News (Page 807)

You Knew This Day Was Coming. Alien Megastructures Ruled Out for Tabby’s Star. Dust is the Culprit In September of 2015, KIC 8462852 (aka. Tabby’s Star) captured the world’s attention when it was found to be experiencing a mysterious drop in brightness. In the years since then, multiple studies have been conducted that have tried to offer a natural explanation for this behavior. In lieu of one, there’s been plenty of speculation as to what could be causing the dimming effect – including the controversial “alien megastructure” theory. Unfortunately, after years of excitement and speculation, the scientific community may have finally driven a nail intoRead More →

In mid-March, the Chinese Tiangong-1 Space Station is Going to Come Crashing Back Down to Earth… Somewhere In September of 2011, China officially joined the Great Powers in Space club, thanks to the deployment of their Tiangong-1 space station. Since then, this prototype station has served as a crewed orbital laboratory and an experimental testbed for future space stations. In the coming years, China hopes to build on the lessons learned with Tiangong-1 to create a larger, modular station in 2023 (similar to the International Space Station). Though the station’s mission was originally meant to end in 2013, the China National Space Agency extended itsRead More →

Supermassive Black Holes can Turn Star Formation On and Off in a Large Galaxy In the 1970s, astronomers discovered that a particularly large black hole (Sagittarius A*) existed at the center of our galaxy. In time, they came to understand that similar Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) existed in the center of most massive galaxies. The presence of these black holes was also what differentiated galaxies that had particularly luminous cores – aka. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) – from those that didn’t. Since that time, astronomers and cosmologists have pondered what role SMBHs have on galactic evolution, with some venturing that they have a profound impactRead More →

What is the Gravitational Microlensing Method? Welcome back to our series on Exoplanet-Hunting methods! Today, we look at the curious and unique method known as Gravitational Microlensing. The hunt for extra-solar planets sure has heated up in the past decade. Thanks to improvements made in technology and methodology, the number of exoplanets that have been observed (as of December 1st, 2017) has reached 3,710 planets in 2,780 star systems, with 621 system boasting multiple planets. Unfortunately, due to various limits astronomers are forced to contend with, the vast majority have been discovered using indirect methods. One of the more commonly-used methods for indirectly detecting exoplanetsRead More →

Messier 64 – The Black Eye Galaxy Welcome back to Messier Monday! Today, we continue in our tribute to our dear friend, Tammy Plotner, by looking at that “evil” customer known as Messier 64 – aka. the “Black Eye Galaxy”! In the 18th century, while searching the night sky for comets, French astronomer Charles Messier kept noting the presence of fixed, diffuse objects he initially mistook for comets. In time, he would come to compile a list of approximately 100 of these objects, hoping to prevent other astronomers from making the same mistake. This list – known as the Messier Catalog – would go onRead More →

Top 2018 Astronomy Events 2018 Astronomy – The final occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the Moon for 2017. Dave Dickinson Happy New Year 2018. One of the toughest choices we made last year was to not write a full astronomy guide for 2018. We’ve done this in one iteration or another now for about a decade, but an ongoing project (also astronomical in nature) has consumed most of our writing hours… but we recently realized that we can still take stock in what’s in the sky for the year ahead, and give you a sneak peek at part of our project for theRead More →

In Preparation for its Inaugural Launch, the Falcon Heavy Receives its Special Cargo – Musk’s Tesla Roadster! After years of preparation, SpaceX is gearing up for the inaugural launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket. As the name would suggest, this rocket is the heaviest launch vehicle in the SpaceX arsenal. With a payload capacity of 54 metric tons (119,000 lbs), it can lift over twice as much weight of the next heaviest launch vehicle (the ULA’s Delta IV Heavy). And in time, SpaceX hopes to use this rocket to send astronauts into orbit, to the Moon, and on to Mars. Basically, the Falcon Heavy isRead More →