Nov 8, 2017 The Sun is not a ball of hot gas. The conventional model of how the Sun works relies on thermonuclear processes. Although no direct measurement is possible, temperatures in its core are thought to be more than 15 million Celsius, with compressive strain greater than 340 billion…
Nov 7, 2017 Do galaxies bump into each other? High temperatures in galaxy clusters are an enigma. Because astronomers have only one force in their bags of tricks—gravity—whenever energetic events are found, like high temperatures in the galaxy cluster shown above, it “must be” caused by a gravity-driven collision…
Nov 6, 2017 Aurorae on Jupiter are poorly understood by consensus astrophysicists. Jupiter is 142,984 kilometers in diameter at its equator. A day on Jupiter lasts only 9.925 hours. Its rapid rotational velocity means that its equatorial diameter is 9275 kilometers more than the distance between its poles. According…
Nov 4, 2017 How can water vapor explode from a comet far from the Sun? The Rosetta Cometary Probe was launched March 2, 2004 on a rendezvous mission with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It was in hibernation for most of the trip, only powering up its instruments in January of 2014. One…
Nov 2, 2017 A curled torus is thought to exist in the center of the Milky Way. “Ring out the false, ring in the true.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson A previous Picture of the Day discussed the twisted ring of material surrounding the nucleus of Galaxy Centaurus A….
Nov 1, 2017 Phobos could be electrically charged. Of the two Martian moons, Phobos is the largest, at 28 by 20 kilometers. Its most prominent feature is Stickney crater, a ten-kilometer-wide excavation that is almost as large as Phobos, itself. If the crater was caused by the impact of…
Oct 30, 2017 Recent information reveals new dwarf planet features. The Kuiper Belt theory was proposed by astronomers Kenneth Edgeworth and Gerard Kuiper in 1951. Sometimes known as “trans-Neptunian Objects”, scores of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) from the size of small moons to the size of small planets are…
Oct 27, 2017 Ionized hydrogen is a primordial source for many structures in the Universe. Editor’s Note: Due to Northern California wildfires, the Picture of the Day will be on a temporary leave of absence. In the interim, please enjoy these articles from the archives. The Small Magellanic Cloud…
Oct 26, 2017 Comets can influence solar behavior. If we can see the tails of comets fly off in the direction opposed to the Sun with an accelerated velocity, and if we believe these tails to be matter and not optical illusions or mere tracks of vibrating disturbance, then…
Oct 24, 2017 The Sun is a charged body seeking equilibrium with its surroundings. The electric charge flow into and out of the Sun can sometimes increase to the point where it releases plasma discharges called solar flares. Conventional scientists think that solar flares occur when magnetic loops “reconnect”…
