coreyspowell

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

Last night's Asimov Debate at the American Museum of Natural History covered the latest cosmic findings from JWST. A few highlights:

Early results from JWST show a lot more bright galaxies & massive black holes than expected in the very early universe. Cosmologist Rachel Somerville admitted that her galaxy-formation models turned out to be way off. We still have a lot to learn!

https://www.vox.com/science/24040534/jwst-galaxies-big-bright-mystery-black-holes-cosmology #science #space #astronomy #nature

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

This is how technology changes our view of reality.

The enormous LSST camera (the eye of the Rubin Observatory) will will soon start scanning the entire visible universe every 3-4 days. It will create the grandest movies ever made, watching for anything moving, flickering , appearing, or vanishing in deep space.

https://rubinobservatory.org/about #science #space #tech #astronomy

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to space

This is the surface of a comet! Dust is swirling around the surface of Comet 67/P -- captured in 2016 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, processing by Jacint Roger Perez.

Still one of the most remarkable scenes in space exploration.

#space #science #astronomy #ESA

INT. #ROSETTA MISSION #COMET #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO 01 jun 2016 Distance to Target: 13.5 km Camera: OSINAC Near_Ir+Orange+blue filt.

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

Reports of the death of the Voyager 1 spacecraft may have been premature!

NASA engineers have received a promising response from humanity's most distant explorer. The new signal could help pinpoint the problem with Voyager's aging data system.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-voyager-1-reconnects-data-glitch-1851334565 #science #space #tech #astronomy

bibianaprinoth, 2 months ago to Astronomy

I love this place so much more than the other place. I am attending an #astronomy #conference next week about Extreme Solar Systems. Soooo, would you be interested in hearing live from it? ✨

#astrodon

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

To your eye, Betelgeuse is the bright "shoulder" star in Orion. A new simulation shows what it would look like if you could get up close: an enormous, boiling cauldron of gas.

If Betelgeuse were placed where the Sun is, Earth's orbit (blue circle) would be deep inside. That's how big it is!

https://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/1094283/hl202403 #science #space #astronomy #nature

Simulation of Betelgeuse’s boiling surface: This animation shows a simulation of how convection dominates the surface of a Betelgeuse-like star. (MPA)

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to space

I needed a break from grim political news...so I switched to reading about the IDEFIX rover, launching in 2026, which will explore Mars's tiny moon Phobos.

Fascinating robot explorer, dealing with a tricky problem: How do you drive in a place where the gravity is 1/1000th that of Earth?

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/02/idefix-interview/ #space #science #tech

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is JAXA’s lead mission that plans to survey and explore Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. While the Japanese agency will build the main payload, the German Space Agency (DLR) and the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will contribute to the mission. “IDEFIX,” a small secondary payload, will ride with MMX and is planned to touch down on the surface of Phobos in 2029.

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

Astronomers have spied the most extreme moon in the solar system.

The yet-unnamed satellite takes 27 years (!) to circle Neptune & wanders more than 50 million km from the planet. It's also the smallest moon ever seen from Earth.

https://sites.google.com/carnegiescience.edu/sheppard/home/newuranusneptunemoons #science #space #astronomy #moon

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to space

NASA's Perseverance rover can see other planets from Mars!

Last October, the rover's Mastcam-Z camera tracked Mercury as it passed in front of the Sun. Look closely...

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26250 #space #astronomy #science

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture Mercury – seen as a tiny speck – passing in front of the Sun on Oct. 28, 2023, the 953th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The top portion of the GIF zooms in on the upper part of the Sun seen in Mastcam-Z's view; the reticle highlights the planet's transit. The GIF has been sped up 400 times; the portion of Mercury's transit captured by Mastcam-Z took place in just under an hour. (NASA-JPL)

coreyspowell, 2 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 science

To study aurora displays, scientists sometimes create auroras of their own.

Last year, a team launched a sounding rocket over Finland and released a cloud of barium atoms into the ionosphere. This spooky blue & purple display was the result.

https://eos.org/science-updates/ionospheric-fireworks-illuminate-auroral-science #science #space #aurora #nature

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

I turn philosophical in my latest column.

The starlight you see at night is many years old. And for each one of us, there's a bright star whose light is the same age that you are!

When you find your corresponding star, it can trigger a profound perspective shift & sense of connection. Read the column here:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/stars-of-your-life #science #space #astronomy #life