Mars mission managers are dealing with the biggest source of electromagnetic interference in the solar system. Source: https://www.livescience.com/mars-missions-all-shut-down-sun.html
Tag: Electromagnetic
Quantum Radar Has Been Demonstrated For the First Time
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Shabir Barzanjeh at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and a few colleagues have used entangled microwaves to create the world’s first quantum radar. Their device, which can detect objects at a distance using only a few photons, raises the prospect of stealthy radar systems that emit little detectable electromagnetic…
Arecibo Observatory gets $12.3 million grant
Arecibo in Puerto Rico was completed in 1963. In recent years, it has weathered multiple hurricanes. The emergency supplemental funds – supported by the U.S. Congress – represent an investment in the future of this large, famous and much-loved radio dish. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/arecibo-observatory-12-3-million-grant-upgrade…
A big earthquake in the US Pacific Northwest?
Most people don’t associate the US Pacific Northwest with earthquakes, but maybe they should. It’s home to the 600-mile (1,000-km) Cascadia megathrust fault, stretching from northern California to Canada’s Vancouver Island. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/cascadia-megathrust-fault-earthquake-probability…
Looking for warm dark matter
In the last century, astronomers studying the motions of galaxies and the character of the cosmic microwave background radiation came to realize that most of the matter in the universe was not visible. About 84% of the matter in the cosmos is dark, emitting neither light nor any other known kind of radiation. Hence it is called dark matter. One of…
A Cell Tower In the Swiss Alps Is Struck By Lightning More Than 100 Times a Year
Wave723 quotes IEEE Spectrum: Atop a rocky peak in the Swiss Alps sits a telecommunications tower that gets struck by lightning more than 100 times a year, making it perhaps the world’s most frequently struck object. Taking note of the remarkable consistency with which lightning hits this 124-meter structure, researchers have adorned it with instruments for a front-row view of these…
Antares is the Heart of the Scorpion
Bright red Antares is easy to spot now. It’s the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and represents the Scorpion’s Heart. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/antares-rivals-mars-as-the-scorpions-heart…
Discovering exoplanets with gravitational waves
In a recent paper in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Potsdam and from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay, Paris suggest how the planned space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA can detect exoplanets orbiting white dwarf binaries everywhere in the Milky Way and in the nearby Magellanic Clouds….
Has the ball lightning mystery been solved?
What is ball lightning? Scientists have been trying to figure that out for hundreds of years, and now it seems they may finally be close to solving one of Earth’s most intriguing natural mysteries. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/ball-lightning-lightning-atmosphere-earth-optik…
US astronomers speak on SpaceX Starlink satellites
The American Astronomical Society – chief organization for US astronomers – said it is in conversations with SpaceX about the impending launch of 12,000 Starlink satellites. The astronomers worry the satellites will interfere with their work of understanding the universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/aas-statement-spacex-starlink-satellites…