what not

[lavender1]

www.wltx.com/tech/science/comet-to-swerve-close-to-earth-next-week/89243168

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/zwei-kometen-kommen-so-nahe-wie-nur-wenige-a-1083288.html

[lavender1]

news.discovery.com/space/mystery-of-bizarre-radar-echoes-solved-50-years-later-160513.htm

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/atmosphaere-raetsel-der-mysterioesen-radarechos-geloest-a-1092090.html

\!!

www.bookofresearch.com/mysterious-sounds-around-the-world.htm

[lavender1]

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/08/how-scott-kelly-s-body-changed-in-space.html

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/a-1094218.html

[lavender1]

www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/08/supermassive-black-hole-eating-gas-clouds-astronomy-chile

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7606/full/nature17969.html

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/schwarzes-loch-ernaehrt-sich-von-sturzregen-aus-kaltem-gas-a-1096960.html

[lavender1]

Oct 10, 2009 14:22:51 GMT -5 lavender1 said:

i was looking for sites on night skies and light pollution.
glad to have found them.
will perhaps get back here for discussion on this topic.

meanwhile, this is for my inner child's memory whatnot.
feel free to share your associations, as well.

peace and love to all.

stoivane.iki.fi/milkyway/

www.spektrum.de/news/wer-sieht-die-milchstrasse-noch-ungetruebt/1413342

www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/10/light-pollution-keeps-much-of-humanity-from-seeing-the-night-sky/

Thanks to light pollution, the Milky Way is now hidden from a third of humanity
By Brady Dennis June 10


The Milky Way over Dinosaur National Park in Utah. (Dan Duriscoe)

Our view of the heavens isn’t what it used to be.

Nearly 4 out of every 5 people on Earth — including 99 percent of those living in the United States and Europe — now live under light-polluted skies, according to scientists who have created a state-of-the-art atlas of the problem across the globe. They found that more than one-third of humanity can no longer see the Milky Way, even on the clearest night. Light pollution has reached such levels in some countries that people never experience a true night sky, because it is perpetually masked by the glow of an artificial twilight.

“Most of the world is affected by this problem, and humanity has enveloped our planet in a luminous fog that prevents most of Earth’s population from having the opportunity to view our galaxy,” the researchers behind the effort wrote in a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.


More than a decade ago, some of the same researchers created the first world atlas of artificial night-sky brightness. But the updated version published Friday employs more sophisticated tools, such as imaging data from a high-resolution satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The result is a detailed global map of light pollution, which scientists consider to be the level of brightness at which artificial light substantially obscures astronomical observations.

“As light hits molecules and particles in the atmosphere, it gets scattered,” said Chris Elvidge, a co-author and a physical scientist for NOAA. “It’s light coming from the sky down toward us that blocks our ability to see the stars.”

As populations grow and cities expand, more and more areas on Earth have a hazier view of the night sky, he said.

Friday’s study found that the world’s most light-polluted country is Singapore, where the entire population lives under skies so bright that the human eye never fully adapts to night vision. Citizens of other countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Israel and Argentina also have almost entirely obstructed views of the night sky. Not everyone on Earth lives under light-polluted skies, of course. Madagascar, Chad and Central African Republic are among the least-affected countries, with three-quarters of their inhabitants living under skies unimpeded by artificial night light.

But in some parts of the world, the problem is so pervasive that people must travel long distances to reach a piece of land where it’s possible to see a pristine night sky. The authors wrote that the location on Earth farthest from having the possibility of seeing a hint of the Milky Way is an area near Cairo in the Nile Delta. Other areas where the Milky Way is no longer visible include parts of Belgium and Germany, areas around Beijing and Hong Kong, and other cities such as London, Boston and Washington.

“By now, we’ve had a couple generations of people in urban areas who have been cut off from seeing features like the Milky Way,” Elvidge said.



People in Paris would have to travel more than 500 miles to find skies largely unaffected by light pollution, the study found. For people near Neuchatel, Switzerland, finding a near-flawless sky would require a trip of nearly 850 miles or more to parts of Scotland, Algeria or Ukraine.

“Growing up in Southern California in the 1960s and ’70s, my family and I didn’t have to go very far to see a pretty good night sky, and that isn’t true anymore,” said Dan Duriscoe, a co-author of Friday’s study and veteran of the National Park Service, who also has taken awe-inspiring photos (like the one above) of starry skies over national parks. “Somebody should care about this in a manner that leaves areas alone, so people have access to this without excessive expense or travel.” To think of a future where it requires a pilgrimage just to see an unimpeded night sky, he said, “would be tragic.”

The worries over light pollution extend beyond aesthetics. Scientists have studied a broad range of other potential economic, ecological and health consequences. Some research suggests that the problem can disrupt the world’s ecosystems, altering the way some animals eat, sleep, reproduce and hunt. Evidence also suggests that artificial light at night can upend the circadian rhythms that humans depend on, increasing the risk of health problems such as depression, diabetes, sleep disorders, obesity and breast cancer.



Friday’s study noted that there are strategies and technologies that increasingly are being used to mitigate the effects of light pollution, such as street lamps that direct light only downward and “adaptive lighting,” which can use sensors to lower the outdoor lighting at night, especially during periods of little or no traffic.

But the authors behind the new global atlas said that despite those hopeful signs, the world’s growing population — not to mention the threat of indifference to light pollution — could lead the problem to get only worse. And that would be a shame, they said.

“We all have an idea that the view of the night sky should be one of these cultural monuments, that there has to be a place you can go and experience it,” Duriscoe said.

“One viewpoint is that it doesn’t matter, because most of us are busy doing other things at night,” Elvidge added. “Another viewpoint is that our ancestors and our civilization grew up with people literally studying the skies. At least when I’ve been out in places with a very clear sky, a dark sky, and you look up and see the number of stars out there, it’s awe-inspiring. I feel some enhanced connection to the cosmos.”

Read more:

The staggering economic cost of air pollution

As the climate changes, risks to human health will accelerate, White House warns

‘Climate change is going to drive a lot of change in the national parks’

The world is about to install 700 million air conditioners. Here’s what that means for the climate.

[lavender1]

www.sciencealert.com/earth-might-actually-have-a-second-moon

Earth has a second, 'mini' moon, says NASA

Three's company.
RAFI LETZTER, BUSINESS INSIDER
16 JUN 2016


Sometimes you’re a planet who’s been with a moon for a few eons, and it all becomes a bit too… familiar.

Things started out with a hot and heavy crash, and the two of you get all tangled up with one another. But over time your surfaces cool, your orbits drift apart, and your differences became apparent. And though the living things who mostly hang out at your place do visit your Moon once in a while, everyone knows they really want to go somewhere else entirely.

In a situation like that, you might be tempted to take up with a second moon. A small moon, farther away. One that orbits irregularly and most planets wouldn’t even notice.

That’s exactly what Earth did, it turns out.

NASA says asteroid 2016 HO3, which we first heard about via writer George Dvorsky at Gizmodo, is currently locked into "a little dance" with Earth.

The rock’s orbit is irregular, causing it to drift between 38 and 100 times the distance of our planet’s primary Moon, and bob up and down across Earth’s orbital plane.


NASA says it’s larger than 120 feet (36.5 metres) across but no more than 300 feet (91 metres) wide, has likely orbited our world for about a century, and will stick around for many more centuries to come.

Researchers first noticed 2016 HO3 on April 27 with the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii. That telescope is funded by the thoroughly badass-sounding 'Planetary Defence Coordination Office', which tracks near-Earth objects.

Watch a cool video by NASA that illustrates how the mini-moon orbits Earth, below:

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/earth-has-captured-second-moon-says-nasa


spaceplace.nasa.gov/how-many-moons/en/

pics-about-space.com/earth-has-2-moons?p=4#img13924362942870061202

www.businessinsider.com.au/cruithne-is-not-earths-second-moon-2015-3

www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-nasa-camera-shows-moon-crossing-face-of-earth

[lavender1]

www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/11/gravitational-waves-discovery-hailed-as-breakthrough-of-the-century

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/schwerewellen-forscher-entlarven-unsichtbare-wogen-a-1093365.html

\!!

[lavender1]

www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/commercial/worldview-2-satellite-involved-debris-causing-event/

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/satellit-worldview-2-schickt-lebenszeichen-nach-crash-a-1103969.html

[lavender1]

www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/jupiter-s-great-red-spot-a-swirling-mystery

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/jupiter-das-geheimnis-des-roten-flecks-a-1105170.html

www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Saturn_s_magnetosphere

[lavender1]

www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/scientists-find-earthlike-planet-orbiting-proxima-centauri-a-1107983.html

[lavender1]

www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-establishes-contact-with-stereo-mission

[lavender1]

www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-spacecraft-closing-in-on-jupiter

[lavender1]

www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/03/06/mysterious-repeating-signals-deep-space/81409114/

Mysterious repeating signals arriving from deep space
Michael Harthorne, Newser Staff 4:02 p.m. EST March 6, 2016
Milky Way


(NEWSER) – Researchers just announced the discovery of radio signals from beyond our galaxy that are behaving in strange ways. Fast radio bursts—or FRBs—are very rare, very quick blasts of radio waves originating billions of light years away, Popular Science explains. It's unclear where exactly in the universe they're coming from and what's causing them. Since the first one was discovered in 2007, scientists have found only 17 total, and none of them ever repeat, the Verge reports. At least that's what everyone thought. According to a paper published this week in Nature, researchers at Cornell University have found evidence of FRBs that do just that.

Scientists used to think FRBs were caused by "cataclysmic events," such as neutron stars colliding with each other and exploding. Repeating FRBs means that can't be the case. "This research shows for the first time that there can be multiple FRBs from the same place in the sky," researcher Shami Chatterjee says in a press release. "Whatever produces the FRB can't be destroyed by the burst, because otherwise, what would produce the next pulse?" And the mystery deepens: "We're showing that whatever battery drives FRBs, it can recharge in minutes," astronomy professor James Cordes says. "The energy of the event becomes very problematic." Researchers hope to next pinpoint where the FRBs are coming from in order to figure out what they're coming from, and they'll be helped by three massive radio telescopes that start operating next year. (Speaking of space mysteries: "Alien megastructures" have scientists baffled.)

mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-30/strong-signal-stirs-interest-in-hunt-for-alien-life/7796776?pfm=sm&topic=latest

[lavender1]

www.theverge.com/2016/12/12/13926704/supernova-asassn-15lh-black-hole-star-hubble-space-telescope

Brightest ‘supernova’ ever found may actually be a black hole gobbling up a star
That works, too, I guess

by Loren Grush@lorengrush Dec 12, 2016, 5:38pm EST


In 2015, a group of astronomers spotted one of the brightest and most powerful supernovae ever discovered — a star explosion so luminous that it was poised to reshape our understanding of stellar eruptions. But now, astronomers have taken a closer look at this “supernova” with the Hubble Space Telescope, and they say that it wasn’t an exploding star after all. Instead, they pose a much bleaker scenario: the bright event was the result of a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star that passed way too close.

Called ASASSN-15lh, the event was so bright that at one point it was 20 times more luminous than all of the stars in the Milky Way combined. That led astronomers to think that a very powerful type of star was fueling the event — a super dense, collapsed star known as a magnetar. These types of stars spin incredibly fast, creating intense magnetic fields. And that field may have provided enough energy to sustain the super bright explosion, the astronomers argued.

"The astronomers weren’t completely sure it was a supernova at the time"

But even at the time, they weren’t completely sure. If ASASSN-15h was caused by a magnetar, the star would have to be spinning really fast and converting energy very efficiently to make an event that bright. "Can we even actually explain it with the magnetar?" Kris Stanek, an astronomer at Ohio State University who found ASASSN-15lh, told The Verge in January. "If the magnetar model doesn’t work, then we’d have to find some new way to explain this."

Now, a new group of astronomers say they have that other explanation. Thanks to observations from Hubble and telescopes from the European Southern Observatory, the international team found that ASASSN-15lh went through “three distinct phases,” which is more indicative of a black hole tearing something apart than a supernova, the astronomers claim. They also noticed temperature increases and a re-brightening of ultraviolet light — changes that don’t really happen when stars explode. Plus, ASASSN-15lh is located in a type of galaxy that doesn’t typically have super luminous supernovae.

Given this new data, the team argues that a supermassive black hole caused ASASSN-15lh by pulverizing a passing Sun-like star. Known as a tidal disruption event, the black hole’s intense gravity would have pulled the star apart, stretching it out like spaghetti. This process would have sent debris colliding into each other and generated intense heat as the star fell toward the black hole. Such an event would have been able to produce the intense burst of light seen by the original astronomy team.

"The new theory is not a done deal"

The astronomers say the new theory is not a done deal, however. Tidal disruption events are pretty rare to see, with only 10 having been observed so far. Plus, the supermassive black hole would also have to be spinning super fast in order to disrupt the passing star. So there are some constraints on this theory, but the astronomers say this concept is the better argument.

“Even with all the collected data we cannot say with 100 percent certainty that the ASASSN-15lh event was a tidal disruption event,” team leader Giorgos Leloudas at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, said in a statement. “But it is by far the most likely explanation.”