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.cbc.ca/news/science/partial-lunar-eclipse-nov-19-1.6252140

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Skygazers are in for a treat overnight between Thursday and Friday, when much of the planet will be able to see the longest partial lunar eclipse in almost 600 years.

The only hitch is that for much of Canada, the peak of the eclipse will take place in the middle of the night.

But if the weather co-operates, it might be worth braving the cold night air for a glimpse of the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440, when Henry VI was the King of England and the Inca Empire was expanding.

3 am for us here in Winnipeg - weather permitting.

3 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

3 am for us here in Winnipeg - weather permitting.

Nope, regardless of the weather, it's happening.

It's going to be cloudy overnight tonight. So, unlikely we'll get to see it overnight in Winnipeg. 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-deep-learning-method-adds-301-planets-to-keplers-total-count

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Scientists recently added a whopping 301 newly validated exoplanets to the total exoplanet tally. The throng of planets is the latest to join the 4,569 already validated planets orbiting a multitude of distant stars. How did scientists discover such a huge number of planets, seemingly all at once? The answer lies with a new deep neural network called ExoMiner.

 

Deep neural networks are machine learning methods that automatically learn a task when provided with enough data. ExoMiner is a new deep neural network that leverages NASA’s Supercomputer, Pleiades, and can distinguish real exoplanets from different types of imposters, or “false positives.” Its design is inspired by various tests and properties human experts use to confirm new exoplanets. And it learns by using past confirmed exoplanets and false positive cases.

ExoMiner supplements people who are pros at combing through data and deciphering what is and isn't a planet. Specifically, data gathered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft and K2, its follow-on mission. For missions like Kepler, with thousands of stars in its field of view, each holding the possibility to host multiple potential exoplanets, it's a hugely time-consuming task to pore over massive datasets. ExoMiner solves this dilemma.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10279601/Astrophotographer-snaps-clearest-photo-SUN.html

How to catch your once-in-a-lifetime look at Comet Leonard

https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-organics-mars

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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has found life's building blocks on the Red Planet.

Perseverance has identified carbon-containing organic chemicals in some of the rocks it has examined on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater, mission team members announced on Wednesday (Dec. 15). 

To be clear: This is not a detection of Mars life. Organics can be produced by both biological and non-biological means, and more work is needed to figure out what processes generated the Jezero compounds.

This is a pretty incredible discovery.

2 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-organics-mars

This is a pretty incredible discovery.

Ack Ack. Ackackack! We need Slim Whitman on standby.

Edited December 16, 20214 yr by Tracker

Newfound rocky exoplanet has a year less than 8 hours long

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Ack Ack. Ackackack! We need Slim Whitman on standby.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia24291-swatch-of-wright-brothers-flyer-1-attached-to-mars-helicopter

This is going to be absolutely epic. I can't wait to see the images it'll produce.

The James Webb telescope is in space and beginning it's journey, solo, to deep space. A couple of weeks of maneuvers still ahead. 

I can't wait to start seeing some images from this telescope. Hubble has brought us so much insight and the Webb will bring us so, so much more. 

If everything goes successfully, it will be in position and sending data in 6 months. 

3 hours ago, JCon said:

If everything goes successfully, it will be in position and sending data in 6 months. 

Sounds like a child moving away to college.

On 2021-11-16 at 7:47 AM, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59299101

Just like Gravity.

 

 

Edited December 25, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

 

1 hour ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

 

Should been launched 10 years ago. Let's see some exoplanets!

 

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/01/astronomers-capture-red-supergiants-death-throes/

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For the first time ever, astronomers have imaged in real time the dramatic end to a red supergiant’s life — watching the massive star’s rapid self-destruction and final death throes before collapsing into a type II supernova. 

Led by researchers at Northwestern University and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the team observed the red supergiant during its last 130 days leading up to its deadly detonation. 

The discovery defies previous ideas of how red supergiant stars evolve right before exploding. Earlier observations showed that red supergiants were relatively quiescent before their deaths — with no evidence of violent eruptions or luminous emissions. The new observations, however, detected bright radiation from a red supergiant in the final year before exploding. This suggests at least some of these stars must undergo significant changes in their internal structure, which then result in the tumultuous ejection of gas moments before they collapse.

“This is a breakthrough in our understanding of what massive stars do moments before they die,” said Wynn Jacobson-Galán, the study’s lead author. “Direct detection of pre-supernova activity in a red supergiant star has never been observed before in an ordinary type II supernova. For the first time, we watched a red supergiant star explode.”

The discovery was published today (Jan. 6 ) in The Astrophysical Journal.

The University of Hawaiʻi Institute for AstronomyPan-STARRS on Haleakalā, Maui, first detected the doomed massive star in summer 2020 via the huge amount of light radiating from the red supergiant. A few months later, in fall of 2020, a supernova lit the sky.

The team quickly captured the powerful flash and obtained the very first spectrum of the energetic explosion, named supernova 2020tlf (SN 2020tlf) using the W.M. Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi. The data showed direct evidence of dense circumstellar material surrounding the star at the time of explosion, likely the same gas that Pan-STARRS had imaged the red supergiant star violently ejecting earlier in the summer.

The team continued to monitor SN 2020tlf after the explosion. Based on data obtained from Keck Observatory’s Deep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph and Near Infrared Echellette Spectrograph, the researchers determined SN 2020tlf’s progenitor red supergiant star — located in the NGC 5731 galaxy about 120 million light-years away from Earth — was 10 times more massive than the sun.

 

1 hour ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/01/astronomers-capture-red-supergiants-death-throes/

 

The interesting thing is that what the astronomers are seeing now actually happened millions of years ago.

 

 

                                          

Big day!

 

                                                             James Webb Telescope transmits first image back to Earth!

 

                                           

 

Space junk is an ever increasing issue. Several  manned units have had to alter course to miss junk lately. This one mind you ,is just interesting. 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/26/out-of-control-spacex-rocket-on-track-to-collide-with-the-moon

8 minutes ago, the watcher said:

 

Space junk is an ever increasing issue. Several  manned units have had to alter course to miss junk lately. This one mind you ,is just interesting. 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/26/out-of-control-spacex-rocket-on-track-to-collide-with-the-moon

Far side of the moon? That's too bad for amateur astronomers. It's an unfortunate situation but at least the observations will further our scientific understanding of the moon.