I know I'm not the only one who likes to read about new planet discoveries and other Space intrigue.  We have a new candidate for life-supporting planets, and like all the others, it's the "best one yet."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exoplanet-alien-life-search-for-found-habitable-zone-new-earth-20-signs-cetus-sea-monster-a7691576.html

Pretty exciting, really.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/303278-nasa-releases-map-of-water-ice-on-mars

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/20/boeings-starliner-flies-into-wrong-orbit-jeopardizing-trip-to-the-international-space-station.html

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/say-hello-to-awasis-canadas-very-own-newly-named-alien-planet

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Alberta science teacher Amanda Green, and Manitoba's "very own Star Guy", Wilfred Buck, have written two new names among the stars.

Roughly 320 light years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Bootes, is a Sun-like star circled by a massive gas giant planet. Up until now, this star went by the rather dull and convoluted moniker HD 136418...

Star HD 136418 is now officially named "Nikawiy", which is the Cree word for "mother", and planet HD 136418b is now officially known as "Awasis", the Cree word for "child".

Astronomers are wondering whether Orion's shoulder will soon explode

When Betelgeuse does eventually go supernova, the brightness will rival a full moon

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/betelgeuse-dimming-1.5407038

 

Final images from Cassini spacecraft

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/betelgeuse-gravitational-wave-1.5433653

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First it was the strange dimming of Betelgeuse. Now it's a gravitational wave that once again has astronomers scratching their heads over this enigmatic star found in the constellation Orion.

Betelgeuse has been grabbing a few headlines lately, as the normally bright star dimmed to its lowest point ever recorded — and astronomers don't exactly know why.

Now the U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has detected a gravitational wave coming from that direction, adding another intriguing detail to what's happening.

The first gravitational wave ever recorded — a powerful ripple through space-time caused by cataclysmic events, like two merging black holes — was detected in September 2014.

It'd sure be something to witness such an event in our lifetime.

Not likely in our lifetime.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dont-panic-betelgeuse-is-almost-certainly-not-about-to-explode

 

But even at the prodigious rates it's going through helium, it'll probably be about 100,000 years before it explodes. That's not a guarantee, but it's where the science points right now. Even if that's off by a lot, the odds of Betelgeuse going supernova in the next century are extremely low.

Edited January 21, 20206 yr by tacklewasher

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615113/these-are-the-highest-resolution-photos-of-the-sun-ever-taken

https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/13/us/nasa-pluto-new-horizons-clyde-tombaugh-ashes/index.html

I did not know this. Cool tho.

Curious as to whether the aliens will be able to bring him back from DNA fragments?

 

Edited February 4, 20206 yr by FrostyWinnipeg

John Wheeler quotation

"In the fall of 1967, [I was invited] to a conference … on pulsars. … In my talk, I argued that we should consider the possibility that the center of a pulsar is a gravitationally completely collapsed object. I remarked that one couldn't keep saying “gravitationally completely collapsed object” over and over. One needed a shorter descriptive phrase. “How about black hole?” asked someone in the audience. I had been searching for the right term for months, mulling it over in bed, in the bathtub, in my car, whenever I had quiet moments. Suddenly this name seemed exactly right. When I gave a more formal Sigma Xi-Phi Beta Kappa lecture … on December 29, 1967, I used the term, and then included it in the written version of the lecture published in the spring of 1968. (As it turned out, a pulsar is powered by “merely” a neutron star, not a black hole.)
[Although John Wheeler is often identified as coining the term “black hole,” he in fact merely popularized the expression. In his own words, this is his explanation of the true origin: a suggestion from an unidentified person in a conference audience.]"

If you have not watched the Nova episode Black Hole Apocalypse, I highly, highly, recommend it. 

Black holes are the most enigmatic and exotic objects in the universe. They’re also the most powerful, with gravity so strong it can trap light. And they’re destructive, swallowing entire planets, even giant stars. Anything that falls into them vanishes…gone forever. Now, astrophysicists are realizing that black holes may be essential to how our universe evolved—their influence possibly leading to life on Earth and, ultimately, us. In this two-hour special, astrophysicist and author Janna Levin takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of black hole science. Along the way, we meet leading astronomers and physicists on the verge of finding new answers to provocative questions about these shadowy monsters: Where do they come from? What’s inside? What happens if you fall into one? And what can they tell us about the nature of space, time, and gravity? (Premiered January 10, 2018)

 

It's available on Netflix and Kanopy (from the library). 

There are other great shows including one on Saturn following Cassini and the one on Pluto following New Horizons. 

All have exceptional storytelling and explain the science in a very accessible way. 

1 hour ago, JCon said:

All have exceptional storytelling and explain the science in a very accessible way. 

Just like Interstellar

Kinda space related

 

https://www.inverse.com/science/nasa-brings-voyager-2-fully-back-online-11.5-billion-miles-from-earth

ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse

On 2020-02-05 at 7:02 AM, JCon said:

 

It's available on Netflix and Kanopy (from the library). 

thanks definitely going to watch this.

what the hell happens when you go inside one? does it have an outlet? this stuff is so bizarre.

also a good science fiction horror movie about black holes is "event horizon". really quite frightening.

also there are a number of exellent lectures on youtube about black holes,

Jerome Gauntlett, the Royal Institution is one, explained so that yokels like myself can somewhat understand.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nasa-mars-insight-findings-1.5471232

https://www.sciencealert.com/betelgeuse-has-officially-stopped-dimming

 

 

For those unfamiliar with OSIRIS-REx: NASA's first asteroid sampling spacecraft. I'm on a 7-year mission to return a pristine sample from asteroid Bennu.

And now Betelgeuse is starting to brighten: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/betelgeuse-brightening-1.5476647

Amazed at the size of this star, too:

How many moons does Earth have?

If you said one, you would be wrong.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/mini-moon-earth/607171/

 

University of British Columbia astronomy student Michelle Kunimoto has discovered 17 new planets, including a potentially habitable, Earth-sized world, by combing through data gathered by NASA's Kepler mission.

Edited March 1, 20205 yr by FrostyWinnipeg

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Snaps Its Highest-Resolution Panorama Yet

 

Here, have a go in the Total Perspective Vortex.

This is quite a video. The Age of Starlight ends with twenty minutes still to go.