May 12, 2017 The Solar System is encompassed by a globe of electromagnetism. There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres. — Pythagoras It is estimated that there is one atom per cubic centimeter in interstellar space, while in…
May 11, 2017 In space, spheres and filaments predominate. Approximately 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Musca, NGC 4833 orbits the Milky Way, along with at least 150 of its cousins. Globular clusters are thought to contain some of the oldest stars, so astronomers believe that they can…
May 10, 2017 Jupiter’s electromagnetic fields are larger than predicted. The Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016 after an August 5, 2011 launch and a five-year flight. Since there are radiation belts around Jupiter similar to the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth, but thousands…
May 9, 2017 Space structures exhibit electromagnetic behavior. “In order to understand the phenomena in a certain plasma region, it is necessary to map not only the magnetic but also the electric field and the electric currents. Space is filled with a network of currents which transfer energy and momentum…
May 8, 2017 Conventional theories state that stars are born in the cold. Stars are commonly thought to be bright, burning balls of hydrogen whose gravitational attraction holds planets in their orbits. Theories say that fusion fire in stellar cores sends energy on a million-year journey before the radiation is…
May 5, 2017 What gives a globular cluster its structure? The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) began operations a day after its December 11, 2009 dedication ceremony. One of its major contributions is the ability to “see through” dust clouds that obscure background objects. In the image…
May 4, 2017 Regions of space more than 500 million light-years in diameter are said to reveal dark energy influences. “I have always believed that astrophysics should be the extrapolation of laboratory physics, that we must begin from the present Universe and work our way backward to progressively more…
May 3, 2017 Rapid fluctuations in nebular “protostars”. Young stars in the Orion Nebula are changing in brightness faster than previously thought possible. Instead of it requiring years for gaseous envelopes surrounding so-called “proto-planetary disks” to heat up and cool down, it is happening in weeks. The information was provided…
May 1, 2017 A new Mars rover. Sometime in late July or early August 2020 NASA will launch the next Mars lander, based on the design of the Mars Science Laboratory, otherwise known as Curiosity. The Mars 2020 rover includes a new drill design that can collect, sort, and set…
Apr 28, 2017 Enceladus exhibits electrical scarring. A previous Picture of the Day reported that the Cassini Saturn orbiter flew through one of the plumes of vapor that erupt from the southern plains of 494-kilometer-wide Enceladus, a small moon, so cold no chemical reactions can occur. It was assumed…
