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Governor Phil Murphy
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Planets 101: What they are and how they form
Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. Credit: NASA. Since the dawn of human civilization, planets have captivated our collective imagination. These cosmic wanderers – sweeping across the night sky in breathtaking celestial choreography – continue to inspire astronomers and the average person alike. Thanks to their incredible diversity, from smoldering rocky worlds to gargantuan…
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Why Is Space So Dark Even Though The Universe Is Filled With Stars?
People have been asking why space is dark despite being filled with stars for so long that this question has a special name – Olbers’ paradox. Astronomers estimate that there are about 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. And many of those stars are as bright or even brighter than our sun. So, why isn’t space…
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Her Space, Her Time review: Trailblazing women astronomers
Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, pictured around 1920 Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Her Space, Her TimeShohini Ghose (MIT Press) IT IS perhaps natural, when reading Her Space, Her Time: How trailblazing women scientists decoded the hidden universe, to make comparisons with Hidden Figures. After all, the book’s marketing makes it clear that it was influenced by Margot Lee…
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The Sun: Facts, size, and fate of Earth’s blazing star
A composite image of the Sun. Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons. Gazing up at the clear blue sky, our eyes are often drawn to the Sun, that magnificent burning orb that illuminates our days, warms our planet, and supports the growth of our food. But how much do we really know about our closest star? Astronomers have…
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Astronomers say new telescopes should take advantage of “Starship paradigm”
Enlarge / This slide from a presentation by Lee Feinberg, an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, shows concepts for a space telescope fitting inside the volumes of a SpaceX Starship rocket and a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. NASA/Lee Feinberg A consensus among leading American astronomers is that NASA’s next wave of great…
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Ultra-powerful plasma ‘blades’ could slice entire stars in half, new paper suggests
Stars could be sliced in half by “relativistic blades,” or ultra-powerful outflows of plasma shaped by extremely strong magnetic fields, a wild new study suggests. And these star-splitting blades could explain some of the brightest explosions in the universe. The study authors, based at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University,…
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These space-obsessed brothers are bringing a new attraction to South Street. It’s out of this world.
“Hey, you want to see Saturn?” Posted on the corner of Sixth and South Streets on a brisk October night, sidewalk astronomer Brendan Happe greeted onlookers with the question. Some averted their eyes entirely, while others stopped in their tracks with a look of confusion that turned to curiosity within seconds. Minutes later, a line…
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In its first year JWST proves its worth
NASA has a tradition of naming space telescopes after astronomers who lived so long ago that the concept of space telescopes was, at best, on the far fringes of science fiction. The Hubble Space Telescope, for example, commemorates Edwin Hubble, born in 1889—eight years before H.G. Wells even conceived of his classic novel War of…
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Light — and a big lens — could build roads on the Moon
A rendering of what laser-built roads on the moon might look like. Credit: Liquifer Systems Group Those of us who have ever used a magnifying glass to start stuff on fire, rejoice — it ends up we were doing the same kind of science that could build roads, launch pads, and more on the Moon.…