Category: space – Page 23
A newly unveiled photo captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) provides a rare glimpse at an upward-shooting âgigantic jetâ of lightning likely extending more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the U.S. coast.
The striking image was taken by an unnamed ISS crewmember on Nov. 19, 2024, but it was not initially shared by NASA or any other space organization. However, photographer Frankie Lucena, who specializes in capturing giant lightning sprites, stumbled across photos of the event on the Gateway to Astronaut photography of Earth website and shared them with Spaceweather.com, which reshared the shots Feb. 26.
New radio telescopes like ASKAP and MeerKAT are unveiling a âlow surface brightness Universeâ, enhancing our understanding of its hidden features.
Radio astronomers see what the naked eye canât. As we study the sky with telescopes that record radio signals rather than light, we end up seeing a lot of circles.
The newest generation of radio telescopes â including the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT, a telescope in South Africa â is revealing incredibly faint cosmic objects, never before seen.
In astronomy, surface brightness is a measure that tells us how easily visible an object is. The extraordinary sensitivity of MeerKAT and ASKAP is now revealing a new âlow surface brightness universeâ to radio astronomers.
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Physics is the business of figuring out the structure of the world. So are our brains. But sometimes physics comes to conclusions that are in direct conflict with concepts fundamental to our minds, such as the realness of space and time. How do we tell whoâs correct? Are time and space objective realities or human-invented concepts?
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Using the ROentgen SATellite (ROSAT), astronomers have discovered a new cataclysmic variable system of the polar subtype. The new polar, which received the designation ZTF J0112+5827, has an orbital period of approximately 81 minutes. The finding is detailed in a research paper published on the arXiv preprint server.
Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are binary star systems composed of a white dwarf and a normal star companion. They irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. Polars are a subclass of cataclysmic variables distinguished from other CVs by the presence of a very strong magnetic field in their white dwarfs.
Now, a team of astronomers led by Jiamao Lin of the Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China, reports the discovery of a new CV of the polar subclass. By examining the X-ray and cyclotron radiation characteristics of a CV candidate ZTF J0112+5827, they confirmed its polar nature.
Two experiment collaborations, the g2p and EG4 collaborations, combined their complementary data on the protonâs inner structure to improve calculations of a phenomenon in atomic physics known as the hyperfine splitting of hydrogen. An atom of hydrogen is made up of an electron orbiting a proton.
The overall energy level of hydrogen depends on the spin orientation of the proton and electron. If one is up and one is down, the atom will be in its lowest energy state. But if the spins of these particles are the same, the energy level of the atom will increase by a small, or hyperfine, amount. These spin-born differences in the energy level of an atom are known as hyperfine splitting.
While itâs commonplace for many scientists to collaborate on nuclear physics experiments at the U.S. Department of Energyâs Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, itâs rarer for the labâs individual experiments to collaborate with each other. But thatâs exactly what g2p in Jefferson Labâs Experimental Hall A and EG4 in Experimental Hall B did.
We found that some comets in the inner Oort cloud form a long-lasting spiral structure.
The picture was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope and shows a star being born in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30.
Now due to the vastness of space, we arenât *actually* looking at the exact moment the star was born, but rather, how this cosmic creation would have looked like when it happened thousands, if not millions of years ago.
Itâs basically a whole lot of timey-wimey stuff over deep space.
Description: We are the targets for numerous information campaigns, as companies, politicians, cybercriminals, and nation states guzzle up the digital dust of our online selves. These information campaigns are designed to trigger our survival instincts in order to prevent us from thinking, and instead trigger an emotional reaction. Dr. Schwartz will discuss this rivalry for power, and how we must first learn how to calm our survival brain in order to defend our cognitive terrain against the onslaught of information warfare.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Tamara Schwartz, USAF (ret.), is an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity and Strategy at the York College of Pennsylvania, and an affiliate researcher with Cybersecurity at MIT-Sloan Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, an international cybersecurity think tank. While on active duty, Dr. Schwartzâs thought leadership informed the standup of Cyber Command and the design of various command centers supporting Joint Space, Cyber, and Global Strategic Operations, and her work at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan earned her the 2011 Information Operations Officer of the Year. More recently, Dr. Schwartz was a member of the 2020 âDr. Evil task force,â with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, identifying future threats to inform DoD investments in emerging technology. She received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, her M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Dayton, and her Doctorate of Business Administration from the Fox School of Business, Temple University. Her research expertise includes Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity as a strategic competitive advantage, and information warfare.
Information Warfare, by Dr. Tamara Schwartz.
https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/in⊠College of Pennsylvania, Cybersecurity Management https://www.ycp.edu/academics/program⊠Weapons of Mass Disruption https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcastâŠ
Astronomers have performed a multiwavelength study of nine open cluster candidates. As a result, they found that all of them are genuine open clusters and characterized by their fundamental properties. The finding was reported in a research paper published Feb. 21 on the arXiv pre-print server.
Open clusters (OCs), formed from the same giant molecular cloud, are groups of stars loosely gravitationally bound to each other. So far, more than 1,000 of them have been discovered in the Milky Way, and scientists are still looking for more, hoping to find a variety of these stellar groupings.
Expanding the list of known galactic open clusters and studying them in detail could be crucial for improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy.