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…
Tag: luminosity
What is a quasar?
A quasar is an extremely bright and distant point-like source visible to radio telescopes. The source is a so-called Active Galactic Nucleus, fueled by a supermassive black hole. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/definition-what-is-a-quasar…
Can you see Canopus, the 2nd-brightest star?
Here’s how to spot Canopus, the 2nd-brightest star in the sky as seen from Earth, on February evenings. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/few-know-the-second-brightest-star-canopus…
Tomorrow is New Year’s Day on Mars
Mars Year 36 begins on February 7, 2021. If you’re looking for a reason to celebrate, here’s to a Happy New Year … on Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/mars-calendar-years-began-in-earth-year-1955…
Moon and Antares before dawn February 6
Let the moon show you Antares, the red supergiant star, on the morning of February 6, 2021 Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-antares-scorpius-feb-before-dawn…
Maarten Schmidt solves the puzzle of quasars
On February 5, 1963, Maarten Schmidt unraveled the mystery of quasars and pushed back the edges of the known cosmos. His insight into quasars – the most distant and luminous objects known – has changed the way scientists view the universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-maartin-schmidt-discovers-first-known-quasar…
How to see Sirius B
Sirius is a binary star, with a small white dwarf called the Pup orbiting the large primary star. It’s not easy to observe, but it is possible. Here’s how. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/how-to-observe-sirius-b…
What does ‘luminosity’ mean in particle physics?
Even on the hottest and driest days, rays from the sun are too weak to ignite a fire. But with a magnifying glass (or, in some unfortunate cases, a glass garden ornament), you can focus sunlight into a beam bright enough to set tinder ablaze. …
Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground
A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…
Did the Wow! signal come from this star?
Where did the famous mystery Wow! signal, detected in 1977, come from? Astronomer Alberto Caballero might have pinpointed the host star. It’s a sunlike star 1,800 light-years away, in the direction to the center of our Milky Way. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/source-of-wow-signal-in-1977-sunlike-star-2mass-19281982-2640123…