coreyspowell

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to space

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has set a new record as the fastest object ever built, hitting a velocity of 394,736 mph (635,266 kph) relative to the Sun.

That's about 300 times as fast as a speeding bullet. Damn!
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=193 #NASA #space #science

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 17th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 27, breaking its own distance record by skimming just 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) of the solar surface. Credit: NASA-JHUAPL

coreyspowell, 4 months ago to Astronomy

For the first time, astronomers have direct evidence of planets that survived the death of their star.

These remarkable JWST images appear to show Jupiter-like planets still clinging to burned-out white dwarf stars. Our solar system might look a lot like this in 8 billion years.

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.13153 #astronomy #astrodon #science #space

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to science

In the frigid outer solar system, beyond Pluto, dwarf planets appear to be surprisingly dynamic worlds.

The JWST observatory sees chemical signs of geologic activity on distant dwarf planets Eris and Makemake.

https://www.swri.org/press-release/swri-scientists-find-evidence-of-geothermal-activity-within-icy-dwarf-planets #science #space #astronomy
[note: image is an illustration]

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to science

Did you know we have a remote observatory on Mars?

When NASA's Perseverance rover isn't busy studying the Martian landscape, it turns its gaze upward to do a little skygazing. This is its view of Mars's inner moon, Phobos.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/status/410/things-that-go-bump-in-the-night-on-mars/ #science #astronomy #astrodon #NASA

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to space

Eclipse news from 3,246 years ago:

The earliest well-established observation a solar eclipse was recorded on March 5, 1222 BCE. It was inscribed in a clay tablet from Ugarit, a city in modern-day Syria.

https://theconversation.com/archeoastronomy-uses-the-rare-times-and-places-of-previous-total-solar-eclipses-to-help-us-measure-history-222709 #space #science #astronomy #eclipse

coreyspowell, 11 months ago to science

For the first time, here is our galaxy seen in the "light" of neutrinos. A remarkable achievement by the team at the IceCube Observatory. https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/press-releases/2023/06/our-galaxy-seen-through-a-new-lens-neutrinos-detected-by-icecube/ #science #physics #astrodon

coreyspowell, 22 days ago to science

The birth of a new, sunlike star is beautiful and spooky in this new image from Hubble. (34 years old and going strong!)

The ominous "mask" is a cloud of cool dust. The baby star HP Tau, top of the trio, is flickering madly due to inspiraling gas, jets, and huge starspots.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-views-the-dawn-of-a-sun-like-star/ #science #space #astronomy #astrodon #nature

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to nature

Even with all the eclipse photos circulating right now, this one made my eyes pop. Great shot of jet contrails breaking up the edge of the eclipsed Sun. Quick calculation: The Sun is about 30,000,000 times wider than the jet.

(Photo by Bobby Goddin, Bloomington, IN) #eclipse #nature #science #photography

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to random

A bright supernova just popped off in nearby galaxy M101! Not naked-eye bright, but should be visible through a decent amateur telescope.
M101 is about 21 million light years away, so this signal has been on its way to Earth for a looong time.
https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2023ixf/discovery-cert #Supernova #M101 #Astrodon

coreyspowell, 8 months ago to Weather

Ancient pine stumps in the French Alps record the most powerful known solar storm. It struck Earth 14,300 years ago & seeded the atmosphere with radioactive carbon-14.

A storm like that today would devastate our satellites & could trigger a global blackout. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2022.0206 #sun #weather #space

This is a model run used to examine the consequences if a large coronal mass ejection (CME) such as The Carrington-Class CME of 2012 had actual hit Earth. Such model runs allow us to estimate consequences of a large event hitting Earth so we can better protect power grids and satellites. The movie opens with a close-up view of Earth with geo-magnetic field lines. The camera pulls out and fades in a profile slice of the plasma density data.

coreyspowell, 10 months ago to science

If we're going to talk about an X, I'd rather talk about this one: the wonderfully weird Red Rectangle nebula, located 2300 light years away in the constellation Monoceros.
#science #geometry #astrodon

coreyspowell, 10 months ago to science

You may have been hearing media buzz about Korean researchers who claims to have created a room-temperature superconductor that also works at standard, ambient pressure.

This is a "huge if true" moment BUT the work has not yet been peer reviewed or independently verified. Here's the paper, plus a short contextual thread. https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12008 #science #technology

coreyspowell, 10 months ago to science

Nature is full of spirals on all scales: galaxies, forming stars, hurricanes, whirlpools.
The starbirth image (#2) is a new one from the ALMA observatory, revealing the intricate geometry that leads to the creation of new planetary systems.
https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/star-birth-spectacle-unveiled-from-chile/
#science #nature #design

This image of the young star V960 Mon and its surrounding material was taken with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT. The material orbiting the young star is assembling together in a series of intricate spiral arms that extend to distances greater than the entire Solar System. Credit: ESO/Weber et al.
Hurricane Florence in 2018 as seen from the International Space Station. The eye, eyewall, and surrounding rainbands, characteristics of tropical cyclones in the narrow sense, are clearly visible in this view from space.
A whirlpool near Saint-Malo in Brittany, France.

coreyspowell, 5 months ago to science

This stunning new portrait from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft highlights the hidden colors of the "Red" Planet.

Here you can read the geology of Mars at a glance. Gray-blue is volcanic dust; pale yellow is water-weathered clay; orange is iron rust.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/20_years_of_Mars_Express_Mars_as_never_seen_before #science #astronomy #Mars

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to science

Oh wow! Look at this image of the Odysseus Moon lander at the moment of touchdown, with its engines firing like mad to avoid a fatal skid.

Just released by Intuitive Machines.

#science #space #moon #Odysseus

coreyspowell, 8 months ago to science

A billion years of plate tectonics, condensed into 40 seconds.
This dance of continents and oceans has gone hand in hand with the emergence of complex life on Earth.
https://set.adelaide.edu.au/news/list/2021/02/12/tectonic-time-lapse-one-billion-years-of-earths-history-in-40-seconds #earth #science #history

Full-plate tectonic animation of the last billion years. White areas represent oceanic crust, green areas are modelled continental lithosphere, and blue areas are additional present-day continental crust. Spiked lines are subduction zones; blue lines are mid-ocean ridges; black lines are transform boundaries. Ma = Millions of years ago. 1 second = 25 million years. Credit: Merdith et al. 2021 (Earth Science Reviews).

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to science

A new radio telescope just opened its eyes to the sky, and this is what it saw: a sky aglow with pulsars, forming stars, and black holes.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but the radio image even looks like the first glimpse through half-opened eyelids...

https://www.skao.int/en/news/512/ska-mid-prototype-dish-creates-first-light-image #science #radio #astronomy #space

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to science

Have you ever wondered what "Mercury in retrograde" really means?
An astronomer walked into a (coffee) bar, met an astrology buff, and ended up digging into the deep history and science behind these three little words. The result is a beautiful new essay by Trisha Muro in my magazine OpenMind.
https://www.openmindmag.org/articles/the-same-sky-differently #science #astronomy #history

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to space

I love the excitement of seeing a new world for the first time. Yesterday, NASA's Lucy Mission flew past an unexplored asteroid named Dinkinesh. Today, it sent back images showing that Dinkinesh is a double asteroid!

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-discovers-2nd-asteroid-during-dinkinesh-flyby/ #NASA #space #science

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to space

In 2022, NASA's DART spacecraft rammed an asteroid at high speed. But it probably didn't leave a mark!

Most likely, DART changed the shape of the entire asteroid -- an important thing to know before we need to deflect a dangerous space rock away from Earth.

https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/DART_impact_might_have_reshaped_Hera_s_target_asteroid #space #NASA #ESA #astronomy #science

Stereoscopic movie derived from Bern SPH simulations showcasing the aftermath of the DART impact, spanning the initial 30 minutes post-collision. These stereoscopic pairs can be viewed in ”parallel’’ stereo mode simply by relaxing the eye convergence. CREDIT S. D. Raducan (UNIBE)/C. Manzoni/B.H. May

coreyspowell, 3 months ago to science

Stars are born in elaborate dances of gas and dust. Every dance is different -- creating different types of stars, different types of planets, unique environments.

These breathtaking new images capture the diversity of nature's art. They were taken using ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2405/ #science # nature #astronomy #space

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

The first-ever view of a solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon. That's the Earth eclipsing the Sun!

Images captured by NASA's Surveyor 3 lunar lander on April 24, 1967.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140407.html #science #astronomy #space #nasa

The robotic Surveyor 3 mission took thousands of wide angle television images of the Earth in 1967, a few of which captured the Earth moving in front of the Sun. Several of these images have been retrieved from the NASA archives and compiled into this time-lapse video. Although the images are grainy, the Earth's atmosphere clearly refracted sunlight around it and showed a beading effect when some paths were blocked by clouds.

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

Johannes de Sacrobosco ("John of Hollywood") published detailed geometric descriptions of a solar eclipse in the year 1230. People in the "dark ages" were not so dumb!

I dig through 5000 years of eclipse investigations in my latest Invisible Universe column:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/how-we-learned-to-love-the-invisible #science #nature #history #eclipse

coreyspowell, 6 months ago to science

Breathtaking new image from JWST
About 340 years ago (Earth time) a star exploded in the constellation Cassiopeia. These are its shattered remains. Just look at the exquisite detail visible in the space telescope's view!

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-149 #science #space #JWST #astronomy