âWeâre missing something fundamental about the sunâ
Parker Solar Probe – now in its 4th orbit around our local star – is designed to endure the sun’s heat and radiation like no previous mission. Data collected during the craft’s first 2 orbits were released last month. This week, 4 new studies in Nature have space scientists buzzing.
Exoplanet-tilt study boosts hope of complex life elsewhere
Most sunlike stars have at least one other star as a companion. Prior research has shown planets can exist in these systems, but how likely are these planets to evolve complex life? A new study sheds some light, by looking at how planets spin in double star systems.
Underwater telecom cables make superb seismic network
(University of California – Berkeley) Photonic systems can transform underwater fiber-optic cables into a dense network of seismic stations to illuminate ocean-floor earthquake zones impossible to study today, according to a new study by researchers from UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab and Rice University. The scientists turned 20 kilometers of cable around the underwater San Gregorio Fault system in Monterey Bay into an array of some 10,000 seismic sensors by interferometrically measuring backscattered light caused by strain along the cable.
Solving fossil mystery could aid quest for ancient life on Mars
(University of Edinburgh) The search for evidence of life on Mars could be helped by fresh insights into ancient rocks on Earth.
Mercury farthest from sun in sky on November 28
Late November – and the first week or even two of December 2019 – should provide a good view of Mercury in the morning sky for northerly latitudes. The view is less good from the Southern Hemisphere. Catch Mercury now because this world will become lost in the glare of sunrise before the year ends..
Extraterrestrial sugars discovered in ancient meteorites
An international team of scientists analyzing fragments of ancient meteorites recovered on Earth has made the remarkable discovery of extraterrestrial sugars vital to the formation of life. In a study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,…
Spectacular! Donât miss Venus and Jupiter
The sky’s 2 brightest planets – Venus and Jupiter – will meet for conjunction on November 24, 2019. Watch them draw closer in the west after sunset this weekend!
Frank Carini: Poor land use policies contribute to global warming – The Boston Globe
For the past three years, swaths of Rhode Island open space have been cleared, covered, and crushed to build renewable energy facilities. Renewables help reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but this stampede of renewable-energy development into rural Rhode Island isn’t…
Scientists find a place on Earth where there is no life
(FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) Living beings, especially microorganisms, have a surprising ability to adapt to the most extreme environments on our planet, but there are still places where they cannot live. European researchers have confirmed the absence of microbial life in hot, saline, hyperacid ponds in the Dallol geothermal field in Ethiopia.
Old moon to pass Spica, Mars, Mercury
Enjoy the morning spectacle over the next several mornings, as the waning crescent moon sweeps by the star Spica and then the planets Mars and Mercury.
Recent Comments