Tonga’s massive volcanic eruption wiped out unique, never-before-seen life-forms

A zoomed-in view of the eruption, taken by Japan’s Himawari-8 satellite on Jan. 15, 2022, about 100 minutes after the eruption started. (Image credit: Simon Proud / Uni Oxford, RALSpace NCEO / Japan Meteorological Agency) An island near Tonga that emerged from the ocean in 2015 was teeming with unique life-forms, but the 21st century’s largest volcanic eruption completely obliterated it, a new study has revealed. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai island emerged from the Pacific Ocean due to volcanic (opens in new tab) activity in 2014 and 2015. Its short,…

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Watch the green comet pass the bright star Capella on Sunday (Feb. 5)

The naked eye comet C/2022 E3 has been causing quite the stir in 2023 thus far. On Sunday (Feb. 5) skywatchers who haven’t spotted the bright comet yet will get an excellent opportunity to do so as it passes the star, Capella, also known as the “Goat Star.” Capella, Latin for “nanny goat,” also has the alternative name “Alpha Aurigae” due to the fact that it is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga, the Charoiteer. In addition to this, Capella is also the sixth brightest star in…

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Chinese surveillance balloon in US airspace causes international stir

China has confirmed that a massive high-altitude balloon seen over Montana this week was an uncrewed Chinese airship. The balloon was spotted near Billings, Montana, on Wednesday (Feb. 1) as it appeared to be hovering stationary (opens in new tab), high in the sky. On Thursday (Feb. 2), U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed that they had detected and are tracking a “high-altitude surveillance balloon (opens in new tab)” over the continental United States. NORAD stated the balloon poses no physical or military threat…

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Spiral Galaxy Spans Space

This Jan. 10, 2013, composite image of the giant barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 combines visible light images from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope with far-ultraviolet data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and infrared data acquired by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

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The bright moon meets up with the Gemini twins tonight (Feb. 3)

The bright, nearly full moon will meet up with the Gemini twin stars of Castor and Pollux this weekend in an eye-catching winter display.  The waxing gibbous moon will be over the horizon to the east on Friday (Feb. 3) and doesn’t set until around sunrise the next day and will therefore remain close to the stars for most of the night. In New York City, the moon rises at 3:04 p.m. EST (2004 GMT), according to In the Sky.  The brightest stars in the Gemini constellation, Castor, and Pollux…

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Miniature sun with simulated gravity could help prepare us for deadly solar storms

The sulfur plasma being constrained by sound waves inside the tiny glass bulb. (Image credit: Koulakis et al., Physical Review Letters, 2023) Physicists have created a mini sun with its own simulated gravity to investigate the causes of extreme space weather.  The tiny sun — consisting of a superheated plasma inside a 1-inch-wide (3-centimeter) glass sphere — produced sound waves that constrained the swirling plasma much like gravity does the actual sun.  Studying this mini-sun could help scientists predict the extreme stellar events that can cause power outages, cripple the…

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