| Astronomy Facts of the Day | Follow if you like daily bite-sized astronomy and space exploration facts. |
| Migration | I'm committed to 1 fact/day in the long term, for a while I'll be working on posting a few facts per day to bring over the facts I'd already posted on the bird site. |
#Constellation #satellites aren't just a problem for ground-based #astronomers anymore. Even #Hubble has been suffering from these #SpaceX pests. Unlike modern #astrophotography, where image stacking is used to combine 1000s of frames, Hubble still uses long exposures, typically 10+ minutes, making this issue even harder to cope with.
#astrodon #space #Astronomy #universe #telescope #NASA #ESA #science
In 2019, the #NewHorizons #spacecraft flew by Arrokoth (2014 MU69). This unusual #Kuiper Belt object looks like 2/3 of a snowman. It was formed during the early stages of our #SolarSystem, and thanks to its remote #orbit is relatively untouched by other debris.
The odd shape suggests that accretion was not always violent. Sometimes, matter combines with more of a *bonk* than a BANG!
#astrodon #space #spaceexploration #asteroid
Photo credit: #NASA New Horizons
Source: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/new-horizons-reveals-full-picture-of-arrokoth-and-how-planets-form/
Next week, Relativity Space plans to launch its #Terran1 #rocket. The current model is (by mass) 85% 3D printed, with plans for future models to be as much as 95% printed!
While the upcoming #launch is merely a functional #test, the company states that Terran1 is capable of putting 1250kg (2756 lbs) into low-Earth #orbit.
#astrodon #space #spaceexploration #3Dprinting #STEM
Source: https://www.space.com/relativity-space-terran-1-3d-rocket-launch-march-8
So the Venus and Jupiter #conjunction last #night was cool (though tonight is still good too!)...
But just wait until September 8, 2040, when #Mercury, #Venus, #Mars, #Jupiter, #Saturn and a slim crescent #Moon will all be clustered within 3-4° of each other, and visible after #sunset.
#astrodon #astronomy #stargazing #planets #solarsystem #universeodon #space #science
Image credit: screenshot from SkySafari planetarium app
The first #flower grown in #space was a #Zinnia. Despite typically being a relatively easy to grow #plant, the ones on the #ISS struggled with too much moisture, too little moisture, and even mold growth! Determined to save the little #plants, Earth-based botanists gave over care of the #flowers to #astronaut Scott Kelly.
Image credit: #NASA/ Scott Kelly
#plantsinspace #astrodon #spaceexploration #gardening #spring
Source: https://www.space.com/31658-zinnia-flowers-bloom-in-space-photo.html
30-50% of the water in our #SolarSytem arrived in the form of #Interstellar ice, formed even before the accreting gases ignited to become the #sun. By comparing rates of hydrogen to deuterium (H with an extra neutron), #astronomers have concluded that there is simply too much deuterium for it have all been created in our neck of the woods.
#astrodon #astronomy #space #cosmology #universeodon #science #astro
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/earths-water-is-older-than-the-sun
Baseline: a #galaxy the size of the #MilkyWay averages 2-3 #supernovae per century. The much larger and very active Fireworks Galaxy has had 10 since 1920. #Universe -wide, about 70 supernovae explode every second.
#astronomy #stargazing #supernova #astrodon #space #explosion #stars
Source: "Supernova," Or Graur, The MIT Press, 2022.
The Supermassive #BlackHole pair designated PKS 2131-021 #orbit each other closer than it was previously believed possible. Each SMBH is several 100million #solar masses, but are only 200-2000AU (0.003- 0.03 light-years) apart. For scale, they are closer to each other than the #OortCloud (part of our own #solarsystem) is to the #sun. Despite their incomprehensible size, a single orbit only takes 2 years.
Until recently, one of the closest orbiting each other pairs of supermassive blackholes was found in NGC 7727. That pair is about 89 million light-years away from Earth. Those black holes are only 1,600 light-years apart from each other. Another pair in OJ 287, about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth, are only separated by about … Continue reading "Astronomers Discover two Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Each Other, Doomed to Collide in the Future."
#Astronomer Halton Arp believed that the best way to understand the #physics of spiral #galaxies was to study deformed galaxies. He assembled 338 irregular, interacting, or otherwise interesting galaxies in his "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies" in 1966. The original text may be found here: https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp_contents.html
A newer, photographic version may be found here: https://shopatsky.com/products/arp-atlas-of-peculiar-galaxies
#astrodon #universe #astronomy #space #Astrophysics #astrophotography #science #galaxymerger #galaxy
Das Interrobang‽
