Tag: exoplanets

Interesting Astronomy news from the week of 8/21/2022

Read about the coolest discoveries, research updates, and images of this week’s astronomy: A JWST discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, an extrasolar world covered in water, and a new planetary nebula. JWST discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet For the first time, astronomers have found solid evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet! Carbon dioxide is an important component of the atmospheres of planets in our solar system, found on rocky planets like Mars and […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 8/8/2021

Next week’s night sky: When the moon completes the first quarter of its journey around Earth on Sunday, Aug. 15 at 11:19 a.m. EDT (1519 GMT), its 90-degree angle away from the sun will cause us to see the moon half-illuminated — on its eastern side. In the first quarter, the moon always rises around midday and sets around midnight, so it is also visible in the afternoon daytime sky. The evenings surrounding the first quarter are the best ones for seeing the lunar terrain when it […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 1/17/2021

Next Week’s Night Sky: January 28th is the full moon. This is a wonderful time to take a good look at the moon through binoculars —  you should be able to make out many fine and beautiful details! Youngest Magnetar Astronomers discovered the youngest member of a bizarre group of stars, known as magnetars, using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope in March of 2020. And now, further observations shed even more light on the exotic beast. Magnetars are a special breed of already strange neutron stars. Remnants […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 12/6/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Monday, December 14, the Geminids meteor shower peaks! This is usually the most spectacular meteor shower in December. Meteor rates can reach up to 120 meteors an hour! Combined with the new moon, this shower should be a terrific finishing point for the astronomy of 2020. Two young planetary systems Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered two new young planetary systems. They found that two stars not older than 320 million years, namely TOI-251 and TOI-942, are orbited […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/22/2020

Next week’s night sky: Monday marks the beaver moon, the last full moon of November. This beaver moon will be particularly special, as the moon will also undergo a penumbral eclipse! Although the difference may not be apparent at first, careful study of the moon will reveal that part of the moon is darker than the other. This is because the moon will actually be passing through Earth’s shadow! If you get up early in the morning of Friday (around 3 hours before sunrise), you can find […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/15/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Thursday, the golden handle appears on the moon. The “Golden Handle” effect is produced by the way the slanted sunlight lights up the prominent mountains of the moon. Best seen through some sort of magnification, the golden handle will appear as a small line trailing from the light side of the moon to the dark side. How do we detect invisible dark matter? Dark matter neither absorbs nor gives off light, which is why astronomers have named it dark. But because dark […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/25/2020

Next week’s night sky: On November 5, the Southern Taurids Meteor Shower peaks just after midnight! Stay up that late and you will be rewarded with almost 10 colorful meteors an hour! On Saturday, November 7, the moon will not rise for a few hours after sunset. This is a great time for some casual stargazing, as the moon will not ruin the view. Water on the Moon NASA’s flying Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has detected water molecules on the surface of the moon! Researchers […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/18/2020

Next week’s night sky: This week, Mars will be extraordinarily easy to stop. From October 28-30, about an hour after sunset, simply locate the moon. The reddish dot above it will be Mars! Halloween is a full moon! This is the perfect time to look at the moon for a great socially distanced holiday. Are non-spherical planets possible? Some of the planetary systems researchers have found experience extreme conditions. These large, gassy planets orbiting very close to their stars are called hot Jupiters. One of these hot […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/4/2020

Next week’s night sky: Friday is the new moon. This means that the stars will be extra bright Friday evening, giving stargazers a great chance to look at the stars. This is also a great time to take photos of the stars because the moon will not ruin your photos. On Saturday, there is a rare double shadow transit of Jupiter, with the great red spot visible! A shadow transit happens when the shadows of moons cross a planet’s surface. The transit starts at 5:25 EDT and […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 9/20/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Tuesday, September 9, Saturn will appear to stand still. Usually, planets appear to move across the night sky and change places in reference to other stars. However, on this day, Saturn will move with the stars. This will make the planet a lot easier to find! Just look for the bright planet in the southern sky, then remember the pattern the stars make around it. Anytime during the night, you will be able to find that pattern and find Saturn!October 1 is […]

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