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Showing posts with the label observation

This Runaway Star Penetrates Space at More Than 160,000 Kilometers Per Hour

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Not all stars enjoy just wandering around, orbiting the galactic center with all the other stars. Some stars go rogue, crossing the Milky Way with significant force. It is a runaway star, and we can trace its trajectory to understand the violent events that could occur in the Universe. One such star, and one of the more famous ones, is Zeta Ophiuchi. Located about 440 light-years from Earth in the equatorial constellation Ophiuchus, it is also one of the strangest stars in the sky. Not only is it incredibly fast, at about 30 to 40 kilometers (roughly 20 to 25 miles) per second, but it’s a strange type of star to see roaring in space. Zeta Ophiuchi is the main sequence star; that is, one that still combines hydrogen into helium in its core. And it’s a hot, massive O-type star: about 20 times the mass of the Sun, glowing blue with intense heat. Such stars also have relatively short lives; Zeta Ophiuchi is about half way past the main sequence’s projected age of 8 m...

Researchers Show Direct Observation of Ice Particles Due to Earth's Rapid Warming

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The researchers described direct observations of the particle size of ice nucleation in the middle Arctic throughout the cycle of sea ice development and decline. According to their findings, these particles have distinct seasons, with lower concentrations in winter and spring and higher concentrations during summer melting local flora. The clouds that cover the Earth’s surface and the tiny aerosols in the air known as ice core particles that initiate the formation of ice in these clouds are important contributors to climate change. Climate is strongly influenced by this interaction of heat, cloud cover and ice nucleation. Earth is heating up faster (Photo: Alberto Restifo/Unsplash) But those important ice-forming aerosols, which can be mineral dust, microorganisms, or ocean spray, are almost never investigated in the Arctic, where they are most needed because their effects are little understood, and few scientists have traveled that far north, as per ScienceDaily. However, scient...

'Threatening' Asteroid on Collision Path With Earth Just Lowered

It’s nice to know that someone actually gets paid to watch the night sky to make sure that at least we’ll be notified if an asteroid is about to hit Earth. Technology and near-Earth surveys have advanced enough that the possibility of an asteroid the size of a planet-killer appearing out of nowhere, as is so prevalent in modern media depictions, is highly unlikely. Even the smaller ones, which would only annihilate a city or part of a continent, received enough attention to know whether they posed a threat or not. And ahead of Asteroid Day 2022, which happens on June 30, the ESA is proud to announce that they can remove one of the most threatening asteroids from their list of potential impacts. The asteroid, known as 2021 QM1, was first detected at the Mount Lemmon observatory on August 28, 2021. It was only one of about a dozen near-Earth asteroids discovered that night and did not initially raise any alarm. But follow-up observations put it on a potentially near-miss path...