astronomy

Sadly that signal was not ‘Aliens’

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You might have become rather excited if you spotted the news about the detection of an apparently artificial signal coming from a distant star, for example The Observer published this on 29th Aug … Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space If the signal is truly from an alien world, … Read more

Claim: Alien ‘megastructures’ orbiting star have been discovered

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OK, let’s start with a quick reality check … many of the currently circulating press stories contain some Grade1 gold plated BS. Now, let’s look into why that is the case. The UKs Independent, along with many other sources, are running a story about the supposed discovery, the title of their article reads “Astronomers may have found giant … Read more

Interested in naming a planet? …(I’m not kidding)

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You now have an opportunity to assist in the naming of a series of planets, and this is quite real. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is inviting anybody interested to help them in the name selection process for newly discovered ExoWorlds and so here is the timeline of it all (as explained on their website) … … Read more

UK Solar Eclipse alert – Tomorrow Fri 20th March

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Hopefully you have picked up on what is about to happen and are aware that an eclipse is about to take place on Friday here in the UK. It is exciting (for those of us into such events) because we have not seen an eclipse like this since 1999, and while not total, it will be impressive (cloud … Read more

Announcement of 8 Earth-like planets – 2 are very earth like

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Hey now this is cool, the discovery of eight very earth-like planets has been announced So what are the details? Astronomers announced today that they have found eight new planets in the “Goldilocks” zone of their stars, orbiting at a distance where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface. This doubles the number of … Read more

Birth of a Planet

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Observations that have been made of a nearby star at infrared wavelengths have apparently detected the ongoing birth of a planet. Detail have been published in in the journal Astrophysical Letters Within the above are two views of the gas and dust around star HD 100546, via PopSci. Left: a visible-light image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Right: … Read more