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What the ‘ring of fire’ eclipse looked like from the home of ancient solar astronomy
CHACO CANYON, New Mexico — Solar eclipses occur in patterns that far outlast a single human life, but just occasionally it’s possible to see them echo through deep time. Such a rare occasion was possible on Saturday, Oct. 14 at precisely 10:34 a.m. MDT when a “ring of fire” appeared in the sky for 4…
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Comets explained: An essential guide to the snow cones of space
Comet Nishimura has quickly brightened and developed a long, beautiful tail. This image was taken September 6 from Martinsberg, Lower Austria, and shows the comet’s reddish sodium tail (a vertical red line near the lower left corner of the image). Credit: Gerald Rhemann (Editor’s note: This article was first published on The Conversation.) When you…
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Aerocapture: Using a planet’s atmosphere to slow down a spacecraft
This diagram outlines the basic stages of the aerocapture technique. Credit: Athulpg007/Wikimedia Commons Space agencies have performed a dazzling aerial feat at both Venus and Mars: they’ve dipped an incoming spacecraft into the planets’ atmospheres to slow it down without wasting precious rocket fuel. But will this audacious aerocapture technique also work in the outer…
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‘Air showers’ could help reveal cosmic rays’ mysterious source
Astronomers have a new way to study energetic particles that constantly bombard Earth from space, called cosmic rays. The new method proposes the detailed analysis of showers of secondary particles created when cosmic rays belt Earth’s atmosphere, as a lens to better understand them. Cosmic rays are difficult to track back to a source because…
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The Best Space Gifts for Astronomy Lovers and Stargazers | Holiday Gift Guide 2023
The holiday season is the best time to deepen your love of the cosmos — or give someone you know a great space-themed gift. But finding the perfect astronomy present is hard. That’s why My Science Shop, the online store of Astronomy magazine, curated this list of top-rated astronomy and space-themed gifts for the 2023 Christmas and holiday…
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Study: Satellite traffic jam calls for ‘urgent’ changes
Satellite trails near Earth, taken from data collected for six hours. Dominique Dierick (Flickr). As SpaceX, Amazon, and others vie for supremacy in the race to establish constellations of communications satellites, the superhighway used by low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites is becoming dangerously cluttered. To avert the equivalent of a multi-car pileup, we need better traffic…
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NASA’s Psyche metal asteroid mission will have a big impact on astronomy. Here’s how
Five scientists gathered at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday (Oct. 10) to lay out the blueprints of an exhilarating space mission set to launch in just a couple of days. It’s called Psyche. Named for its target, this endeavor will send a spacecraft on an impressive 2.2-billion-mile (3.5-billion-km) journey toward an asteroid dubbed 16…
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How do astronomers know the age of the planets and stars?
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Adam Burgasser is a Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics at UC San Diego, and an observational astrophysicist investigating the coolest stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets. Measuring the ages of planets and stars helps scientists understand when they…
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Hubble Telescope just witnessed a massive intergalactic explosion and astronomers can’t explain it
A mysterious cosmic explosion created a brilliant flash of light in the space between two galaxies over 3 billion light-years away. The optical flash, which was one of the brightest bursts of blue light in the universe but lasted only a few days, is the latest example of a rare breed of brief astronomical event…
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Interested in space? Here are the degrees you can get in astronomy
University of Delaware astronomer Judi Provencal looks through the telescope at Mt. Cuba Observatory in Greenville, Delaware, while graduate student James Dalessio monitors data online. Credit: University of Delaware If you’ve ever contemplated dedicating your life to understanding the universe, there’s good news: The academic field of astronomy is as expansive as the cosmos itself,…