Notices by Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social), page 4

Here's a fun disaster scenario (ie, not happening anytime soon). Over the next billion years there a 1% chance one of them could pass close enough to disrupt our solar system.

Then things could go crazy: Earth collides with Venus, for instance, plunges into the Sun, or gets tossed into the Oort Cloud.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12171
#science #space #life #future

Astronomer Sean Raymond and team threw 12,000 stars toward a simulation of our solar system to see what would happen. Mainly out of pure curiosity.

Good news: Most of the time Earth survives.
Surprise: The planet most likely to get destroyed is Mercury. #astronomy #astrodon #science

https://planetplanet.net/2023/11/21/could-a-stellar-flyby-save-earth-from-impending-doom/

The 300-square-mile Telescope Array experiment in Utah detected a cosmic ray with an energy of 240 quintillion electron volts. That's as much energy as a thrown brick, jammed into a single subatomic particle.

Nobody knows how it formed.

https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/cosmic-ray-2023/
#science #physics #nature

It amazes me how quickly people get bored with even the most remarkable achievements. Without novelty, it's hard to hold onto wonder.

In 1972, after the Apollo 17 landing, the New York Times declared that seeing astronauts exploring the Moon had become "ordinary and even tedious."
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-stop-going-to-the-Moon-after-Apollo-17/answer/Corey-S-Powell #science #history #NASA

The winners of this year's "Small World" micro-photo competition are out. I'm especially intrigued by this astonishing shot: a struck match, caught at the exact moment of ignition.
(It ended up in second place, go figure.) #science #photography
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2023-photomicrography-competition

For decades, astronomers have dreamed of setting up an observatory on the far side of the Moon. I read about it as a kid. Now it's happening!

The LuSEE-Night radio telescope is under construction, and is scheduled to land on the lunar farside in 2025. It's a pathfinder for a much bigger radio telescope that would follow. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/09/26/listening-to-the-radio-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon/ #space #nasa #science

Shocking story about mRNA pioneer/Nobel winner Katalin Karikó, whose early advisor at Temple tried to have her deported & derailed her career because she dared to look for a better-paying job.

Later, UPenn demoted her, then forced her out, because her research wasn't bringing in enough funding. #NobelPrize #science [HT Paul Novosad]

New observations boost the case that alien world K2-18b is a "Hycean exoplanet," a warm water world with a thick atmosphere. And there *might* be a hint of something even more exciting--a chemical sign of life.
#science #JWST #life
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-139

24 hours of Earth's rotation, with the camera locked to the sky instead of the ground. We're all hanging out on this spinning rock.
Brilliant video by Bartosz Wojczyński. https://artuniverse.eu/gallery/190705-rotation24h #nature #wonder #earth

Just follow the link, download the full-size JWST image, and off you go into intergalactic space. It's an amazing feeling. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-127 #astronomy #astrodon #NASA

Take the plunge across 13.2 billion years of cosmic history.
This JWST image, just 1/5th as wide as the full Moon, shows 45,000 galaxies, including 100s from the mysterious era when the universe was just 5% its present age. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/127/01H1Q1CGJD51CDJTK2NHJWD06M #space #nature #JWST

This is a really important point: From a business perspective, the goal of a Google AI is to make sure you never view primary sources on other web pages, only the chopped-and-processed information on Google's own site.
#AI #Google

https://twitter.com/jjvincent/status/1656369628711383057

This is the most convincing explanation I've seen for 'Oumuamua, the interstellar object that accelerated strangely as it flew away from the Sun.
Most likely it was pushed by puffs of invisible hydrogen gas. Sorry -- not aliens! https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/03/22/surprisingly-simple-explanation-for-alien-comet-oumuamuas-weird-orbit/ #comet #interstellar

The new theory about 'Oumuamua is simple and plausible. In interstellar space, water ice breaks down into hydrogen gas. When the comet approached the Sun, pockets of trapped gas escaped and gave it a nudge.
I'm not saying it's not aliens...but it's almost certainly not aliens.

Asteroid Ryugu contains vitamin B3 and uracil, one of the chemical letters in RNA, according to a new analysis of samples collected by Japan's Hayabusa2 probe. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/building-block-life-asteroid-ryugu #astrobiology #asteroids

Researchers have discovered the first known "virovore," an organism that feeds on viruses. Probably there are many others like it -- an entire, previously unknown food chain.
One day into 2023, and already things are going topsy turvy.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/975344 #ecology #life

Look at that: Two Hawaii volcanoes going at the same time! #MaunaLoa and #Kilauea are working together to release some of Earth's bottled-up heat.

https://www.nps.gov/havo/learn/nature/ml2022.htm #Volcano #MaunaLoaEruption https://t.co/GAFOzAVudo

Amazing night shot of #MaunaLoa and #Kilauea, erupting side by side.

They are both powered by the same source: A 2000-kilometer deep plume of hot rock that's been rising beneath the Pacific for the past 85 million years.

#volcano #eruption #hawaii

The view from NASA's Artemis mission yesterday is just...words fail me.

HT @JPMajor@twitter.com and the brilliant engineers & scientists who made this happen.

#NASA #Artemis #space

@Gargron Just made my #Patreon contribution to Mastodon! https://www.patreon.com/mastodon/