Feb 11, 2016 Does gravity power stellar behavior? Modern astronomical models of cosmic evolution rely on the kinetic effects of cold gas collapsing from gravitational forces. Clouds of gas and dust a thousand times less dense than a puff of smoke are said to be compressed into a region…
Feb 10, 2016 The topography of Ceres is reminiscent of other planets and moons. NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft on September 27, 2007. Its scientific observations of the asteroid Vesta began on July 17, 2011 and ended on September 5, 2012 when Dawn fired-up its ion thruster engine and headed toward…
In his last appearance at our EU events, Dr. Donald Scott showed evidence of counter-rotating clouds at the north pole of the planet Saturn. Since that time he has been investigating whether similar phenomena occur at the poles of other planets. Such counter-rotating bands, wherever they occur, are strong evidence…
Feb 9, 2016 Modern astronomy is like a blind man, panicked, without his cane, running. There are collisions. It’s not because astronomy has lost its sight; it’s because it has gained a second sight, another sense beyond the five that evolved. It has gained a sixth extrasensory perception conferred by…
Feb 8, 2016 The Sun’s activity remains mysterious. Among heliophysicists it is commonly thought that the Sun accelerates charged particles into space in the same way that sound waves are amplified. Solar energy is said to travel outward from the interior through “acoustical wave-guides”, known as magnetic flux tubes….
A team working with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has announced that a so-called distant quasar has mysteriously dimmed in a shockingly short period of time, not over millions of years as required by theory but only 12 years after its discovery. The best explanation the team can offer is…
Feb 5, 2016 Synchrotron radiation from a galactic core. A recent press release from the Hubble Space Telescope announces that the spiral galaxy LO95 0313-192 is ejecting a light-years long jet of material that emits intense radio waves, producing lobate clouds above and below the galactic nucleus. Astronomical theories…
Since the early 20th-century, telescopes have enabled human beings to discover the unimaginable vastness of the physical universe. Space is indeed a big place. Yet in the world of astronomy, it seems that celestial objects frequently suffer the same fate as automobiles in busy traffic. However, with advancements in technology…
Feb 4, 2015 Auroral substorms on Jupiter are not caused by the solar wind, alone. A previous Picture of the Day published in late 2012 quoted Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester: “The main aurora oval on Jupiter we think should dim when the solar wind blows harder, but…
In his last appearance at our EU events, Dr. Donald Scott showed evidence of counter-rotating clouds at the north pole of the planet Saturn. Since that time he has been investigating whether similar phenomena occur at the poles of other planets. Such counter-rotating bands, wherever they occur, are strong evidence…
