May 7, 2020 Io’s rotation creates radiation that is 1000 times stronger than is needed to kill an unprotected human being. “Io is the same size as our moon. And should be a cold dead world. Yet our first glimpses of Io revealed it seething with heat, alive with volcanic activity…Something else…
May 6, 2020 There was water on Mars–[click] there was water on Mars–[click] there was water on Mars…. The idea that there was once a wet Mars builds upon the philosophy of Martian exploration and the search for life on other planets. As most theories state, for life to exist,…
May 5, 2020 Plasma is the fourth state of matter. “Without electricity, the air would rot.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson By definition, “plasma” means that electrons are stripped from atomic nuclei, so they can move within a material. This happens because electron orbital dynamics are overcome by thermal or other energy…
May 4, 2020 Electrical activity is a better explanation for energetic celestial phenomena. More than ten years ago, astronomers discovered an energy signature they called a “Fast Radio Burst”, or FRB. What was so unusual about the observation is that it appeared to release more energy than the Sun puts…
May 1, 2020 Consensus scientific theories postulate that the Moon experienced extreme selenological activity early in its history. There are reports that the Moon is not a completely dead body; that selenological processes involving tectonic plates might still be happening. It is obvious that cataclysmic devastation occurred at some time…
April 30, 2020 Science depends on novel ideas. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” — Plato It is commonly believed that science “stands on the shoulders of giants”. In other words, new theories are based on those inherited from older generations. If that is the…
April 29, 2020 If currently fashionable theories are Ultimate Truth (or at least smart ideas) and myth was stupid superstition, where is the dividing line? Was Ptolemy stupid and Newton smart? But General Relativity is not just an improved version of Newton’s theory, it’s different: Einstein’s stretchable space-time is not…
April 28, 2020 Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up as red and orange in this image of the Carina Nebula. NGC 3372 is a large, bright nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located between 6500 and 10,000 light-years from Earth. Since there are so many nebulae, and all…
April 27, 2020 Neutron stars do not exist. A few years ago, the space-based observatory, XMM-Newton reported that high-velocity particles in orbit around Serpens X-1 appeared to indicate Einsteinian relativistic effects. The observation of spectral lines from “hot iron atoms” orbiting close-in to the surface of the neutron star indicate that some…
April 24, 2020 A bubble of X-rays generated by an electric discharge through dusty plasma. In images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a stellar explosion is thought to create a spherical shockwave that is traveling through the surrounding interstellar dust at extremely high velocity. According to astronomers, the shockwave of…
