Meet Spica in the constellation Virgo, one of our sky’s most fascinating stars. On May 15 and 16, 2019, the moon is near Spica, which the only bright star in the large, rambling constellation Virgo the Maiden. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-and-spica-on-may-15-and-16…
Tag: Temperature
Generating high-quality single photons for quantum computing
MIT researchers have designed a way to generate, at room temperature, more single photons for carrying quantum information. The design, they say, holds promise for the development of practical quantum computers. …
Clouds that look like ocean waves
They’re called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, aka billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds, and they look like breaking ocean waves. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/kelvin-helmholzt-clouds…
Simulating stars’ sounds to reveal their secrets
“A cello sounds like a cello because of its size and shape,” said astronomer Jacqueline Goldstein. “The vibrations of stars also depend on their size and structure.” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/simulating-stars-sounds-to-reveal-their-secrets…
Arcturus cuts through the galaxy’s disk
Arcturus isn’t moving solely within the flat disk of our Milky Way galaxy. It’s cutting perpendicularly through the disk. Millions of years from now, it’ll be lost from view, at least for those who are earthbound and looking with the eye alone. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/bright-orange-arcturus-use-the-big-dipper-to-find-it…
‘Impossible’ Research Produces 400 Years of Climate Data, Shows El Nino Now Stronger
Long-time Slashdot reader William Robinson writes:
Using cores drilled from coral, scientists have been able to produce the first 400-year-long seasonal record of El Niño events. “This understanding of El Niño events is vital because they produce extreme weather across the globe with particularly profound effects on precipitation and temperature extremes in Australia, South East Asia and the Americas,” reports Phys.org. The…
What Mars’ giant dust storm taught us
Before we send people to Mars, we need to understand more about how Martian dust could affect astronauts and their equipment. Here are 3 things we’ve learned from the planet’s 2018 global dust storm. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/understanding-mars-dust-storms…
Arsenic-breathing life discovered in Pacific
Arsenic is a deadly poison for most living things, but new research shows that microorganisms are breathing arsenic in a large area of the Pacific Ocean. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/arsenic-breathing-microorganisms-discovered-in-pacific…
Odyssey’s three views of Martian moon Phobos
For the first time, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter has caught the Martian moon Phobos during a full moon phase. Each color in this new image represents a temperature range detected by Odyssey’s infrared camera, which has been studying the Martian moon since September of 2017. Looking like a rainbow-colored jawbreaker, these latest observations could help scientists understand what materials make up…
Unfathomably deep oceans on alien water worlds?
Distant water exoplanets might have oceans thousands of miles deep. That’s in contrast to Earth’s ocean, which is about 6.8 miles (about 11 km) deep at its deepest point. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/exoplanet-water-worlds-deep-oceans-2019-study…