Day: December 27, 2024

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun

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5 Min Read NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun An artist’s concept showing Parker Solar Probe. Credits: NASA/APL Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone…

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Christmas solar flares erupt from the sun. Will they trigger aurora ‘fireworks’ as we close out 2024?

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In the final hours of Christmas Day, the sun fired off four solar flares within less than three hours. The biggest flare of the series, recorded at a M7.3, erupted from sunspot region AR3938 on Dec. 25 at 10:15 p,m. EST (0315 GMT on Dec. 26). Solar flares are ranked and categorized by their power on a 4-level classification scale, with M-class the second strongest to the beastly X-class at the top. According to Spaceweather.com, this was part of a group of four different flares that happened within two and…

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Hubble Spies a Cosmic Eye

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566. ESA/NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the center of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disk takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye. As NGC 2566 appears to gaze at us, astronomers gaze right…

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How to use monoculars for stargazing

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Monoculars are basically a half pair of binoculars and can be a super compact way for you to enjoy stargazing wherever your travels take you. Because of their small size, monoculars are highly portable, meaning that you don’t have to worry about lagging a heavy telescope to a dark sky site to enjoy some skywatching. Monoculars use a lens and prism system to magnify an image for the user. They are great for beginner stargazers due to their simple operation: point your monocular at your subject, and look through it.…

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Lego Marvel Avengers Helicarrier review

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Essential info Price: $79.99/£69.99 Model number: 76295 Number of pieces: 509 Dimensions: 7 x 13 x 8.5 inches (18 x 33 x 22cm) Recommended age: 18+ It’s safe to say that the Lego Marvel Avengers Helicarrier won’t be finding a place in our list of the best Lego Marvel sets any time soon. It’s a real shame too: when the Helicarrier was first announced, I was very excited about it. I’d missed out on the huge Helicarrier when it retired in 2017, so getting another model of it — a…

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