Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Supernova Age – A new analysis of a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud by scientists at Purdue University shows that the supernova should have been visible in the far south of Earth 1,700 years ago, but no record has been found of it having been seen.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Dark Matter Mystery Solved – In 2018 and 2019, astronomers reported finding two small galaxies that appeared to have little if any dark matter. This is unusual as essentially all galaxies measured for it contain far more dark matter than ordinary matter.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
OSIRIS-REx is the space probe that flew by the small near-Earth asteroid Bennu on October 20 and collected a sample of its surface material. When its controllers in mission control took images of the sample mechanism, they found that the sampling had been overly successful.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Nobel Prizes – The Nobel Prize committee includes astronomy as part of physics and this year three astronomers split the physics prize. Roger Penrose received half of the award for his mathematical work on the properties, even existence, of black holes.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Mass Gap Breached – The largest known neutron star is about 2.2 times the mass of the Sun, which aligns with theoretical projections that predict a neutron star should collapse into a black hole at about this mass.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Relativity Test – One of the principles of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is that all different objects will fall at the same rate of acceleration at any given strength of gravity.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Earth-like Planet Found – An exoplanet has been found that is the closest yet to being the size and temperature of Earth. It was found by NASA scientists in archived Kepler data, and has been dubbed Kepler-1649c.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Betelgeuse – As reported here over the last two months, the star Betelgeuse dimmed to its lowest recorded level in early February. New observations made in late February showed it creeping back up in brightness.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
New Target For Lucy – The Trojan asteroids are found in two groups along Jupiter’s orbit, one group at a 60 degree angle ahead of the giant planet, and the other 60 degrees behind.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Betelgeuse, although long known to vary somewhat in brightness, is the dimmest it’s been in at least a century. Before these recent variations, it had been brighter than Rigel at its peak, but recently dimmed to the level of Bellatrix, dimmer than first magnitude.… Continue reading.