For more than five years, astronomers have sounded alarms about the effect satellite megaconstellations would have on their observations. The launch in 2019 of the first Starlink satellites, initially bright enough to be seen by the naked eye, led astronomers to spring to action to both raise awareness about the threat and to work with … Read more
The main feature of the BT-127XL-SD is the pair of 5-inch apochromatic lenses, which are among the largest available for binoculars. Credit: Oberwerk I have always enjoyed looking at the sky on a clear night through binoculars. Seeing through individual optics for each eye creates a feeling of being in space. It’s different than looking … Read more
The odds of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 have increased to 1 in 43. Despite this, you still shouldn’t worry about the potential impact of this asteroid. That’s because experts expected the impact probability of this asteroid, which sits at the top of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies Sentry asteroid … Read more
Continuing the evolution of Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) as the budding superhero named Invincible, a teen trying to strike out and create his own identity while steering away from the violent legacy of his father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), Prime Video’s adult-aimed animated series “Invincible” Season 3 launched on Feb. 6 in a three-episode debut with … Read more
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Teoh at Heng Ee Observatory in Penang, Malaysia, captured this photo of Sirius A (center) and Sirius B (a white dwarf on the left) on January 26, 2021. He used 30 1-second exposures and stacked them together to make faint Sirius B appear. Thank you, Michael! The brightest … Read more
How easy is it to see Earth’s civilization? Could an alien civilization with technology like ours detect us looking back at them? What would aliens see? And from how far away could they see it? Knowing how easy Earth and earthlings are to spot might simplify work for scientists looking for alien life. The SETI … Read more
Friday, February 7 Mighty Jupiter stands high in the east at sunset, dominating the stars of Taurus the Bull as they begin to appear in the deepening darkness. Once the Sun is safely below the horizon, center your telescope on the gas giant — those in the eastern half of the U.S. will see the planet … Read more
Roughly 4.6 billion years ago, the Sun was born from the gas and dust of a nebula that underwent gravitational collapse. The remaining gas and dust settled into a protoplanetary disk that slowly accreted to form the planets, including Earth. About 4.5 billion years ago, our planet was impacted by a Mars-sized body (Theia), which … Read more
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) were first theorized to exist in the late 1980s. In 2005, the first discoveries were confirmed. HVSs travel much faster than normal stars, and sometimes, they can exceed the galactic escape velocity. Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way contains about 1,000 HVSs, and new research shows that some of these originate in … Read more
Carlos Villagomez owns a golf ball that he believes was flown to the moon. If indeed it was, he may also hold the answer to a more than 50-year-old bit of trivia that otherwise may be forever lost to time. Villagomez was gifted the ball by Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to fly into … Read more