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210156: A *second* possible planet for Proxima Centauri!
Bad Astronomy

Direct link A *second* possible planet for Proxima Centauri!

3 Apr 2020, 13:00 UTC The closest star in the Universe to the Sun is Proxima Centauri. It's a red dwarf: Tiny, cool, faint, orbiting a pair of more Sun-like stars we collectively call Alpha Centauri. Unremarkable, even more so for being one of hundreds of billions of such stars in our Milky Way alone. Were it not so close to us — a mere 4.244 light years away, in a galaxy 120,000 light years across — we'd hardly pay it any attention.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/?p=9902: Science Expands on Station, Dragon Departs on Monday
NASA Space Station Blog

Direct link Science Expands on Station, Dragon Departs on Monday

2 Apr 2020, 18:39 UTC The International Space Station expanded its research capabilities overnight after robotics controllers installed a new external science platform. Meanwhile, the Expedition 62 crew is packing cargo for return to Earth while getting ready for its own departure.
https://astronomynow.com/?p=32304: The Milky Way’s central bulge offers a jewel box packed with glittering stars
Astronomy Now

Direct link The Milky Way’s central bulge offers a jewel box packed with glittering stars

2 Apr 2020, 16:27 UTC Not so long ago, astronomers thought of the Milky Way’s central bulge as an old folks home where mostly ancient stars congregated and slowly moved about. But more recent observations, including this spectacular view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, and an analysis of about 10,000 suns in the bulge reveal a much more dynamic environment where stars of various ages move about at different speeds. The faster, younger stars may have been captured as the Milky Way cannibalised smaller galaxies, mingling with older, slower-moving suns.
210118: Watch as the James Webb telescope unfolds its 18 gold-plated hex mirrors
Bad Astronomy

Direct link Watch as the James Webb telescope unfolds its 18 gold-plated hex mirrors

2 Apr 2020, 13:00 UTC The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a revolution in astronomy. It sports a whopping 6.5-meter wide mirror, the largest that will ever have been flown into space, and will examine the Universe in infrared light, where asteroids, exoplanets, dust, black holes, and distant galaxies glow. It may reveal evidence of the first stars ever born, peer into atmospheres around planets orbiting other stars, and see the dying light of exploding stars farther than ever before.
https://manyworlds.space/?p=21983: Everything Changes: The Rise and Fall of the Northern Ocean of Mars
Many Worlds

Direct link Everything Changes: The Rise and Fall of the Northern Ocean of Mars

1 Apr 2020, 15:25 UTC For years now, planetary scientists have debated whether Mars once had a large ocean across its northern hemisphere.
https://www.space.com/milky-way-cannibal-gaia-small-galaxies.html: Star clusters betray Milky Way's cannibalistic past
SPACE.com

Direct link Star clusters betray Milky Way's cannibalistic past

1 Apr 2020, 10:00 UTC A recent study went full Indiana Jones to show that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, was a cannibal in its earlier years, swallowing five smaller galaxies.
https://www.universetoday.com/?p=145522: This Galaxy is the Very Definition of “Flocculent”
Universe Today

Direct link This Galaxy is the Very Definition of “Flocculent”

31 Mar 2020, 17:34 UTC I know you’re Googling “flocculent” right now, unless you happen to be a chemist, or maybe a home brewer. You could spend each day of your life staring at a different galaxy, and you’d never even come remotely close to seeing even a tiny percentage of all the galaxies in the Universe. Of course, nobody knows for sure exactly how many galaxies there are. But there might be up to two trillion of them. If you live to be a hundred, that’s only 36,500 galaxies that you’d look at. Puts things in perspective.
https://physicsworld.com/?p=86824: Solar wind and extreme heat creates ice on Mercury, say researchers - Astronomy and space – Physics World
Physics World Blog

Direct link Solar wind and extreme heat creates ice on Mercury, say researchers - Astronomy and space – Physics World

31 Mar 2020, 15:53 UTC Some of the ice on Mercury is created by chemical reactions triggered by the planet’s extreme daytime heat according to Brant Jones and Thomas Orlando at the Georgia Institute of Technology and NASA’s Menelaos Sarantos.
210039: How big is the Milky Way?
Bad Astronomy

Direct link How big is the Milky Way?

31 Mar 2020, 13:00 UTC We live inside the Milky Way galaxy, and that's a problem.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/unlike-earth-maybe-mars-didnt-form-with-a-subsurface-magma-ocean: Unlike Earth, Maybe Mars Didn’t Form With a Subsurface Magma Ocean
Discover

Direct link Unlike Earth, Maybe Mars Didn’t Form With a Subsurface Magma Ocean

30 Mar 2020, 19:37 UTC Researchers thought Mars formed — and potentially created a life-supporting atmosphere — like Earth did.

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