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An amateur astronomer used an old technique to study Jupiter — and found something strange
Scientists and amateur astronomers have teamed up to upend a long-held assumption that Jupiter’s iconic swirling clouds are made of frozen ammonia — a pretty foundational revelation about the gas giant we thought we knew well. Using commercially available telescopes and spectral filters, an amateur astronomer named Steve Hill collected data to map the abundance…
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Exploring the Potential for Life on Ocean Worlds
How can liquid water exist on ocean worlds enclosed by icy shells? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of researchers led by Texas A&M University investigated how liquid water could remain stable on ocean worlds like Jupiter’s moon, Europa. This study has the potential to…
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Sun-like stars produce ‘superflares’ about once a century
Superflare: Artist’s impression of a superflaring Sun-like star as seen in visible light. (© MPS/Alexey Chizhik) Stars like our own Sun produce “superflares” around once every 100 years, surprising astronomers who had previously estimated that such events occurred only every 3000 to 6000 years. The result, from a team of astronomers in Europe, the US…
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Super-distant Dragon Arc galaxy pictured in fine detail
Astronomers have used a trick of gravity and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to picture 44 individual stars in a galaxy 6.5 billion light-years away. The galaxy, dubbed the Dragon Arc, hails from a time when the Universe was half its current age. The observation, which uses a technique called gravitational lensing, marks the…
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James Webb Space Telescope spots record-breaking collection of stars in far-flung galaxy
New year, new milestone: A cosmic quirk of nature has allowed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to capture images of 44 individual stars in a galaxy halfway across the observable universe — this region is so distant that astronomers once deemed identifying individual stars in it impossible, like using binoculars to spot dust grains…
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Exoplanet Study Challenges Simplified View of Planetary Growth
What is the official process of planetary formation and evolution and is this process uniform for all planetary bodies throughout the universe? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a young exoplanet still forming within its protoplanetary disk that could offer…
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In ‘groundbreaking’ study, astronomers detect record number of stars in distant galaxy
The team’s findings, which were published Monday in the journal Nature, also unveil a method of investigating dark matter, which remains one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. Astronomers setting their sights halfway across the observable universe recently identified the largest amount of individual stars ever detected so far away – a feat once considered near-impossible.…
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Carter’s UFO hounded him for years. Few knew his expertise in astronomy.
After calls with foreign leaders, rap sessions with lawmakers, and long classified briefings with advisers, President Jimmy Carter would often escape to the roof of the White House. There his son Jeffrey had set up a tracking telescope, Carter said in his book, A Full Life. Feeling the weight of the world, he would gaze…
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MIT scientists uncover origins of fast radio burst in space
The team estimates that FRB 20221022A exploded from a region that is near a rotating neutron star. Scientists with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) managed to nail down the source of a fast radio burst (FRB) in outer space on Wednesday (1 January). According to MIT, FRBs are “brief and brilliant explosions of radio waves…
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Night Sky Highlights
Top 3 things to see in the night sky in January 2025: 4 January – The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks 16 January – Mars at its brightest as it reaches opposition Throughout the month – The magnificent Orion constellation is easily visible Details given are for London and may vary for other parts of the…