Astronomers catch a comet outburst

Remember comet 46P/Wirtanen? It was a bright comet about this time last year. Around the time it swept near the Earth and sun, the comet entered the field of view NASA’s TESS planet-hunter. And boom! It underwent an outburst, caught by TESS. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/comet-46p-wirtanen-outburst-caught-by-tess…

Microsoft is Creating a New Rust-Based Programming Language For Secure Coding

Under Project Verona, Microsoft is working to make Windows 10 more secure by integrating Mozilla-developed Rust for low-level Windows components. “‘Memory safety’ is the term for coding frameworks that help protect memory space from being abused by malware,” reports ZDNet. “Project Verona at Microsoft is meant to progress the company’s work here to close off this attack vector.” From the report:…

Thousands of exoplanets may orbit supermassive black holes

It sounds unbelievable, but a new study from Kagoshima University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan says that exoplanets – thousands of them – could be orbiting supermassive black holes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/thousands-of-exoplanets-may-orbit-supermassive-black-holes…

Brief but potent meteor outburst expected November 21-22

Exciting news! Some lucky observers may catch a brief outburst of alpha Monocerotid meteors this Thursday night (or Friday morning). And we do mean brief. Peak activity – a rate of 400 meteors per hour – is expected to last 15 to 40 minutes. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/possible-meteor-outburst-alpha-monocerotids-nov-21-22-2019…