Celestial bodies comprising the Winter Circle, visible on January 1, 2024, as observed through Sky Safari. In our notes about the night sky in December, we talked about how the Orion constellation looks like an hourglass and is easy to see. But guess what? It turns out that what we see as Orion is not...
A rendering of the NGC 2264 as captured by telescopes from NASA and the National Science Foundation. (X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major) Thousands of light-years from Earth, a cluster of stars in the NGC 2264 cluster is embracing...
THe cat laser videoNASA/JPL-Caltech NASA has elevated cat videos to a new frontier through its Psyche Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, transmitting a 15-second high-definition footage of a playful tabby across a distance of 19 million miles (31 million km) to Earth. Observing a cat pursuing a laser pointer might be endearing, but the question arises:...
A finding of an extensive reservoir of 'fossil' water in Sicily could contribute to addressing the severe water scarcity issues in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. A recent publication in the journal Communications Earth & Environment unveiled the presence of an immense underground reservoir of freshwater beneath the Iblean Mountains in Sicily. This ancient aquifer,...
Credit: Universe Today NASA's Webb offers stunning view of exploded star. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope presents a fresh image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), resembling a gleaming, spherical ornament poised for the perfect holiday tree placement. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, during the 2023 Holidays at the White House, unveiled the...
Credit: Syfy Penn State researchers have uncovered a planet significantly larger than its ultracool host star, challenging previous beliefs about planet formation. Published in Science, their findings showcase a planet more than 13 times Earth's mass orbiting a star nine times less massive than our sun. This discovery contradicts existing theories on small star planet...
Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxyEHT Collaboration/CCA4.0 Examining the stars in the night sky, it's unlikely you'd distinguish one as foreign. However, astronomers have identified a star near the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center, suggesting it originated in a smaller galaxy consumed by ours. Among...
The far side of the Moon as seen by China's Chang'e 5-T1 missionChinese National Space Agency/Chinese Academy of Sciences The origin of a set of craters on the far side of the Moon has been clarified by a recent study from the University of Arizona, establishing that the probable cause was a discarded rocket booster...
The NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) tool aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope presents a fresh perspective on a segment of the Milky Way's dense core. Approximately 500,000 stars illuminate the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region in this image, featuring some yet-to-be-identified elements. In cyan, a substantial area of ionized hydrogen reveals fascinating needle-like formations that...
The DSOC attached to the Psyche deep-space probeNASA NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) unit on the Psyche spacecraft has activated, creating a high-speed laser data link at a distance of 10 million miles (16 million km), equivalent to 40 times the distance from Earth to the Moon. NASA has expressed a strong interest in developing...
