Space

Nasa to pretend asteroid is about to smash into Earth 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 29, 2019
‘Tabletop exercise’ will ensure US government is ready to respond to any real asteroids that could be on their way to destroy us

By David Aragorn
New Hubble measurements confirm universe is expanding faster than expected 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 27, 2019
New measurements from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirm that the Universe is expanding about 9% faster than expected based on its trajectory seen shortly after the big bang, astronomers say.

By David Aragorn
Pluto’s Atmosphere Predicted to Collapse by 2030 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 26, 2019
The tenuous nitrogen atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto is predicted to ultimately collapse and freeze over.

By David Aragorn
Nuclear weapons might save the world from an asteroid strike 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 26, 2019
But we need to change the law first

By David Aragorn
COSMIC RAYS ARE NEARING A SPACE AGE HIGH 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 25, 2019
Ten years ago, NASA reported a “perfect storm of cosmic rays.” During the year 2009, radiation peppering Earth from deep space reached a 50-year high, registering levels never before seen during the Space Age.

By David Aragorn
NASA’s Mars InSight lander may have the first recording of a Marsquake 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 24, 2019
Here’s what a rumbling Red Planet sounds like

By David Aragorn
The M87 black hole image showed the best way to measure black hole masses 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 23, 2019
Its diameter suggests the black hole is 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun

By David Aragorn
Will Trump’s Space Force lead to a cosmic war?0
- From Around the Web, Science & Technology, Space
- April 23, 2019
President Donald Trump recently called for a “Space Force” to defend the United States’ extraterrestrial operations. Russia, China, and India have also beefed up their military capabilities in space. Are we headed for a cosmic conflict?

By David Aragorn
Astronomers Find Second Galaxy with No Dark Matter 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 23, 2019
In 2018, a team of astronomers from the United States and Canada discovered that an ultra-diffuse galaxy called NGC 1052-DF2 (DF2 for short) contains virtually no dark matter. The galaxy is roughly the size of our Milky Way Galaxy, but hosts only 1/200 the number of stars. It lies in the constellation of Cetus, about 65 million light-years away, and is a member of the NGC 1052 group of galaxies. Now, the team reports the discovery of a second galaxy in this class, residing in the same group.

By David Aragorn
We Could Soon Watch a Black Hole in Action, Gobbling Up Matter in Real Time 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- April 20, 2019
Last week, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) released the first-ever image of a black hole’s shadow cast against the hot gas of its accretion disk. That image, of the black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87 (M87), was front page news all over the world. Soon, the EHT will produce the first movie of that hot gas whirling chaotically around the shadow, said project leaders who spoke Sunday (April 14) here at the April meeting of the American Physical Society.

By David Aragorn