Astronomy Current Events
Galileo work
Young Galileo This was the climate into which Galileo Galilei emerged to pioneer a new world system. Born at Pisa, Italy, on 16 February 1564, his father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a renowned composer who instigated his own revolution in the arts by disputing the current theories on the structure of music. Galileo s questioning attitude towards authority is presumed to be inherited…
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What Planets are habitable?
A picture of Earth and artist s interpretations of several exoplanets that could be like our own. From left: artist s impressions of Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, Kepler-452b, Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f. A picture of Earth is at far right. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech Discovering the first true alien Earth is a long-held dream of astronomers — and recent exoplanet discoveries…
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Funny current events
The psychological connection between humor and tragedy Mankind has endured no greater tragedy than the Holocaust, but that hasn’t stopped comedians from joking about it over the years, nor audiences from laughing. Take a classic 2004 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm , the comedy series by Larry David, that centers on a Holocaust survivor named Solly. One night Solly comes to…
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Current articles
Nearly 30 years after founding the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank, Peter Gleick talks about California’s current drought, how it compares to past crises and how the state needs to change water-use mentality. Embers from a wildfire smolder along Lytle Creek Road near Keenbrook, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2016. Five years of drought have turned the state’s wildlands into…
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Recent universe discoveries
We live in a golden age of astronomy. Modern instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope and its kin have redefined modern astronomical knowledge, confirming old suspicions about the universe while revealing startling new discoveries. Here are 5 modern revelations that have reshaped our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it. 5. The Number of Estimated Stars is…
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Habitable Zone Planets
In a breakthrough discovery, clear evidence of at least one planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun, has been found by the international Pale Red Dot collaboration. The exoplanet – dubbed Proxima b – has a minimum mass of about 1.3 times that of the Earth and is therefore most likely a terrestrial planet with a rocky surface, and has a short orbit of around…
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Galileo Earth
Listen to an audio version of this page. Sorry, your browser does not support the audio element, please consider updating. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. His father wanted him to be a doctor. Galileo wanted to work with mathematics. He took a job teaching math to university students. Galileo was also interested in astronomy. He built a telescope to help him…
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Latest Discovery in Space
Albert Einstein: still correct a century later. Photograph: Arthur Sasse/Bettmann/CORBIS Today is not the end of a search, but a beginning. It is the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy, prepare for the wonders to come. Gravitational waves are now known to exist. Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA Arvanitaki also says that today’s detection shows that there could be…
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Astronomy events
The SIU Physics Department hosts several free public observations a year on our observation deck on top of the Neckers building. Most observations are on evenings when light pollution on campus is at a minimum. We typically observe bright sky objects such as the Moon, major planets, star clusters, nebula and some deep sky objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy. All observations…
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Space current events articles
Touchdown! Rosetta’s Philae probe lands on comet ESA’s Rosetta mission has soft-landed its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved. After a tense wait during the seven-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the signal confirming the successful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03…
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New things in Space
While you’re reading this (and learning about this new study), your brain is actively trying to forget something. We apologize, but that’s what scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University Pablo Olavide in Sevilla, Spain, found in a new study published Friday (March 18) in an open-access paper in Nature Communications. Working with mice…
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