has a far less intimidating scientific name, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, has a short-period orbit around the Sun of about once every 71 years.
Comet Pons-Brooks’...
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Jupiter will accompany this weekend's Hunter's Moon as the duo parade across the night sky together. The Hunter's Moon gets its name from the Algonquin Native American tribe and was used to remind native American cultures that it was time to hunt and store up meat for the winter.
The October Hunter's Moon might...
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A global team of astronomers detected an eight-billion-year-old fast radio burst (FRB) that is the most ancient to date. The record-breaking FRB destroyed the old record by 50 percent.
FRBs are extraordinary events that generate as much energy in a thousandth of a second as the Sun does in a year. Because they also...
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A new study reports two ice giant exoplanets colliding near a sun-like star, creating an astonishing afterglow in deep space. Astronomers were able to view the afterglow of light and plumes of dust as it passed in front of the parent star, dimming it over time.
An international team of astronomers came together...
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Astronomers are slamming a massive low-Earth orbit communications satellite because it is brighter in the night sky than most stars. Astronomers are concerned that without some type of regulation on these extremely bright satellites, the effect could be detrimental to observing the stars from Earth and performing...
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