Most exoplanets orbiting close to their stars don’t have atmospheres. But Gliese 486b – orbiting a red dwarf star only 24 light-years away – does. It’s close enough to see well. Astronomers will be watching it! Source: https://earthsky.org/space/gliese-486b-hot-super-earth-with-atmosphere…
Tag: Light
‘Egg carton’ quantum dot array could lead to ultralow power devices
A new path toward sending and receiving information with single photons of light has been discovered by an international team of researchers led by the University of Michigan. …
New ‘eyewear’ to deepen the view of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to explore even more cosmic questions, thanks to a new near-infrared filter. The upgrade will allow the observatory to see longer wavelengths of light, opening up exciting new opportunities for discoveries from the edge of our solar system to the farthest reaches of space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-eyewear-deepen-view-nasa-roman.html…
A potential model for a real physical warp drive
A pair of researchers at Applied Physics has created what they describe as the first general model for a warp drive, a model for a space craft that could travel faster than the speed of light, without actually breaking the laws of physics. Alexey Bobrick, and Gianni Martire have written a paper describing their ideas for a warp drive and have…
Moon and star Antares morning of March 5, 2021
Let the moon show you Antares, a red supergiant star and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion on the morning of March 5. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-antares-morning-of-mar-5-2021…
Space junk foils astronomers observing oldest galaxy in the universe
A flash of light in the night sky, thought to have been a burst from a galaxy in the early universe, may actually have been nothing more than a glint from a piece of junk in Earth’s orbit Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269887-space-junk-foils-astronomers-observing-oldest-galaxy-in-the-universe/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Human ancestor ‘Lucy’ gets a new face in stunning reconstruction
New depictions of Lucy and the Taung child are shedding light on the tricky task of facial reconstruction. Source: https://www.livescience.com/lucy-taung-child-facial-reconstructions.html
MUSE sheds more light on central kinematics of Messier 15
Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), astronomers have performed observations of an old globular cluster known as Messier 15. The observational campaign delivered essential information about stellar kinematics of the central region of this cluster. The results were published February 24 on arXiv.org. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-muse-central-kinematics-messier.html…
Researchers realize quantum communications milestone using light
Few terms are more ubiquitous in the scientific arena these days than “quantum.” …
Closest Mars-Pleiades conjunction until 2038
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…