Outer Space 🚀

2023-06-09 14:00:11 Blood Moon

On the night of May 15 to 16, a rare phenomenon, the blood moon, could be observed in Europe, the United States, South America and the African continent.

The blood moon comes only during a total lunar eclipse and only during a full moon. When the Earth stands in a straight line between the Sun and the Moon, it obscures the sunlight and the satellite is caught in the circle of its shadow.

Before it turns red, the Moon takes on a beautiful copper hue. All because sunlight scatters in the Earth's atmosphere and the rays of the red spectrum reflect off the Moon's surface.

Another total lunar eclipse is expected this year, on the night of November 7 to 8, but it won't be possible to see it in Europe. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-08 21:00:11 Whenever you look up at the night sky, the Pole Star points you north

But it wasn't always this way. Vega from the constellation Lyra took its place 14,000 years ago, and will take it again in the year 13,727. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-08 14:00:13 Red sprites over a powerful thunderstorm in the Czech Republic on August 18, 2017.
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Red sprites are a type of fleeting luminous phenomena. They are a flash resulting from an electrical discharge in the atmosphere above a thunderstorm cloud at an altitude of 50 to 90 km. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-07 21:00:09 What are the plutoids?

Shortly after Pluto was "demoted" from planets to dwarf planets, the International Astronomical Union decided to create a new category of transneptunian objects.

From now on, all dwarf planets orbiting the Sun on an orbit with a radius greater than the orbital radius of Neptune were classified as plutoids. At first, as many as two celestial bodies - Pluto itself and Eris - were honored to become plutoids. A bit later they were joined by Makemake and Haumea. Quaoar, Sedna, some other objects are candidates for plutoids. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-07 14:00:11 NASA is developing a concept for building an observatory on the Moon

The research for a distributed radio observatory on the lunar surface has begun on a grant basis under the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts program.

The company's representatives point out that the construction of such observatory on the Moon qualitatively improves the observation capabilities compared with similar installations on the Earth. The construction of a lunar observatory is assumed on the reverse side of the Moon, distributed construction is to be inscribed in a square with a side of 20 kilometers.

The sensitivity available to such an observatory allows to discern the processes of formation of the first stars. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-06 21:00:11 Lonestar intends to transfer all of humanity's knowledge to the moon

The startup Lonestar aims to become a telecommunications pioneer in space, and the first test of a lunar data center is scheduled for next year.

Lonestar plans to create a network of secure servers in lava tubes and transfer there the essential information about humanity in case there is a global catastrophe on Earth. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-06 14:00:13 What’s the difference between black and white holes?

First, a white hole is a hypothetical physical object in the Universe, their existence is not proven

A black hole differs from a white not only by its color, but also by the quality of its opposite. If a black hole is an entrance without an exit, a white hole is an "exit without an entrance". Thus they can form one "cosmic tunnel". Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-05 21:00:10 The photo shows the approach of the ISS and the Starliner

Footage taken from Earth by astrophotographer Christian Fröschlin. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-05 14:00:10 174 years difference

On the left is a drawing by Lord Ross in 1845, the first image of the Whirlpool Galaxy at the time. He sketched the galaxy while looking through his Leviathan telescope, which was considered the largest until the beginning of the 20th century!

On the right is a photo of the Spitzer telescope taken in 2019. Just how powerful the Ross telescope was at the time. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-06-04 21:00:07 Visualization of the Sun's magnetic field

Like on Earth, the Sun's magnetic field arises from the rotation of electrically conducting material in its interior.

The difference is that in the Earth it is molten iron, while in the Sun it is ionized gas. Открыть/Комментировать