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Items tagged with: astronomy
If we ever find this squiggly line, it will be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of exploration. It's the spectral signal of a habitable, truly Earthlike planet.
Spotting it won't be easy, but the JWST observatory is looking now.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2024/06/05/reconnaissance-of-potentially-habitable-worlds-with-nasas-webb/ #space #science #nasa #astronomy #life #aliens
Belgian physicist, mathematician, astronomer Georges Lemaître died #OTD in 1966.
He was the 1st to theorize that the recession of nearby galaxies can be explained by an expanding universe, which was observationally confirmed soon afterwards by Hubble. He 1st derived the Hubble–Lemaître law. He also proposed the "Big Bang theory" of the origin of the universe, calling it the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", and later calling it "the beginning of the world".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
I'm sad to report the death of Ed Stone, the NASA scientist who was the heart & soul of the Voyager program. Spending time with him for my Discover magazine profile was a highlight of my career.
I did my best to capture the experience:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/voyager-the-man-behind-the-mission #science #space #nasa #astronomy
Voyager: The Man Behind the Mission
Ed Stone’s relentless pursuit of the frontier has taken him to the edge of the solar system — and beyond.Corey S Powell (Discover Magazine)
Italian mathematician, astronomer and engineer Giovanni Domenico Cassini was born #OTD in 1625.
His observations & calculations helped to confirm & refine Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. He formulated Cassini’s Law, describing the rotational behavior of the Moon, which was crucial for understanding the Moon's synchronous rotation with the Earth. He was involved in measuring the meridian arc of Paris, contributing to the accurate determination of the shape of the Earth.
https://www.sciencealert.com/japanese-company-plans-to-build-a-tower-into-space-by-2050 #astronomy #SpaceTravel #SpaceElevator #Japan #nanotubes
Japanese Company Plans to Build a Tower Into Space by 2050 : ScienceAlert
Imagine a long tether linking Earth to space that could launch us to orbit at a fraction of the cost and slingshot us to other worlds at record speed.Business Insider (ScienceAlert)
Love this as an opening for a paper. Love to study my sky vermins.
(The paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.20179)
This is a good paper. And it has this absolute banger of an appendix.
Edit: this post is getting more attention than the one before it, so to clarify this is Carry et al. 2024, here is the paper link again: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.20179
![Screenshot of a paper:
Appendix A: Good bet, Mr Clarke!
"On Day 86 they were due to make their closest approach to any known asteroid, It had no name - merely the number 7794 [...] Through the high-powered telescope, they could see that the asteroid was very irregular, and turning slowly end over end. Sometimes it looked like a flattened sphere, sometimes it resembled a roughly shaped block; [...]" - Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 — A Space Odyssey
In the 1968 Arthur C. Clarke book, 2001 — A Space Odyssey, the author describes the observation of the asteroid 7794 from a flyby (which would be discovered only in 1996), predicting that this asteroid "looked like a flattened sphere”. Using the most recent data from FINK (version 2024.01, see Sect. 6, we found a value for the oblateness around 0.5, favouring the prediction made in the book. The parameter estimate has still a large uncertainty though, but given the residuals in the phase curve, we can infer that either the asteroid is irregular along its equator (a # b) or there could be an extra unmodelled activity.](https://friendica.hellquist.eu/photo/preview/640/2825873 "Screenshot of a paper:
Appendix A: Good bet, Mr Clarke!
\"On Day 86 they were due to make their closest approach to any known asteroid, It had no name - merely the number 7794 [...] Through the high-powered telescope, they could see that the asteroid was very irregular, and turning slowly end over end. Sometimes it looked like a flattened sphere, sometimes it resembled a roughly shaped block; [...]\" - Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 — A Space Odyssey
In the 1968 Arthur C. Clarke book, 2001 — A Space Odyssey, the author describes the observation of the asteroid 7794 from a flyby (which would be discovered only in 1996), predicting that this asteroid \"looked like a flattened sphere”. Using the most recent data from FINK (version 2024.01, see Sect. 6, we found a value for the oblateness around 0.5, favouring the prediction made in the book. The parameter estimate has still a large uncertainty though, but given the residuals in the phase curve, we can infer that either the asteroid is irregular along its equator (a # b) or there could be an extra unmodelled activity.")
Astronomers used to pack up their telescopes when the sun came up, but researchers at Macquarie University have developed a new technique for observing celestial objects during the day.
The Huntsman Telescope could allow around-the-clock visual monitoring of satellites, which would significantly improve safety on Earth and in space.
Discover the technical side and see stars during the day…https://ausgeo.co/huntsmantelescope
#ausgeo #australia #space #stars #astronomy #macquarieuniversity #science #telescope #earth #satellite #moon #technology #science #astro #outerspace #tech
#academia #research #academicchatter #science #scientist #space #astronomy #astrodon #technology #technews #tech
Stargazing in broad daylight
Astronomers from Macquarie University have pioneered a new technique using the Huntsman Telescope to observe celestial objects during the day.Candice Marshall (Australian Geographic)
It's #MilkyWay season again here in the northern hemisphere.
I took this image using my phone last night around 2am looking south from my moderately light-polluted site in east Tucson. 5×90s subs captured in Astroshader were combined in Siril. A final stretch was applied in GIMP.
I'm pretty happy with the result.
6-planet alignment happening on June 3!
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/planetary-alignment-UY2EJ8_4ScmZELJ5FNkUHQ
"How it started/how it's going," space edition:
On March 17, 2013 a flash appeared on the Moon. It was bright enough to see with the naked eye.
Now we can see the result: a new 18-meter-wide crater, blasted out by a watermelon-size meteoroid.
https://www.lroc.asu.edu/featured_sites/40 #science #space #NASA #astronomy #Moon
