Category: The Moon

Our moon

Coding the cosmos: Building an app for the total solar eclipse 2024 (op-ed)

NeRD

As developers and content creators, we often find ourselves lost in the world of coding, debugging, and endless cups of coffee. But every once in a while, a project comes along that reminds us why we fell in love with creating in the first place. Enter SkySafari Eclipse 2024 for iOS and Android, our latest labor of love that will help make the 2024 April 8 total solar eclipse an unforgettable experience for all. Now, let’s get one thing straight – we’re not just a bunch of tech and space…

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I’m driving 6 hours through New York’s Adirondacks to see the 2024 total solar eclipse from Potsdam. Here’s why.

NeRD

Seven years ago, I witnessed my first total solar eclipse. Yes, it was amazing and spectacular, but it was also, surprisingly, a bit sad. Let me explain. I witnessed my first total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017 from Saluki Stadium at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (which, coincidentally, will see another total eclipse of the sun on April 8). And while there were thousands of other spectators there, it was by all accounts a work event. My friends and family were at home in New Jersey, out of the…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 105 — Apoc-eclipse 2024!

NeRD

On Episode 105 of This Week In Space, Rod and Tariq talk with astronomer and meteorologist Joe Rao about the solar eclipse of 2024. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in Barstow, you probably know all about the solar eclipse on Monday. Rod will be going to Austin, likely to be staring at ever-darkening clouds, and Tariq will be headed to the eclipse path in the Northeast. Where will you be? Rao tells us about the eclipse — what is it, where the moon’s shadow will cross Earth, how…

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Total solar eclipse 2024: Here’s the national weather forecast for April 8

NeRD

During the past week, the day-to-day weather outlook for the total solar eclipse on April 8 has been changing. Although modern numerical weather prediction systems are marvels of science and technology, forecasts made beyond a week in advance are subject to significant changes as new information is ingested into later simulations.  But now, as the days to totality have dwindled to a precious few, these forecasts are now showing increasing signs of converging, providing useful, consistent guidance for which broad areas along the path of totality have the best chance…

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Southern Illinois will get its 2nd solar eclipse in a decade this year

NeRD

It’s already rare for a single location to experience a total solar eclipse — but for cities like Carbondale, Illinois, the odds have been ever in its favor. A lucky seven years ago, it was in part of the solar eclipse path of totality, and it will be this year as well. “To have two total solar eclipses in a decade is truly extraordinary and almost unheard of … we are beyond thrilled,” Sarah Vanvooren, co-chair of the Eclipse Steering Committee and director of Events and Outreach at Southern Illinois…

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This hellish exoplanet’s skies rain iron and create a rainbow-like effect

NeRD

There are many words that could be used to describe WASP-76b — hellish, scorching, turbulent, chaotic, and even violent. This is a planet outside the solar system that sits so close to its star it gets hot enough to vaporize lead. So, as you can imagine, until now, “glorious” wasn’t one of those words. This more positive descriptor was added to the list quite recently, as astronomers have detected hints of something called “glory” in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter exoplanet. The glory effect, hinted at in data from…

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This solar eclipse simulator on SkySafari will guide you through the eclipse on April 8

NeRD

A new “eclipse simulator” on SkySafari allows you to anticipate what you’ll see when the moon blocks the sun in areas of North America on Monday (April 8). The SkySafari Eclipse Simulation Widget, which you can see below, includes the ability to “watch” an eclipse from any point on Earth. A shadow tracker will let you watch the moon’s shadow moving “across continents and oceans, a stunning reminder of the beauty and intricacy of our solar system,” developers wrote. The entry-level version of SkySafari 7, which features on our best…

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Cannibal stars at the heart of the Milky Way stay young in a gruesome way

NeRD

Scientists have discovered the gruesome secret behind the apparent youth of some of stars at the heart of the Milky Way — stars participating in a sort of cosmic demolition derby around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. Like a cosmic version of 17th-century serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, who supposedly sought to maintain her youthful glow by bathing in the blood of her victims, some of these stars seem to stay looking young by slamming into their neighbor stars and coating themselves in the stolen stellar…

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SpaceX moves Super Heavy booster to pad ahead of 4th Starship flight (photos)

NeRD

SpaceX is continuing to gear up for the next test flight of its Starship megarocket. On Thursday (April 4), SpaceX announced via X that it has moved a Starship first stage, a 33-engine booster called Super Heavy, to the launch pad at its Starbase site in South Texas.  That post also shared two photos of the giant, stainless-steel booster clutched by the “chopstick” arms of the tower at Starbase’s orbital launch mount. Related: Relive SpaceX Starship’s 3rd flight test in breathtaking photos The booster is being prepped for the fourth…

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Ambitious new dark matter-hunting experiment delivers 1st results

NeRD

A new experiment designed to search the cosmos for its most mysterious “stuff,” dark matter, has delivered its first results.  While the Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD) developed by the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab hasn’t turned up dark matter particles just yet, the new results place a tighter constraint on the type of characteristics scientists can expect such particles to have. The BREAD experiment itself also served up an exciting new recipe that could be used in the hunt for dark matter…

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