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An astronomer’s lament: Satellite megaconstellations are ruining space exploration
A composite of 29 individual exposures from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Maunakea, taken in August 2022. The horizontal and diagonal white lines are bright satellites that unexpectedly flew through the field of view during observations, covering any objects behind them. Credit: P. Cowan/W. Fraser/S. Lawler/CLASSY Survey Team/CFHT I used to love rocket launches when I…
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9 mind-blowing facts about the Universe
If you want facts about the Universe that will blow your mind, you don’t have to look very far. The Universe is astounding. Put it this way: all of its ordinary matter, all the particles that make us and everything we can see only make up 4% of its matter. We only discovered the Universe’s…
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The Unintended Consequences of the Corporate Space Race: A Threat to Astronomy and the Need for Regulatory Measures
The Corporate Space Race and Its Impact on Astronomy The dawn of the 21st century has witnessed an astounding surge in space exploration, not led by nations, but by corporate entities. The corporate space race, spearheaded by companies like SpaceX, has resulted in a swift increase in the number of satellites in Low Earth Orbit.…
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‘Cosmic time machines’: how space telescopes transformed our ability to understand the universe
If you’ve ever been blown away by an image of outer space, it’s a pretty safe bet it was taken by a spacecraft. That’s no surprise if we’re talking about the planets of our own solar system, where probes have been sending back spectacular closeups since the 1960s. But what about all those nebulae, star…
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Donated Renaissance-era astronomy book surprises university with hidden text
There might be an undiscovered treatise hidden within a Renaissance astronomy book. One of two astronomy books recently donated to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), located west of Buffalo in New York State, appears to be a palimpsest — a work written over top of previous material, which has been partially or entirely erased.…
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China is embarking on a science and exploration program of staggering scale
The space station Tiangong has been constructed over the course of multiple launches. It consists of a central core module named Tianhe and two lab modules named Wentian and Mengtian. In this rendering, a Tianzhou cargo craft is docked in the foreground, with a Shenzhou crew capsule docked in the background. Credit: gremlin/E+ collection/Getty Images.…
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In a new era of astronomy, we’re feeling for vibrations in space-time
kakteen/Shutterstock TRADITIONAL notions of data collection invoke the idea of empiricism, the notion that all knowledge comes from sensory experience. Today, we still refer to our work as empirical science, even though, at this point, there is often quite a distance between human sense-based experience and how data is collected. In both astronomy and physics,…
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China’s deep-space ambition
The space station Tiangong has been constructed over the course of multiple launches. It consists of a central core module named Tianhe and two lab modules named Wentian and Mengtian. In this rendering, a Tianzhou cargo craft is docked in the foreground, with a Shenzhou crew capsule docked in the background. Credit: gremlin/E+ collection/Getty Images.…
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Learning the night sky: Astronomy Club makes space accessible at OSU
As a freshman in 2021, Max Novack tried out his fair share of clubs to put out feelers on campus to see where he fit. Now, he is the vice president of the Astronomy Club, and helps put on events like telescope viewings. “I joined a bunch of clubs my first term on campus and…
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Astronomy Upcoming Events: A Celestial Calendar
Summary:The night sky is an ever-changing tapestry with a plethora of celestial events that captivate astronomers and stargazers alike. From meteor showers and eclipses to planetary alignments and space missions, the astronomical calendar is filled with remarkable phenomena. In this article, we will highlight some of the most anticipated upcoming events in astronomy, providing insights…