Hubble Telescope peeks at star with planet-forming disk that gets 3 times hotter than the sun

A star about 1,360 light-years away from Earth, named FU Orionis, is twice as hot as astronomers previously suspected, according to recent data from the Hubble Space Telescope. In fact, scientists believe that the region where FU Orionis’s planet-forming disk touches the star’s surface glows at around 16,000 Kelvin — three times hotter than the surface of our sun. Caltech astronomer Adolfo Carvalho and his colleagues suggest the area around the star is so surprisingly hot because a rapidly-spinning disk of material falling into the star is actually scraping against…

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Declassified spy satellite images reveal 1,400-year-old battle site in Iraq that set off the Muslim conquest

Declassified spy images of Iraq have helped archaeologists find a historic Islamic battlefield. Upon analyzing the images, which were taken in 1973 by a U.S. satellite system named KH-9 (Hexagon), the team found remnants of a 1,400-year-old settlement. This helped them match the site to the lost location of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, the researchers reported in a study published Nov. 12 in the journal Antiquity. The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah took place in A.D. 636 or 637 between the Arab Muslim army and the Sasanian Empire, which ruled the area…

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Huge PSVR 2 headset Cyber Monday deal: Save $200

You can get a sizable saving of 37% on the PSVR 2 headset this Cyber Monday as it’s now its lowest-ever price and it features in our best VR headsets guide. Save $200 (37%) on the PSVR 2 headset when you grab it from Amazon this Cyber Monday. You can get it for the same price at Best Buy and Walmart too. If you own a PlayStation and you want to explore the world of virtual reality, this is definitely the Cyber Monday deal you’re searching for. In our PSVR…

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New moon December 2024: A young moon passes Venus

The new moon of December occurs tonight. A day later, Southern Hemisphere observers will see the peak of the Phoenicid meteor shower, and on Dec. 4 the waxing moon will make a close pass to Venus in the evening sky. The exact moment of the new moon occurs at 1:21 a.m. Eastern Time (0621 UT) on Dec. 1, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. A new moon is when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, specifically when the sun and moon share the same celestial longitude (also…

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