Dec 31, 2019 Ancient civilizations catastrophically destroyed. Pareidolia: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. Everyone is familiar with seeing “horsies and duckies” in cloud patterns. Lying back in a field of grass and watching the random interplay of dust and…
Dec 30, 2019 Revealing the underlying structure of galaxies. Electric filaments expand through space. Sometimes they explode, releasing plasma accelerated almost to the speed of light. Galactic jets erupt from the opposite poles of some galaxies, terminating in energetic clouds that emit X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, and extreme ultraviolet…
Dec 27, 2019 Disks around stars indicate electromagnetic induction. A recent press release from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan reports “…a young star surrounded by an astonishing mass of gas.” As usual, astronomers involved with the investigation report that the “…enigmatically large amount of gas requests a reconsideration of…
Most objects in space are invisible to the naked eye. Dec 23, 2019 NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope on August 25, 2003. Spitzer’s mission was to scan the sky in infrared wavelengths, using detectors kept at -268 Celsius. That frigid temperature made it possible for the telescope to “see”…
We continue our exploration of the early scientific data from NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission to the Sun. In part one, retired professor of Electrical Engineering Dr. Donald Scott began his analysis some of the most intriguing early findings, including the probe’s “unexpected” detection of magnetic reversals as it…
Dec 20, 2019 Astronomers are baffled by galactic morphology and evolution. What generates galactic magnetic fields? What gives those fields their shape and their strength? Using computer simulations, astronomers think they found the answers. “Cool gas falling into galaxies,” supernovae explosions, star formation, and rotational energy are what they believe…
Dec 19, 2019 The Parker Solar Probe is beginning its seven year maneuvering phase. The Parker Solar Probe was launched on August 12, 2018. Its first gravity assisted slow-down took place on October 3, 2018. The probe will conduct several more gravity-assist maneuvers with Venus over the course of the…
Dec 17, 2019 The Universe keeps getting bigger. A recent press release announced that astronomers, combining data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, found a galaxy they believe is 13.3 billion light-years from Earth, making it the most distant object ever detected. According to the report,…
Dec 16, 2019 According to a recent press release, astrophysicists from MIT suggest that gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way could be due to dark matter interactions with normal, or luminous, matter. There is a “mysterious” surplus of gamma rays in the galactic core. Gamma rays are…
