Recent searches
Search options
#spacescience
Planetary Society Op Ed in the New York Times about proposed budget cuts at Nasa. They would be catastrophic.
Those in the U.S. please contact your representative and Senators asking them not to cut the budget.
Astronomers confirm the existence of a lone black hole
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-astronomers-lone-black-hole.html
AI tools designed by algorithms look like alien origami and outperform human designs. The cosmic playground just got weirder as machines dream up ways to listen to the universe's secrets.
https://hecknews.com/ai-machine-dreams-reshape-astrophysics-research
The colours of Sirius 
️
When the blue-white star is close to the horizon, atmospheric turbulence causes rapid changes in the line-of-sight refractive index, causing the star to twinkle, changing brightness & colour.
It’s easy to catch with a mobile phone camera & an app that allows manual control (I use ProCam): this is a 30 sec exposure, 1/40 sec frame rate, 3 x lens defocussed, WB set to 5800K, moving the phone throughout 
Discover how scientists decoded the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet, revealing a rocky world with a scorching, dense atmosphere. #ExoplanetDiscovery #JWSTFindings #SpaceScience
https://geekoo.news/unveiling-the-secrets-of-toi-270-d-a-new-chapter-in-exoplanetary-science/
The very definition of a clickbait headline.
If you read the article, you’ll soon discover that the only scientists “hailing” this result are the authors of the paper.
Everyone else interviewed for comment is way more sceptical.
A 3-sigma detection of dimethyl sulphide is interesting, if well below the significance used in particle physics, say.
But as others have said, it could readily have non-life origins too.
Caveat emptor.
I'm saddened to have just heard the news that Svetlana Gerasimenko passed away last week, on 8 April.
She was the co-discoverer in 1969 of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with fellow Ukrainian astronomer, Klim Churyumov (1937-2016).
This is the comet that was explored by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft from 2014-2016 & landed on by the Philae probe in November 2014.
A comet & events that changed my life 
Ad astra, Svetlana 
Amid geopolitical uncertainties, international leaders stress cooperation at Space Symposium https://www.byteseu.com/921114/ #ColoradoNews #ColoradoSprings #Geopolitics #Science #SouthernColorado #Space #SpaceScience
The peak of solar maximum is behind us now, but the Sun is still putting on a decent show of sunspots 
Here’s the current status, images by projecting through my binoculars on to some white paper & then photographing with my iPhone 
From top right (east) to bottom left (west), we have Active Regions 4055 & 4058, then 4056, 4061, & 4060.
Current snapshot from https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions.html in the next toot.
Glad to see that the American Astronomical Society has come out with a strong statement opposing the proposed cuts to NASA's science budget. If implemented these would be a disaster not just for US space research, but for the world - so many missions by other agencies are predicated on US participation.
Trump really doesn't like science.
"Among the proposals were: A two-thirds cut to astrophysics, down to $487 million; a greater than two-thirds cut to heliophysics, down to $455 million; a greater than 50 percent cut to Earth science, down to $1.033 billion; and a 30 percent cut to Planetary science, down to $1.929 billion."
Many science missions by ESA, JAXA etc have NASA contributions so not just US.
Despite the machinations of Trump's evil empire, science marches on!
Mostly, in other countries.
Here's exciting new space science from Smethurst and collaborators. Hey! That's Dr. Becky, whose team has discovered something surprising about the early universe!
The best space telescope you never heard of just shut down
#Gaia #Space #Astronomy #ESA #Telescope #Science #MilkyWay #Galaxies #Stars #SpaceExploration #GaiaMission #Astrophysics #SpaceScience #SpaceTelescope
https://the-14.com/the-best-space-telescope-you-never-heard-of-just-shut-down/