Category: The Moon

Our moon

Bejeweled galaxy of ‘Bernice’s Hair’ sparkles in new Hubble Telescope photo

NeRD

A bejeweled galaxy shines brightly in a stunning new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.  The nearby spiral galaxy, formally known as NGC 4689, lies only 54 million light-years from Earth. It is located in the constellation Coma Berenices, which means “Berenice’s Hair” in Latin and refers to Queen Berenice II of Egypt. As such, NGC 4689 swirls through the Queen’s sparkling strands.  And that name once had a literal meaning. “Some people of Berenice’s time would have meant this quite literally, as the story goes that her court astronomer…

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Is it time to put a dimmer on the push for space solar power?

NeRD

The thought of beaming power to an energy-hungry Earth from space has long been studied. It was first proposed over 80 years ago in science fiction.  “It was quiet in the officer’s room of Solar Station #5 – except for the soft purring of the mighty Beam Director somewhere far below,” wrote renowned author Isaac Asimov in his April 1941 story “Reason” appearing in the magazine “Astounding Science Fiction.” Asimov had his characters tending a solar energy collection station in space that routed energy rays to receivers on Earth, as…

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The Milky Way’s heart shines over construction site of world’s largest telescope

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Construction of the Extremely Large Telescope has reached another milestone, with the completion of the dome’s steel skeleton.  The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — the world’s largest visible- and infrared-light telescope — is under development on the Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert and is expected to see its “first light” by 2028.  ESO recently shared a stunning new nighttime photo taken from inside of the dome on April 3. The photo captures the telescope’s progress with the Milky Way‘s heart overhead and the rest…

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Colossal X-class solar flare suggests return of sunspot group that fueled May’s epic auroras (video)

NeRD

The colossal sunspot group AR3664 responsible for the epic May 2024 solar storms and widespread auroras is back — well, almost. Yesterday (May 27), a powerful X-class solar flare erupted from the sun‘s southeastern limb, peaking around 3:08 a.m. EDT (0708 GMT).  Solar flares are energetic eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the sun’s surface that occur when magnetic energy accumulating in the solar atmosphere is released. They are categorized by size into lettered groups, with X-class being the most powerful. Within each class, numbers from 1-10 (and beyond for X-class…

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Astronomy has a bullying and harassment issue: ‘Results presented in this report are bleak’

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After surveying 661 employees affiliated with astronomy and geophysics professions, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has stressed an “urgent” need to address bullying and harassment across the fields.  In short, 44% of respondents reported suffering in the workplace during the two years preceding the survey, and 65% of those respondents said reported concerns were either “ignored” or that their reports were unsatisfactorily handled. To be clear, the survey was conducted in 2020, and a soft-launch of the data was released in 2021. However, a full-fledged analysis of the results that…

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US economy to benefit from NASA investment in 3D-printable superalloy

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NASA has invested in an innovative superalloy as part of its Technology Transfer Program, a program that allows technology built for missions to be utilized for other commercial purposes.  The superalloy is known as GRX-810 and consists of a 3D-printable, high-temperature material that has the potential to make airplane equipment and spacecraft parts more heavy duty. Items built with this material will be able to withstand a wide range of severe conditions, including intense temperatures, both in the air and in space. As of now, the superalloy is licensed to…

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SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites from Florida this morning

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SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida this morning (May 27). A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to loft 23 Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 10:56 a.m. EDT (1456 GMT), with backup opportunities available until 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT). SpaceX will webcast the launch live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before the window opens. Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky The Falcon 9’s first stage…

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2024 hurricane season should be busy, NOAA says

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With La Nina conditions evolving in the Pacific and near-record warm waters in the Atlantic, scientists expect the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season to be a busy one. Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, release an outlook every year ahead of hurricane season that includes what kind of storm activity they predict between June 1 and Nov. 30.  CPC researchers say there’s an 85% chance that this year’s hurricane season will be more active than normal, with…

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The future is bright for astronomy, and very expensive

NeRD

Astronomy has a bright future.  The universe is being revealed in exquisite detail with the current generation of large optical telescopes, reaching back close to the big bang. There’s hope that the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy will be solved. Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered, and astronomers may be closing in on the first detection of life beyond Earth. However, observations into the cosmic frontier involve extremely faint targets and astronomers are always hungry for more light. In order to keep peering farther into unknown reaches of…

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NASA’s ‘Mohawk Guy’ cameo in ‘3 Body Problem’ explained (exclusive)

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Helping to search for extraterrestrial life in all the right places, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) systems engineer Bobak Ferdowsi is a crowd favorite when it comes to building robotic spacecraft and solving complex aerospace problems all while sporting a super cool mohawk haircut. Currently, Ferdowsi acts as the Fault Protection lead on the NISAR joint Earth observation mission with India and Europa Clipper’s Mission Planner at NASA’s JPL. Prior responsibilities have included Launch, Cruise, Approach Engineering Lead and Flight Director on Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity and Science Planner on the…

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