Earth & Space
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
Richard Holme, Professor of Geomagnetism at the University of Liverpool, said: “There has been speculation that we are about to experience a magnetic polar reversal or excursion. However, by studying the two most recent excursion events, we show that neither bear resemblance to current changes in the geomagnetic field and therefore it is probably unlikely that such an event is about to happen. Our research suggests instead that the current weakened field will recover without such an extreme event, and therefore is unlikely to reverse.” #EarthMagneticField
Mars solar conjunction, a period when Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. During this time, the Sun can interrupt radio transmissions to spacecraft on and around the Red Planet. #solarconjunction
