NASA’s TESS mission completes first year of survey, turns to northern sky

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered 21 planets outside our solar system and captured data on other interesting events occurring in the southern sky during its first year of science. TESS has now turned its attention to the Northern Hemisphere to complete the most comprehensive planet-hunting expedition ever undertaken. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-nasa-tess-mission-year-survey.html…

China’s Tech Giants Have a Second Job: Helping Beijing Spy on Its People

Tencent and Alibaba are among the firms that assist authorities in hunting down criminal suspects, silencing dissent and creating surveillance cities. From a report: Alibaba Group’s sprawling campus has collegial workspaces, laid-back coffee bars and, on the landscaped grounds, a police outpost. Employees use the office to report suspected crimes to the police, according to people familiar with the operation. Police…

Why hunting for fast radio bursts is an ‘exploding field’ in astronomy

Little more than a decade ago, two astronomers discovered mysterious bursts of radio waves that seem to take place all over the sky, often outshining all the stars in a galaxy. Since then, the study of these fast radio bursts, or FRBs, has taken off, and while we still don’t know what exactly they are or what causes them, scientists are…

Is the Random Transiter weirder than Tabby’s Star?

Move over, Tabby’s Star. The Random Transiter may now be the weirdest star in the galaxy. Kepler data revealed 28 transits in front of this star in 87 days. What caused them? Multiple planets? A disintegrating planet? Alien megastructures? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/random-transiter-hd-139139-kepler-tabbys-star…

Watch for a young moon after sunset

Try catching the young moon after sunset on July 3 or 4, 2019. The watch for the waxing crescent moon to pair up with Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the lion, on or near July 5. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/go-young-moon-hunting-after-sunset…

How we closed in on the location of a fast radio burst in a galaxy far, far away

Astronomers have spent the past dozen years hunting for fast radio bursts (FRBs) – flashes of radio waves that come from outer space and last just milliseconds. And after a dozen years of work we still don’t know exactly what causes them, only that it must be something very powerful, as they’ve clearly travelled a long way (billions of light-years). Source:…