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☆ Rare cosmic collision acted like one of the ‘factories of gold’ in the universe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The gamma-ray burst, called GRB 211211A, lasted about a minute. Gamma-ray bursts are considered among the strongest and brightest explosions in the universe, and they can range from a few milliseconds to several hours in length. An artist's illustration of GRB 211211A shows the kilonova and gamma-ray burst (right) and ejected material from the explosion (left). After determining that a kilonova created the infrared light, astronomers grew even more puzzled by the gamma-ray burst’s duration. Gamma-ray bursts caused by these rare explosions have only ever been observed to last less than two seconds, but this signal lasted for at least one minute.

☆ A year only lasts 17.5 hours on the ‘hell planet’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

One year for this planet lasts about 17.5 hours on Earth. A team of researchers used a new tool known as EXPRES, or the EXtreme PREcision Spectrometer, to determine the precise nature of the planet’s orbit. But the hell planet is not the only planet orbiting Copernicus. An illustration shows just how closely the planet Janssen (left), depicted as an orange dot, orbits its host star Copernicus. Once Janssen moved in closer to Copernicus, the hell planet became even hotter.

☆ A communications satellite the size of an apartment is so bright it can outshine stars, and astronomers are worried it could interfere with their research
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AST SpaceMobile deployed a 693-square-foot communications satellite into orbit called BlueWalker 3. Astronomers say it's as bright as some of the brightest stars, and warn it could impact their work. AST SpaceMobile bills it as the "largest-ever commercial communications array deployed in low Earth orbit." Astronomers are also concerned about how satellite constellations contribute to the loss to "humanity's ability to experience the natural night sky," according to the IAU statement. When we look up at night sky, many of the bright lights might not be stars — but satellites.

CNN —A series of attacks deep inside Russia this week have raised the stakes for Moscow at a time when its war on Ukraine is faltering. Russia has said that Ukrainian drones carried out three strikes on its air bases, yet two of the targets are hundreds of miles inside Russian territory and beyond the reach of Ukraine’s declared drone arsenal. Russia said it was targeted in three separate drone attacks on Monday and Tuesday. Russia said a second drone flew to the city of Engels, around 500 miles southeast of the capital, before attacking an air base with the same name. However, they have so far refused to provide Kyiv with long-range attack drones, fearing that strikes inside Russian territory would escalate the war and draw them directly into a conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

☆ Biden administration says it is 'not encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders' following deadly explosions at Russian bases
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A series of deadly explosions rocked Russian bases, two of which are far from Ukraine's borders. The US said Tuesday that it is "not encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders." "We are not enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders — we are not encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders." Price's comments came after a series of unusual and fatal explosions occurred at Russian air bases inside the country. The series of explosions does not mark the first time that Russian territory has been attacked.

Work is finally underway on the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory. Known as the Square Kilometre Array, the mega telescope consists of huge clusters of dishes and antennas spread across remote parts of South Africa and Western Australia. The Square Kilometre Array has been called one of the biggest scientific projects of the 21st century. A journey to deliver the world’s largest scientific instrument,” she said in a statement. The South African component will consist of nearly 200 dishes, expanded from the 64-dish MeerKAT telescope that already exists on the site.

☆ Explosions rock Russian military airbases; new strikes hit Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Mithil Aggarwal | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Explosions rocked two Russian military airbases hundreds of miles from the border with Ukraine on Monday, according to local officials and state media. Russian authorities said they were investigating the media reports about the explosions on the base. A Tu-95 strategic bomber from the Russian air force prepares to take off from an air base in Engels, Russia on Jan. 24, 2022. AP“Engels airfield is one of the most important bases of Russian air forces,” said Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko in a tweet. Analysts said it was unclear that the new wave of Russian strikes were in any way retaliation for the blasts at the airbases.

☆ This graphic shows how many more stars you can see under truly dark skies vs. city, suburban, and rural areas
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Astronomers classify night skies from dark to bright using the Bortle Scale, ranked from one to nine. Light pollution is when artificial light washes out the night sky and makes it hard to see stars. While it might not be as potentially harmful as other kinds of pollution, light pollution can affect human health. Level four classifies the transition from suburban to rural areas, where you can see the Milky Way. The night sky is brimming with stars, making it harder to parse out faint constellations.

☆ 7 times NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted something Hubble missed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The James Webb Space Telescope can capture a more complete view of galaxies, stars, and planets. Before Webb, astronomers had another workhorse cosmic observatory: the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb is 100 times stronger than Hubble, which allows astronomers to peer even further into space. Webb spied countless galaxies that Hubble missedA side by side collage of the same area taken by the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes. Where Hubble saw a faint dot, Webb resolved 2 distinct mystery objectsOne of the lensed images of MACS0647-JD, from the James Webb Space Telescope.

☆ Webb telescope spies clouds beneath haze of Saturn moon Titan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has spied clouds on one of the solar system’s most intriguing moons. Titan’s atmosphere is made of nitrogen and methane, which gives it a fuzzy, orange appearance. Astronomers compared Webb (left) and Keck images of Titan to see how clouds evolved. The data, which is still being analyzed, was able to see deeper into Titan’s atmosphere and surface than the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn and its moons for 13 years. The cloud observations were a long time coming.

☆ AT 2022cmc: Rare cosmic event beamed light at Earth from 8.5 billion light-years away
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But the rare cosmic event actually occurred 8.5 billion light years away from Earth, when the universe was just a third of its current age — and it has created more questions than answers. This graphic shows how a tidal disruption event might look in space. Carl Knox/OzGrav/Swinburne University of TechnologyWhen a star is torn apart by a black hole’s gravitational tidal forces, it’s known as a tidal disruption event. Observing more events like this could reveal how black holes launch such powerful jets across space, according to the researchers. “Scientists can use AT 2022cmc as a model for what to look for and find more disruptive events from distant black holes.”

☆ New space observatory helps solve mystery involving enormous black holes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Most galaxies are built around humongous black holes. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). They have the biggest, scariest black holes. IXPE, launched last December as a collaboration between the U.S. space agency NASA and the Italian Space Agency, measures the brightness and polarization — a property of light involving the orientation of the electromagnetic waves — of X-ray light from cosmic sources. “Black holes are unique laboratories to study fundamental physics in extreme conditions we cannot replicate on Earth,” Liodakis said.

Summary Shenzhou-15 marks last of 11 missions since April 2021 in building of space stationShenzhou-15 crew to take over from Shenzhou-14 astronauts on space stationChinese space station to be second permanently inhabited outpost after NASA-led ISSBEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Three Chinese astronauts arrived on Wednesday at China's space station for the first in-orbit crew rotation in Chinese space history, launching operation of the second inhabited outpost in low-Earth orbit after the NASA-led International Space Station. Shenzhou-15 was the last of 11 missions, including three previous crewed missions, needed to assemble the "Celestial Palace", as the multi-module station is known in Chinese. The "Celestial Palace" was the culmination of nearly two decades of Chinese crewed missions to space. The astronauts will live and work on the T-shaped space outpost for six months. The next batch of "taikonauts", coined from the Chinese word for space, to board the station, in 2023, will be picked from the third generation of astronauts with scientific backgrounds.

Shenzhou-15 was the last of 11 missions, including three prior crewed missions, that began in April 2021 needed to assemble the "Celestial Palace", as the multi-module station is known in Chinese. The space outpost took on its current "T" shape in November with the arrival of the last of three cylindrical modules. The "Celestial Palace" was the culmination of nearly two decades of Chinese crewed missions to space. FUTURE 'TAIKONAUTS'Leading the Shenzhou-15 mission was Fei Junlong, 57, who hailed from China's first batch of astronaut trainees in the late 1990s. During the space station's operation over the next decade, China is expected to launch two crewed missions to the orbiting outpost each year.

☆ Webb telescope finds two of the most distant galaxies ever observed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has spied one of the earliest galaxies formed after the big bang, about 350 million years after the universe began. Webb’s capability to look deeper into the universe than other telescopes is revealing previously hidden aspects of the universe, including astonishingly distant galaxies such as these two finds. Two distant galaxies were observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. Just a few hundred million years after the big bang, there were already lots of galaxies. Detection of light invisible to the human eyeThe new findings about the two galaxies might mean there are other bright galaxies waiting to be found in the distant universe.

☆ An astronomer was locked out of her Twitter account for months after posting a video of a meteor that was flagged as 'intimate content', report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

An astronomer was locked out of Twitter for months after posting a video of a meteor, per BBC News. Mary McIntyre said Twitter deemed her August video to have broken its content rules. She regained access to her account on Thursday after BBC News published its story. —Mary McIntyre FRAS (she/her) (@Spicey_Spiney) August 13, 2022The astronomer's Twitter account remained online, but she told the BBC she had not been able to log in to use it. McIntyre told the BBC that she had refused to delete the tweet because doing so would amount to an admittance of guilt.

☆ The Visions of Octavia Butler
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lynell George | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +27 min

As a science fiction writer, Butler forged a new path and envisioned bold possibilities. Mural with a portrait of Octavia Butler and her name, composed of dots of various densities in 3-D space. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant. “‘Kindred’ was a story of ordinary people trapped in fantastic circumstances,” Butler wrote in a 1988 notebook. Her point of view was one not traditionally found in science fiction and, simply by writing, she demanded a larger world.

☆ How a Disney creator helped edtech startup Paper create an interactive kids' streaming service that's like Peloton — but with math
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Paper Live, a interactive, educational live-streaming platform, launched in September 2022. The streamer is part of remote tutoring service Paper, which partners with school districts. This fall, it premiered Paper Live, a live-streaming service that includes an interactive element — and has a Hollywood-seasoned writer/executive producer at the helm. The newly expanded Paper Live launched around the start of the 2022-2023 academic year in the US. "We're seeing an uptick in not just usage of Paper Live but Paper in general because they're more familiar with the platform," said Cutler.

☆ NASA's Hubble Space Telescope watched a distant star die, explode, and fade away in rare, colorful detail
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a star that exploded and died 11 billion years ago. The three imprints show different colorful stages of the supernova explosion. Hubble watched the star collapse, expell its outer layers in a violent explosion, and then cool. Three different reflections of the supernova, spotted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The paths had different lengths, so the light arrived at different times, reflecting images from three different stages in the star's death.

☆ Puerto Rico's iconic Arecibo Observatory won't be replaced after crashing to its doom 2 years ago. Dramatic photos and video show pieces of the broken telescope being overtaken by the jungle.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Before-and-after images of the Arecibo Observatory show a dramatic collapse that ended an era in space research. For nearly 60 years, the Arecibo Observatory made significant contributions to astronomy. The Arecibo Observatory, a legendary radio telescope nestled in the lush mountains of Puerto Rico, has served as an essential lookout into the cosmos for nearly six decades. From tracking asteroids to discovering the first planets outside our solar system, Arecibo made fundamental contributions to our knowledge of space. The telescope's observing equipment hung from a platform strung over a 1,000-foot radio dish until December 1, 2020.

☆ How edtech startup Paper recruited a Disney creator to build a kids' streaming service that's like Peloton — but with math
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Fact Check-The Earth is not covered by a dome or ‘firmament’
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Users on social media are saying people on Earth are living under a dome, also called a “firmament,” without providing evidence to support the claim. But the video’s examples offer no proof of humans living under a dome or firmament, while there is ample evidence that no dome exists. “Rocket hitting the flat earth dome”, reads the title of one of the YouTube clips. SIXTY YEARS OF SPACEFLIGHTExperts pointed out that if there were a dome that covered the Earth, astronauts would have encountered it by now. A video provides no evidence that the Earth is under a dome or “firmament”.

☆ Five centuries on, Milan still echoes with the genius of queer icon Leonardo da Vinci
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Dan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Since his death more than 500 years ago, multihyphenate genius Leonardo da Vinci and his spectacular works have inspired respect and wonder in generation after generation the world over. “Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible as well as any other, whosoever he may be,” da Vinci offered, not incorrectly. Today, his engineering genius and the advancements it inspired are showcased at Milan’s Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, the largest science museum in Italy. The museum’s Leonardo da Vinci Galleries, reimagined for the 2019 celebrations, use more than 170 historical models, artworks, codexes and installations to bring the artist’s story to life. Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" in the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

☆ Fact Check-Alexander Gleason’s map of the world does not prove the earth is flat
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

One Instagram user (here) shared a TikTok video which tries to challenge the fact that that Gleason’s map is a projection of the earth as a globe. Gleason argued that the earth is flat in his 1890 book “Is the Bible from Heaven? ALL 2D MAPS DISTORT EARTHAs Gleason’s map is centered on the north pole, the edges indicate the south pole. “A projection of a person on a page is also flat (see Jeff Brown’s ‘Flat Stanley’ character), but people aren’t flat,” Bennett said. Gleason’s map is a depiction of the earth as a globe in a north-polar azimuthal equidistant projection and is not proof that the earth is flat.

☆ Mars may have molten lava, scientists discover from quakes detected by NASA's Insight lander
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

NASA's InSight lander has detected Mars quakes that mostly come from one region: Cerberus Fossae. But now, using a seismometer on NASA's InSight lander, scientists have discovered the first evidence of molten lava deep below the Martian surface. A series of Mars quakes clued the scientists in to the potential lava hotspot. The biggest Mars quakes point to an underground chamber of magmaInSight has detected more than 1,300 Mars quakes since landing on the red planet in 2018. To get the global picture of Mars quakes and volcanic activity, NASA would need to send more seismometers to the red planet.

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