Earth & Space
This extremely powerful eruption occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is located about 390 million light-years from Earth. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, containing thousands of individual galaxies, dark matter, and hot gas. #space
The waning crescent moon and the planet Mars will put on a show Feb. 18, appearing quite close to each other in the southeastern sky. The moon will pass in front of Mars, blocking the planet from view, but for the eastern half of the U.S., this will occur during daylight and will not be visible without a telescope. #eclipse
A large team of space scientists working in Canada has found evidence of a fast radio burst with a steady 16-day cycle. The team has published a paper describing their findings on the arXiv preprint server. #messagesfromspace
No time to read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time? Here are Hawking’s big ideas… made simple via animation. #StephenHawking #theoryofeverything
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. #universe
The astronauts who brought us this awesomeness went into space as pilots and came back as poets, believing that the cosmic gift of novel perspective might be humankind’s saving grace from the ravages of conflict and degradation. #earthfromspace
The newly discovered planets ranged from the size of the moon to the size of Jupiter, and their galaxy is 3.8 billion light-years away from our own. #exoplanets
On Nov. 11, people across most of the world can catch the planet Mercury passing across the sun. This rare event won’t be seen from Earth again until 2032. #mercurytransit
Earth-like planets may be common in the universe, a new study implies. The team of astrophysicists and geochemists presents new evidence that the Earth is not unique. #exoplanets
As we humble earthlings begin to learn more about the universe and potentially stand on the cusp of great discoveries about the planet Mars, we may not be prepared for what’s in store of us, warns the chief scientist of U.S. space agency NASA. #lifeonmars
A NASA satellite searching space for new planets gave astronomers an unexpected glimpse at a black hole ripping a star to shreds. #blackhole
The Galactic Center visualization is a 360-degree movie that immerses the viewer into a simulation of the center of our Galaxy. The viewer is at the location of Sgr A* and is able to see about 25 Wolf-Rayet stars (white, twinkling objects) orbiting Sgr A* as they continuously eject stellar winds (black to red to yellow color scale). #milkyway
As neat as it sounds, the Aurora Station space hotel is still a concept. If it becomes a reality, however, Orion Span will likely partner with private companies for transportation, such as Virgin Galactic. “That will be through partnerships with SpaceX, Blue Origin or a space agency,” said Orion Span’s CEO, Frank Bunger. As of yet, no partnerships have been announced. #spacehotel
Recent measurements revealed that our geomagnetic field is weakening by around 5% a year, which is nearly ten times faster than previous estimates. #magneticfield
One possibility to explain the speed in which the universe is expanding – is that dark energy, already known to be accelerating the cosmos, maybe shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater — or growing — strength. This means that the acceleration itself might not have a constant value in the universe but changes over time in the universe. #theuniverse
