Tag: Hunter

Exoplanet-hunter TESS completes its primary mission

NASA’s 2nd planet-hunter, TESS, has spent 2 years surveying the sky for exoplanets orbiting distant stars. It has found over 2,000 exoplanets so far. TESS now moves into its extended mission phase. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/exoplanet-hunter-tess-completes-primary-mission…

Spectacular! Moon and Venus before sunrise August 14 to 16

Enjoy an eyeful of the moon and Venus as they meet up in the morning sky in mid-August 2020! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/spectacular-moon-venus-before-sunrise…

NASA’s planet Hunter completes its primary mission

On July 4, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) finished its primary mission, imaging about 75% of the starry sky as part of a two-year-long survey. In capturing this giant mosaic, TESS has found 66 new exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, as well as nearly 2,100 candidates astronomers are working to confirm. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-planet-hunter-primary-mission.html…

Bizarre fossil with an incredibly long neck was a marine hunter

Tanystropheus had a neck three times the length of its body, and a new analysis of its skull suggests it lived in the sea, where it ambushed prey Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251211-bizarre-fossil-with-an-incredibly-long-neck-was-a-marine-hunter/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Space dust fossils are providing a new window onto Earth’s past

To be a meteorite hunter means to search for the unutterably rare. On any given patch of land the size of Wales, an average of two olive-sized space rocks will fall in a year. Scientists and collectors are forced to go to extreme lengths to find them, searching in deserts and Antarctica where they have a chance of spotting the stones…

Watch for the moon and the Scorpion

July is a grand time of year to learn to recognize the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. If you’re in the city – with no dark sky – you probably won’t see the entire constellation. But you can still see the star that represents the Scorpion’s Heart, a bright red star called Antares. Our chart shows…read more » Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/watch-for-the-moon-and-the-scorpion…

A nova, briefly visible in southern skies

Astronomers have spotted a classical nova outburst in a type of variable star that involves a white dwarf orbiting a main sequence star. Nova Reticulum 2020 has been briefly visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nova-reticuli-2020-southern-hemisphere…

This day in 2013: The Day the Earth Smiled

Today is the anniversary of The Day the Earth Smiled, the 3rd-ever image of Earth from the outer solar system, taken by the great Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/the-day-earth-smiled-2013-cassini-image-of-earth-moon-planets…

When is the next Great Comet?

There’s a nice binocular comet – Comet NEOWISE – in the early morning sky now. Some experienced observers are catching it with the eye alone. It’s nice … but not great. When will we see our next Great Comet? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/northern-hemisphere-overdue-for-a-great-comet…