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A little over a week ago, scientist published a detailed analysis of Vega's surprisingly planet-free debris disc. Vega, one of the brightest stars in Earth's sky, may have planets: but the October 31 paper rules out any Saturn-size or larger worlds in wide orbits. That reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes quote: "'Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' 'To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.' 'The dog did nothing in the night-time.' 'That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes." ("The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", " Silver Blaze " , Arthur Conan Doyle (1894) Via Gutenberg.org) More to the point, not finding planets in Vega's debris disc should help scientists learn more about how stars and planets form. And gives me something to write about. Vega Debris Disc: "Smooth, Ridiculously Smooth" Dust, a Gap, and — the "Poynting-Robertson Effect...

"...All of us dwell under the same sky. All of us are moved by the beauty revealed in the cosmos and reflected in the study of the heavenly bodies and substances. In this sense, we are united by the desire to discover the truth about how this marvellous universe operates; and in this, we draw ever closer to the Creator...." ( Address to Participants in the Summer Course of the Vatican Observatory , Pope Francis (June 11, 2016)) My interest in science started as a fascination with dinosaurs. By the time I left high school, that fascination included astronomy, physics, cosmology, and more. My academic specialties were history and English, but I never lost my intense interest in pretty much everything else. That didn't change when I became a Catholic — partly because where my faith is involved, paying attention to the wonders and beauty surrounding us isn't a problem. The Enigmatic IRAS Ghost Nebula Impressions Stars in the Making: the HP Tau Triplet More...

We've known about “black hole jet systems” for some time, but never one as big as Porphyrion: a 23,000,000 light-year giant. I'll be talking about that today, along with how astronomers have been studying it, a plausible explanation for its extraordinary length, and a quick overview of how we've been thinking about this universe. Cosmology: From the Cosmic Ocean to the Cosmic Web Mesopotamian Musings William Herschel, “Our Sidereal System”, and Finding Galaxies Galaxies, Clusters, Superclusters, and the Cosmic Web Porphyrion and Cosmic Scale Backgrounder: Black Holes, Accretion Disks, and Relativistic Jets Radio Galaxies and Porphyrion's Position Black Hole Jets and the Scale of the Cosmic Web Radio Telescopes: LOFAR and — — GMRT — and DESI ?! Fanaroff-Riley Classification That's Odd: Porphyrion's Size, and an Explanation "...The Heavens ... Like a Tent to Dwell In" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A huge black hole ...

A paper published this month doesn't so much tell us what's inside a neutron star, as show what's not inside. Considering how little we know about these immensely-dense stellar objects, that's a significant step toward understanding the things. I'll take a look at that, but mostly I'll be talking about what we've been learning, and why I think paying attention to this wonder-packed universe is a good idea. Even if — maybe because — this Haldane quote, written a few years before we knew about neutron stars, still reflects how God's universe has been surprising us. "Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose…." (" Possible Worlds and Other Essays ", p. 286, J. B. S. Haldane (1927) via Wikiquote) Squishy (?) Stars, Strange States of Matter Supernova! Neutron Stars: Gravity, Math, and Weirdness "...Astronomers Still Don't Know...." New Vi...

Headlines about an "eyeball planet" got my attention last month. Then I got distracted by what I thought were more time-sensitive topics — and remembered what two scientists learned when they simulated ocean currents and winds on a tidally-locked exoplanet. That last item was from 2013. It's still the best discussion I've seen of what an "eyeball planet" might actually look like. Turns out that a patch of open ocean on a tidally locked exoplanet's ocean wouldn't necessarily be circular. But I'll admit that "eyeball planet" is a cool description. And may be easier to remember than terms like "lobster-like spatial pattern". So this week I'll be talking about LHS 1140 b, which may not be an "eyeball planet" after all, ocean planet simulations; and — briefly, for me — how I see extraterrestrial life. LHS 1140 b: Water, With Nitrogen in the Atmosphere — Maybe Tidally Locked Ocean Planets: Simple, and Not-So-Si...

This month's analysis of a piping hot Super-Earth's atmosphere is a big deal. But it's not the "first" detection of a terrestrial exoplanet's atmosphere, not by about eight years. 1 I'll be talking about how scientists sift through data, 55 Cancri e's atmosphere, its planetary system, why 55 Cancri e — the exoplanet was officially named Janssen in 2015 — and why calling Janssen a "diamond planet" may be appropriate. Scientists and 55 Cancri e: How They Know What They Know Bayesian Basics and Dealing With Incomplete Data Studying Starlight: Transits, Eclipses, and a Whole Lot of Math Welcome to the Copernicus Planetary System There's No Place Like Home: But the Copernicus System Comes Close Copernicus: Giant Planets and a Super-Earth Circling a Slightly Strange Star Janssen: 'Terrestrial', But Not Like Earth Like a Diamond in the Sky? Carbon Planets: Carbides and Maybe Diamonds More at A Catholic Citizen in...

UPDATE/FIX — The links in this post now take you to "Kamoʻoalewa: Breakaway Asteroid and Quasi-Moon" on A Catholic Citizen in America. I goofed when posting this preview - - - sorry about that: and have a good day/evening/weekend/afternoon.... :) The asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa isn't exactly Earth's second moon. But it's been circling our world for centuries: and near Earth's orbit for much longer. Now scientists say they've traced the asteroid back to Giordano Bruno crater on the Moon. I'll be taking a look at what I could find of their research, Earth's moons, and asteroids whose orbits keep them near Earth. Then I'll talk about one of the more colorful personalities of the Renaissance. Asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, Giordano Bruno Crater: Origins & Orbits Dust, Asteroids, Astrodynamics, Temporary Moons, and Lagrange points When Circling Isn't Orbiting: Quasi-Satellites In This Week's News: 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and a Lunar Crater ...

Next week's total solar eclipse won't be total here in central Minnesota. I'm not terribly disappointed, since the odds are that I couldn't see it anyway. There's rain in the five-day forecast. We need rain a great deal more than I need to see a total eclipse of the sun, so I've got at least two reasons for not being terribly disappointed. Eclipses: Predictable, But Not Locally Frequent Headlines, Religion, and Me NASA's Eclipse Chasers God, This Universe, and "Even Greater Admiration" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A very quick look at eclipses, the news, and how I see science and religion. Plus an embedded NASA eclipse chasers video.)

A musician who's also a scientist found music in TRAPPIST-1 data. Meanwhile, 3D models help folks 'see' galaxies: and I found a Lenten connection in all that. Sonification and Switching Senses for Science TRAPPIST-1: A Planetary System With Resonance and Rhythm Scientific Sonification and the Cocktail Party Effect Tactile Perception: Making Mental Maps With 3D Models A Grain and Galaxies: Comparing the Incomparable More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Switching senses for science: sonification, 3D models of astronomical images, the cocktail party effect, and mental maps. And, briefly, a Lenten connection.

Last month ended with headlines hinting that our first glimpse of extraterrestrial life was just around the corner. " Discovery Alert: A ‘Super-Earth’ in the Habitable Zone " Pat Brennan, NASA News (January 31, 2024) " Scientists More Hopeful Than Ever That Perseverance Has Already Found Life on Mars " Carly Cassella, ScienceAlert (January 24, 2024) A week later, there's the usual politics and pandemonium in the news: but no space aliens. I'm not surprised. I'm not disappointed, either. I am, however, excited about what we've found in Jezero crater, and a new world that's not quite Earth 2.0. Perseverance on Mars: Sediment and Speculation Bacteria and Mars TOI-715 b: Habitable? Maybe — Worth Studying? Definitely! Extraterrestrial Life: Bat-People and Making Sense Anyway Evidence, Logic, and — Maybe — Extraterrestrial Life Earth 2.0, Reality, and an Op-Ed 'Because Aristotle Says So'?! Belief, Preference, and God Mor...

They were looking for supernovae. What they found may become a double planet, like the Earth-Moon system, once it cools down. Or a planet with a giant moon, again like the Earth-Moon system. Then again, an oddly-uneven dusty disk may be orbiting this young, very "Sun-like" star. Either way, ASASSN-2qj is much more interesting than it was a few years back. strong>Barycenters and Binaries: Briefly Rabbit Holes and an ‘Assassin Star’ Professional Scientists, Amateur Astronomers, Teamwork and Twitter/X "...So Slow Smart" ASASSN-21qj: Once Obscure, Now Intriguing A Very Sun-Like Star Uncertainty and Science '...A Star to Steer By...' More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Scientists looking for supernovae noticed a very sunlike star that flared in infrared and then dimmed. It may be evidence of a planetary collision.)

That's more than just a pretty picture. Well, part of a pretty picture. It's our latest look at the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. Webb's high-resolution cameras are showing details that scientists have never seen before.... ...That's what I started talking about this week. But the Cassiopeia A supernova's underwhelming appearance, or maybe non-appearance, reminded me of famines, coffeehouses, and other malign menaces. So here's what I had, Friday afternoon: Spotting an Invisible Supernova, Coffeehouses, — [disconnecting] [reconnecting] — Flamsteed's Star, and Another Supernova Four Ways Stars Explode: a NASA/JPL (very) Short Video Cassiopeia A: Might have been a FELT Transposing the Invisible: Infrared Astronomy Cosmic Scale and a 15-inch Telescope "...To Follow Knowledge like a Sinking Star...." "On to God!" — "Truth Cannot Contradict Truth" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Latest NIRCam image from...

As I've said before, this isn't the world I grew up in. Back then, the Solar System had nine planets, assorted moons, and asteroids. Plus, of course, the sun. Now we've got planets, dwarf planets, minor planets, natural satellites, trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids, comets, centaurs, and small Solar System bodies. Just to keep things interesting, definitions for the new labels overlap. Some labels, like plutoids, didn't catch on; and it all keeps changing as we collect more data. This week I'll be talking about sednoids, another subset of trans-Neptunian object; 1 along with whatever else comes to mind. "All the News That's Fit to Print" — and Some That Isn't 'COMET PILLS! GAS MASKS!! GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN!!!' Sedna, Sednoids, and Orbits: Traces of a Missing World? Beyond the Kuiper Cliff: An Unexpected Void and Wandering Worlds Charting the Borderlands of Sol Out of the Ecliptic, Beyond the Kuiper Belt To be Continued...

Every time we develop new tech for studying this universe, we find something new. New to us, that is. This week, I'll be talking about unexpected Jupiter-size objects in the Orion Nebula, and why scientists at CERN dropped a few hundred antihydrogen atoms. Baffling Binaries, Planetary Problem: JuMBOs in Orion Low Expectations, a Pleasant Surprise A Planet by Any Other Name JuMBOs and Questions Antimatter, Gravity, the Universe: and an Experiment at CERN A Quick Look at Antimatter, From Hicks to Dirac, and Weirdness (Most) Antihydrogen Atoms Fell Down Mystery of the Missing Antimatter 'Where's the Antimatter?' — Broadening the Search Ptolemy, C. S. Lewis, the Universe, and Assumptions "...Its Inhabitants Like Grasshoppers...." More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Unexpected Jupiter-size binaries in the Trapezium Cluster, antimatter and gravity experiment at CERN. New data, new puzzles.)

When I started writing this, I'd planned on talking about WASP-18 b, a hot Jupiter: how we've found water in its atmosphere, and something odd about the planet's temperature on the edge of its sunlit side. Down the Rabbit Hole: Exoplanet Designations and Cosmic Scale Astronomical Designations: A Discursive Digression First Known Exoplanets A Circumbinary Planet’s (allegedly) Impractical and Unworkable Designation Exoplanet Designations: A Work in Progress Designations and Alphanumeric Alternatives: a Hypothetical Hodgepodge “People Also Ask”: Strange Worlds and Cosmic Scale WASP-18 b: Discovering Something Odd This WASP World’s Winds: Weirdly Warped? Over-the-Top Winds on WASP-18 b? Living in Vastness More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Odd worlds and cosmic scale. WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, WASP-18 b. Not-quite-standardized exoplanet designations. Something strange about WASP-18 b.)

TThis week, I'll talk about Professor Ethan Siegel's view that "the myth of the super-habitable super-Earth planet" is "a scientific catastrophe", other non-catastrophes; and a problem with "super-Earths" as a label. Along the way I'll look at science, news, headlines and silliness. And finally, skip lightly over a 13th century academic debate that got out of hand. "...A Scientific Catastrophe"? Earth ISN'T the Best of All Possible Worlds??? Bigger Isn't (Always) Better: But Neither is Smaller Science News, Silliness, Headlines and "Catastrophe" Proxima Chorizo, the Great Moon Hoax and Headlines Exoplanets: New Categories for Strange New Worlds Sorting Exoplanets by — Radius? Mass, Period and Discovery Method of Known Exoplanets (March 2022) New Worlds Discovered by Kepler, TESS, and Everything Else Still Seeking the Legendary Earth 2.0 The Problem with "Super-Earths" HD 219134 b: Da...

There may have been times when one generation's world was much like another's. This is not one of those times. Science textbooks of my youth included speculation that Earth's mountains exist because our planet has been cooling and shrinking. One of my geology professors didn't "believe in" continental drift, and that's another topic. Back then, we knew that planets orbit our star, but weren't sure how the star we call the Sun and the Solar System formed. We still don't, for that matter. Not for sure. But the nebular hypothesis, or something very much like it, is a pretty good fit with observations. I'll get back to that, and some of what we've been learning about planetary systems: including TRAPPIST-1 and its seven worlds. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (New planetary system pattern discovered. TRAPPIST-1 worlds. Solar System formation and evolution ideas, from Descartes to pulsar planets. Psalms 115:3.)

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is news again, this time because we've taken the innermost planet's temperature. That, by itself, isn’t newsworthy. We've been using infrared observations to learn how hot exoplanets are at least since 2006. 1 What makes the latest observations special is that they’re the first time scientists have measured a comparatively small, cool exoplanet's temperature.That's what I'll be talking about this week, along with whatever else comes to mind. Top Three Multiplanetary Systems Solar System Kepler-90 Planetary System, Upsilon Andromedae d and back to TRAPPIST-1 Taking TRAPPIST-1 b's Temperature With Webb’s MIRI Blackbody Radiation, Red Stars and Astronomical Art Thermal Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe! Star Light, Star Not-So-Bright Coming Next Week: Possible Interiors of TRAPPIST-1's Planets More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (JWST takes temperature of TRAPPIST-1 b: the first detection of ...

Venus is dead as a doornail as far as life is concerned. Life as we know it, at any rate, and already I'm drifting off-topic. Geologically, though, we've know that there's still metaphorical life in Venus. Or was, until very recently. Orbiters have sent back evidence of geologically-recent volcanic activity, including images of shield volcanoes and lava flows. But we had no direct evidence of a volcano that's active now. Until scientists sifted through data recorded and stored in the early 1990s. Observing Venus: Five Millennia in About 700 Words Telescopic Views Pulp Fiction and the Radar Astronomers Missions to Venus SAR, Science and Magellan Active(?) Volcano on Venus: Maat Mons From the Magellan Archives: a Changing Volcanic Vent — — And New Lava Flows, Maybe Hot Spots, Sulfur Dioxide, Venusian Volcanoes and Acronyms Missions, Maps, Maat Mons and Mor e "Greater Admiration" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Views of Ven...

Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion's right shoulder, is a semiregular variable star, with small periods of 185 days and 2,100 days and a main period of around 400 days. It will explode at any moment, and we're right next door. If I had any sense, from one viewpoint, I'd talk about the ozone hole, denounce forever chemicals and promote a 'Save the Panda' fund I'd set up. Or maybe indulge in free association inspired by Revelation and Gematria, and slip in hints that your only hope is to give me money. Yeah. That kind of trouble I don't need. Besides, I suspect the weird mix of numerology and Bible trivia that infested 'Christian' radio during my youth is no longer in vogue. 1 So instead, I'll look at the last two times Betelgeuse was newsworthy. Then I'll talk about cosmic scale, stars and whatever else comes to mind. Headlines! Science Distances, Safe and Otherwise Estimates and an Example Looking Ahead, Looking Back ...