10 Amazing Discoveries that Changed Astronomy in the Last Decade

By on Dec 31, 2019 in Round Up Post | 0 comments

Astronomy has seen so much progress and change in the last decade. From SpaceX and reusable rockets to landing on comets and discovering oceans on moons. The last ten years gave us great science. However, the start of 2010 didn’t look so promising. It started off in February of 2010 with Obama cancelling the Constellation program or the mission to get back to the Moon by 2020, due to budget constraints. Nonetheless, it was a tough start and a year later the space shuttle retired signifying that NASA needed a new spacecraft to take them to the Moon, Mars and beyond. No one could really guess what these 10 amazing years would deliver to not only astronomers but the public. Let’s jump in: NASA’S CURIOSITY ROVER LANDS FAMOUSLY ON MARS Artist depiction of Curiosity Rover landing on Mars during the “7 minutes of terror.” Credit: NASA August 2012 the world has...

Carnival of Space 644: Awesome Space Stories of the Week

By on Dec 29, 2019 in Carnival of Space | 0 comments

Hello space fans and welcome to another edition of Carnival of Space 644. It’s a space community-driven post where we gather the best space stories of the week and share them with you. You can check out the archive of all the past Carnival Space over at Universe Today here. NextBigFuture – US Space Force Will Be Created Tonight (Dec 20) We’re starting off our first story with NextBigFuture article on how Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act 2020. It’s a hefty one that creates the new Space Force agency along with many other changes. Read the article for more information here. NextBigFuture – Boeing Starliner Fail and 737 Max Halt Caused by 1997 Shift From Engineering Focus Our next story focuses on Aerospace company Boeing. Boeing is going through some hard times and analysts can trace it back to new leadership and a merger that changed...

Long March 5 Successfully Launches from China Reaffirming China’s Space Flight Program

By on Dec 27, 2019 in For Your Information | 0 comments

China Aerospace Science and Technology agency launches a critical mission called the Chang Zheng 5 or also known as Long March 5 outside of China. This launch is amazing and a testament to China’s commitment to space. The success of Long March 5 means it paves the way for a mission to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It officially launched at 7:45 AM EST from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, People’s Republic of China. If you’re familiar with rockets from the U.S such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or Europe’s Ariane 5 then you have a good idea of the power and lift capacity Long March 5 has. Falcon 9 Credit: SpaceX Long March 5 If we take a little deeper look at the stages of the rocket it looks like the following: Stage 1 has four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters that push the rocket into spaceThe 2nd stage burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygenThe 3rd and final...

Red Supergiant Star Betelgeuse Going Supernova Soon? Not quite

By on Dec 26, 2019 in Breaking News | 0 comments

There has been lots of buzz in the Astro community about whether Betelgeuse will be supernova or not. Well, let’s catch you up quickly on the background. TL;DR version here Betelgeuse is a huge star that is about 11-20 times larger than our own Sun! In fact, if it was placed where our Sun is that it would reach as far as Jupiter, engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Now, when we think about the most fantastic and terrifying explosions in the universe you might hear or think of supernova. If you start asking the question what’s the nearest star to us that will go supernova next? Then you land on Betelgeuse. It’s a widely known fact but no cause for alarm. It takes tens of thousands of years for a star to go down this path of going supernova. There’s a wonderful simulation of how frantic this process is over a time period of 16 years. Check out the following...

First Discovery of Black Hole that Actually Prevents Star Formation in Phoenix Galaxy Cluster

By on Dec 21, 2019 in Galaxies | 0 comments

Let’s take a journey 5.7 billion light-years away from Earth and find ourselves looking at the beautiful Phoenix Galaxy Cluster. This cluster is one of the most massive galaxy clusters so far discovered by astronomers. It’s so big that it would take you 1.1 million years travelling at the speed of light to go from the center to the outer edges of the halo. Check it out in its full glory here: Credit: NASA/Chandra At the center of the gargantuan galaxy cluster is a supermassive black hole that is about a thousand times more massive than our own! What’s even more fascinating is the galaxy at the center contains so much hot gas that it has more normal matter at the center than all the galaxies surrounding it combined! Furthermore, the odd thing is even though there is so much normal mass and hot gas, the supermassive black hole doesn’t have any active jets or...