Latest news with #SouthernHemisphere
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
8 night sky events to see in July, from a ‘buck moon‘ to a rare view of Pluto
Stargazers, get ready to take in some awe-inspiring sights. This month offers a parade of star clusters, meteors, and various planet sightings, including the difficult-to-spot dwarf planet Pluto. Here's what to look for in the July night sky. The globular cluster Messier 22 (M22) reaches its highest point in the sky around midnight local time, specifically for observers south of 46° N latitude, since M22's position favors the Southern Hemisphere. Located about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, M22 is one of the brightest globular clusters visible from Earth. Under dark skies, M22 appears as a faint smudge with the naked eye. But binoculars or a small telescope reveal its stunning structure—a densely packed sphere of hundreds of thousands of stars. Mercury is notoriously difficult to see from Earth, thanks to its proximity to the Sun. But on July 4, Mercury reaches its greatest eastern elongation, meaning the planet will be at its farthest apparent distance from the Sun in the evening sky. This event marks one of the best chances to see the elusive planet this year. Look west-northwest just after sunset, keeping your gaze close to the horizon. Mercury should be visible during the evening twilight hours. If it's cloudy, don't worry—you'll still be able to see Mercury for a few more weeks. Nicknamed the 'buck moon,' July's full moon occurs on the 10th. The moniker, drawn from Indigenous and colonial traditions in North America and popularized by the Farmer's Almanac, refers to the time of year when male deer, or bucks, begin to regrow their antlers. (Yes, they shed them annually.) (Learn the origins of the many names given to each full moon.) If you have a pair of binoculars, take a close look at the lunar surface. The bright rays radiating from Tycho crater and the dark basalt plains known as maria, the Latin word for 'seas,' are especially striking during a full moon. In the predawn hours of July 16, skywatchers can catch a triple encounter: the waning gibbous moon will sweep past Saturn and Neptune in the constellation Pisces. Saturn, the brighter of the two, is visible to the naked eye. Neptune, far dimmer, requires a telescope. Just three days prior, Saturn will have entered retrograde motion, appearing to move west across the sky rather than east. Before sunrise on July 20, the crescent moon will pass within a degree of the Pleiades, a bright open cluster also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 (M45). Though home to more than 1,000 young, hot stars, most people can spot just six with the naked eye. (These are the best stargazing sites in North America.) The Pleiades shine brightest from November to March, but determined stargazers can spot them in late July, too. Their pairing with the moon on July 20 creates a picturesque scene, especially when viewed through binoculars, which frame the glittering stars and glowing crescent in the same field of view. On July 25, Pluto will lie directly opposite the Sun from Earth's perspective. Simultaneously, it will also reach perigee, its closest distance to Earth in its orbit. Although still nearly three billion miles away, it will shine slightly brighter than usual—making this the best chance to view the dwarf planet this year. (Did Pluto ever actually stop being a planet? Experts debate.) That said, Pluto remains a faint speck, even at its best. You'll need a reasonably powerful telescope and a detailed star chart to locate it in the constellation Sagittarius around midnight local time. On the evening of July 29, the moon will pass close to Mars in the constellation Taurus. Visibility may be limited in some locations, as the pair will appear low on the horizon and could be washed out by sunlight. If skies are clear, look for the waxing crescent moon and Mars's distinctive reddish glow. The Southern delta Aquariids meteor shower, active from July 18 to August 12, is expected to peak overnight from July 29 to 30. This year, the waning crescent moon will set early during the peak, leaving skies dark for optimal meteor viewing. (Here are nine must-see night sky events to look forward to in 2025.) Southern delta Aquariids meteors tend to be faint, and you might not see more than a dozen or two shooting stars per hour at most. For a more dramatic display, wait for August, when the delta Aquariids overlap with the brighter Perseids.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers thought a mysterious radio burst came from deep space. It was actually a dead NASA satellite
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A powerful and mysterious blast of radio waves that astronomers believed was a fast radio burst (FRB) from far beyond the limits of the Milky Way has turned out to be an emission from a long-dead NASA satellite called Relay 2. The now-discounted FRB or "pseudo-FRB" was initially detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in June 2024 as this radio telescope scanned the sky over the southern hemisphere. It was remarkable because this burst of radio waves lasted less than 30 nanoseconds, much shorter than most FRBs, and yet it was strong enough to drown out all other signals from the sky. "This was a chance discovery made when looking for FRBs, which originate in distant galaxies," team member and Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist Adam Deller told "Funnily enough, despite them being known for almost 20 years, we still don't actually know what generates FRBs, but most of the plausible theories involve a 'magnetar', which is a highly magnetized neutron star." The Relay 2 satellite was launched in 1964 as part of NASA's Relay program. Sitting in a medium Earth orbit, the spacecraft operated until 1965, but by 1967, its systems had completely failed. "It's part of space history, being one of the first ever communications satellites. There won't be many older satellites still up there," team member Clancy W. James from Curtin University's Institute of Radio Astronomy told "But we're also sure that this was not a transmission by the satellite. None of its systems would have been capable of producing this nanosecond signal."James explained that at the time of the event, Relay 2 was just around 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) from Earth. While this might seem like a vast distance, consider that FRBs are thought to originate from cosmic sources as distant as 9.1 billion light-years away. In fact, the closest FRB source, and the only one ever seen within our galaxy, is still located an estimated 30,000 light-years away. "So, although it appeared extremely bright to our telescope, this was just because it was much closer than the astronomical signals we were looking for," James continued. "It was difficult to get an image of it - it came out all blurry. This meant that it was close to the telescope. So, no astronomical object. Darn." Since the discovery of the first FRB in 2007, astronomers have discovered over 1,000 FRBs, yet they remain one of the most fascinating and curious signals in the cosmos. So, finding out an exceptional example of such an FRB is actually a "pseudo-FRB" caused by a defunct piece of NASA equipment may initially be a little disappointing. Surprisingly, team member and University of Edinburgh astronomer Marcin Glowacki wasn't disappointed at all that this signal turned out to be a signal from a man-made satellite. "It was like an interesting puzzle for us to be able to localize this result from such a relatively close object to what we are used to! It certainly took some time and effort, as we had to adjust how we measured the signal with ASKAP to account for it being so close. It's like how phone cameras can struggle to focus on something very close to them," Glowacki told "While we are mostly interested in astrophysical systems, this discovery is important for monitoring satellites in the future with ASKAP and other radio telescopes." Glowacki further explained how a man-made object so close to Earth could have been mistaken for a cosmic blast of radio waves in the first place."It was a very bright radio signal that we saw once. Most FRBs have been found only once thus far, and are also exceedingly bright compared to other radio transients, such as from pulsars," he told "However, this is on a shorter timescale than any known FRB. Signals from FRBs typically last from microseconds to several millisecond-timescales, rather than only a few 10s of nanoseconds. "It was indeed good luck that ASKAP happened to be looking at the same part of the sky that the Relay 2 satellite was in when it gave off that signal - that allowed us to investigate further and determine the origin of the signal." Thus, any initial disappointment can be offset a little by the fact that this observation was an amazing chance discovery. Additionally, this opens up an entirely new mystery; the team still can't quite explain how Relay 2 managed to fire off a signal that could be mistaken for an FRB. As mentioned above, the team is certain that this "pseudo-FRB" signal wasn't an intentional emission, as not only has Relay 2 been inoperative for 58 years, but even when it was working, its transmission signal wasn't capable of generating such short-lived radio pulses. "What caused this signal from Relay 2? That's a good question. We don't know!" Glowacki explained. "One theory is electrostatic discharge (ESD) – a build-up of electricity that results in a spark-like flash. Another is that a micrometeorite had struck the satellite and produced a cloud of charged plasma, right as ASKAP was observing the part of the sky it was in. " James elaborated that ESD is a spark that is almost exactly the same as the effect generated when you rub your feet on carpet and shock your friend (or enemy). "Spacecraft get charged with electricity when they pass through ionized gas or 'plasma' above the atmosphere, and when enough charge builds up, they generate a spark," James continued. "New spacecraft are built with materials to reduce the build-up of charge, but when Relay 2 was launched, this wasn't well-understood. "Hence, perhaps it produced such a big spark because it was old." The problem with this theory is that all expectations for how sparks should behave suggest they should last tens of microseconds or longer. That's over a thousand times longer than this signal lasted. Additionally, the spacecraft charging described by James occurs mostly during active periods of the sun, and thus so too does the resulting sparking. That activity also impacts the Earth's magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere, and at the time of this "pseudo-FRB," the magnetosphere was extremely quiet. As for micrometeorite impacts as the culprit, James explained that there are predictions that these tiny flecks of space dust, which weigh no more than a thousandth to a billionth of a gram, can produce flashes of radio waves when they impact a satellite. However, to do this, James said, micrometeorites need to be travelling at about 44,000 miles per hour (around 70,000 km per hour). "Based on one estimate, we think a 22 microgram micrometeorite might have been able to produce a flash such as the one we saw," James said. Again, the issue with this explanation is that predictions suggest the signal should have lasted microseconds, not milliseconds. Additionally, 22 micro-gram micrometeoroids are not common. James and colleagues estimated only about a 1% chance that they would have been pointing ASKAP toward a satellite at the same time as one hit it. "We slightly favor the ESD scenario, because the now-collapsed Arecibo telescope once saw similar signals from GPS satellites, albeit lasting 1000 times longer than ours," James added. "But we don't know." If you are an FRB-nerd like we are at there may be a concern clawing at the back of your mind right now. The team was quick to put our minds at rest that other FRBs may be revealed as "pseudo-FRBs." "The short answer is that's not at all a possibility," James said. "Most telescopes detecting FRBs now also measure exactly where they come from, and can pinpoint their host galaxy, which a satellite wouldn't have. These instruments are very good at identifying the direction of such a signal and getting rid of it. "If a satellite did miraculously produce an FRB imposter, somebody in charge of the satellite programmed it to produce an artificially dispersed signal just to troll us! In that case, we could always pinpoint the direction of origin and check if there was a satellite there or not." The biggest clue that an FRB is an artificial signal is its dispersion measure, which Glowacki explains is the effect of a time delay at lower frequencies of radio signals coming from FRBs and pulsars. It is due to ionized electrons slowing the signal at lower frequencies as FRBS travel through space, encountering plasma. This gives astronomers a good indication of how far signals have travelled. "For FRBs, there is such a large delay, due to the amount of ionized electrons between us and what creates the signal, that the only possible explanation is that they nearly always originate from another galaxy, sometimes billions of light years away," Glowacki said. "The signal we had detected barely had any measurable time delay. It had to have come from very close by, relatively speaking."Deller added that it is certainly possible that there are many more such bursts happening from this or other satellites. However, he said that a lack of dispersion is a dead giveaway that a signal came from much closer to Earth than an FRB so cases of mistaken identity aren't likely. This doesn't mean that this research hasn't highlighted a possible problem that needs to be considered. "We do need to be wary of confusing such signals with potential sources that are within or very close to our solar system," Glowacki said. "For example, there may be other satellite signals to be detected that may be harder to differentiate." Related Stories: — Scientists find universe's missing matter while watching fast radio bursts shine through 'cosmic fog' — Mysterious fast radio burst traced back to massive 'cosmic graveyard' of ancient stars — Mysterious fast radio bursts could be caused by asteroids slamming into dead stars For James, the big question going forward is how this research could help use radio telescopes to monitor satellites. These instruments could be particularly useful for detecting ESD."ESD is a huge problem for satellites, and can cause all kinds of damage," James said. "The problem is that ESD is very difficult to monitor. Mostly, it is only ever a 'suspected' cause, since it's extremely difficult to just go up to check on a satellite and work out what went wrong. So if that can be monitored from the ground relatively easily, that's great!" Deller agrees, adding there is a lot more to learn about the phenomenon discovered by the team. "Everyone is still surprised that it was possible to generate such a short-duration pulse," Deller concluded. "I'm hoping that we or some other group detect some more in the coming years and are able to come up with a model for how it happens. "It would be great if that turned out to be useful in terms of helping to avoid damage to satellites." The team's research is published on the paper repository site arXiv.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
Webb Telescope Images New Planet — What It Means For Earth 2.0 Search
In a landmark achievement, the James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged its first new exoplanet. About the same mass as Saturn, it was found in a star system about 111 light-years distant. It's the lightest planet even directly imaged and could make it easier for astronomers to find Earth-like planets in other star systems. Image of the disk around the star TWA 7 recorded using ESO's Very Large Telescope's SPHERE ... More instrument, with image captured with JWST's MIRI instrument overlayed. A.-M. Lagrange and al. - Evidence for a sub-jovian planet in the young TWA7 disk, 2025 Dubbed TWA 7b, the exoplanet — defined as a planet that orbits a star other than the sun — was found in a disk of debris (which scientists call a protoplanetary disk) around a star called TWA 7. The planet is 10 times lighter than those previously captured in images. TWA 7 is a small red dwarf star just 111 light-years from the solar system in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Antlia. It has long been known to have three rings around it that could have planets forming within them. It's the first confirmed detection of a planet embedded in a debris disk using the Webb Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, which provides far greater sensitivity than previous instruments. It comes just a week after Webb's Near-Infrared Camera was used to directly image another cold exoplanet called 14 Herculis c. About seven times the mass of Jupiter, it was found 60 light-years from the solar system in the constellation Hercules. TWA 7b was found using MIRI's coronagraph instrument, which places a disk over a star to block its light, creating an artificial eclipse that enables planets to show up around it. Exoplanets are typically found using the transit method, whereby astronomers record slight dips in the brightness of a distant star caused by a planet transiting across it. It's then possible to calculate the size of the planet, how far away it is from the star and study the starlight shining through the planet's atmosphere. If that method relies purely on a lucky line of sight, so does the discovery of TWA 7b. The TWA 7 star system is seen pole-on, an ideal vantage point that had allowed earlier observations to reveal its three-ring debris disk. Direct imaging, especially of low-mass planets, is notoriously difficult due to the overwhelming brightness of host stars. A paper about the discovery was published in Nature today by an international team of scientists. In this 2020 image from the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the circumstellar disk around star TWA ... More 7 can be seen. International Gemini Observatory At about a third of the mass of Jupiter — about the same as Saturn's, or about 100 times the mass of Earth — TWA 7b is the lowest-mass exoplanet ever directly imaged. It demonstrates JWST's power to detect much smaller and colder planets than previously possible using the MIRI instrument's coronagraph to directly image stars. Researchers believe that with continued use of advanced coronagraphs, even Earth-sized planets could one day be imaged directly. Efforts are already underway to identify the next most promising targets. Creating 'fake' Eclipses In Space The European Space Agency last week published the first images of an artificial total solar eclipse created in Earth orbit by its Proba-3 mission. It features two satellites that fly in formation 492 feet (150 meters) apart with millimeter precision, with one using a 1.4-meter-diameter disk that occults the sun, casting a shadow on another with a telescope and a coronagraph. Creating a total solar eclipse for six hours in every 19.6-hour orbit should allow scientists to study the sun's corona — its hotter outer atmosphere — which is only visible during a total solar eclipse. Forbes History Made As Webb Telescope Finds 44 Stars Near Big Bang — Here's How It Did It By Jamie Carter Forbes Webb Telescope Photographs 'Strange' Cold Planet Around Nearby Star By Jamie Carter Forbes In Photos: First Ever 'Fake' Total Solar Eclipse Created In Space By Jamie Carter
Reuters
3 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Schmidt factor gives Australia hope as Lions arrive Down Under
SYDNEY, June 25 (Reuters) - The British & Irish Lions have often set off on tour with confidence but it is rare that they arrive in the Southern Hemisphere as heavily favoured as they are to beat Australia in their test series in late July and August. Australian rugby has been in varying stages of crisis for the last decade and the Wallabies, World Cup winners in 1991 and 1999, are currently ranked eighth in the world beneath three of the four nations that contribute to the Lions. The band of Irish, English, Scottish and Welshmen who arrived in Perth with captain Maro Itoje and coach Andy Farrell at the weekend are therefore expected to emulate the tourists of 1989 and 2013 by triumphing Down Under. The expectations of a one-sided series were so high last year that former England scrumhalf Ben Youngs questioned whether Australia still deserved its place in the quadrennial Lions touring cycle along with South Africa and New Zealand. His comments came after Australia had been thumped 67-27 by Argentina in the Rugby Championship, but signs that progress was being made under wily coach Joe Schmidt came when the Wallabies beat England 42-37 at Twickenham in November. When they followed that with a 52-20 win over Wales and got within three points of Ireland in Dublin, Australian hopes soared that the Wallabies would at least be competitive against the Lions. Schmidt would never wittingly leave a hostage to fortune and has, at best, expressed qualified ambition for his team to be within a few points of the Lions towards the end of the tests. "Then we're a chance," the New Zealander said in April. "But we've got to give ourselves that chance by being really good in our performance behaviours." Many of the Lions squad are well aware of Schmidt's quality as a coach from his transformative time in charge of Ireland, when Farrell was his defence coach before becoming his successor. Farrell was also assistant to Warren Gatland on the 2013 tour to Australia and the 2017 tour of New Zealand, when the test series was drawn 1-1, so is more than familiar with the challenges facing a Lions coach. The former rugby league international has just a few weeks to forge players more used to knocking seven bells out of each other into a cohesive unit ready to play three matches at the highest level of the game. The tour games, although far fewer than in the days when the Lions tramped around small provincial towns for three months or more, are key to that process. Farrell got the ball rolling with less than a full squad against Argentina in Dublin last weekend and received the wake up call of a 28-24 defeat that swiftly ended his hopes that they would go through the 10-match tour undefeated. "That's all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next," the Englishman said on his arrival in Perth. "We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way and we'll find out more about each other." The Lions are unlikely to play a team as good as the Pumas until the first test in Brisbane on July 19 with four matches against Super Rugby teams and one against an Australia-New Zealand XV before that. Farrell gets his second chance to put a team out on the park on Saturday at Perth Stadium against Western Force, a gritty team but the weakest of the four Australian Super Rugby sides. Lions chief executive Ben Calveley has already fired a shot across the bows of Rugby Australia, insisting that Wallabies players should be released for tour games for fear that they will otherwise be uncompetitive. Western Australia, and the Force since 2006, have never provided that stiff of an opposition, losing 44-0 to the Lions in 1989, 116-10 in 2001 and 69-17 in 2013. The match will, though, give Australia a first glimpse of the army of up to 40,000 red-shirted British and Irish rugby enthusiasts who will descend on the country to cheer on the Lions.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Overseas-born players ‘fully submerged' in Lions culture
Pierre Schoeman insists the British and Irish Lions' overseas-born contingent have earned the right to be in Australia and have fully immersed themselves in the tourists' culture. The Scotland prop is one of eight Lions players who were born, raised and educated in South Africa, New Zealand or Australia but qualify for their home unions through residency or family lineage. Advertisement Players who hail from the southern hemisphere representing the Lions is nothing new, but the number of them present in Andy Farrell's squad has caused a stir. Lions great Willie John McBride said it 'bothered' him, while former England scrum-half Danny Care declared that 'it doesn't sit that well with me'. But Schoeman insists they are ready to give everything in the quest to complete a series victory over the Wallabies, with Saturday's fixture against Western Force their first assignment on Australian soil. 'If you're good enough to play for your country, you're good enough to play for the Lions and you're selected, then obviously you're going to do that,' said Schoeman, who made five appearances for South Africa Under-20s in 2014. Advertisement 'Playing for the Lions is massive. Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself. I know that's for the other players as well, like Mack Hansen has made Ireland home. 'You embrace that. You fully take that on. It's like the series Outlander – you move to a different country and now that's your house. You live there. 'If you work for one of the big four in finance, you get the opportunity, you're going to go for it. And you can really make that home. 'But this is much different. To represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that and its culture. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It's about the now. Advertisement 'Yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow might never come, now is the time to live. That's what we do as Lions. It's about the now, this tour. This is what really matters.' The Lions arrived in Perth on the back of a 28-24 defeat by Argentina in Dublin, where they were given a taster of the support to come in Australia. A sold-out Aviva Stadium was swamped in red for the tour send-off and Schoeman insists it is essential to deliver for the hoards of fans who will make the journey Down Under. The Lions will be well backed by travelling fans in Australia (Niall Carson/PA). 'It was an amazing experience in Dublin to see the red army. It was incredible,' he said. 'You have to feel the responsibility of 50,000 or more fans coming to Australia. So you have a massive obligation and responsibility. Advertisement 'We as the selected guys, management and players in this team have to make it happen. 'There's no space for dead weight on this team. Everyone has to push in the same direction. 'It's about driving this whole team towards a collective goal of going beyond and being back-to-back winners against Australia.'
