‘Dyson spheres’ were theorized as a way to detect alien life. Scientists say they’ve found potential evidence https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/science/dyson-spheres-alien-life-evidence-scn/index.html
Skeptical, because a Dyson Sphere is so impractical that no actual society, no matter how advanced, would actually do one. A ring or a swarm would be more practical, and a lot harder to spot, but maybe that's what the article is talking about (of course, I didn't read the article)
Dyson himself said the initial description wasn’t practical, that it would be many, many pieces orbiting the star. But the original version lives on in sci fi.
beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data. Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately. Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data." NASA says "additional minor work" is needed to "clean up the effects of the issue." All in all, very good news for a legendary spacecraft that's now more than 15 billion miles and 47 years from Earth
I'm really torn about this, I would love to have Starship launching just 40 miles from my house, but I know it would have bad effects on a really fragile habitat over there at Canaveral National Seashore
For those about to wave their hands and shriek "Kessler Syndrome!!" that approach keeps it outside the range of even the highest-altitude GPS satellites, and only inside the orbit of some communications, meteorology, and navigation satellites. There's only about 600 geostationary satellites on a surface area of 6,213,310,000 square miles of the geostationary orbital sphere, so about 1 satellite per 10,000,000 square miles of orbital sphere.
Just to set some expectations on that, visible with the naked eye means you will see another small star in the sky at night for like a week. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d probably never know it was there. Still very cool but that tweet makes it sound like it’s going to be visible during the day like the 1054 supernova that made the Crab Nebula, or when Beatlguise finally goes supernova when it will be as bright as the full moon for weeks
Bad ass!! This scientific visualization explores the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula using data from the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes. Based on scientific results, astronomers and artists modeled this striking formation in three dimensions and created a movie that flies past and amongst the pillars. What looks like 3 pillars in a two-dimensional image separates into four dust clouds with ionized gas streaming away from each. As the virtual camera files through the model, the view shifts back and forth between the visible light and infrared light perspectives. Viewers gain an appreciation of the contrasting observations seen by Hubble and Webb, and how the telescopes complement each other by probing different scientific aspects of the clouds. The Pillars of Creation nickname derives from the fact that stars are forming within these dust clouds. The visual tour highlights various stages of star formation including an embedded protostar at the top of the central pillar, bipolar jets from a unseen forming star in the upper part of the left pillar, and a newborn star in the middle of the left pillar. This visualization is a product of the AstroViz Project of NASA's Universe of Learning. A longer and explanatory visualization, including narration detailing the structures and science, is available as "The Pillars of Creation and the Interplay of Stars and Dust".
Let's Make a Deal is where you had to pick between doors, doin' the whole Lady or The Tiger routine. Price Is Right would've just gone IT'S A NEW TIGER and opened those sliding panels to let it eat you.
I imagine there were some offline discussions along the lines of 'you're crazy if you think we're getting back in that thing for the trip back to earth.'
https://esawebb.org/images/potm2408a/ This stunning new mosaic of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope showcases the nearby star-forming cluster, NGC 1333. The nebula is in the Perseus molecular cloud, and located approximately 960 light-years away. Webb’s superb sensitivity allows astronomers to investigate young objects with extremely low masses. Some of the faintest ‘stars’ in the picture are in fact newly born free-floating brown dwarfs with masses comparable to those of giant planets. The same cluster was featured as the 33rd anniversary image of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in April of 2023. Hubble’s image just scratched the surface of this region, because clouds of dust obscure much of the star formation process. Observing with a larger aperture and in the infrared part of the spectrum, Webb is capable of peering through the dusty veil to reveal newborn stars, brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects. The centre of the image presents a deep peek into the heart of the NGC 1333 cloud. Across the image we see large patches of orange, which represent gas glowing in the infrared. These so-called Herbig-Haro objects form when ionised material ejected from young stars collides with the surrounding cloud. They are hallmarks of a very active site of star formation. Many of the young stars in this image are surrounded by discs of gas and dust, which may eventually produce planetary systems. On the right hand side of the image, we can glimpse the shadow of one of these discs oriented edge-on — two dark cones emanating from opposite sides, seen against a bright background. Similarly to the young stars in this mosaic, our own Sun and planets formed inside a dusty molecular cloud, 4.6 billion years ago. Our Sun didn’t form in isolation but as part of a cluster, which was perhaps even more massive than NGC 1333. The cluster in the mosaic, only 1–3 million years old, presents us with an opportunity to study stars like our Sun, as well as brown dwarfs and free-floating planets, in their nascent stages. The images were captured as part of the Webb observation programme 1202 (PI: A. Scholz) to survey a large portion of NGC 1333. These data constitute the first deep spectroscopic survey of the young cluster, and have identified brown dwarfs down to planetary masses using the observatory’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). The first results from this survey have been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. [Image Description: A nebula made up of cloudy gas and dust in the form of soft and wispy clouds and, in the centre, thin and highly detailed layers pressed close together. Large, bright stars surrounded by six long points of light are dotted over the image, as well as some small, point-like stars embedded in the clouds. The clouds are lit up in blue close to the stars; orange colours show clouds that glow in infrared light.]
clickhole did an article about the same astronaut a few years back lol https://clickhole.com/incredible-we-asked-these-astronauts-what-it-s-like-to-1825124428/
Camped in Northern WA this weekend, in the Pasayten Wilderness. Absolutely zero light pollution Spoiler Took this pic with my GoPro on Saturday night Spoiler
I have never seen the Milky Way so clear. I've camped in a lot of cool places and never seen stars this bright.