Wednesday 24 January 2024

Lecture tonight, IAA @ LNDC, Sky guide, ISS, Venus, Calendar, Saturn, Jupiter, AOP, GAC, NISF, IAW, more

Hi all,

Please note: send all correspondence to me only at terrymosel@aol.com

1. IAA DOUBLE LECTURE, Wed 24 January, 7.30 p.m

A. Josh Pollin - How Stars Go Boom: A Guide to Type Ia Supernovae, and

B. Toby Rodel: The Exoplanet Story: A Brief History

Bio: Josh Polin

Originally from Belfast, Joshua completed his master's degree in physics at Queens University Belfast in 2022. His master's research used a rapid spectral synthesis code to investigate peculiar Type Ia supernovae. Subsequently, Joshua joined the QUB astrophysics research department in October 2022, where he started his PhD with Dr Stuart Sim. Joshua's ongoing research uses the radiative transfer code ARTIS, a tool developed by members of ARC to investigate theoretical models of Type Ia supernovae.

Synopsis:

Type Ia supernovae represent complex and powerful astrophysical events, holding significant relevance across various disciplines like stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, and cosmology. Despite nearly a century of measurements and theoretical models, the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae continue to elude our complete understanding. However, in the last two decades, advancements in theoretical models and extensive all-sky surveys have enhanced our knowledge of Type Ia supernovae. In this talk, we will explore how the new leading theoretical explosion models can be used to understand the zoo of potential Type Ia transients.

Bio – Toby Rodel: After growing up in Nottingham, Toby completed a BSc in Physics in 2022 and an MSc by research in late 2023 - both at the University of Warwick. Recently he moved to Belfast to pursue a PhD in Astrophysics at Queen's University Belfast. Their research focusses on the discovery of exoplanets - planets outside of our own solar system - using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) telescopes. They have a particular interest in harder to find long-period and/or low-density exoplanets.

Talk Synopsis: The study of exoplanets (planets outside the solar system) is one of the newest and fastest developing fields in astronomy with over 5000 confirmed discoveries in just over 30 years. But how did we get here? This talk will cover the history of exoplanets, following the development of ideas from the ancient Greeks through early enlightenment astronomy to the first discoveries in the 1990s before finishing with a look at the future of the field.

2. Astronomy outreach event, 17 February, LNDC for NISF: 16,00 to 20.00.

As usual, we will have Stardome shows, observing (Jupiter and a nice First Quarter Moon) if clear, displays of telescopes and meteorites etc. More details soon.

3. January Sky Guide: This very helpful guide, produced by Paul Evans and Sinead Mannion, is available free at: Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TXIFMjI6NdDX2KfOipudD?si=i82-ZfgyS52Y5eHXKmzuPQ and
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/cosmic-corner/id1705184817?i=1000640223436

4. ISS. The ISS started a new series of evening passes on 16 January.

5. VENUS

Is still currently visible as a morning star, low in the SE just before dawn, but it's gradually sinking into the morning twilight.

6. Astronomy Calendar now available online

John Flannery has now got his new 2024 astronomy calendar completed and it's now available online free as a 2.5Mb pdf download at tinyurl.com/3ytt2v55.

Thanks John – great work as always!

7. SATURN – Catch it while you can.

Saturn is in Aquarius, now sinking into the evening twilight, now faded to mag 0.9 The rings are now closing rapidly from our perspective, with an angle of only about 9 degrees, which explains why it's no longer so bright when at opposition. The apparent diameter is 15.7." equatorial, and 14.1" polar, which shows that the disc is noticeably oblate. The rings have a diameter of 35.7", but only 5.2" on the minor axis. Of the satellites, Titan is very easy, and Rhea is usually visible even in a small telescope. The other satellites are now too faint to see easily in most telescopes, but they will be easier to spot next year when the rings are almost edge-on, and thus much fainter, so their light doesn't drown out the faint inner satellites.

8. JUPITER still dominates the sky!

Our largest planet was at opposition on 3 November, and is by far the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. It's high enough up in the East for observing as soon as the sky darkens, in Aries, and at mag -2.5 it's much brighter than Saturn. Look for the 4 Galilean moons as they do their stately dance around the giant planet. Ganymede, Callisto and Io are bigger than our Moon; Europa is a bit smaller, but it's brighter than Callisto because of its bright ice-covered surface.

9. AOP; Stargazing evening, 26 January. 6.30 - 9.00 pm, Book now, via their website.

10. Galway Astronomy Festival: Saturday 27 January 2024. Venue: the Menlo Park Hotel. Menlo Hotel are allowing attendee's a discounted rate for the Sat night of the festival but it's not possible to book it online, so see below the info that hotel sent out to us and you also need to say you are booking for the AstroFest.

You can book a 1 night stay with us by booking directly over the phone 091-761122 or by email reservations@menloparkhotel.com or info@menloparkhotel.com for Saturday 27^th January.

We can offer the rate with a discount included Single room €145.00 bed & breakfast, double or twin room €165.00 bed & breakfast.

otyelHotel

11. N.I. Science Festival 15 – 25 February – various events and venues.

12. Send your name to the Moon: Thanks to Derek Heatly for this: You can send your name to the Moon via NASA's VIPER Mission: www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-viper VIPER is the next lunar rover going to the Moon's South Pole. The offer lasts until March 15.

13. IRISH ASTRONOMY WEEK: March 9-16, 2024. More details later

14. COSMOS STAR PARTY, 23 March, at Clonown Rovers FC, Teach Leatha, Lea Berg, Blue Ball, Co Offaly. More details soon.

15. The Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) Conference is the only large-scale international conference for astronomy communication. The next CAP conference will be held in hybrid mode from 24 – 28 June 2024, in-person at Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, France and online.

16. EASY TEASER:

What won't happen in 2037?

Clue: It's something that usually happens regularly.

17. DIFFICULT TEASER – More or less answered!!!

Q. What have the constellations Lepus and Apus uniquely got in common? Lindsay Green (a several-times previous winner) has got this almost right, but I'll leave it open for another while in case anyone gets it completely right.

OK, no other answers, so I'll give it to Lindsay – well done again! The answer is: The genitive form is longer than the nominative.

A. There are 18 (out of 88) constellation names ending in -us, for which the rule is that the genitive is shorter than the nominative (normal) form, e.g. Taurus – Tauri; Cygnus - Cygni; Thus Aldebaran is Alpha Tauri, and Albireo is Beta Cygni. Others are Centaurus, Cepheus, Cetus, Circinus, Corvus, Delphinus, Equuleus, Eridanus, Hydrus, Ophiuchus, Pegasus, Perseus, Sagittarius and Scorpius. EXCEPT for Lepus and Apus, for which the genitives are: Leporis and Apodis, the only two constellations where the genitive is longer than the nominative.

18. NEW DIFFICULT TEASER

What's next in the sequence 89, 13, 95, 51 ?

19. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer – Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.

ARCHAEOASTRONOMY:

Archaeologists stunned by discovery of European megalith 2,000 years older than Stonehenge (msn.com) w

Ancient carved map of sky from 2,500 years ago contains mystery star that isn't on records (msn.com)

ASTROPHYSICS:

Giant Ultrafaint Galaxy Could Offer Dark Matter Clues | Scientific American

Mysterious new object found in Milky Way could unlock secrets of black holes (msn.com)

Astronomers discover a mysterious object in the Milky Way (msn.com)

'Barbenheimer Star' that blew up 13 billion years ago defies explanation, baffling scientists (msn.com)

NASA picks up mysterious signal from outside our galaxy (msn.com)

Early galaxies were shaped like surfboards and pool noodles, James Webb Space Telescope finds (msn.com)

Strange, unidentified object spotted in our galaxy (msn.com)

Astronomers detect oldest black hole ever observed – study (msn.com)

Ancient universe relic: most sensitive radio image of star relic captured by astronomers (msn.com)

Bizarre Galaxy Discovered With Seemingly No Stars Whatsoever : ScienceAlert This is fascinating. It's in Auriga, at R.A. 06h 13m, Dec N52 deg, and the bright blue star which is in the centre of the area where the galaxy lies is Tycho 3387-471-1; it's mag 7.4. The spectrum is actually F2, so it's yellow rather than blue as shown here. It would be a challenge for anyone here to image it! For comparison, the faintest stars shown in that photo are about mag 16.

Hubble tracks farthest and most powerful fast radio burst back to 'blob' of 7 galaxies (msn.com)

Discovery of gargantuan ring structure 'challenges understanding of universe' (msn.com)

James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Mysterious Methane Glow on Cold Brown Dwarf (msn.com)


  EARTH & MOON

Not dead yet: Japan prepares for possible recovery of SLIM moon lander (msn.com)

Space mysteries: Why do Earth's magnetic poles flip? (msn.com)

Earth's water might have come from ancient space rocks, meteorite discovery suggests (msn.com)

Hassell designs inflatable moon base for the European Space Agency (msn.com)

Nasa hit by giant step backwards as moon landing pushed back by years over 'concerns' (msn.com)

EXOPLANETS:

James Webb telescope spots bizarre 'cat tail' flowing out of nearby star, and scientists can't fully explain it (msn.com)

Dozens of new planets spark major breakthrough in search for alien life (msn.com)

This huge exoplanet's comet-like tail is 350,000 miles long and scientists are thrilled (msn.com)

Nearby exoplanet may be rich in life-giving water, study finds (msn.com)

IMAGES:

New image of supermassive M87 galaxy black hole released (msn.com)

SOLAR SYSTEM

Massive subsurface frozen sea discovered on Mars (msn.com)

Ingenious Flying Robot Phones Home From Mars (marsdaily.com)

Mars Express unveils potential water resource for future Mars missions at equator (marsdaily.com)

Nasa has finally cracked its way into $1 billion asteroid sample (msn.com)

If life exists on Mars, don't count on sample-return missions to find it, scientists say (msn.com)

Scientists discover that tabletop condiment is key to planetary features (msn.com)

How giant impacts shaped the formation of the solar system's planets | Space

SETI

China ramps up search for alien life as Beijing attempts to make first contact (msn.com)

SETI scientists begin huge new hunt for intelligent aliens | Space

SPACE

Small solar sails could be the next 'giant leap' for interplanetary space exploration (spacedaily.com)

Mars Express unveils potential water resource for future Mars missions at equator (marsdaily.com)

If life exists on Mars, don't count on sample-return missions to find it, scientists say (msn.com)

SpaceX Launches First All-European Commercial Crew to Space Station | Watch (msn.com)

Hassell designs inflatable moon base for the European Space Agency (msn.com)

'If it had had a payload, it would have made it to orbit.' Elon Musk reveals cause of Starship explosion (video) | Space

Peregrine moon lander aims for 'safe' crash into Earth on Jan. 18 | Space and

Nasa's moon lander now rapidly plunging towards Earth after mission failure (msn.com)

NASA Selects Bold Proposal to "Swarm" Proxima Centauri with Tiny Probes - Universe Today

Watch a gigantic 'slingshot' hurl a satellite into the stratosphere (msn.com)

NASA awards another $100 million for private space stations (msn.com)

Nasa hit by giant step backwards as moon landing pushed back by years over 'concerns' (msn.com)

20. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.

https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ If you are a UK taxpayer, please select the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/

The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858

DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

Wednesday 3 January 2024

New Year party: book now; Mercury, Venus, Perihelion; Quadrantids, Lecture, Calendar, ISS, Jupiter, Saturn, Events, teasers, more

Hi all,

Please note: send all correspondence to me only at terrymosel@aol.com

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope it's very much more peaceful than 2023! And I hope we have lots more clear skies too!

1. IAA New Year Party, 6 January, 6.0 for 6.30 p.m. McBride's, the Square, Comber, Co Down. £10 per head. Food and entertainment. The film will be 'Blue Planet', which is a documentary shot on the ISS; and there will be a quiz, with lots of prizes for winners and runners-up. Please book now and pay by Paypal, via https://irishastro.org/.

If you can't do that, please pay on the night, but you MUST let our treasurer Pat O'Neill know how may are in your party, so we can tell the caterers the final numbers, NO LATER THAN THURSDAY.

Pat is at pb.oneill@ntlworld.com, or via WhatsApp at +44 7866 413580

2. MERCURY:

Is visible as a morning star in early January lying well below and East of Venus.

These details are for about 40 minutes before sunrise; but you should start looking about 20-25 minutes before local sunrise, with binoculars at first. But never do this after sunrise!

Date Mag Ph % Elong Diam

Jan 04 0.1 40.0 21.1º 8.0"

Jan 07 -0.1 50.0 22.6º 7.4"

3. VENUS

Is also currently visible as a morning star,

Date Mag Ph % Elongº Diam

Jan 05 -4.0 79.1 36.6 13.8

Jan 09 -4.0 80.2 35.8 13.5

4. PERIHELION

The Earth will be at perihelion, its closest point to the Sun for this year on January 3 at 00.38, at a centre to centre distance of 0.9833070 AU, or 147,100,633 km. This is also the time when the Earth is moving fastest in its yearly orbit, following Kepler's Laws (and Newton & Einstein, of course)

5. QUADRANTIDS:

The third richest shower of the year, the Quadrantids, peaks on the night of January 3-4. The radiant, which lies between the end of the handle of the Plough, and the head of Draco, is highest near dawn. There's not too much moonlight interference, as the LQ Moon doesn't rise until after 1 a.m., and in very dark skies, the ZHR could be almost 100, and the observed rate up to 70 or 80 per hour! Well worth making an effort this year, and as the meteors are quite slow, they show up well in photos – if you get one in the field of view!

6, IAA LECTURE, Wed 10 January, 7.30 p.m. Dr Matt Nicholl, ARC, QUB. "Fantastic Bursts and where to find them (searching for the brightest supernovae)

7. Astronomy Calendar now available online

John Flannery has now got his new 2024 astronomy calendar completed and it's now available online free as a 2.5Mb pdf download at tinyurl.com/3ytt2v55.

Thanks John – great work as always!

8. ISS. The ISS will start a new series of evening passes on 16 January.

9. SATURN – Catch it while you can.

Saturn is in Aquarius, slowly sinking into the evening twilight, now slightly faded to mag 1.0. The rings are now closing rapidly from our perspective, with an angle of only about 9 degrees, which explains why it's no longer so bright when at opposition. The apparent diameter is 16." equatorial, and 14.2" polar, which shows that the disc is noticeably oblate. The rings have a diameter of 36", but only 6" on the minor axis. Of the satellites, Titan is very easy, and Rhea is usually visible even in a small telescope. Tethys and Dione are closer in, and fainter, and may need an aperture of 150mm to be seen. Even closer in, and fainter still, are Enceladus and Mimas, which will be easier to spot next year when the rings are almost edge-on, and thus much fainter, so their light doesn't drown out the faint inner satellites.

10. JUPITER still dominates the sky!

Our largest planet was at opposition on 3 November, and is by far the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. It's high enough up in the East for observing as soon as the sky darkens, in Aries, and at mag -2.6 it's much brighter than Saturn. Look for the 4 Galilean moons as they do their stately dance around the giant planet. Ganymede, Callisto and Io are bigger than our Moon; Europa is a bit smaller, but it's brighter than Callisto because of its bright ice-covered surface.

11. AOP; Stargazing evening, 26 January. 6.30 - 9.00 pm, Book now.

12. Galway Astronomy Festival: Saturday 27 January 2024

13. IRISH ASTRONOMY WEEK: March 9-16, 2024.

14. The Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) Conference is the only large-scale international conference for astronomy communication. The next CAP conference will be held in hybrid mode from 24 – 28 June 2024, in-person at Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, France and online.

15. NEW EASY TEASER:

What won't happen in 2037?

16. DIFFICULT TEASER: - ANSWERED ALREADY!

What links a Camel, a Finch, a Koala, and a Tasmanian Devil?

Congrats to a new entrant, and a new First Prize winner! Mary Kirwan Mackey was in first just ahead of two other previous winners.

Next was Peter Denman, and third was - I don't belieeeeeve it (in best Victor Meldrew voice) – Conn Buckley, who has done it again! That's FOUR in a row!

So it's Mary in First Place with Peter a close second, and Conn a close third!

ANSWER: They are nicknames given to the LFBOTS: 'Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients' which are some strange type of explosions in space that cannot be yet explained.

17. NEW DIFFICULT TEASER: (Right – I've been too easy on you: with this one – No mercy!)

Q. What have the constellations Lepus and Apus uniquely got in common?

18. GENERAL SEASONAL / HOLIDAY TEASER. I offer this for non-astronomer partners, children, parents, siblings etc, to give your grey matter some exercise over the holiday period. Of course, astronomers can have a go too.

Q. What common 5-letter English word has six single-word full anagrams, making seven including itself? Five are easy, but you'll have to work had to get the other two! One may be classed as slang, but is becoming quite common, and one of them is rather specialised or esoteric, but if you get five, a little bit of re-arranging and Googling will get you another one, and then another.

(By single-word I mean that all five letters are used in other single different words. For example, TIME has only 4, including itself – time, mite, emit, item. In that example, 'met', & 'tie', & 'it', & 'me', would not count.)

So, to repeat: I'm looking for a 5-letter English word in which all 5 letters can be used to anagram 6 other single words, giving a total of 7. You can obviously start with any of the words! And of course, plurals count.

And I trust you not to use any form of AI such as ChatGPT! (I haven't even checked to see if it would work!)

ONE ANSWER ALREADY!

It seems that there is at least one other answer to the one I was looking for – found by, Guess who? Conn Buckley! Well done Conn, AGAIN – but everyone else keep trying, as there are now at least two possible solutions!

19. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer – Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.

ASTROPHYSICS:

A bizarre speed-demon star has winds powering a cloud of gas called 'Potaroo' (msn.com)


  EARTH & MOON

World population up 75 million this year, standing at 8 billion on Jan. 1 | AP News That is simply, obviously, far too many.

EXOLIFE

A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets (spacedaily.com)

EXOPLANETS:

Earth 2.0? Huge breakthrough boosts hopes of finding life on other planets (msn.com) And

Another Earth:  https://www.beautyofplanet.com/its-official-astronomers-have-discovered-another-earth-2/?fbclid=IwAR1azXGoMNsXNT9uyFmgK2nW6hg2sYwYfMnGwCoTbzs1447AvUMp

SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA's Curiosity Rover Captures a Martian Day, From Dawn to Dusk (spacedaily.com)

Impact crater on Mars:

https://www.facebook.com/1306886536/posts/10233229605664662/?sfnsn=scwspmo

SPACE

Meet 'Valkyrie,' the NASA Humanoid Robot Designed to Perform Tasks in Outer Space (msn.com)

NASA and Russia will keep launching each other's astronauts to ISS until 2025: report | Space

TELESCOPES, EQUIPMENT, TECHNIQUES etc

Design for revolutionary new space telescope: https://www.astronomy.com/science/a-new-thin-lensed-telescope-design-could-far-surpass-james-webb/?utm_campaign=organicsocial&utm_content=a_new_kind_of_telescope_c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0YYFqJXy9cTwosBSD54ctkLw7HAkeL3juyFiZUAFHlsy8MmWz9ZtTeUCw

20. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.

https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ If you are a UK taxpayer, please select the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/

The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858

DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

Monday 1 January 2024

Happy New Astro Year, Mercury, Venus, Perihelion, Quadrantids, New Year Party, Lecture, Betelgeuse latest, teasers, more.

Hi all,

Please note: send all correspondence to me only at terrymosel@aol.com

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope it's very much more peaceful than 2023! And I hope we have lots more clear skies too!

1. MERCURY:

Is visible as a morning star in early January lying well below and East of Venus.

These details are for about 40 minutes before sunrise; but you should start looking about 20-25 minutes before local sunrise, with binoculars at first. But never do this after sunrise!

Date Mag Ph % Elong Diam

Jan 01 0.6 28.4 18.4º 8.6"

Jan 04 0.1 40.0 21.1º 8.0"

Jan 07 -0.1 50.0 22.6º 7.4"

2. VENUS

Is also currently visible as a morning star,

Date Mag Ph % Elongº Diam

Jan 01 -4.0 78.0 37.4 14.1"

Jan 05 -4.0 79.1 36.6 13.8

Jan 09 -4.0 80.2 35.8 13.5

3. PERIHELION

4. QUADRANTIDS:

5. IAA New Year Party, 6 January, 6 for 6.30 p.m. McBride's, the Square, Comber, Co Down. Food and entertainment. A film and a quiz. More details later.

6, IAA LECTURE, Wed 10 January, 7.30 p.m. Dr Matt Nicholl, ARC, QUB. "Fantastic Bursts and where to find them (searching for the brightest supernovae)

7. ISS. The ISS series of morning passes will continue until 3 January.

8. SATURN – slipping into the evening twilight.

9. JUPITER still dominates the sky!

Our largest planet was at opposition on 3 November, and is by far the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. It's high enough up in the East by about 6.00 for observing, in Aries, and at mag -2.8 it's much brighter than Saturn. Look for the 4 Galilean moons as they do their stately dance around the giant planet. Ganymede, Callisto and Io are bigger than our Moon; Europa is a bit smaller, but it's brighter than Callisto because of its bright ice-covered surface.

10. Diameter of Betelgeuse. Preliminary analysis of the recent occultation light curves in V, B and H-Alpha indicate an apparent diameter of 58 / 59 milliarcseconds – reassuringly close figures. Since it's at a distance of 642.5 light years (I don't think we know it THAT accurately!) that shows just how big it actually is! See also: A short documentary on the Betelgeuse occultation in Spain is available on:
https://eclipse262728.com/en/the-expedition-of-the-betelgeuse-occultation-2023/

11. AOP; Stargazing evening, 26 January. 6.30 - 9.00 pm, Book now.

12. Galway Astronomy Festival: Saturday 27 January 2024

13. IRISH ASTRONOMY WEEK: March 9-16, 2024.

15. NEW EASY TEASER:

What won't happen in 2037?

16. DIFFICULT TEASER: - ANSWERED ALREADY!

What's next in this sequence? A,A,C,B,S,?

This is a record, I think – it's THREE IN A ROW for Conn Buckley! He got his answer in next day. And he was shortly followed by another previous winner, Lindsay Green

The answer is M, because those are the initial letters of the Apollo Moonwalkers, in chronological order: Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Shepard, and next was Mitchell.

Congratulations to both Conn and Lindsay.

17. NEW DIFFICULT TEASER:

What links a Camel, a Finch, a Koala, and a Tasmanian Devil? (And it is related to astronomy and/or space!)

And I trust you not to use any form of AI such as ChatGPT! (I haven't even checked to see if it would work!)

ASTROPHYSICS:

Ancient Map of Night Sky Discovered in Italy: One Missing Star Has Researchers Perplexed (msn.com)

Penrose diagram of a Black Hole https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/919798786230056/?sfnsn=scwspmo I'll be testing you on this after Xmas!

Upcoming Einstein Probe will use its 'lobster eye' to hunt for extreme black holes and star explosions (msn.com)

Astronomers discover strangely missing stars in galaxies near Milky Way (msn.com)

Black Holes Found Inside Stars, Devouring Them From Within and Unveiling Cosmic Mysteries: New Study (msn.com)

Star factory galaxies https://www.facebook.com/100059420804643/posts/736345335022820/?sfnsn=scwspmo

Warped supernova spotted by James Webb Space Telescope could settle a longstanding debate (msn.com)

 
  EARTH & MOON

Earth is spinning faster than usual and this is how it affects us (msn.com)

EXOLIFE

Life beyond Earth may form in the coldest depths of space, Ryugu asteroid samples reveal (msn.com)

EXOPLANETS:

Earth 2.0? Huge breakthrough boosts hopes of finding life on other planets (msn.com)

Scientists devise 'new and easier' way to identify habitable exoplanets (msn.com)

NASA has just identified 17 planets that might be hosting life in subsurface oceans (msn.com)

IMAGES

The Bubble Nebula 
  https://www.facebook.com/100007440215861/posts/3659417587649546/?sfnsn=scwspmo

Uranus imaged by JWST https://www.facebook.com/1015803760/posts/10227738448779470/?sfnsn=mo

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10225784069603370&id=1080556720&sfnsn=mo

HST image video of M31

SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA outlines plan to deploy burrowing 'cryobots' on icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter (msn.com)

Life on Mars closer to reality after British scientists make huge breakthrough (msn.com)

SPACE

Russia, NASA agree to continue joint ISS flights until 2025 (spacedaily.com)

NASA completes record sustained burn of revolutionary rocket engine (newatlas.com)

Water-powered hybrid moon rockets... from London: Tech & Science Daily podcast (msn.com)

Dream Chaser enters final testing ahead of 2024 debut space flight (msn.com)

TELESCOPES, EQUIPMENT, TECHNIQUES etc

Warped supernova spotted by James Webb Space Telescope could settle a longstanding debate (msn.com)

This light-bending tech will let scientists see the sun like never before (msn.com)

The Einstein Gravitational Wave Observatory https://www.facebook.com/100036234364050/posts/1042532256964577/?sfnsn=scwspmo

20. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.

The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858

DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley