Recent content by rod

"Furthermore, the Ryugu samples may not just be useful in determining conditions found in the solar system today. Because asteroids are formed from material around the sun leftover from the formation of the planets about 4.6 billion years ago, they contain a "fossil record" of conditions in the...

Yes, https://theskylive.com/ shows 10.2 magnitude now. It is visible up in Virgo at my location in MD about 1 degree 43 arcminute from zeta vir star, 3.35 magnitude. Stellarium 24.1 has position and also Starry Night Pro Plus 8. These tools show 10.76 magnitude presently. I plan to keep an eye...

"The fact the comet was found while it's so far away is part of the reason for astronomers' excitement. Although currently some 60,000 times too faint to see with the naked eye, the comet is bright for something so far from the sun. And observations suggest it's following an orbit that could...

Wolfshadw, yes it is very lovely to see your shadow or shadow of trees by moonlight over fields and pastures. Glad you could experience that in life. Last October I was up in Balsam lake, WI and Shafer MN (very large barn and farm area and fields). Very dark skies up there, I could see the Milky...

"That's great news for skywatchers because the full moon's brightness makes spotting other cosmic targets quite difficult when they are indeed above us; tonight, however, those targets won't even be an option. It's a night to focus solely on the moon." Last night where I live in MD, the nearly...

Enjoyable views of the solar eclipse 08-April-2024 today, it was partial at my location. Viewed 1222-1633 EDT. Weather mostly clear skies, some cirrus and altocumulus later after 1530 EDT. I used my 90-mm refractor telescope with glass white light solar filter. TeleVue 40-mm, 32-mm, and Orion...

"The lack of planets detected in all three systems tells us that the planets causing the gaps and spiral arms either are too close to their host stars or too faint to be seen with JWST," said Wagner. "If the latter is true, it tells us that they're of relatively low mass, low temperature...

"While you're enjoying the duo, be sure to note how Earthshine illuminates the "dark" portion of the moon's disk." It was an enjoyable view this evening, here is a note from my stargazing log. Observed 1915-2015 EDT. Sunset 1912 EDT. First Quarter Moon 17-March-2024 0411 UT. Jupiter and the...

My note, using this cosmology calculator, https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/toolbox/calculators.html, H0 = 73 km/s/Mpc and z = 0, age of the Universe 13.083 Gyr. Using 67.4 km/s/Mpc and z = 0, age of the Universe 14.169 Gyr. IMO, the Hubble tension indicates some globular clusters and stars dated can...

SDSS J1228+1040 b, Kepler-391 b, and Kepler-37 b show radii 0.29 earth radii size or a bit smaller at https://exoplanet.eu/home/, there are 281 shown with radii 1.1 or smaller earth size. Kepler-37 b is the smallest using radii average size for this site...

I read an earlier report on this topic. Has JWST finally found the first stars in the universe?, https://phys.org/news/2023-06-jwst-stars-univese.html, June 2023. My note. "This study isn't enough to prove the presence of Population III stars, but it's a compelling argument." A good objective...

https://forums.space.com/threads/pentagon-ufo-office-finds-no-empirical-evidence-for-alien-technology-in-new-report.65531/

This report indicates the Pentagon does not confirm ET phoning home here flying around Earth :) "Has the United States confirmed sightings of alien craft, or worked to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology? A more than 60-page Pentagon report released Friday says no, pouring cold water...

The report and others now out indicate the merger is *stalled*, some reports indicate for some 3 billion years or more. "A stalled merger The mass of the system's two black holes is so great that the team thinks it would take an exceptionally large population of stars around them to bring the...

The SMBH diameter is about 1106 or so AU in size and angular size about 4.005E-4 mas compared to the paper looking at areas about 1.3 to 1.5 arcsecond size. Plenty to geek out on in the paper cited. How long does it take for a 28 billion solar mass black hole to form? 1 year, 1 trillion years?