How Jupiter’s moon Io gets its hellish atmosphere

Hot, active volcanoes produce almost half of Jupiter’s moon Io’s sulfur atmosphere, according to new observations using the ALMA telescope. The rest comes from cold sulfur deposits that freeze on the surface, then sublimate in sunlight. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/io-sulfur-volcanoes-hot-so2-cold-so2…

World’s First Ocean Hybrid Platform Converts Tidal Waves Into Energy

Qusi Alqarqaz writes via IEEE Spectrum: In August I spoke with Philipp Sinn, founder of Sinn Power, a German green-energy startup founded in 2014. This year he and his colleagues began building and testing the world’s first ocean hybrid platform. The floating platform uses a combination of wave, wind, and solar energy to harness renewable energy on the open seas, Sinn…

New M92 stellar stream discovered

A team of astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope discovered a new stellar stream emanating from the M92 globular cluster. This new stream suggests that M92 is actively being disrupted by tidal forces caused by our Milky Way Galaxy. This discovery utilized high quality data obtained as part of the Canada-France-Imaging-Survey (CFIS) using MegaCam at CFHT and from the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1)…

Astronomers see a star ‘spaghettified’ by a black hole

Astronomers have spotted a rare blast of light from a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole. The phenomenon – known as a tidal disruption event – is the closest such flare recorded to date at just over 215 million light-years from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/star-spaghettified-by-black-hole-at2019qiz…

Telescopes Record Last Moments of Star Devoured By a Black Hole

Iwastheone shares a report from SciTechDaily: Using telescopes from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other organizations around the world, astronomers have spotted a rare blast of light from a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole. The phenomenon, known as a tidal disruption event, is the closest such flare recorded to date at just over 215 million light-years…

Top 4 most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system

Where are the other most promising locations for extraterrestrial life in our solar system? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/et-alien-life-most-likely-worlds-solar-system…

New observations of black hole devouring a star reveal rapid disk formation

When a star passes too close to a supermassive black hole, tidal forces tear it apart, producing a bright flare of radiation as material from the star falls into the black hole. Astronomers study the light from these “tidal disruption events” (TDEs) for clues to the feeding behavior of the supermassive black holes lurking at the centers of galaxies. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-black-hole-devouring-star-reveal.html…

Earth’s night sky as Milky Way and Andromeda merge

Billions of years from now, Earth’s night sky will change as the Andromeda galaxy rushes toward a merger with the Milky Way. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earths-night-sky-milky-way-andromeda-merge…

Exoplanet-hunter TESS completes its primary mission

NASA’s 2nd planet-hunter, TESS, has spent 2 years surveying the sky for exoplanets orbiting distant stars. It has found over 2,000 exoplanets so far. TESS now moves into its extended mission phase. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/exoplanet-hunter-tess-completes-primary-mission…