Oct 3, 2014 Space and time do not bend or warp. In September 1998 astrophysicists documented an inexplicable “tug” acting on the now defunct Ulysses spacecraft as it traveled through the Solar System in an orbit over the Sun’s poles. When radio signals from Earth were returned from an…
Today, perhaps the ultimate unsolved mystery of human life is: how and why does consciousness exist? Although some scientific literature still acknowledges that the question remains open, the overwhelming consensus among neuroscientists today is that the brain alone creates conscious experience. However, for decades, acclaimed scientists around the world have conducted…
Oct 02, 2014 Enceladus continues to confirm the electrical nature of its topography. Saturn’s moons are difficult to categorize, let alone explain. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, they vary in composition, orbital inclination, size, and mass. With 61 moons now identified, Saturn appears more like a miniature Solar…
Oct 1, 2014 Pulsars are more like oscillating circuits. On July 4, 1054 CE, Chinese astrologers saw a “guest star” near Zeta Tauri in the constellation Taurus. They record that it was bright enough to shine in daylight, but lasted only about a year before fading out. John Bevis…
Sep 30, 2014 A black hole in the center of NGC 2110 is said to be spawning new star clusters Previous Picture of the Day articles repeatedly take issue with the idea that black holes are part of the Universe. It is a common expression in astronomical reports that…
Sep 29, 2014 Supernovae might not be what astrophysicists claim. Type 1A supernovae are important to astronomers for two reasons: their light-curves, or graphs of their intensity over time, are considered to be so predictable that they can be used as cosmic measuring rods, with a theoretical accuracy of…
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to the comet 67/P may be rewriting everything astronomers thought they knew about the nature of comets. The latest high-resolution images of the comet nucleus have astonished scientists around the world, revealing a remarkably jagged, pitted, black as coal surface. It is nothing like…
Sep 26, 2014 What did the ancient people think of the axis mundi (world axis)? In the footsteps of Mircea Eliade, mythologists and anthropologists tend to think of the axis mundi or ‘world axis’ as a straight object running through the cosmos vertically. While this is, of course, correct for…
Sep 25, 2014 Bees can sense the electric fields generated by flowers Previous Picture of the Day articles discuss aspects of biology that rely on electricity. Whether it is the transportation of nutrients and electrolytic compound in and out of cells, or the motive action of bacterial flagella, electric charge…
Sep 24, 2014 A failure to consult original, primary sources often leads to errors, both in science and the humanities. One link in a chain of citations may misrepresent its source one way or another, be it by cherry-picking, misunderstanding the meaning of the original or presenting a paraphrase…
