Alpha-S

Dark Matter

2019-07-13T22:25:00.003-07:00

Dark Matter

What if I told you that your entire life, everything you ever have seen, everyone you know, The clusters, galaxies, stars or planets only make 5% of the Universe.

The Other 95% + is made of stuff that we cannot observe physically Matter and Energy which we do not comprehend

By the theoretical model of the compositions of the Universe to the combined set of Cosmological Observations. The scientist has come up with the composition of the Universe that is 67% of Dark Energy, 27% of Dark Matter and only 5% of Visible Matter.

We are much more certain about what dark matter actually is- First its dark meaning that it is not in the form of stars or planets that we can see. Observations show that there is far too little visible matter in the Universe to make up 27% required in the Universe.

Second, t is not in the form of dark clouds of visible matter, Matter made up of particles called Baryons. We know this because we would be able to detect baryonic clouds by their absorption of radiation passing through them, Third, dark matter is not antimatter, because we do not see the unique gamma rays that are produced when antimatter annihilates with matter. Finally, we can rule out large galaxy-sized black holes on the basis of how many gravitational lenses we see. High concentrations of matter bend light passing near them from objects further away, but we do not see enough lensing events to suggest that such objects make up the required 25% dark matter contribution.

However, at this point, there are still a few dark matter possibilities that are viable. The baryonic matter could still make up the dark matter if it were all tied up in brown dwarfs or in small, dense chunks of heavy elements. These possibilities are known as massive compact halo objects, or "MACHOs". But the most common view is that dark matter is not baryonic at all, but that it is made up of other, more exotic particles like axions or WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles).

How the Largest Black hole in the Universe formed in a snap and then stopped?

2019-07-07T23:54:00.002-07:00

How the Largest Black hole in the Universe formed in a snap and then stopped?

About 13 billion years ago, when our universe was still just a scrappy startup, the cosmos hit a creative streak and churned out supermassive black holes left, right and center.

Astronomers can still sneak a peek at these relics of the early universe when they look at quasars, incredibly large, outstandingly bright objects thought to be powered by old black holes billions of times more massive than Earth's sun. However, the very existence of these ancient objects poses a problem. Many quasars appear to originate from the first 800 million years of the universe, long before any stars could grow big or old enough to collapse under their own mass, explode in a supernova and form a black hole.

So, where are these old holes in the fabric of space-time coming from? According to one popular theory, maybe all it takes is a whole lot of gas.

In a new study, published June 28 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers ran a computer model to show that certain supermassive black holes in the very early universe could have formed by simply accumulating a gargantuan amount of gas into one gravitationally bound cloud. The researchers found that, in a few hundred million years, a sufficiently large such cloud could collapse under its own mass and create a small black hole — no supernova required.

These theoretical objects are known as direct collapse black holes (DCBHs). According to black hole expert Shantanu Basu, lead author of the new study and an astrophysicist at Western University in London, Ontario, one of the defining features of DCBHs is that they must have formed very, very quickly within a very brief time period in the early universe.

"The black holes are formed over a duration of only about 150 million years and grow rapidly during this time," Basu told Live Science in an email. "The ones that form in the early part of the 150-million-year time window can increase their mass by a factor of 10 thousand."

How does a cloud of gas become a black hole? According to a 2017 study, such a transformation requires two galaxies with very different personalities: one of them a cosmic overachiever that's forming lots of baby stars and the other a low-key heap of starless gas.

As new stars form in the busy galaxy, they blast out a constant stream of hot radiation that washes over the neighboring galaxy, preventing the gas therefrom coalescing into stars of its own. Within a few hundred million years, that starless gas cloud could accrete so much matter that it simply collapses under its own weight, forming a black hole without ever producing a star, Basu found.

Soon, this "seed" black hole could go on to reach supermassive status by rapidly gobbling up matter from nearby nebulae — possibly giving birth to the gargantuan quasars we can see today.

In 2009, the massive star N6946-BH1 shone 1 million times brighter than the sun. By 2015, it vanished without a trace. Astronomers think this is rare evidence of a star collapsing into a black hole without going supernova.

(Image credit: NASA/ESA/C. Kochanek (OSU))

According to Basu, this act of cosmic choreography may have been possible for only a brief time window, within the first 800 million years of the universe's life, before space became too crowded with stars and other black holes for the process to occur. Within 1 billion years after the Big Bang, there may have already been so much background radiation in the universe that a supermassive black hole would struggle to find enough gas to suck up and continue its exponential growth.

"We are assuming no new production of [supermassive] black holes after this 150-million-year period," Basu said. "This explains why there is a sharp drop in numbers of black holes above a certain mass and luminosity in the universe."

While DCBHs remain theoretical for now, some astronomers think that the Hubble Space Telescope may have actually caught such an object forming, in 2017. According to the authors of a study from that year on the subject, a giant star simply vanished before the Hubble's camera eye, disappearing without the telltale flash of a supernova. The best explanation, the researchers wrote, is that the massive star simply collapsed into a black hole without any pomp or fireworks.

During the multiyear survey that culminated in that 2017 study, six other nearby stars exploded in fire and fury, suggesting that roughly 1 in 7 (14%) large stars meet their ends by simply vanishing into the void.

Interesting facts about Black Holes

2018-10-08T01:01:00.001-07:00

Interesting facts about Black Holes

●Black holes is a region of space time having very strong Gravitational force even not the light could escape from it. Scientist believe that they are formed when corpse of a massive collapse, and it become so dense that it wraps the space time fabric.

●The center of the Black hole is called Event Horizon, Event Horizon also called a point of no return because the gravitational pull inside the black hole is so enormously strong that escaping from it become impossible.

●Black holes are invisible to human eyes because light cannot escape through it.

●Black holes breakdown our central laws of physics.

●Black holes can generate energy more efficient than our sun.

●Time become slow as we move nearer to Black hole

●Black holes collision, which makes the most energetic explosion in the known universe is completely silent, and dark.

●When Physicists apply loop quantum gravity theory to Black holes. It shows that everything that is pulled into the Black hole doesn't get compressed to a singularity. Instead it is compressed to a certain size, and then spit out in another part of the Universe or into another Universe entirely.

●The Event Horizon Telescope which will give us the first actual picture of a Black hole Just spent 10 days in gathering the data, This much data is just taken for its processing until the early 2019.

●According to Quantum Physics, Physical information is never lost but acc. to General Relativity & no hair theorem, that information which enters a Black hole is lost forever. This contradiction is known as Black Hole Information Paradox.

●According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, "The inside of a Black hole is like an Undiscovered Country from where no traveller can return!"

●According to General Relativity, A Black hole has only three measurable properties; mass , rotation ( angular momentum ) and charge. If you know these three things, you know all there is to know about Black Holes!.

●There is a region around a Black hole
where even photons are forced to travels in an orbit. This region is known as the Photon Sphere which is the final stable orbit you can have around a Black holes. Only things moving at Light speed can actually exist in the orbit!.

●The temperature of the Black holes is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole and the size of the Event Horizon.

● Many of the Super massive Black holes are hidden with in a droughts shape ring of dust and gas known as a torus. These tire like structures are formed from the native material found near the center of a galaxy or sometimes is the result of material flung out of the Black hole's accretion disk!.

Legend of Horus -God of Sky - Egyptian Mythology

2018-10-07T01:38:00.000-07:00

Legend of Horus -God of Sky - Egyptian Mythology

Horus was a god of Kingship and the sky. Horus is one of the most significant ancient deities. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with falcon head.

Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris , and the rival to Set, the murderer of Osiris. Horus was also considered as husband's Hathor, Goddess of joy, music and feminine love.

Horus was born after Isis retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris. Isis used her magic powers to resurrect Osiris and conceive her son, Horus.

Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Seth. Seth, the god of desert, who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son.

Horus was told by his mother, Isis,to protect the people of Egypt from Seth, who had killed Horus father, Osiris. Horus had many battles with Seth, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt.

In one battle with Seth, Horus left eye had also been gouged out, then a new eye was created by part of Khonsu, the moon god, and was replaced.

And Seth had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Seth represented, in infertile.

Finally Horus defeated Seth after eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus became the king of Egypt and Seth was still considered lord of the desert.

Later, Horus also became the patron of the pharaohs, and was called the son of truth. The eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra.

The symbol is seen on images of Horus mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her. He was worshiped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt.

Legend of Hades - God of Death - Greek Mythology

2018-09-25T03:03:00.002-07:00

Legend of Hades - God of Death - Greek Mythology

Hades God of the Dead and king of the underworld

He was the oldest son of Cronus, known as God of the Time and his mother was Rhea, known as the Mother of Gods. His siblings was Poseidon - known as God of the Sea and Zeus known as King of Gods.

His sisters were Hera- Goddess of Marriage, Women, Childbirth and family and Demeter- Goddess of Agriculture, Harvest, Fertility and Sacred law and Hestia - Goddess of the Health, Home, Domesticity, Family and the Status.

Hades fought alongside the Olympians in great war called Titanomachy. With the help of Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera ; Zeus was able to defeat Cronus and the Titans, thus ending the Great war.

When the war ended, Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus divided the world among themselves using lots. Poseidon getting to rule the Sea and become "King of the Sea".

Zeus got the sky and become "King of Gods". Hades got the underworld and the Earth was neutral territory. Hades's wife, Persephone was the Goddess of Crops and Spring, daughter of Demeter.

While Persephone was picking flowers, She was abducted by Hades. Demeter, not able to find Persephone, became extremely sullen and saddened.

Her sadness left the Earth to die. Nothing grew, nothing was green. This was the season of Winter, in which Demeter was sad. Going to Zeus , she found that Hades himself had taken Persephone. So Hermes was sent, and asked Hades for Persephone back

Hearing the news, she gladly was allowed to go back, but Hades persuades Persephone to eat a third of a pomegranate. She went back to Demeter, happy again. And everything on Earth grew.

But when Persephone told Demeter of the Pomegranate, Demeter was struck with sadness. Anything eaten in the underworld, would bind the digested to hell for their life.

So , Zeus had declared Persephone would spend 1/3 of the year in Underworld, and the rest of the year coming back and living with Demeter.

This is the reason that spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winters was formed.

Theseus and Pirithous pledged kidnapped and marry daughters of Zeus.

Pirithous chose Persephone, They traveled to the underworld.

Hades knew of their plans to capture his wife, so he pretended to often them hospitality and set a feast.. as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there.

Theses were evantually rescued by Heracles, who was ordered to go to the Underworld and kidnap the beast called Cerberus, But Pirithous remained trapped as punishment for daring to seek the wife of a god for his own.

In his kingdom, Hades sat on a throne made o ebony and carried a scepter. Hades had a cap or helmet that made its wearer invisible. Cerberus was three headed dog who guarded his realm.

The Ferryman Charon was another one of the underworld's attendees .

Hades employed the Furies, who were responsible for torturing the guilty.

He was later known as the Greeks as Plouton, which means the Romans pluralized to Pluto.

Legend of Valkyrie- Chooser of the slain - Norse Mythology

2018-09-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

Legend of Valkyrie- Chooser of the slain - Norse Mythology

In Norse mythology, the Valkyrie and depicted as beautiful virgin with white skin and blonde hair. When they came to the battlefield, they wore red armor, wore gold hats. And had brightly colored shields, and rode on the white feathered horses.

Each time, the horses fall out of the water called dew drops, which emit rainbow light called Aurora Borealis. Sometimes, they are called "Swan -Maiden" because armor made of swan feathers allows them to fly freely.

Upon entering the Midgaurd world, the Valkyrie transform themselves into swans and finding beautiful streams for bathing. Any young women who become Valkyrie will forever be immortal

and never be hurt if they obey the orders of the gods and are always a virgin.

Odin sent them to battlefields, fought in the battle to pick the bravest warriors who were killed and taken to Valhalla, where their souls would become Einherjar ( single for once ) fighters.

The warrior lived and fought under the command of various gods, but in Valhalla they were called Einherjar. Its an army of souls that will fight along with the gods in the Ragnarok battle.

At Valhalla, the Valkyrie wear white skirts, servings high fat and honey foods to warriors.

Legend of Loki - God of Mischief - Norse Mythology

2018-09-02T09:41:00.001-07:00

Legend of Loki - God of Mischief - Norse Mythology

Loki was usually depicted as the trickster, some call him the trickster god in Norse Mythology. But Loki was not a god, he was a Jotun, also known as a giant.

Loki was not evil, was he good, he lived in Asgard even though he was from Jotunheim ( The Land of the Giants ). Loki could appear in many form as a salmon, a mere, a fly and an elderly women.

Loki was son of Farbauti, a giant and Laufey or Nai, a giantess. Loki was husband's the giantess Angrboda, who had three children with Loki.

They were Hel or Hela, the goddess of the underworld, who joined her father's force during Ragnarok. And the wolf Fenrir, who bites off one of the hands of Tyr and who kills Odin during Ragnarok. And the serpent Jormungand, who stays Thor during Ragnarok.

Loki also had two children with his other wife Sigun, They were Narfi, whose name might mean "corpse" and Vali. Loki alternately helps both the gods and the giants, depending on adventageous to him at the time.

He loves to make trouble for anyone and everyone especially for the Gods and Goddesses in Asgard. Loki just love to prank people in all the ways he can think of, as long that he thinks it was funny.

After he being someone in trouble with his pranks, he often saves them so he would look like the hero of the day.

He was the principal cause of the death of the god Balder, a son of the God Odin. For his many crimes against them, the Gods eventually forge a chain from the entrails of Loki's son Narfi.

The gods tried to tied him down to three inside a cave as punishment. The goddess Skaoi was responsible for placing a serpent above him while he was a bound.

A serpent sits above him, dripping poison onto him and his wife, Sigyn sits at his side with a bowl to catch the venom. But when the bowl becomes full, of course, she has to leave her husband's side to pour it out.

When this happens the drop of venom that fall onto him cause him to writhe in agony, and these convulsions create earthquakes. And in this state he lies untill breaking free at Ragnarok.

When Ragnarok happened, Loki and his children broken free and joined the battle on the side of giants. He also captains the ship Naglfar,"Nail ship" which brings many of the giants to their battle with the gods.

At the end of the battle , Loki and Heimdall slay each other as the world burns and sinks into the sea.

------

Top 7 Archangel in Bible

2018-08-22T01:40:00.003-07:00

Top 7 Archangel in Bible

Archangel Michael

Archangel Michael whose name means “He who is as God”. Is most often thought of as the angel of protection and the most powerful of all the angels. He is considered a leader with in the angelic realm and a patron angel of righteousness, mercy and justice.

As such, scriptural artwork depicts him as a warrior most often carrying a sword. Archangel Michael assists situations where you are afraid, confused or concerned for your safety.

He helps to release fear and doubt. He support us in making life changes. He is often said to work closely with those who perform healing work or provide spiritual teaching. He can even fix the mechanical and electrical problems.

Archangel Raphael

Archangel Raphael, whose name means “God heals”. Is the Archangel designated for physical and emotional healing. Archangel Raphael not only helps in healing individuals but also helps healers in their healing practices.

He can help reduce addictions and cravings. And is powerful healing other injuries and illness, with cures often occurring immediately. Archangel Raphael aids in restoring and maintaining harmony and peace.

He is also the patron of travelers, watching over them to ensure a safe and harmonious journey. Working in conjunction with Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael to clear away fears. And stressors that maybe adversely affecting your health.

Archangel Gabriel

Archangel Gabriel means “God is strength”. One of the two archangels specifically named in the Bible in both the old and the New Testament. She is often portrayed holding a trumpt and as the female archangel.

As the patron of commucications , Archangel Gabriel is the messanger angel , acting as a messenger of God. She helps writers, teaching journalists and artists to convey their message. She helps find motivation and confidence, and to market their skills.

She also assists in overcoming issues of fear and procrastination in communication. As well as in all areas related to children helping during conception, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing.

Archangel Jophiel

Archangel Jophiel’s name means “beauty of God”. She helps us to see and maintain beauty in life. And support us in thinking beautiful thoughts. And in staying positive as well as in creating and manifesting beauty in our surroundings and hearts.

Archangel Jophiel watches over artist supporting in creating beautiful art. Assists us in slowing down and bringing calm to our lives. And heals negativity and chaos helps to tame your ego and to bring organization to a place or situation.

Archangel Ariel

Archangel Ariel’s name means “lion or lioness of God”. Her role is to protect the earth, its natural resources ecosystems and all wild life.

Always available with support and guidance for any activities that involve environmentalism. And protecting , healing , rejuvenating, and or maintaining our environment.

Archangel Ariel assists in healing injured animals working closely with Archangel Raphael in these endeavors. It is believed she also works to overuse the order of the physical universe including all planets, the sun, the moon, and the stars.

When seeking to learn more about nature or connect more deeply while hiking or exploring. She assists in providing insights and opportunities to expand your awareness and experience.

Given archangel Ariel is watching over the Earth’s natural resources. She can also be especially helpful in ensuring your needs for food, water, shelter, and other supplies are met.

Archangel Azrael

Archangel Azrael name means “whom God helps” . However , he often refers to as the “God of Death”. Azrael meets souls and helps them in the transition of deaths , in addiction to helping newly crossed over souls adjust

He also helped loved ones who are still on the earth plane in dealing with their grief and processing the loss. Archangel Azrael helps ministers and spiritual teachers from all belief systems and religions in their spiritual counseling.

And assists grief counselors to shield themselves from absorbing their clients pain and to guide their words and actions.

Archangel Azrael assists in all types of transitions and endings, not just those involving loss and death. He also helps with transitions related to relationships, careers, addictions, etc. Helping us to navigate as smoothly as possible through life’s changes.

Archangel Chamuel

Archangel Chamuel name means “he who sees God”. The archangel and has been called by many names throughout history and therefore is sometimes confused with other angels. His missions is to bring peace to the world and as such he protects the world form fear and lowers vibrating, negative energies.

He is believed to have all knowing vision seeing the interconnectedness between all things. Archangel Chamuel assists us in finding the strength and courage to face adversity when it seems we have none left.

He can also help to find items that are lost, to find important parts of our lives such as life purposes a love relationship, a new job, and supportive friendships, to find solutions to problems.
Lastly, Archangel Chamuel also helps to heal anxiety, bring peace, and to repair relationships and misunderstanding.

Legend of Archangel Gabriel – Gabriel Van Helsing – Western Mythology

2018-08-15T00:21:00.003-07:00

Legend of Archangel Gabriel – Gabriel Van Helsing – Western Mythology

Van Helsing is a lonely and silent man, always expecting something to happen, as pray expect an ambush. He often works alone, but can be a good partner or powerfully ally. He has fought many battles ( though he lost his memories so he doesn’t remember) , and hunted countless monsters for years .

Even though he hunts without question , he is always asking the church for forgiveness , as he sees them becoming who used to be. Besides how many monsters he kills , he is seen as a murders to the eyes of the people ( mainly because the general public doesn’t know the monsters exist. Despite his slight contempt for the church , Gabriel is a devout man who does God’s work.

Gabriel was once one of God’s mighty angels in heaven. He was known as the “Left hand of God” and served as the messenger of God.

He appeared to the prophet Daniel, revealing secret about his future. He also appeared to Zacharias and to the Virgin Mary, foretelling the Birth of “John the Baptist and Jesus”.

He was also one of four archangels whom God sent to deliver his message to his prophets. Gabriel was also one of those angels who were sent to destroy Jerusalem. Gabriel descended to Earth and took on living flesh, becoming human. During his time on Earth, Gabriel fought many great battles.

In 1400’s he was under the service of Knights of the Holy order when he met count Viadislaus Dracula, with whom he become close friends. However, during a great battle, and for unknown reasons, Gabriel murdered Dracula in 1462. For his crime, Gabriel asked God to erase his memories.

Gabriel spent the next 400 years wandering the earth until one day after a battle, again with no memory, he was found half- dead crawling up the steps of the Vatican.

MISSION TO KILL DRACULA

Gabriel Van Helsing was ordered to kill Dracula and protect the last of the Valerious family from falling into purgatory: the family swore to kill Dracula nine generations ago and is unable to enter Heaven until they succeed.

Dracula was the son of Anna’s ancestor. Dracula was murdered by “The Left Hand of God”, but not before making a Faustian Bargain, which gave him new life as a vampire. Although Anna’s ancestors made the vow to kill Dracula, he could not kill his own son. Instead, he banished Dracula to an icy fortress from which he should not be able to return. But the devil gave him wings and the power of flight, which allowed him to escape.

When Van Helsing confronts Dracula, who recognizes him from his past, and realizes that Dracula is impervious to all conventional methods of killing Vampires.

Van Helsing discovered that only Werewolf can kill Dracula, he can used to be bitten by the werewolf Velkan and become a werewolf when the full moon occurs . While fighting with Van helsing, Dracula reveals that Van Helsing is really The Archangels Gabriel, The Left Hand of God,- as well as the one who originally murdered him.

Finally Van Helsing bites into Dracula’s throat, killing him and his offspring. At the same time Anna injects Van Helsing with cure and was killed by him.

As Anna’s body burns, Van Helsing sees her, and her family in Heaven at peace, thanks to Dracula’s death.

POWER OF BEING ARCHANGEL

Van Helsing archangels form Immortality – As an archangel, Gabriel is immortal. Gabriel could fly through the heavens with his large swan like – wings. Gabriel can create a living human vessel for himself to in habitat. Gabriel had the power to influence the weather.

Gabriel , in his true form, is an archangel of immense power. He possessed incredible destructive power, enough to destroy whole cities.

POWER OF BEING HUMAN

Though he is an incarnate archangel, Van Helsing has no verifiable supernatural powers, but his human abilities make up for it, as they are son on a greater scale than normal man.

Gabriel is over 400 years old and retains the appearance and health of a fit man in his prime.

While not superhuman, his physical strength can easily allow him to lift or press his own weight. During his fight with Mr Hyde, he was almost able to pull him off a building.

Van helsing has shown to be extremely agile as well as having great reflexes. His reflexes can stand up against creature’s likes vampires or werewolves.

He can withstand attacks that would normally kill a man. He survived hits from Dracula’s brides and Dracula himself and other creatures, and the bite of a werewolf.

After being bitten by a werewolf he was far more durable, even as a human, allowing him to survive a lightning stroke and surviving a fall from a tower.

Van Helsing is a skilled warrior trained in combat for centuries by monks from different countries. Due to the fact that he was been hunting for years, Van helsing developed an instinctive reaction on how to react when hunting, also to warn himself of any danger.

He was shown to be extremely proficient in handling almost every gun he used, These includes dual spinning razor saws , dual pistols, silver stakes, a crucifix and his most important weapon, his reporter crossbow.

POWER OF BEING WEREWOLF

After being bitten by the werewolf Velkan he gained new abilities, also improving his old abilities. He is far from stronger than his human form, able to fight Dracula’s Vampiric form and overpower him.

Even while in human form, he could bend thick iron bars, throw a power cell, and climb up a chain. He can fight longer than any human. He was able to withstand all of Dracula’s attacks.

His senses are far greater than any human. Allows him to jump great distances and heights. His fangs produced venom that could turn other humans into werewolves and also kill Dracula.

If the full moon is covered by clouds, the transformation will end, until the clouds move. The werewolf can removed the curse, making him human again. Silver weapons can kill werewolves.

---that's all ---

Here's Why the Perseid Meteor Shower Shows Up Once a Year

2018-08-11T23:30:00.003-07:00

Here's Why the Perseid Meteor Shower Shows Up Once a Year

For a few weeks over late summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the night sky begins to light up with tiny streaks of light. These are meteors from the Perseid meteor shower, which burn brightly as they hurtle through our atmosphere at red-hot speeds. The Perseids reappear on cue once a year, but it's not them who are visiting us — it's our planet's own journey through the solar system that makes this light show so punctual.

Perseid Meteor Shower Time Lapse from 2016

Comet Me, Bro

The Perseid Meteor Shower is named after the constellation Perseus since that's where the meteors appear to originate. But it's not. A constellation, for one thing, isn't actually a single entity that could produce a meteor shower. Constellations are made up of many stars that only look like they're close to each other — one star in Perseus is about 100 light years from us, while another is 750 light years away, for example. Instead, the Perseids are created by the dust and debris left over from Comet Swift-Tuttle. That's right: That beautiful light show is produced by what's essentially a comet's exhaust.

Perseid meteor shower as seen from Bracebridge, Ontario in August of 2013.

Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest known object to repeatedly pass by Earth, which it does once every 133 years. The last time it passed by the Earth was in 1992, and there are historical records that suggest ancient astronomers saw the same comet as far back as 188 A.D. But the comet doesn't need to be nearby to put on a show. We pass through its debris trail every year in our annual path around the sun. As the tiny pieces of rock and dust leave the vacuum of space and hit the friction of our atmosphere, they travel at 37 miles (59 kilometers) per second: an incredible speed that heats up the surrounding air and turns it red-hot. Most of the meteors burn up before hitting the ground, but some make it through to become meteorites. (Contrary to popular belief, meteorites aren't hot when they land.)

How You Can Catch the Show

Time-lapse image of Perseid meteors lighting up the sky in August 2009

So how can you catch a glimpse of this natural light show when it comes back around? In 2018, astronomers predict that the Northern Hemisphere will see the greatest number of meteors on the nights of August 11, 12, and 13. 2018 is in store to be quite a show, since this year's meteor shower coincides with the new moon, so the meteors don't have to compete with moonlight for our attention.

Planet Nine: 'Insensitive' Term Riles Scientists

2018-08-02T01:53:00.001-07:00

Planet Nine: 'Insensitive' Term Riles Scientists

Artist's impression of the hypothetical Planet Nine, a roughly Neptune-mass world that may lie undiscovered in the outer solar system.

Credit: R. Hurt (IPAC)/Caltech

Don't call it Planet Nine.

That nickname for the big world that may lurk unseen in the far outer solar system doesn't show the proper amount of respect to the discoverer of the original ninth planet, Pluto, a group of researchers argues in a new message to their colleagues.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) famously reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet" in 2006. That decision remains highly controversial today, as made clear by the new note, which appeared in the July 29 issue of the Planetary Exploration Newsletter.

The message, titled "On the Insensitive Use of the Term 'Planet 9' for Objects Beyond Pluto," reads:

"We the undersigned wish to remind our colleagues that the IAU planet definition adopted in 2006 has been controversial and is far from universally accepted. Given this, and given the incredible accomplishment of the discovery of Pluto, the harbinger of the solar system's third zone — the Kuiper Belt — by planetary astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930, we the undersigned believe the use of the term 'Planet 9' for objects beyond Pluto is insensitive to Professor Tombaugh's legacy.

Pluto, as seen by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby of the dwarf planet in July 2015.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

"We further believe the use of this term should be discontinued in favor of culturally and taxonomically neutral terms for such planets, such as Planet X, Planet Next or Giant Planet Five."

Nearly three dozen researchers signed onto this message. They are:

American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Paul Abell
Michael Allison
Nadine Barlow
James Bauer
Gordon Bjoraker
Paul Byrne
Eric Christiansen
Rajani Dhingra
Timothy Dowling
David Dunham
Tony L. Farnham
Harold Geller
Alvero Gonzalez
David Grinspoon
Will Grundy
George Hindman
Kampalayya M. Hiremath
Brian Holler
Stephanie Jarmak
Martin Knapmeyer
Rosaly Lopes
Amy Lovell
Ralph McNutt
Phil Metzger
Sripada Murty
Michael Paul
Kirby Runyon
Ray Russell
John Stansberry
Alan Stern
Mike Summers
Henry Throop
Hal Weaver
Larry Wasserman
Sloane Wiktorowicz

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on instargram at Abhisheksandhu1900.

Viral Hoax Claims Mars Will Look As Large As the Moon This Weekend

2018-07-28T23:54:00.001-07:00

Viral Hoax Claims Mars Will Look As Large As the Moon This Weekend

This weekend, Mars (shown here in a Hubble telescope image taken in 2016) will be in opposition, meaning it will be much closer to our planet than it usually is. But it's not going to be anywhere near close enough to Earth to appear as big as the moon, as a dumb viral hoax claims.

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

There's a party in Earth's shadow this weekend, and our cosmic neighbors are invited!

The guest list is a who's who of nearby heavenly bodies. The moon will be there, passing through the center of Earth's massive shadow for nearly 2 hours on Friday night (July 27), resulting in the longest total lunar eclipse of the century. (Unfortunately, North Americans will not be able to see this eclipse in person, but they can stream it.)

Then, there's the guest of honor: Mars. Thanks to a biennial alignment of Earth and Mars' orbits around the sun on July 31, the Red Planet will make its closest approach to Earth since 2003 (and it has generously agreed to bring some of that famous Martian water to the soiree). That means that for one glorious night, Mars will appear as large as the full moon in the night sky … right? [7 Most Mars-Like Places on the Planet]

To paraphrase an Apollo astronaut, "Houston, we have some nonsense."

A viral hoax article making that claim gets trotted out every few years, when Mars makes a close approach to Earth. But the idea that a rock 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) away will suddenly appear a thousand times larger in the night sky is total nonsense — and NASA wants to make sure you know that.

"Don't be fooled by the Mars Hoax," NASA scientists wrote in a recent blog post that someone at the agency felt duty-bound to publish. "The message is that Mars will look as big as the moon in our night sky. If that were true, we'd be in big trouble, given the gravitational pulls on Earth, Mars and our moon!"

We can speculate on the havoc that a moon-size Mars would cause for all parties involved: severely higher tides on Earth, a drastically warmed Martian climate and perhaps even the removal of both planets' moons from their orbits, to name a few. But it's probably more productive to say what will actually happen as Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in 15 years.

Opposition to nonsense

Here's what you need to know: Earth and Mars both travel around the sun on wobbly, elliptical orbits, so their relationship to each other in space always changes. Every few years, their orbits align.

When this happens, Mars is said to be at opposition, because the Red Planet and the sun are situated on opposite sides of Earth. For Earthlings, that means that when the sun sets in the west at night, Mars appears to rise in the east. Over the coming nights, Mars will indeed glow brighter and brighter in the evening sky as the planet makes its closest approach to Earth on July 31, finally coming within a mere 35.8 million miles (57.6 million km) from our planet before moving away again.

That's still really far away, but it's a lot closer than the average distance between our two great worlds, which is roughly 140 million miles (225 million km). The minimum distance between Earth and Mars is about 34 million miles (54.6 million km), but this near approach seldom happens. The closest we got in modern history was in 2003, when Mars traveled about 35 million miles (56 million km) away from Earth — the closest the two planets had been in almost 60,000 years! (Incidentally, 2003 is the first year the Mars hoax emails went around).

So, what will this cosmic occurrence actually look like? Mars will still appear to the naked eye as a little red sparkle in the sky, but it will be about 10 times brighter than it was a few months ago (still not as bright as Venus, though). With a good telescope, you may be able to make out some of the Red Planet's finer details, including its polar caps, but it will still not look as clear as the moon, NASA said.

For space fans, this all makes for an awesome weekend. But what does Mars' close approach mean for you, personally? Some astrologers warn that the sun and Mars' opposing positions on the zodiac wheel could lead to a swell of "sexual tension and magnetism" this weekend. Because astrology is not an evidence-based science, we cannot speak to the truth of that prediction, but here's one bit of scientific advice: If you meet someone this weekend who tells you that Mars is going to appear as large as the moon in the night sky, don't sleep with them.

The Edge of Space Just Crept 12 Miles Closer to Earth

2018-07-28T23:50:00.002-07:00

The Edge of Space Just Crept 12 Miles Closer to Earth

Where does Earth's atmosphere end and space begin? According to a new study, it might be just 50 miles above Earth — right about where the blue turns to black in this photo.

Credit: NASA

Did you feel that? Does it suddenly feel a little bit stuffier in here to you? Does it feel like, I don't know… outer space just got 12 miles (20 kilometers) closer?

Nothing actually moved, of course (unless you count the constant and increasing expansion of the universe). But according to a new study published online this week, it might be high time Earthlings shifted our mental and mathematical ideas about where, exactly, Earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins. [Earth from Above: 101 Stunning Images from Orbit]

If astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell's calculations are correct, the cosmic boundary where the laws of airspace suddenly give way to the laws of orbital space might be a lot closer than we think — a full 12 miles closer than previous estimates suggest.

"The argument about where the atmosphere ends and space begins predates the launch of the first Sputnik," McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrotein his new paper, which will appear in the October issue of the journal Acta Astronautica. "The most widely accepted boundary is the so-called Karman Line, nowadays usually set to be 100 km (62 miles) altitude."

Here's the problem: According to McDowell, that Karman line that many scientists accept today is based on decades of misinterpreted information that doesn't actually take real orbital data into account. Luckily, data is McDowell's business (and his pleasure — in his free time he keeps meticulous records of every rocket launch on Earth) and he knew just where to look to find an evidence-based answer to the question, "Where does space begin?"

A photo taken aboard the International Space Station captures the divisions of Earth's atmospheric layers. The mesosphere is the upper band of blue; at the top of this band (about 50 miles above Earth) orbit is possible.

Credit: Ron Garan/NASA

Where satellites fall

In his new study, McDowell pored over data describing the orbital paths of some 43,000 satellites, which he collected from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which monitors aerospace in the United States and Canada. Most of these satellites were negligible to McDowell's study — they orbited far higher than the proposed Karman line, and were well within the grasp of orbital space.

About 50 of these satellites, however, stood out. While re-entering the atmosphere at the end of their missions, each of these satellites successfully completed at least two full rotations around the Earth at altitudes below 62 miles (100 km). The Soviet Elektron-4 satellite, for example, circled the planet 10 times at around 52 miles (85 km) before tumbling into the atmosphere and burning up in 1997.

It seemed clear from these cases that the physics of space still held sway well below the Karman line. When McDowell used a mathematical model to find the exact point at which various satellites finally broke loose of their orbits and made a fiery return to the atmosphere, he found that this could occur anywhere between 41 to 55 miles (66 and 88 km). Usually though, when a craft dipped below the 50-mile (80 km) mark, there was no hope of escape.

Space: It's closer than you think.

Credit: Mike Fossum/NASA

Astronaut wings

For this reason, McDowell chose 50 miles as the true lower edge of space. The number fit neatly with several other cultural and atmospheric factors, as well. For example, McDowell wrote, in the 1950s, US Air Force pilots were awarded a special set of "astronaut wings" for flying their planes above 50 miles, this being considered the outermost edge of the atmosphere.

Atmospherically, the choice fits, too: The mesopause — the coldest belt of Earth's atmosphere — stretches roughly between 52 and 62 miles above the planet's surface. Here, the atmosphere's chemical composition begins to change drastically and charged particles become more abundant. (In other words, things look a lot spacier.) It's clear that, below the lower edge of the mesopause, Earth's atmophere becomes a stronger force for airborn objects to reckon with, McDowell wrote. [Infographic: Earth's Atmosphere from Top to Bottom]

"It is noteworthy that meteors (traveling much more quickly) usually disintegrate in the 70 -100 km (43 miles to 62 miles) altitude range, adding to the evidence that this is the region where the atmosphere becomes important," McDowell wrote.

So, what does it mean if the boundary between Earth and space is 20 percent lower than is generally accepted? It won't change the way rockets are launched or any other physical interactions with space, McDowell wrote, but it could raise some important political and territorial issues.

The airspace above a given country is generally considered part of that country; outer space, on the other hand, is for everyone. If space is defined as beginning at 62 miles and the U.S. flies an unauthorized satellite at 52 miles over China, for example, that could be (justifiably) construed as an act of military aggression.

For this reason, the U.S. has frequently opposed setting any universal space boundaries. That means that McDowell's proposed 50-mile line probably won't become a legal, universally accepted border anytime soon. Still, if the daily drudge of life on Earth starts to get you down, look up — and take heart that you may be a little bit closer to the heavens than you were last week.

The Massive Mars Dust Storm Is Starting to Die Down

2018-07-28T23:47:00.001-07:00

The Massive Mars Dust Storm Is Starting to Die Down

This frame from an animation created by astrophotographer Damian Peach shows how a global dust storm has overtaken Mars in the summer of 2018.

Credit: Damian Peach

The dust is finally beginning to clear on Mars, but it'll probably still be a while before NASA's sidelined Opportunity rover can phone home.

A global dust storm has enshrouded Mars for more than a month, plunging the planet's surface into perpetual darkness. That's complicated life significantly for the solar-powered Opportunity, which has apparently put itself into a sort of hibernation; the rover hasn't contacted its controllers since June 10.

A long-awaited dawn seems to be on the horizon, however. [Mars Dust Storm 2018: How It Grew & What It Means for the Opportunity Rover]

"It's the beginning of the end for the planet-encircling dust storm on Mars," NASA officials wrote in an Opportunity mission update yesterday (July 26).

Scientists studying the storm "say that, as of Monday, July 23, more dust is falling out than is being raised into the planet's thin air," agency officials added. "That means the event has reached its decay phase, when dust-raising occurs in ever smaller areas, while others stop raising dust altogether."

Other data points support this conclusion. For example, measurements by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that temperatures in the middle atmosphere have stopped rising, indicating less absorption of solar heat by dust particles.

In addition, NASA's Curiosity rover — which is nuclear-powered and can therefore work through the storm — has observed a decline in overhead dust at its location, the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater, agency officials said.

Some Martian landforms previously hidden beneath the dust can now be spotted from orbit again, they added, and may even be visible using Earth-based telescopes by early next week, when Mars will make its closest approach to our planet since 2003.

But don't hold your breath waiting to hear from Opportunity, which has been exploring Mars since 2004. According to yesterday's mission update, "it could still be weeks, or even months, before skies are clear enough" for Opportunity to recharge its batteries and ping its handlers.

The storm is a serious threat to the six-wheeled robot, but mission team members have expressed cautious optimism that Opportunity will survive. Their calculations suggest that temperatures at Opportunity's location — the rim of the 14-mile-wide (22 km) Endeavour Crater — won't get cold enough to freeze the rover to death.

That fate befell Opportunity's twin, Spirit, after it got bogged down in sand in 2010 and couldn't reorient itself to catch the sun.

What Is the Most Massive Star?

2018-07-28T23:44:00.002-07:00

What Is the Most Massive Star?

This artist's impression shows the relative sizes of young stars, from the smallest red dwarfs, weighing in at about 0.1 solar masses, through low-mass yellow dwarfs, such as the sun, to massive blue dwarf stars weighing eight times more than the sun, as well as the 300-solar-mass star named R136a1.

Credit: European Southern Observatory

The sun may be the most massive object in the solar system — it contains 99.8 percent of the mass of the entire system — but on a stellar scale, it's really quite average. About half of all known stars are more massive; about half have less mass. At the top end of the scale, the most massive known star in the sky is R136a1, a star more than 300 times as massive as our sun. And it's not alone in dwarfing Earth's dominant star.

Born heavy

RMC 136a1, usually abbreviated as R136a1, lies about 163,000 light-years from Earth in the Tarantula Nebula. This massive star lies outside our galaxy; it's part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies.

Astronomers working at the Radcliffe Observatory in South Africa first identified a star cluster in 1960, naming it RMC 136. When the Hubble Space Telescope examined the system, it found that the cluster was made up of more than 200 extremely bright stars; the most massive one was named RMC 136a1.

R136a1 has an estimated mass of 315 solar masses, where a solar mass is equal to the mass of the sun. (Its mass when discovered was estimated at 265 solar masses, but further observations in 2016 with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope refined the original measurements.) Although this makes it the most massive known star, it was once even larger.

"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age," Paul Crowther, a researcher at the University of Sheffield in England, told Space.com in 2010. "Being a little over a million years old, the most extreme star R136a1 is already 'middle-aged' and has undergone an intense weight loss program, shedding a fifth of its initial mass over that time, or more than 50 solar masses."

The estimated birth weight of the giant could be as high as 320 solar masses.

Although R136a1 is the most massive known star, it is not the largest, since it only stretches about 30 times the radius of our sun. The largest known star is UY Scuti, a hypergiant with a radius somewhere around 1,700 times larger than the sun. Its mass, however, is only 30 times that of our nearest star.

If R136a1 swapped places with the sun, it would outshine our closest star as much as the sun currently outshines the moon. Its powerful radiation would have serious consequences for Earth.

"Its high mass would reduce the length of the Earth's year to three weeks, and it would bathe the Earth in incredibly intense ultraviolet radiation, rendering life on our planet impossible," said Raphael Hirschi, a research team member from Keele University in England.

Shaping the galaxy

R136a1 is a Wolf-Rayet star, a rare class of massive stars with prominent signs of ionized helium and carbon or nitrogen. While stars like the sun are made up predominantly of hydrogen and helium, Wolf-Rayet stars carry high amounts of other heavy elements.

These stars shine brightly, with core temperatures ranging from 53,000 to 340,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 to 200,000 degrees Celsius). In contrast, the sun can reach more than 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius) at its core.

Massive stars like R136a1 can have profound effects on their environment. Their high radiation pressures are thought to drive powerful stellar winds. The winds can distribute about 10 solar masses of material per millions of years at speeds of up to 1,864 miles (3,000 kilometers) per second.

Wolf-Rayet stars have lives far shorter than the roughly 10-billion-year lifetimeof the sun, only about 5 million years. Scientists know of just over 200 Wolf-Rayet stars in the galaxy, but the Milky Way is estimated to contain as many as 2,000 of them, most of them hidden by dust. Roughly half of Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to have companions, either another massive star, a black hole or a neutron star.

Massive stars explode as supernovae that can seed their galaxies with heavy elements. While the universe started out filled with hydrogen and helium, stars are the factories that churn those light elements into almost every other element. When massive stars die an explosive death, they blow that material off, where it is gathered by other stars and formed into planets.

Massive stars are also responsible for neutron stars. After a Wolf-Rayet star explodes, it can leave behind a dense neutron star core. Collisions between neutron stars are thought to be one source of gravitational waves.

Other massive stars

R136a1 is the most massive known star in the universe, but it is far from unique. A 2018 study of the Tarantula Nebula, also called 30 Doradus or 30 Dor, revealed that R136a1 is not alone; the nebula hosts several other stars with the greatest masses yet detected. While hunting for stars more than 30 solar masses in size, researchers found a wealth of much larger stars.

"Once we realized that 30 Dor hosts many more massive stars than previously thought, we were baffled and thought that we did something wrong," Fabien Schneider, an astronomer at the University of Oxford in England,"I would say this was to some extent a chance finding while we were aiming at other questions."

Schneider and his colleagues used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile to analyze the masses and ages of about 800 massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula. They found about 30 percent more stars with masses more than 30 times that of the sun than they expected, and about 70 percent more than expected above 60 solar masses.

"In the past, it has been suggested that stars above 150 solar masses cannot form," Schneider said. But in light of the new study, "it seems likely that stars up to 200 to 300 solar masses can actually form."

Some of the other most massive stars include:

R136c: 230 solar masses
BAT99-98: 226 solar masses
R136a2: 195 solar masses
Melnick 42: 189 solar masses
R136a3: 180 solar masses
Melnick 34: 179 solar masses

All of these stars lie in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

R136a1 continues to hold the record since its discovery, and may remain at the top for some time.

"Owing to the rarity of these monsters, I think it is unlikely that this new record will be broken any time soon," Crowther said.

The most massive star in the Milky Way

Most of the most massive stars known to date lie in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. However, the Milky Way has its own contenders. The star HD 15558-A weighs in at 152 solar masses. It is an O-type giant star with a smaller O-type companion star. Its large mass compared to its other stellar parameters have led some researchers to speculate that it may in fact be a double star, making the entire collection a triple star system.

The enormous star orbits the galaxy in its Perseus Arm in the open cluster IC 1805, which lies in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Move Over, Bigfoot: These 12 Mythical Monsters Hail from Across the US

2018-07-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

Move Over, Bigfoot: These 12 Mythical Monsters Hail from Across the US

I will tell you about how Sasquatch is definitely (maybe) (probably not) out there. But really, that just barely scratches the surface of mythical, magical, and just plain marvelous animals alleged to live in the United States. American cryptids run the gamut from goat-headed demons to birds big enough to block the sun. If you don't want to embark on yet another Bigfoot hunt, why not check your part of the country on the list below and see what else is lurking in your neck of the woods?

Artist's depiction of the Jersey Devil

Spiritartist / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Northeast

Pukwudgies

Freetown, Massachusetts: Pukwudgies aren't limited to Freetown, but that's the only city we could find that felt the need to put up a Pukwudgie crossing sign. But what are these little creatures? In a word, trouble. These humanoids only come up to your knee (some versions have them at 3 feet [1 meter] tall), and in Algonquin folklore, they're responsible for child-stealing, harmful sabotage, and sometimes dangerous or deadly pranks. Their temperament varies by traditions, however, and many Algonquin tribes regard them instead as mischievous but not malicious — unless you disrespect them.

The Jersey Devil

Pine Barrens, New Jersey: One of the best-known cryptids in the country after ol' Squatchy, the Jersey Devil has been terrorizing southern Jersey since 1735, if the stories are to be believed. That was the year that a woman known as Mother Leeds uttered a fateful curse upon becoming pregnant for the 13th time: "Let this one be a devil!" After being born, the child transformed into a massive, two-legged creature with huge bat wings, heavy horse-like hooves, and the head of a goat. One of the very first sightings was in 1812 by Joseph Bonaparte — the brother of Napoleon — who followed a set of hoofprints into the woods and allegedly came face-to-face with the hissing creature. There have been sightings consistently since then, including a staggering 1,000 in the year 1909 alone, and the most recent one coming in around 2015.

Champ

Burlington, Vermont: The U.S. has more than its fair share of lake monsters, just like Scotland's Loch Ness Monster. Champ is the name of the plesiosaur/sea serpent/monster-shaped bundle of sticks that haunts Lake Champlain in Vermont. He's been a part of the landscape for quite some time: Even P.T. Barnum once attempted to capture the creature. In most depictions, Champ is your classic lake monster: long neck, egg-shaped body, four paddles, short tail. And that's how he looks in most of the photos and videos, too. Yes, there's no shortage of Champ pics, as long as you're willing to squint a bit. But two pieces of documentation deserve extra attention. In 1977, a woman named Sandra Mansi took the best-known photo of the beast, and in 2005, a pair of New York fishermen took footage of ... something with a long, snake-like neck following behind their boat.

South

Pope Lick Monster

Pope Lick Creek, Kentucky: Sort of like the Jersey Devil, the Pope Lick monster is a human-animal hybrid with a distinctly demonic appearance. It appears in only one place: the trestle bridge over Pope Lick Creek on the Norfolk Southern Railway. It's a dangerous place to go monster hunting, and not because of the tall, goat-headed creature that's out to get you. See, the train tracks are still in use, and in fact, the Pope Lick monster is said to imitate human voices in order to lure victims in front of oncoming locomotives. Whether the monster is real or not, it's the only one on this list that is verifiably responsible for the deaths of monster hunters.

Wampus Cat

The Appalachians, Tennessee: Wampus cats are said to stalk the mountains across the southern United States, but most of the stories seem to cluster around Tennessee. Still, those stories and the descriptions of the actual animal vary enormously. Everybody agrees that the wampus cat (or catawampus) is at least partially mountain lion. In fact, catawampus may have simply been another name for the creature, which was also called a catamount. However, some descriptions paint it as a half-woman, half-lion, while other versions have it as a pretty normal-looking mountain lion with a few modifications. Some of those latter stories give it a spiked ball at the end of its tail, and others say it has six legs instead of four.

Skunk Ape

Ochopee, Florida: Did you know that Bigfoot has a cousin? In fact, there are about 50 different flavors of Sasquatch: one for each state. But the skunk ape stands out among them as the one with the most fanatical following. Just head on down to the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee if you don't believe it. As you might guess, this ape has a whole lot in common with its more northern relative. The big difference? Its rancid odor.

Midwest

Loveland Frog Men

Loveland, Ohio: The first two sightings of these giant, bipedal frogs happened in March 1972 — and both incidents were witnessed by police officers. Officer Ray Shockey and Officer Mark Matthews both described a creature that was 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, with textured, leathery skin and the face of a lizard or frog. Shockey saw his first on March 3, and Matthews' frog was spotted playing dead in the street on St. Patrick's Day a couple weeks later. In 2016, a pair of Pokemon Go players may have spotted the descendant of those frogs — right down to the giant eyes reflecting the light of the flash in the photo they took.

The Beast of Busco

Churubusco, Indiana: We probably shouldn't play favorites, but of all the creatures on this list, we believe in the Beast of Busco the most. That's because it's a real animal — just a weird one. In 1898, a farmer named Oscar Fulk spotted an incredible beast on his property: an alligator snapping turtle of monstrous proportions. The story died down for about 50 years, but in 1949, the property's new owner was at the center of renewed interest. Gale Harris said he saw the beast on his land, but when a pair of Churubusco fishermen on Lake Fulk said they saw it too, it kicked off a massive search. They actually drained the lake in hopes of finding the turtle, but to no avail. Still, who can say for sure that the beast didn't just give them the slip?

Mothman

Chicago, Illinois: The original Mothman terrorized West Virginia in the '60s (and was the subject of a pretty heady 2002 movie), but if recent stories are to be believed, a new Mothman is on the loose in the Windy City. In 2017, there were no fewer than 55 sightings of a large winged humanoid swooping over the city streets. If it really is the same creature, or the same type of creature, then Chicagoans should watch out. Its first appearance in 1966 was said to have brought about an infamous 1967 bridge collapse.

West

Thunderbirds

Huachuca Desert, Arizona: Thunderbirds are enormous birds of prey with wingspans measuring anywhere from 10 to 60 feet (3 to 18 meters), depending on who tells the story. With wings like that, you'd expect to see reports of them from all over the country. And in fact, that's exactly what you'll find. The thunderbird plays a major role in many Native American traditions, sometimes acting as a protector of the upper realms and sometimes acting as an arbiter of justice for misbehaving humans. But the thunderbirds of Arizona get a special call-out since they're the ones that were cited in an 1890 newspaper article titled "A Strange Winged Monster Discovered and Killed on the Huachuca Desert."

Shunka Warak'in

Denton, Montana: Like the Busco Beast, Shunka Warak'in most closely resembles a massive version of a known animal. Legends of an enormous, wolf-like creature that haunts the Rockies date back several centuries, and its name in Ioway means roughly "thing that carries dogs away in its mouth." It's described as being similar but not identical to a wolf, and many witnesses describe a hyena-esque appearance. Shunka Warak'in has one more thing common with the Beast: There could easily be a grain of truth to its legend. We may even have two specimens on hand already. One is a taxidermied mount of a creature killed in 1886, and the other is a recently discovered corpse that some scientists have been unwilling to confirm as a full-bred wolf.

Batsquatch

Mount St. Helens, Washington: Sometimes, you don't need a lot of verifiable evidence. Sometimes, you don't need a spooky story. Sometimes, all you need is a name: Batsquatch. You can probably already picture it: a giant, ape-like body, a grotesque, bat-like face, and a pair of enormous membraned wings. Allegedly, it was spotted first right before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, but that's not important. What's important is Batsquatch. Batsquatch!

Blood moon, total lunar eclipse 2018 take over Friday skies

2018-07-27T23:25:00.001-07:00

Blood moon, total lunar eclipse 2018 take over Friday skies

Friday brings a rare double-billing of spectacular celestial shows. Some people will be able to see both in person, and there's also a way for everyone to watch.

It's going to be a red-light district in the sky Friday, but don't worry: It will be a completely wholesome and family-friendly event consisting only of heavenly bodies. Two, in fact.

Mars will shine bright all night at its closest point to Earth since 2003 and much of the globe will also see a total lunar eclipse turn our satellite into an orange-red "blood moon."

You can watch both the Red Planet and red moon show off live online on Friday.

You may have already noticed Mars after dark in recent weeks, looking like a bright star wearing a lot of rouge. It's been working its way toward the closest it's been to Earth in about 15 years.

It'll technically reach that point July 31, but on Friday will be at "opposition," appearing directly opposite the sun from our cosmic vantage point. As a result, the Red Planet will rise at sunset and stay in the sky until sunrise.

"When you first spot Mars rising in the east after sunset, you'll be startled by how bright it looks," says Sky & Telescope's Observing Editor Diana Hannikainen. "Its pale orange color is unmistakable."

The moon will also take on a reddish-orange look Friday night for longer than at any time in the next century.

This is thanks to the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century, which is set to go down July 27. In fact, it's probably the longest such event between now and 2123, according to NASA's catalog of such things.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, earth and moon are in a line, casting the reddish-orange shadow of our planet onto the surface of the moon. This is why a total lunar eclipse is often referred to as a "blood moon."

The scientific explanation for the creepy, red-tinted satellite is admittedly a little less exciting than the more hysterical explanation from ancient times: that some kind of huge, unseen dragon in the sky is going to attempt to devour the moon but ultimately fail.

Whatever your favored explanation, it's happening this month and it'll last for a whopping 1 hour and 43 minutes. But there's a catch: It'll be visible only in parts of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The map below from NASA provides an idea of where to plan your travel for the best blood moon viewing.

If We Find Aliens, This Is the Protocol for Announcing It to the World

2018-07-27T23:08:00.002-07:00

If We Find Aliens, This Is the Protocol for Announcing It to the World

What if we come across aliens somewhere in the universe? Do we shake hands? Run? Set phasers to stun?We're not sure how the first encounter will go down, but the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Institute has a detailed plan for how to announce news of an extraterrestrial discovery.

The Truth Is Out There

The search for aliens is not new, and finding alien life isn't totally unthinkable. Mathematically, the likelihood that alien life exists is overwhelming (Fermi paradox, anyone?). A function of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee is to establish protocols to be followed by SETI (search for extraterrestrial life) scientists in the detection, analysis, verification, announcement, and response to signals from extraterrestrial intelligence. In 1989, the IAA adopted the Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, which was revised in 2010. It's mainly referred to as The First Protocol today.

Step 1: FREAK. OUT.

You can read The First Protocol on the SETI Institute site, but we broke down the nine-item list down into more easily digestible terms here:

If you think you've received a signal from aliens, double check. Like, quadruple check. The most plausible explanation for whatever you've discovered has got to be extraterrestrial intelligence. If it's not, go back to the drawing board.
So you think it's aliens, huh? Pump the brakes. Only tell your fellow researchers and observers so they can independently confirm what you think you've found.
Wow, congrats, it really is aliens! Tell more researchers and scientists, specifically through the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams of the International Astronomical Union. Surely you have them on speed dial. The IAA has a lengthy list of some other international institutions you should give the scoop to now.
Here we go. TELL. EVERYONE. Do it promptly. But why the heck would anyone want to wait?!
Time to show the receipts. Make sure all of your data is available to the international scientific community through publications, meetings, conferences, etc. FaceTime scientists on the other side of the globe to show them your happy tears.
Lock it down. Permanently record and store your evidence to the greatest extent possible. This is your legacy, for goodness sake: Back it up!
If your evidence of alien detection is in the form of electromagnetic signals, you're going to need to talk to some people at the International Telecommunication Union to protect it.
Hold up: You're trying to send a message back to the aliens?! That's how intergalactic armageddon gets started! There's a whole different conversation that needs to happen before we dive into that.
The SETI Committee of the IAA will keep an eye on your discovery for the rest of time. Don't go tryin' anything funny on us, aliens.

Earth's Not Alone — The Solar System Could Be Full of Volcanoes

2018-07-27T22:57:00.002-07:00

Earth's Not Alone — The Solar System Could Be Full of Volcanoes

It's easy to think that our planet is the only one in the solar system with any action happening. We've got liquid oceans, geysers, and volcanoes — but we're not alone in that. Plenty of nearby planets and moons have signs of recent volcanic activity, and some might even be blowing right this very moment.

This infrared image of the southern hemisphere of Jupiter's moon Io was derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft on Dec. 16, 2017, when the spacecraft was about 290,000 miles (470,000 kilometers) from the Jovian moon. In this infrared image, the brighter the color the higher the temperature recorded by JIRAM.

Baby, Io Born This Way

Just like Lady Gaga's colorful outfits, you never know what to expect when you look at Io, Jupiter's explosive and splotchy moon. NASA's Juno spacecraft recently caught sight of a possible new volcano near the moon's south pole during a distant flyby. Juno will get another look on December 16.

Io has hundreds of volcanoes on its surface, and yes, some of them are very active — they may even be erupting as you read this article. The volcanoes are born because Io is caught in some very strong gravity fields between Jupiter and two large moons called Europa and Ganymede. Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, and when a spacecraft is nearby, you're bound to see something interesting.

Researchers said the new hot spot is about 200 miles (300 kilometers) away from the nearest one mapped before. "It is difficult to imagine one [hot spot] could travel such a distance and still be considered the same feature," said Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, in a statement.

Until Juno can get another look in December, who knows what's going on? Io constantly reforms its surface. Tidal forces within the moon's insides create a lot of pressure that erupts as volcanoes. Maybe that hot spot migrated from somewhere else, or maybe it's a new spot altogether. Mapmakers on Io will never be out of work, that's for sure.

Volcanoes Are from Mars, Volcanoes Are Also From Venus

Looking beyond Earth, there's another spot where volcanoes might be active — Mars. But if those volcanoes are ready to blow, they aren't being very obvious about it. NASA has a fleet of spacecraft mapping the surface and checking for atmospheric emissions. There's no sign of anything new happening at the volcanoes. There are spurts of methane in the atmosphere, which could be a sign of volcanic activity. Or then again, methane could be a sign of microbial life. Science is fun and frustrating like that.

But maybe we'll get some more clues soon. NASA's InSight mission is on the way to Mars and will land there on November 26 to dig under the surface in search of heat sources. From there, researchers will learn more about the Red Planet's insides and whether there's any noticeable volcanic stuff happening.

And while the news doesn't talk about Venus as much as Mars, Venus is another planet where volcanoes may or may not be spewing. Back in 2015, scientists with Europe's Venus Express mission were looking at old data after the spacecraft's planned death the year before. They announced they saw hotspots forming and changing within a few days, all on the surface of this lava-caked planet. There's also evidence of atmospheric sulfur dioxide and surface lava activity that might be related to volcanoes. We need another spacecraft out at Venus — like, tomorrow — to check this out.

Even distant Pluto might host some volcanoes, although these ones would be icy. When New Horizons zipped by there in 2015, it spotted a weird mountain called Wright Mons. There it saw red material that doesn't appear to be elsewhere on Pluto. Also, there's only one impact crater on the mountain – which means the surface probably wasn't made too long ago. The cause of the possible eruption? A complete mystery.

This all makes that starry night sky seem a little less cold, don't you think? On distant worlds, volcanoes are erupting. With geological activity comes energy, and possible life. Let's hope our possible neighbors are friendlies.

Why Are Alien Hunters Looking for the Same Things That Support Life on Earth?

2018-07-21T23:24:00.001-07:00

Why Are Alien Hunters Looking for the Same Things That Support Life on Earth?

Whether you're talking about finding carbon-based molecules on Mars or exoplanets that sit in their star's habitable zone (where liquid water can exist), astronomers are downright obsessed with the search for telltale clues of extraterrestrial life. Those clues make sense: Life on Earth is carbon-based and requires liquid water to exist. But does all life require that? Why can't life be silicon-based and thrive in oceans of liquid mercury? The answer: It could, conceivably. But there are two good reasons we look for life that's more like ourselves.

ppl58 / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Dude, Where's My Carbon?

The first reason that alien hunters, like the astronomers at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), look for carbon-based lifeforms, comes down to logistics. It just makes more sense to look for something we already know is an ingredient for life. If you found silicon-based molecules on some distant planet, what then? It might be life, sure, but because of everything we know about what gives rise to life, it's more likely not.

For example, imagine if you were unable to find your car in the parking lot. It's certainly possible that it was stolen, that you left the parking brake off and it rolled away, or that it was beamed into space by a Toyota-Camry-loving extraterrestrial. But it's much more likely that it's there, and you just haven't found it yet. If you went investigating all those other options first, well, you'd never get home in time for dinner.

"Carbon-based chemistry works great — we know what to look for," Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute. "So maybe we can be forgiven, as it were, for looking for life that's more like life as we know it than life as we don't know it."

Family Bonds

The deeper reason we're looking for carbon-based life, and the liquid water and oxygen that comes along with it, is all about chemistry. When people seriously consider alternatives to carbon when it comes to life, silicon is the biggest one: It's in the same group on the periodic table as carbon; it has a valence of four — that is, it can bond with up to four other atoms at once — just like carbon; and it can form long chains called polymers.

But carbon has the advantage of being incredibly small, which means it can make double bonds easily. That's why when carbon oxidizes (bonds with oxygen), it can become a simple molecule known as carbon dioxide: Each of the two double bonds is satisfied with one oxygen atom. But when silicon oxidizes, it forms a single bond with four oxygen atoms. Since oxygen atoms have a valence of two, they look for another silicon atom to bond with, which looks for more oxygen, and before you know it, you have the monstrous molecule known as silicon dioxide — also known as sand. This all might sound like a minor difference, but it means everything for life (on Earth, at least).

Still, that doesn't mean silicon-based life isn't possible. As Raymond Dessy, professor of chemistry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, wrote in Scientific American, scientists are trying their darnedest to create silicon versions of the life-giving carbon-based molecules we know. "Many silicon analogs of carbon compounds just cannot be formed," he writes. "Thermodynamic data confirm these analogs are often too unstable or too reactive."

"The complex dance of life requires interlocking chains of reactions," Dessy continues. "And these reactions can only take place within a narrow range of temperatures and pH levels. Given such constraints, carbon can and silicon can't."

The first time this writer learned about the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, it was in Carl Sagan's classic novel "Contact," since adapted into a movie with starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. As they always say, the book is better.

If you find Aliens, follow SETI's nine rules to announce the news to the world .

1. Verify the signal isn't coming from the Earth ( It probably is ) .

2. If you are sure its Aliens ask your fellow researchers to confirm.

3. Alert the central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and other official groups .

4. Does everything still check out , Tell everyone !

5. Show your work , Let the scientific community double - check .

6. Record your findings for bragging rights .

7. Talk to the International Telecommunication Union if you need to protect any Electromagnetic evidence.

8. Do not talk back to the Aliens (not yet, anyway) ]

9.The SETI community will moniter your discovery to see if the Aliens are trying to send another message .

This Scientist Says We Might All Be the Universe's Alter Egos

2018-07-18T00:03:00.001-07:00

This Scientist Says We Might All Be the Universe's Alter Egos.

Far be it from us to knock physics as an effective way to learn about the universe, but it does have that pesky requirement of being experimentally verifiable. Sometimes the questions you're wondering about are so big, you need to call in the philosophers for an opinion. They have no qualms about wild speculation. Take consciousness, for example. Once we told you about how it doesn't exist, another time about how it not only exists but is literally everywhere, and now we're back with more exciting news: Consciousness might be a result of the universe's disassociative identity disorder.

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Cosmos

To understand why someone would say the universe has a mental disorder, you first have to understand a concept known as panpsychism. Panpsychism is the belief that every bit of physical matter has an element of consciousness, or what might be called "proto-consciousness," to it. Basically, it's a philosophical theory that's meant to explain what's known as the "hard problem" of consciousness: the apparent gap between physical reality and reality as we experience it.

In Thomas Nagel's famous paper, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?", the philosopher explains the problem in a pretty straightforward analogy. The world's greatest chiropterologist could have read every book there is to read about the biology of the bat — they might have even written all those books. But it doesn't matter how much they know about how bat brains, wings, senses, and everything else work. They'll never know what it's actually liketo be a bat. In other words, this person knows literally everything about the physical form of the bat, but there is something about the bat they don't know. Therefore, consciousness (the "what is it like") exists outside of physical reality.

But if consciousness is something non-physical, then how does it arise out of physical systems, and how does it interact with them? Panpsychism attempts to answer the first question by suggesting that there is a low-level background consciousness to the entire universe. When physical atoms become organized into a system like a brain, their consciousnesses combine into one ... somehow. Yeah, the problem with philosophy is that most of the time, you end up throwing up your hands and saying, "I'm sure this is possible, but I have no idea how."

One last note on panpsychism that might seem like splitting hairs, but will actually turn out to be quite significant. The official stance of panpsychism is that individual particles each have their own unique consciousness field. But another, similar view, called cosmopsychism, suggests instead that the proto-consciousness exists as a sort of background field in all of physical reality, like the fabric of spacetime. If you think of brain-like structures as making lumps on that fabric, it helps to explain how each of our individual brains form singular units. Unfortunately, it also suggests that we are all connected via the same consciousness field — and that suggests ESP exists. You'd be hard-pressed to find a modern scientist who takes the prospect of ESP seriously.

Me, Myself, and Universe

Now, a new paper by scientist, computer engineer, and philosophy writer Bernardo Kastrup suggests a mechanism by which our unique, unified consciousnesses could have arisen from a unified field of proto-consciousness. His inspiration came from an unexpected place: a paper about a patient with disassociative identity disorder (DID) — once called multiple personality disorder, or simply a split personality.

In 2015, German doctors examined a patient with several different identities, or "alters," in an EEG machine. In her case, some of these alters were blind, and when they were in control, the woman couldn't see. Inside the machine, the neurologists saw that her visual processing centers shut down entirely for blind alters, and began functioning as normal when a sighted alter returned. Writing in Scientific American with Adam Crabtreeand Edward F. Kelly, Kastrup explained how this and other cases of DID might help explain the fundamental question of modern consciousness theory.

"We know empirically from DID that consciousness can give rise to many operationally distinct centers of concurrent experience, each with its own personality and sense of identity. Therefore, if something analogous to DID happens at a universal level, the one universal consciousness could, as a result, give rise to many alters with private inner lives like yours and ours." In other words, we might all have distinct personalities because each of us is one of the universe's distinct personalities, separate and concurrent.

What's more, those different personalities can be said to look a certain way. A doctor with the proper equipment can identify when one personality or another is in control by reading a chart. Thus, DID might also point to the way that conscious personalities rely on physical systems — whether that's the way a brain is organized or the existence of a brain at all.

Thomas Nagel has done a lot more than wonder about what bats do with their time. Dip your toes in the study of metaphysics with his book, "What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy."

12 New Moons of Jupiter Have Just Been Discovered

2018-07-17T23:44:00.001-07:00

12 New Moons of Jupiter Have Just Been Discovered

While searching for the mysterious "Planet Nine," astronomers gave us a bonus: They just found 12 new moons to explore. A science team discovered the worlds orbiting Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system. The new find is another example of how astronomers get creative when searching for moons.

It's Always in the Last Place You Look

Astronomers were initially on the hunt for a supposed mega-Earth planet beyond the orbit of Pluto that may disturb the orbits of several small asteroids in that region. Called "Planet Nine," this purported planet would be 10 times the mass of Earth and 20 times further away from the sun than Neptune, according to NASA.

We still haven't found Planet Nine, but thanks to the search, astronomers just found something else amazing: 12 previously undiscovered moons around Jupiter. Here's what we know about them: Nine of the moons are in the outer reaches of Jupiter's system, orbiting in the opposite direction of the planet's spin. Two moons are closer to Jupiter, moving in the same direction as the planet's spin, while the last of the moons is an oddball that's orbiting differently than any of its neighbors.

"Jupiter just happened to be in the sky near the search fields where we were looking for extremely distant solar system objects, so we were serendipitously able to look for new moons around Jupiter while at the same time looking for planets at the fringes of our solar system," said principal investigator Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C, in a statement.

Jupiter now has a mind-blowing 79 moons. That's the most moons in the solar system, including around its gas-giant neighbors: There are 62 confirmed moons around Saturn, 27 moons around Uranus, and 13 moons around Neptune. Sheppard and his colleagues have found more than 70 of these moons, according to the researcher's web page.

Moons, Moons Everywhere

We were lucky that Planet Nine spurred this search near Jupiter. Telescope time is hard to find, and moons are difficult beasts to spot because they are so faint — they're small, and often not very reflective. Yet astronomers keep finding moons in our solar system, sometimes because they're carefully hunting through older data or searching for something else.

In 2016, for example, sharp-eyed University of Idaho doctoral student Rob Chancia announced that the rings of Uranus might be hiding a couple of tiny moons. He saw periodic variations in two of the planet's rings after scouring some old data from Voyager 2, which flew by the planet in 1986. These variations suggested a couple of small worlds tugging on the rings.

Three years earlier, the SETI Institute's Mark Showalter said his team found a new moon around Neptune while looking at archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope (taken between 2004 and 2009). Showalter was actually looking at faint rings around Neptune when, "on a whim," as a press release from NASA says, he glanced far away from the rings and spotted a white dot.

These discoveries show that astronomers are getting better at finding new moons – even if that wasn't their research question in the first place. We have better methods to search old spacecraft data, thanks to computer advances. (Spacecraft die, but their data doesn't!) And advances in ground telescope technology allow us to do more sensitive searches in space than a couple of decades ago.

<<For more about the largest planet in our solar system, check out the beautiful hardcover book "Jupiter" by William Sheehan and Thomas Hockey, from the Kosmos series.>>

Neutrino-Discovery Inside Scoop: Q&A with 'Godfather of IceCube' Francis Halzen

2018-07-14T00:59:00.001-07:00

Neutrino-Discovery Inside Scoop: Q&A with 'Godfather of IceCube' Francis Halzen

On (July 12 ),2018 - astronomers announced that, for the first time ever, they had traced a superfast cosmic neutrino to its source — an active galaxy known as TXS 0506+056, which lies 4 billion light-years from Earth.

The find implicates such active galaxies as a source of fast-moving charged particles called cosmic rays, which bombard our planet continuously. The origins of cosmic rays had puzzled researchers since the particles' discovery in 1912.

Although numerous telescopes helped track the neutrino, the key player in this story is the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which detected the elusive "ghost particle" on Sept. 22, 2017.

IceCube consists of 86 "strings" of light detectors, which are encased deep beneath the ice at the South Pole. The facility wrapped up a seven-year construction project in 2010, though it was able to hunt for neutrinos while still being built.

Francis Halzen, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leads the project science team and is known as the "Godfather of IceCube." Space.com sat down with Halzen during an IceCube workshop in Atlanta this past May to discuss the history of the groundbreaking observatory (see Part 1 of this two-part Q&A) and the implications of the new discovery.

Francis Halzen, the lead scientist for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole.

Credit: Zig Hampel-Arias, WIPAC

Space.com: So, what's the significance of this new discovery?

Francis Halzen: Less than five years ago, people discovered that there are cosmic rays that are one million times the energy of the beam of the Large Hadron Collider [LHC; the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator]. It's a fascinating problem of how nature can do this. If [scientists] had to build an accelerator to accelerate the highest-energy cosmic rays, you would have to fill the orbit of Mercury with the LHC magnets. So this really is an interesting problem.

Here we are, 106 years after they made the discovery [of cosmic rays], and we have no idea where they came from. We have some guesses about how they may be accelerated, but we have no idea. So the meaning of TXS is that we now have one source after 106 years, and that's it.

That was the number-one item to justify giving us the money. IceCube was [built] to discover the source of cosmic rays. Neutrinos can only come from places where protons and their nuclei are accelerated. So by definition, when we make a map of neutrinos, we make a map of cosmic-ray accelerators.

The problem was that the map was uniform. We [detected] the neutrinos in 2013. But instead of what we expected, seeing [neutrinos from] our own galaxy first, we actually found extragalactic neutrinos first. We know that because we see the whole universe, [not just] the galactic plane. So we still didn't know what the sources were. We knew that we had a tool to find them

Halzen: TXS flashed once in 10 years. We know that because we have 10 years of data. Actually, there were two flashes, but only one player was really spectacular.

We sent an alert of one neutrino in September of last year. Fermi [NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope] told us that there's something special, a blazar, an active galaxy that's flaring. It has a flaring supermassive black hole. That created this avalanche of multimessenger observation [with telescopes searching in different wavelengths].

Once we knew where to look in the sky, we could go back and look at our last nine and a half years of data. Then we found this happened once before. It happened at the beginning of 2014, much more dramatically. Instead of having a flare that had only one spectacular neutrino, this flare has 12 to 14 neutrinos, depending on how you count, how you separate the signal from the background. This is really an incredible thing; we've never seen anything like it.

But it happened once in 10 years. Our best guess based on the one observation is that this happens once every 10 years. If you have 10 times the detector [size], you see [other blazars] flash once a year. So there will be a real bonanza once we are detecting. I think that, once we find more sources like this, we are going to do better.

Halzen: It didn't get missed. That is an interesting story. It was incredible. One graduate student [Asen Christov] did the analysis and it was his thesis. He was looking for flares. He basically only looked at the highest sources on the map, and this was the second-highest, so nobody ever paid attention.

It's the look-elsewhere effect. If you look at 100,000 places in the sky, you're going to find something, just by statistics. These things got buried in statistics. However, Fermi told us where to look. We told Fermi, and then Fermi told us, this is interesting.

In his thesis, [Christov] had a list, and this was the second source. But even if I had looked, we didn't know enough astronomy. And even if we had said, that's TXS — which I would have never, ever matched — there was nothing special about that until Fermi pointed it out.

The reason I'm emphasizing this is, we couldn't have made this discovery alone. Fermi couldn't have made that discovery because they see flaring blazars all the time. It's only because we did this together. As far as I know, this is the first multimessenger event that could not have happened in any other way. No other experiment could have done this. No single telescope could have pulled this off. So it really shows the power of doing multimessenger astronomy.

A Rare Cosmic Collision Might Let Scientists Calculate the Precise Age of the Universe

2018-07-14T00:49:00.001-07:00

A Rare Cosmic Collision Might Let Scientists Calculate the Precise Age of the Universe

A so-far unseen celestial collision could be astronomers' best bet for figuring out just how quickly the universe is expanding.

Right now, physicists have two ways of measuring that expansion rate, and both are quite precise — but their answers don't match. That's been frustrating, since the number, known as the Hubble constant, feeds calculations like the ones scientists use to estimate how old the universe is.

And that's why they're looking for a third method to pin it down. A pair of scientists based in Massachusetts think the trick will be catching a glimpse of the violent phenomenon of a black hole and a neutron star colliding.

"Black hole-neutron star binaries are very complicated systems, which we know very little about," Salvatore Vitale, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "If we detect one, the prize is that they can potentially give a dramatic contribution to our understanding of the universe."

So far, scientists haven't observed the collisions of a mixed pair, only of binary black holes and of binary neutron stars. Most of those observations have included only black holes, so the collision can only be detected using gravitational waves. Astronomers know they also need a light signal to calculate the Hubble constant, which leaves them looking for either pairs of neutron stars or black hole-neutron-star binaries.

But when physicists tried to calculate the Hubble constant from the data they gathered during August's neutron-star merger — the first ever observed — they couldn't be very confident in the result. That's because neutron-star collisions are a mess, shooting out material asymmetrically and making it difficult for scientists to figure out just how far away a signal is coming from.

Switch out one of those neutron stars for a black hole and the mess becomes more manageable, giving physicists the location they would need to recalculate the Hubble constant. But scientists think these mixed collisions are rarer, so Vitale and his colleague wanted to check whether the benefit of the more precise location outweighs the handicap of the mergers being less common.

That work was detailed July 12 in an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters and posted to the pre-print site

According to their estimates, just one mixed merger should let physicists calculate the Hubble constant as effectively as combining data from 50 different neutron-star collisions.

Now, all we have to do is wait for a lucky strike.

Geometry Helps Solve the Mystery of Mars' Water

2018-07-14T00:34:00.003-07:00

Geometry Helps Solve the Mystery of Mars' Water

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Martian surface is crisscrossed with what looks like the scars of running water cut into its dusty dry surface. For years, researchers have argued over the source of this water, whether it was fed by rainwater falling from the sky or from ice melting beneath the surface. By taking a statistical approach to the features, a trio of researchers now argue for rivers of rainwater.

The team studied all the mapped river valleys on Mars, measuring the angles where they divided from one another. These angles are determined by how dry an area is and whether water has emerged from the ground, among other things. They found that the angles are comparatively low, allowing them to rule out the influence of groundwater as a major formation process for the channels.

The narrow angles of the valleys bear a stronger resemblance to those found in Earth's arid landscapes, such as in the deserts of Arizona. In Florida, where groundwater re-emerges, the river networks have much wider angles between their tributaries.

According to lead author Hansjörg Seybold, this implies there must have been a similar hydrological environment with sporadic heavy rainfall on Mars over a prolonged period. The rainwater would have quickly run off over the surface, shaping the network of valleys.

Seybold, a physicist at ETH Zurich, worked with terrestrial geologist James Kirchner, also at ETH Zurich. Edwin Kite, a planetary specialist at the University of Chicago, was the third team member. Their research was published June 27 in the journal Science Advances.

Although Mars is dry today, scientists think it once held an ocean of water in much of its northern hemisphere nearly 4 billion years ago. The thicker atmosphere it used to have kept the liquid on the surface. As water evaporated, it would have condensed around the volcanoes in the highlands south of the ocean, then rained down, carving out the river valleys.

"Recent research shows that there must have been more water on Mars.

But the Red Planet's wet period was short-lived, lasting only a few hundreds of millions of years. The atmosphere was lost to space, and any liquid on the surface quickly disappeared, leaving scientists to ponder where the water went.

"It's likely that most of it evaporated into space," Seybold said. "But it could still be in the vicinity of Mars."

"This is a question for a future space mission," he said.