Solar Sphere

Mar 12, 2019 The Solar System travels through space in an electromagnetic bubble. “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…

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Ant Gun

Mar 11, 2019 The Herschel space observatory operated between 2009 and 2013. The Herschel Space Observatory was launched on May 14, 2009 into an orbit around LaGrange point L2 (behind Earth in relation to the Sun). Herschel’s supercooled infrared detectors were built to last only three years, so its cooling systems has long…

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Filaments of Reason

Mar 6, 2019 Lightning phenomena vary in magnitude. “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”— Mark Twain Lightning, along with other electrical manifestations, includes a phenomenon called, “transverse electric currents” with the main discharge channel. Slow-motion videos of lightning reveal multiple leader strokes…

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Frozen Moon

Mar 5, 2019 Liquid water on Europa? The Space Shuttle Atlantis launched the Galileo spacecraft on October 18, 1989. After a six year flight, Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter on December 7, 1995. After eight years in orbit, Galileo was burned up in Jupiter’s atmosphere, in order to prevent it…

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Potato Pancake

Mar 4, 2019 Ultima Thule continues to confound astronomers. According to a recent press release, (486958) 2014 MU69, otherwise known as Ultima Thule, is not shaped like a snowman. The newest images from the New Horizons spacecraft reveal it to be a “squashed walnut” combined with a “flattened cookie”. Alan…

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Constant Confusion

Feb 28, 2019 In 1997, two teams of astronomers studying Type 1a supernovae found there was “something wrong” with their observations. Type 1a supernovae are a sub-class of stellar explosions involving binary stars, but they are thought to occur through a different process. Their particular way of exploding is still…

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Warped Theories

Feb 27, 2019 Inside of a black hole, astronomers believe that matter occupies no volume, yet maintains a gravitational force so great that no light can escape its event horizon. They are “black” holes, because they are undetectable with optical telescopes. The fact that they are impossible to observe, directly,…

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