Space

Collision Course: The Andromeda Galaxy Halo Is Already Running Into Our Own

The Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor, has been found to have a nearly invisible halo of diffuse plasma that extends about halfway to our Milky Way. That's 1.3 million light-years, and it may go 2 million light-years in some parts, ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2020 - 10:59am

Discovered: WD 1586 B, A Planet That Survived The Death Of Its Star

(Inside Science)-- For the first time, an intact world may have been discovered around a white dwarf, suggesting that even after typical stars die, they may still host planets, a new study finds. White dwarfs are the cooling Earth-size cores of dead stars ...

Article - Inside Science - Sep 18 2020 - 10:37am

No Realistic Possibility Of False Vacuum Collapse (Higgs Vacuum Decay) For Billions Of Years- Not A Concern

The false vacuum collapse is about a remote possibility, not just billions of years in the future, so far in the future that all the stars in the night sky have run out of fuel, long before. There is no realistic possibility at present, or for billions of ...

Article - Robert Walker - Sep 24 2020 - 9:21am

Marco Fulvio Barozzi: My Five Cents On Venusian Phosphine

Marco Fulvio Barozzi (b. ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Oct 3 2020 - 5:42am

Why Disk Galaxies Look Smooth

Like with kids, when it comes to galaxies adolescent blemishes disappear over time. Exponential disks, common in spiral galaxies, dwarf elliptical galaxies and some irregular galaxies, appear smooth and have an exponential fade. How did they get it way? It ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 5 2020 - 8:58am

It's The Greatest Pumpkin In The Universe, Charlie Brown

In a classic "Charlie Brown" Halloween tale, one character believes in the pumpkin equivalent of an Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, but NGC  2292 and NGC  2293 are real. At 109,000 light-years across, the diameter of our Milky Way, they don't j ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 29 2020 - 10:08am

Lunar Occultations, And Why They Are Fun

Have you ever looked at the moon through a telescope, or even a pair of binoculars? Our satellite is really beautiful to look at- it is full of detail you can get lost in: craters, mountain ridges, canyons, plateaus. And there's no clouds to obscure t ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Nov 22 2020 - 6:20am

After Arecibo? A Lunar Crater Telescope.

A recibo while no longer unique in design since China built a similar and larger telescope was special. What should replace it is something that will exceed what it is able to do. There is already a well formed plan for such a radio telescope using a prop ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Nov 22 2020 - 4:41pm

Next Week, You'll See Something In The Sky No Human Has Seen Since March 4, 1226

This winter solstice, Dec. 21st, you'll be able to see something no one has seen since the Middle Ages; Jupiter and Saturn will appear so close together in Earth’s night sky they will look like a double planet. While we orbit the sun each year, Jupite ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 14 2020 - 5:01am

The Geminid Meteor Shower Is As Strong As Ever

Meteor showers are a spectacular phenomenon that takes place when the Earth intersects the path along which periodic comets (or less frequently, asteroidal bodies) orbit the Sun. Comets lose debris when they get close to perihelion, but the debris does not ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 17 2020 - 5:59am