To find alien life in our universe, scientists have considered searches for optical lasers or even giant energy-harvesting structures known as Dyson spheres. Now they’re suggesting a more mundane sort of search, a hunt for air pollution in exoplanet atmospheres. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/can-pollution-help-us-find-alien-life…
Tag: ultraviolet light
Mars atmosphere shedding charged particles onto Phobos?
New research suggests that particles escaping from Mars’ atmosphere have been accumulating on the surface of the planet’s largest moon Phobos for billions of years. They could provide important new details about the history of both worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-atmosphere-history-phobos-soil…
Check out these new Sun Science stamps!
The US Postal Service announced that they’ll be releasing a series of stamps highlighting images of the sun captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/new-sun-science-stamps-2021…
6 space missions to look forward to in 2021
Here are some of the space missions to keep an eye out for in 2021. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/6-space-missions-2021-artemis-chandrayaa3-jameswebb…
SDO spies its 1st lunar transit of 2021
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been observing continuously the sun since its launch in 2010. From its vantage point above Earth, it sees the moon pass in front of the sun 2 to 5 times a year. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/sdo-spies-its-1st-lunar-transit-of-2021-jan13…
Superhuman sight may be possible with lens that makes UV light visible
A nanocrystal-coated lens can convert ultraviolet light into bright green, extending the range of people’s vision Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264636-superhuman-sight-may-be-possible-with-lens-that-makes-uv-light-visible/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
New sunspot cycle could be among strongest on record
A study of oppositely charged magnetic field bands, moving in the sun’s northern and southern hemispheres, suggests the coming sunspot cycle – Cycle 25 – will be a particularly strong one. This result contradicts an earlier expert forecast, suggesting a weak Cycle 25. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sunspot-cycle-25-among-strongest-on-record-says-ncar…
Carbon emission from star-forming clouds
The carbon atom can be easily ionized, more easily than hydrogen atoms for example. In star forming regions, where massive young stars emit ultraviolet light capable of ionizing atoms, all the neutral carbon nearby becomes ionized. The singly-ionized carbon atom (abbreviated CII) emits a strong line in the far infrared that is both very intense and consequently a reliable proxy for…
Platypuses glow an eerie blue-green under UV light
Scientists have discovered that platypus fur glows under ultraviolet light, in the first example of biofluorescence in egg-laying mammals. Source: https://www.livescience.com/platypuses-glow-uv-light.html
Electric! Astronomers find sprites in Jupiter’s atmosphere
Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission say they have detected sprites or elves – electrical phenomena above thunderstorms on Earth – in the clouds of Jupiter for the first time. Unlike the red-colored earthly ones however, the Jovian ones are blue. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sprites-or-elves-in-jupiters-atmosphere-lightning-juno…