Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

— Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law

Astronomy

For Dolphins, Echolocation May Be More Like ‘Touching’ Than ‘Seeing’

Scientific American.com - 2 hours 49 min ago

Dolphins seem to “feel” their way across the sea with narrow, sweeping beams of sonar

Categories: Astronomy

Northern lights may be visible in these 13 US states tonight as the sun hurls solar storm toward Earth

Space.com - 3 hours 28 min ago
Auroras may be visible from Alaska to New York as an incoming solar storm could spark geomagnetic storm conditions overnight.
Categories: Astronomy

Could AI Make Drone Shows Less Technically Challenging?

Scientific American.com - 3 hours 34 min ago

AI can allow engineers to focus on artistry over technical details for drone shows

Categories: Astronomy

Astronomers capture incredible 1st image of a dead star that exploded twice. How did it happen?

Space.com - 4 hours 34 min ago
Astronomers have discovered the first evidence of a white dwarf wiped out by a double-detonation supernova, also providing space-lovers with stunning eye-candy.
Categories: Astronomy

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

What do you see when you look into this sky?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

It's raining stars.


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

Are these trees growing on Mars?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

Tidally locked in


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

Big beautiful barred spiral


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

An interstellar expanse of glowing gas and obscuring dust presents


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 5 hours 34 min ago

Does the Milky Way always rise between these two rocks?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Titan is the Perfect Benchmark for Studying Exoplanet Atmospheres

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

While we know of thousands of exoplanets, the science of studying their atmospheres is still in its early days. When astronomers analyze atmospheres, they have to decide which molecules to include in their models, which can bias the results. A new paper proposes that Cassini data on Titan could provide the perfect benchmark, helping to distinguish between different hydrocarbons detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

Categories: Astronomy

Mercury Joins the 4th of July Fireworks Show

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

For folks in the United States, July evenings mean 4th of July fireworks. While you’re waiting for the show, be sure to watch for the most elusive of the planets as twilight falls, as Mercury shines at its very best for 2025. If you’ve never seen the innermost world before, now is a good time to try. This is because Mercury reaches greatest elongation, or its greatest point from the Sun as seen from our Earthly vantage point later this week.

Categories: Astronomy

A Spacecraft Carrying Human Remains and Cannabis Crashes into the Ocean

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

Failed Orbital Mission Loses Human Remains, Space Pot

Categories: Astronomy

Menstrual Cups Tested in Space Flight Conditions for the First Time

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

For long-duration missions, female astronauts generally use hormonal contraception to suppress their periods. But this method has potential health risks and requires special storage. Pads and tampons create waste in space. Now researchers have tested menstrual cups on a sub-orbital rocket flight, where they experienced the force of launch, and found they performed identically to ground control cups. This could provide a new option to female astronauts on future missions.

Categories: Astronomy

Tracking Macroplastics Leeching Into Rivers from Space

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

Rivers are one of the main ways that plastics get into the world's oceans, and now we can identify where plastic waste accumulates from space. Researchers used data from the Worldview-3 satellite to identify and map plastic material and polymer-coated surfaces in a watershed on the US-Mexico border. They collected different waste from stream channels and then identified their specific infrared absorption features, matching them to satellite imagery.

Categories: Astronomy

Galaxy Clusters Have Been Surrounded by High-Energy Particles for Almost Their Entire History

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

If you could see the Universe through a radio-wave "eye", you'd detect mini-halos of relativistic particles creating radio emissions around some galaxy clusters. Astronomers long figured those halos are relative "recent" happenings in the nearby Universe and didn't occur in the early epochs of cosmic history. That's all changed now that the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio observatory in Europe has revealed newborn galaxies in the early Universe already surrounded by a halo of particles. It's a rare look at what such clusters were like soon after they formed.

Categories: Astronomy

Correcting Radius Biases in TESS Exoplanet Discoveries

Universe Today - 8 hours 56 min ago

How accurate are the exoplanet radius measurements obtained by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)? This is what a recent study accepted to The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how hundreds of exoplanetary radii measured by TESS during its mission might be incorrect and the data could be underestimating the radii measurements. This study has the potential to help astronomers develop more efficient methods more estimating exoplanetary characteristics, which could influence whether or not they are Earth-sized.

Categories: Astronomy