Space

Galaxy clusters grow over time under gravity and, in the present-day universe, can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies, as well as hot gas and dark matter. As time goes by, their galaxies burn through the fuel available and evolve from vigorously star-forming galaxies into red and dead galaxies. A newly discovered growing galactic metropolis, named MAGAZ3NE J095924+022537, reveals an unusual massive cluster of young galaxies forming in the early universe. This protocluster consists of at least 38 member galaxies, and is about 11.8 billion light-years away from Earth. The team…

It could be a neutron star or it could be a white dwarf with an ultra-powerful magnetic field but something is releasing fantastic bursts of energy at periodic intervals. When the burst happens, it is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky. Objects that turn on and off aren’t new to astronomers, they're called ‘transients’, and they are the death of a massive star or the activity of the remnants it leaves behind. ‘Slow transients’, like supernovae, might appear over the course of a few days and disappear after a few months. ‘Fast transients’, like a type of neutron star called a…

  At least one Astronomer has shared an image of the James Webb Space Telescope taken from an Earth-bound telescope.  This is what it looks like in all its glory but you may wonder why it is we cannot get a better image of it.  It is huge and made of very reflective materials.  Why no camera on it to take a selfie or monitor it visually for any faults?   The reason for no selfie camera on it is simple.  Every system added to a complex system like JWST adds more complexity than just adding one more part. That part has to work with the integrated whole of the…

As was reported in The Guardian last October, Australian scientists made up part of a team that used the world’s most powerful radio antenna, the Low-Frequency Array (Lofar) in the Netherlands to detect exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. These new techniques will someday be able to tell us if there is life on other planets. Using Lofar, the scientists were able to detect radio signals from 19 distant red dwarf stars, with four emitting the kind of signals that suggest that they have planets orbiting around them. Finding humanity in exoplanets Astrophysicists believe that…

It is well-known that the gravity from the moon impacts ocean tides, sailors knew it long before anyone knew what gravity even was.  A new literature review and small meta-analysis hopes to add to the body of work showing how much gravity impacts plants and animals as well. The meta-analysis was of three previously published cases in which gravitational causality was not fully explored: the swimming activity of isopods, small shell-less crustaceans whose appearance on Earth dates from at least 300 million years ago; reproductive effort in coral; and growth modulation in sunflower…

The James Webb Space Telescope has taken longer to reach this point than it took to build a great Egyptian pyramid. A pyramid had to be built in at most 20 years to be ready to act as a burial site for a Pharaoh of old Kingdom Egypt. At a time when forty was old age, even for the ruler of a nation who took the throne at about twenty that was the deadline. JSWT has taken longer and in that respect has been a greater challenge and as great of an achievement. Even if one of over one hundred single points of failure in the process from launch to full deployment goes wrong it is an…

No one would like confirmation of the Alcubierre warp drive metric being realized in the real world more than me. However, this is a good time to remind the media and public that a publication does not mean confirmation of this or any other result. Publication in a peer reviewed journal simply means that 2-3 outside experts looked at this paper and can find no obvious reason to think it is false. Confirmation would mean an independent team of researchers trying to replicate this effect in their own laboratory. Then publishing their result. Confirmation would preferably this effect being…

NASA will announce its 2021 crop of astronauts which was delayed at least twice due to COVID 19.  There were around 20,000 applicants for this arduous job.  Which is surprising since the requirements while not super common are not super uncommon either.  I tried my luck at being the third astronaut from the tiny village of Bellwood IL. Maybe I still have a shot at getting to pretend to go to Mars in a ground based NASA simulation mission known as CHAPEA.  Without a doubt those who are selected are or will be in very rare air.  (rimshot)    UPDATE: Here…

Over 6,000 light-years away from earth, in the constellation Puppis in the southern sky, is an emission nebula. Emission nebulae are diffuse clouds of gas that have become so charged by the energy of nearby massive stars that they glow with their own light. The radiation from these massive stars strips electrons from the nebula’s hydrogen atoms - ionization. As the energized electrons revert from their higher-energy state to a lower-energy state, they emit energy in the form of light, causing the nebula’s gas to glow. This new image from Hubble is  Sharpless 2-302, deemed the Snowman…

If there is an Eye of Sauron in space, ot at least a Marvel villain like Apocalypse, it might look a lot like CW Leonis, roughly 400 light-years away in the constellation Leo.  CW Leonis is a carbon star — a luminous type of red giant star with a carbon-rich atmosphere. The dense clouds of sooty gas and dust engulfing this dying star were created as the outer layers of CW Leonis itself were thrown out into the void. You can see it in all its Halloween-style glory thanks to this image from Hubble. This image incorporates observations from 2011 and 2016 by one of Hubble’s workhorse…