All those long flights to remote observatories ensure Astronomers have an outsized carbon footprint. And Astronomers keen to reduce their carbon footprints are being advised to abandon software languages like Python, in favour of compiled languages like C++.
Skywatchers, don’t miss this event. Tonight, Oct. 2nd, the Harvest Moon and Mars are in conjunction, less than 1 degree apart for sky observers. The Moon is nearly full, and bright red Mars is only days away from its closest approach to Earth, making the conjunction extra bright and beautiful. The celestial pair rise in the east just after sunset…
Comet orbits revealed something previously unknown – a mirror ecliptic inclined opposite of the planetary ecliptic. From the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan A study of comet motions indicates that the Solar System has a second alignment plane. Analytical investigation of the orbits of long-period comets shows that the aphelia of the comets, the point…
First Candidate for a Planet in an External Galaxy In a surprise paper, a team of researchers from the U.S. and China has found the first evidence for a candidate planet in another galaxy. The planet candidate lies in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy and is approximately 23 million light years away. M51 lies relatively close…
Dark matter does not emit, absorb, or reflect light. It does not interact with any known particles. Its presence is known only through its gravitational pull on visible matter in space.
First, there was Comet ATLAS in April which disappointed sky watchers as it broke apart into pieces. Then there was Comet SWAN in May which also disintegrated. And now we have a third comet named NEOWISE and this one is coming through. In recent days, this comet has been visible shortly before sunrise, but now, it has become an evening object as well and will actually be visible at both ends of the day for the rest of this week.
Dr. Roy Spencer writes on Facebook: We finally got some dry air in N. Alabama, so I captured ~900 photos of comet NEOWISE starting about 3:45 this morning from the Monte Sano east overlook, using 2 cameras, one wide angle (30mm) for landscape shots and one telephoto (200 mm) for time lapse. Time lapse video…
Guest post by Rud Istvan This guest post was inspired by a long delayed lunch (by Covid-19, with our first two traditional restaurants found still closed for lunch by Wuhan virus fears despite now open South Florida) between CtM and myself. We discussed much, including WUWT. I complemented Charles on the recent months more eclectic…
Observational results inconsistent with theory National Radio Astronomy ObservatoryShare Print E-Mail A new set of precision distance measurements made with an international collection of radio telescopes have greatly increased the likelihood that theorists need to revise the “standard model” that describes the fundamental nature of the Universe. The new distance measurements allowed astronomers to refine their calculation…
A supernova at least twice as bright and energetic, and likely much more massive than any yet recorded has been identified by an international team of astronomers, led by the University of Birmingham. The team, which included experts from Harvard, Northwestern University and Ohio University, believe the supernova, dubbed SN2016aps, could be an example of an extremely rare ‘pulsational…