This year – on March 3, 2021 – the red planet Mars and the Pleiades star cluster – also known as the Seven Sisters – stage their closest conjunction on the sky’s dome until February 4, 2038. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/closest-mars-pleiades-conjunction-until-2038…
Tag: Hunter
When will Betelgeuse explode?
The red supergiant star will explode in a supernova, close enough to shine brightly during the day but far enough away that Earth won’t be in danger. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/betelgeuse-will-explode-someday…
Hear the strange music of distant planetary system TOI-178
In the animation in this post, the rhythmic movement of newly discovered planets around the star TOI-178 is represented through a musical harmony, created by attributing a note (in the pentatonic scale) to each of the planets. Hear the music of these planets. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/star-system-tio-178-planets-in-resonance-orbits-cheops…
Orion the Hunter is easy to spot
Orion is identifiable by his Belt, 3 medium-bright stars in a short, straight row at the mid-section of the Hunter. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/orion-the-hunter-is-easy-to-spot…
Dog Domestication May Have Begun Because Paleo Humans Couldn’t Stomach the Original Paleo Diet
A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…
Humans may have domesticated dogs by accident by sharing excess meat
Hunter-gatherers may have had more meat than they could eat, which they shared with wolves – inadvertently beginning the domestication of dogs Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264329-humans-may-have-domesticated-dogs-by-accident-by-sharing-excess-meat/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Has ‘The Mandalorian’ on Disney+ Redeemed the Star Wars Universe?
Today a staff writer at Salon argues “The Mandalorian” has redeemed the Star Wars universe: The Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” has been both a critical triumph and commercial success. In my judgment, it’s the most compelling live-action story in the “Star Wars” universe since 1983’s “Return of The Jedi”. To that end, the story in “The Mandalorian’s” first two seasons about…
Moon passes in front of Taurus the Bull
These next three nights – December 26, 27 and 28, 2020 – the bright waxing gibbous moon shines in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-passes-in-front-of-taurus-the-bull…
Weapons carved from human bone come from drowned land bridge between UK and Europe
It’s a mystery why hunter-gatherers from the Stone Age crafted weapons from human bone. Source: https://www.livescience.com/stone-age-weapons-human-bone.html
Why are the stars so bright tonight?
In late December – and in January and February – our evening sky faces away from the Milky Way’s star-rich center. We look toward the depths of space beyond our galaxy’s boundaries and toward some close, bright stars in our local spiral arm. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/star-seasonal-appearance-brightness…