June 5, 2020 Prepare for landing! NASA launched Osiris-Rex on September 8, 2016 on a mission is to study asteroid 101955 Bennu, Its primary objective is to collect a sample and then return it to Earth. Bennu is among 7000 Near Earth Objects (NEO) that orbit the Sun. Eventually, NASA…
June 4, 2020 Stars are formed from charged particles. “Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world; whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers.”— Lord Byron Immanuel Kant, the 18th Century philosopher, suggested that stars, in general, as well as the Solar System, in particular,…
June 3, 2020 There is no emptiness in the Electric Universe. According to a recent press release, astronomers are puzzled by the extent, as well as its lack of galaxies, in what is deemed the largest “void” yet discovered. The void is approximately 2 billion light-years in diameter, as astronomers…
June 2, 2020 A new mission to Europa. The Galileo spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter in December 1995. When it ran out of maneuvering fuel, the 320 kilogram probe was incinerated by the Jovian atmosphere, so that it would not crash into one of Jupiter’s moons, particularly Europa. Planetary scientists were surprised…
June 1, 2020 Electricity lights the stars and energizes a web of galaxy clusters. But what is it? “Electricity” is a catchall term, describing several phenomena: piezoelectric, thermoelectric, and even bioelectric activity are all forms of electricity—just like “heat” has many faces: radiant heat, contact heat, convective heat, etc. However,…
May 29, 2020 Earth is part of a coherent “cosmic ecology”. In an Electric Universe, what is observed on other planets, within galaxies, or in free space should be used to model the Universe, rather than using Earth-based examples. Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum compiled a catalog of nebulae before…
May 28, 2020 This small moon is said to be covered with powdery snow. The Cassini mission is now over. However, more data continues to be analyzed, particularly those observations of various moons, including Enceladus. Enceladus was named after one of the Gigantes, or Titans, in Greek mythology. Its name…
May 27, 2020 Mars is a mysterious world. NASA launched the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) on November 18, 2014 on a year-long investigation of Mars’ upper atmosphere, its ionosphere, and how it interacts with the solar wind. The spacecraft is fitted with instruments that measure various phenomena,…
May 26, 2020 The Seven Sisters, or M45, is a misty cluster of stars. Commonly known as the Pleiades, modern astronomers believe that constellation’s stars were born in the same nebular cloud about 100 million years ago. The cluster contains more than 1000 stars, although only 14 are visible to…
May 22, 2020 Comets are often called “dirty snowballs” by astronomers. Various space missions, such as Giotto and Deep Impact, revealed that comets are blackened, cratered, and fractured. No ice fields, reflective crust, or watery clouds. The Giotto spacecraft’s close approach to Halley’s comet, for example, discovered the blackest object…
