Everyone remembers the first time they wished on a shooting star, recognized Mars by its reddish tint, or realized the glimmering, dusty sweep across the blackness was actually the Milky Way. Peering into the night sky has a certain magic that has continually drawn our gazes upwards and outwards from every corner of the Earth. […]
Time capsules blinking in the sky Read More »
In 2008, Hubble Telescope Observations detected Fomalhaut b, an exoplanet 25 light-years away from Earth. It was one of the first directly imaged exoplanets, and was considered a benchmark in search for exoplanets. Latest research published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) concludes that Fomalhaut is not an exoplanet at all but
In 2008, news was abuzz with the detection of a massive exoplanet just 25 light years away from Earth, practically in our cosmic backyard. While the features of neither the exoplanet, Fomalhaut b, nor its star, Fomalhaut, were extraordinary, this discovery was notable for two things that unfolded in its wake. First, it proved that
Astronomers have looked to telescopes as the most powerful tool for planetary and interstellar observation since their conception in the 17th century. Peering up at the sky from the ground, these telescopes facilitated the discovery of the Solar System planets and their moons, many types of stars, and distant galaxies. But in 1990, one telescope
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Over the summer, two independent collaborations of solar physicists published breakthrough papers within months of each other, furthering our understanding of the mechanics of solar flares and how to predict them. With just four years until peak activity in the sun’s 11-year solar cycle, the ability to predict potentially dangerous solar flares is more crucial
Less than 40 million miles away, Mars can be observed in the night sky by the naked eye, distinguishable by a reddish tinge to its pinprick of light. Data on Mars began to be collected almost as soon as space exploration itself began; the 1964 mission aboard NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first successful flyby
Massive Martian sand waves Read More »
Even among the myriad of mysterious, awe-inspiring objects in our universe, pulsars deserve special recognition. As one of the densest objects and most powerful magnets known to man, the pulsar is one of nature’s most extreme creations. The husks of dead stars — the fastest of which can spin over 700 times per second, pulsars
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Black holes are known as eradicators of light and matter, earning a mysterious and destructive reputation. However, these space oddities have behaviors, albeit occasionally baffling, that may help construct the conceptual building blocks of scientific phenomena all across the universe. As is common in the world of science, one discovery can cause ripple effects across
Another one lights the dust: Echo mapping the universe Read More »
Early in its discovery, Venus was thought to have a similar atmosphere to Earth’s for reasons such as observed clouds, but upon researching the environment of Venus, it became obvious that the climate was far from Earth’s. The temperature on a normal day is around 400 degrees Celsius, or 752 degrees Fahrenheit, and its surface