On February mornings, look for the celestial ducks returning to open water on the river of the Milky Way as the stars Shaula and Lesath make their appearance. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/two-stars-in-scorpius-are-a-harbinger-of-spring…
Tag: Milky Way
JADES will go deeper than the Hubble Deep Fields
Astronomers announced this month that a new deep-field survey called JADES will be carried out with the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s much-anticipated successor. The Webb is due to launch later this year. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/jades-deep-field-surveys-epoch-of-1st-galaxies…
Astronomers find possible exoplanet-in-the-making within its own whirlpool
Astronomers have discovered a possible newly-born planet forming within its own “whirlpool” of dust and pebbles, in orbit around a young star 330 light-years from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/star-hd-163296-new-planet-seen-forming-within-whirlpool…
NASA’s Roman mission will probe galaxy’s core for hot Jupiters, brown dwarfs
When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will explore an expansive range of infrared astrophysics topics. One eagerly anticipated survey will use a gravitational effect called microlensing to reveal thousands of worlds that are similar to the planets in our solar system. Now, a new study shows that the same survey will also unveil more extreme…
Update on the 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby TRAPPIST-1
A new study of the seven Earth-sized exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1 indicate that all 7 planets are extremely similar to each other in makeup, but potentially quite different from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/7-trappist-1-planets-similar-composition-unlike-earth…
What do redshifts tell astronomers?
A redshift reveals how an object is moving in space and enables astronomers to discover otherwise-invisible planets and the movements of galaxies, and to uncover the beginnings of our universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-is-a-redshift…
Why Do We Assume Extraterrestrials Might Want To Visit Us?
Avi Loeb, former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and who chairs the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies, writing at Scientific American: It is presumptuous to assume that we are worthy of special attention from advanced species in the Milky Way. We may be a phenomenon as uninteresting to them as ants are to us;…
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…