Category: Astronomy
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An Interactive Map Lets You Gaze Through the Observable Universe – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] Depicting the position of 200,000 galaxies (each represented by a single dot), a new interactive map by astronomers at Johns Hopkins University lets viewers gaze from the Milky Way through one large slice of the perceptible universe. Two decades of data collected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey was transformed into the color-coded map by artist and […]
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Two Astronomers Discuss Technosignatures in The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] Macy Huston, a PhD candidate in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, and Jason Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university, have penned a thought-provoking essay on technosignatures—or the signs of alien technology that could lead to discovery. Both work on SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and have addressed everything […]
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James Webb’s First Image of a Distant World – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken its first direct image of a distant world: a planet lying outside our solar system. The image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in varying infrared light, revealing that it is a gas giant, contains no rocky surface and is thus uninhabitable. From the image, astronomers were […]
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Link About It: This Week’s Picks
[ad_1] Record-setting diamonds, prehistoric reptiles, a supernova discovery and more from around the web Mushroom-Inspired Ring Breaks World Record for Most Diamonds By setting 24,679 diamonds into one ring, Kerala, India-based jewelry company SWA Diamonds broke the world record for most diamonds in a single ring. The shimmering piece of jewelry features nearly double the number of […]
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James Webb Space Telescope’s First Supernova – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] While not its primary function, the James Webb Space Telescope might have just found its first supernova. Astronomers have observed a bright object within a galaxy called SDSS.J141930.11+5251593 dimming “just slightly twice (with a couple days between), over five days,” which is “classic supernova behavior.” The galaxy is three to four billion light years […]
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Dormant Black Hole Found Outside the Milky Way for the First Time – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] The black hole binary system VFTS243 is nine times the mass of the sun and the first dormant black hole to be discovered outside the Milky Way. Its origins, however, are peculiar. Typically black holes form when stars reach the end of their lifespan and collapse, causing an explosion, but the researchers of the […]
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NASA’s New UFO Research Team – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] In a move that some in the traditional science community see as “selling out,” NASA has put together an independent team of researchers dedicated to gather data on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), the updated term for UFOs. The group will collect information on sightings of mysterious objects in an attempt to find out if […]
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Link About It: This Week’s Picks
[ad_1] Mysterious astrophysical activity, edible concrete, tables from fallen trees and more from around the web How Indigenous People are Reclaiming Water Rights Water is not only a basic necessity; for many Indigenous peoples, it holds spiritual and cultural significance. However, colonialism and extractive industries separated Indigenous people from their waterways, contaminating them while endangering […]
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High-Energy Astrophysical Activity Remains a Mystery – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] The fast radio burst (FRB), which is “a transient radio pulse of length ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to a few milliseconds” from high-energy astrophysical activity, remains a mystery. The first was discovered in 2007 (by Duncan Lorimer and his student David Narkevic) but there have been many since then, one especially […]
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New Study Sheds Light on 45-Year-Old Alien Signal Mystery – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] On 15 August 1977 at 10:16PM EST, Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope scanned the Sagittarius constellation and detected a signal that was 20 times stronger than average, background emissions. When astronomer Jerry Ehman reviewed the findings the next morning, he wrote “Wow!” next to it, unknowingly naming the signal and its subsequent […]
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More Evidence That the Blueprint For Life Started in Space – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] In a new study, scientists have found the remaining two of the five informational units—known as nucleobases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil)—of DNA and RNA that were still to be detected in meteorite samples, adding evidence to the theory that life began in space. The study, led by associate professor Yasuhiro Oba of […]
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Merger of Two Black Holes Predicted – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] Astronomers are watching two highly eccentric black holes in a “gravitational tango” that might result in them merging—an event that astronomers have predicted but have never witnessed before. The cosmic incident could happen in 100 days or sometime in the next three years. Each of the black holes is estimated to be 70 times […]
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New Type of Star Discovered – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] Located about 4,000 light-years from the sun, a “mysterious, flickering object” that emits huge amounts of energy every few hours has been discovered. Astronomers watched as the object—named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3—brightened, dimmed and disappeared before reappearing and brightening again, and assumed it was a supernova (a dying star) or a neutron star (an already-dead star) […]
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First-Ever Photo of a Solar System Like Ours – COOL HUNTING®
[ad_1] Images of exoplanets are extremely uncommon, but even more rare is an image of such a planet as part of a greater solar system like ours. Astronomers, however, have just shared one such photo captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. The picture of TYC 8998-760-1, located approximately 300 light years from […]