Latest news with #galaxy
Geek Tyrant
27 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
The Top 3 Worst Jobs in the STAR WARS Universe Explored in Fun Comedy Sketch — GeekTyrant
The Star Wars galaxy may look cool from a distance with its lightsabers, hyperspace, John Williams score blasting in the background, but for the average worker just trying to make it to the weekend, it's a walking HR violation. Forget glamorous Jedi gigs or smuggler swagger. We're diving into the bottom of the galactic job board. Here are the three absolute worst jobs in the Star Wars universe, ranked by a mix of occupational hazard, bodily discomfort, and soul-crushing futility.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover rare planet at the edge of the Milky Way using space-time phenomenon predicted by Einstein
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have used a space-time phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein to discover a rare planet hiding at the edge of our galaxy. The exoplanet, dubbed AT2021uey b, is a Jupiter-size gas giant located roughly 3,200 light-years from Earth. Orbiting a small, cool M dwarf star once every 4,170 days, the planet's location is remarkable — it is only the third planet in the entire history of space observation to be discovered so far away from our galaxy's dense center. Yet perhaps more exceptional than the planet's location is the method used to discover it. The effect, known as microlensing, occurs when the light of a host star is magnified by the warping of space-time due to a planet's gravity. The researchers published their findings May 7 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "This kind of work requires a lot of expertise, patience, and, frankly, a bit of luck," study co-author Marius Maskoliūnas, an astronomer at Vilnius University in Lithuania, said in a statement. "You have to wait for a long time for the source star and the lensing object to align and then check an enormous amount of data. Ninety percent of observed stars pulsate for various other reasons, and only a minority of cases show the microlensing effect." Nearly 6,000 alien worlds beyond our solar system have been discovered since the first exoplanet was detected in 1992. The two most common detection methods, called transmit photometry and radial velocity, detect planets through the dimming of host stars as they pass in front of them, or from the wobble that the planets' gravitational tugs impart upon them. A rarer method, known as microlensing, is derived from Einstein's theory of general relativity and is produced by massive objects as they warp the fabric of the universe, called space-time. Gravity, Einstein discovered, isn't produced by an unseen force but by space-time curving and distorting in the presence of matter and energy. Related: James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation This curved space, in turn, determines how energy and matter move through it. Even though light travels in a straight line, light traveling through a curved region of space-time also travels in a curve. This means that when a planet passes in front of its host star, its gravity acts as a lens — magnifying the star's light and causing its brightness to spike. "What fascinates me about this method is that it can detect those invisible bodies," Maskoliūnas said, essentially by measuring the bodies' shadows. "Imagine a bird flying past you. You don't see the bird itself and don't know what color it is — only its shadow. But from it, you can, with some level of probability, determine whether it was a sparrow or a swan and at what distance from us. It's an incredibly intriguing process." RELATED STORIES —James Webb telescope zooms in on bizarre 'Einstein ring' caused by bending of the universe —James Webb telescope uncovers 1st-ever 'Einstein zig-zag' hiding in plain sight — and it could help save cosmology —Stunning 'Einstein engagement ring' from the early universe is one of the oldest ever discovered AT2021uey b's cosmic shadow was first spotted in 2021 in data taken by the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope, revealing its presence by a momentary spike in the brightness of its host star. The astronomers then took detailed follow-up observations using Vilnius's Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, from which they calculated its source as a planet 1.3 times the mass of Jupiter. Its host star burns at about half the temperature of our own, and the gas giant sits four times farther than Earth's distance from the sun. According to the researchers, the planet's discovery so far from the Milky Way's central bulge, in a region that is comparatively sparse in heavier elements needed to form planets, offers a fresh hint of the unlikely places where planets can be found. "When the first planet around a sun-like star was discovered, there was a great surprise that this Jupiter-type planet was so close to its star," Edita Stonkutė, another Vilnius University astronomer and leader of the microlensing project that found the planet, said in the statement. "As data accumulated, we learned that many types of planetary systems are completely unlike ours — the solar system. We've had to rethink planetary formation models more than once."
The Independent
a day ago
- Science
- The Independent
Astronomers solve mystery of strange bright burst in space
Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy. After a year of research and analysis, we have finally pinned down the source of the signal – and it was even closer to home than we had ever expected. A surprise in the desert Our instrument was located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara – also known as the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory – in remote Western Australia, where the sky above the red desert plains is vast and sublime. We were using a new detector at the radio telescope known as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – or ASKAP – to search for rare flickering signals from distant galaxies called fast radio bursts. We detected a burst. Surprisingly, it showed no evidence of a time delay between high and low frequencies – a phenomenon known as 'dispersion'. This meant it must have originated within a few hundred light years of Earth. In other words, it must have come from inside our galaxy – unlike other fast radio bursts which have come from billions of light years away. A problem emerges Fast radio bursts are the brightest radio flashes in the Universe, emitting 30 years' worth of the Sun's energy in less than a millisecond – and we only have hints of how they are produced. Some theories suggest they are produced by 'magnetars' – the highly magnetised cores of massive, dead stars – or arise from cosmic collisions between these dead stellar remnants. Regardless of how they occur, fast radio bursts are also a precise instrument for mapping out the so-called 'missing matter' in our Universe. When we went back over our recordings to take a closer look at the radio burst, we had a surprise: the signal seemed to have disappeared. Two months of trial and error went by until the problem was found. ASKAP is composed of 36 antennas, which can be combined to act like one gigantic zoom lens six kilometres across. Just like a zoom lens on a camera, if you try to take a picture of something too close, it comes out blurry. Only by removing some of the antennas from the analysis – artificially reducing the size of our 'lens' – did we finally make an image of the burst. We weren't excited by this – in fact, we were disappointed. No astronomical signal could be close enough to cause this blurring. This meant it was probably just radio-frequency 'interference' – an astronomer's term for human-made signals that corrupt our data. It's the kind of junk data we'd normally throw away. Yet the burst had us intrigued. For one thing, this burst was fast. The fastest known fast radio burst lasted about 10 millionths of a second. This burst consisted of an extremely bright pulse lasting a few billionths of a second, and two dimmer after-pulses, for a total duration of 30 nanoseconds. So, where did this amazingly short, bright burst come from? A zombie in space? We already knew the direction it came from, and we were able to use the blurriness in the image to estimate a distance of 4,500 km. And there was only one thing in that direction, at that distance, at that time – a derelict 60-year-old satellite called Relay 2. Relay 2 was one of the first ever telecommunications satellites. Launched by the United States in 1964, it was operated until 1965, and its onboard systems had failed by 1967. But how could Relay 2 have produced this burst? Some satellites, presumed dead, have been observed to reawaken. They are known as 'zombie satellites'. But this was no zombie. No system on board Relay 2 had ever been able to produce a nanosecond burst of radio waves, even when it was alive. We think the most likely cause was an 'electrostatic discharge'. As satellites are exposed to electrically charged gases in space known as plasmas, they can become charged – just like when your feet rub on carpet. And that accumulated charge can suddenly discharge, with the resulting spark causing a flash of radio waves. Electrostatic discharges are common and are known to cause damage to spacecraft. Yet all known electrostatic discharges last thousands of times longer than our signal, and occur most commonly when the Earth's magnetosphere is highly active. And our magnetosphere was unusually quiet at the time of the signal. Another possibility is a strike by a micrometeoroid – a tiny piece of space debris – similar to that experienced by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. According to our calculations, a 22 micro-gram micrometeoroid travelling at 20km per second or more and hitting Relay 2 would have been able to produce such a strong flash of radio waves. But we estimate the chance that the nanosecond burst we detected was caused by such an event to be about 1 per cent. Plenty more sparks in the sky Ultimately, we can't be certain why we saw this signal from Relay 2. What we do know, however, is how to see more of them. When looking at 13.8 millisecond timescales – the equivalent of keeping the camera shutter open for longer – this signal was washed out, and barely detectable even to a powerful radio telescope such as ASKAP. But if we had searched at 13.8 nanoseconds, any old radio antenna would have easily seen it. It shows us that monitoring satellites for electrostatic discharges with ground-based radio antennas is possible. And with the number of satellites in orbit growing rapidly, finding new ways to monitor them is more important than ever. But did our team eventually find new astronomical signals? You bet we did. And there are no doubt plenty more to be found.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
New Images Show Andromeda Galaxy as You've Never Seen It Before
Andromeda lies 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy similar to our own that has allowed scientists to better understand our galactic home. A new composite image reveals our closest galactic neighbor in five different wavelengths of light, combined together to create a stunningly detailed view of Andromeda. Telescopes capture images in different wavelengths by observing a specific part of the electromagnetic spectrum, from low-frequency radio waves to extremely high-frequency gamma rays. By using different wavelengths, astronomers are able to see far more of the cosmos, whether it be glowing dust and stars or colliding galaxies. For the latest image of Andromeda, also known as M31, astronomers featured X-ray data from NASA's Chandra Observatory, revealing the high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The X-ray data, captured by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, is shown in red, green, and blue. Ultraviolet data from NASA's retired GALEX is in blue; infrared data from NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the Infrared Astronomy Satellite, COBE, Planck, and Herschel is in red, orange, and purple; and radio data from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope is in red-orange, according to NASA. Astrophotographers Jakob Sahner and Tarun Kottary provided some optical data using ground-based telescopes. Andromeda is a classic spiral, with graceful arms that rotate around a central bulge. It stretches across 220,000 light-years, twice the size of the Milky Way. The two galaxies are on an unfortunate collision course with one another and are expected to merge in about 4.5 billion years. Or maybe not, as research published earlier this month suggested. Astronomers also converted the multi-wavelength data to sound, creating a beautiful tune from Andromeda's dust lanes and star clusters. To create Andromeda's new song, scientists separated the layers captured by each telescope and stacked them on top of each other horizontally, beginning with X-rays at the top and then moving through ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio at the bottom. Each type of light is mapped to a different range of notes, from lower-energy radio waves all the way through the high energy of X-rays. The brightness of each source controls the volume of the galactic song, and the vertical location dictates the pitch. The latest composite image of Andromeda was released in honor of legendary astronomer Vera Rubin, who discovered evidence for dark matter by measuring the velocity of stars in the spiral galaxy. In the 1960s, Rubin carefully observed Andromeda and determined that unseen matter was affecting how the galaxy's spiral arms rotated. Earlier this week, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, named after the pioneering astronomer, released its very first images of the cosmos.
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
I Can't Stop Staring at This Massive ‘Star Wars' Galaxy Map
For as many times, narratively speaking, Star Wars' universe can feel awfully small in much of its recent output, it's always nice to be reminded that, actually, the scope of the galaxy far, far away is incomprehensibly vast. Especially if we can be reminded such an incredibly nerdy manner: via the medium of a massive, updated official map of that galaxy. Today the official Star Wars website, to sit alongside its own interactive timeline of the eras of Star Wars' past and future, released an updated semi-interactive map of the Star Wars galaxy. Based on a version that was first officially created in 2009 for the reference book Star Wars: The Essential Atlas (and updated multiple times since), the newest version now features locations from across recent Star Wars history, like Andor's Narkina, Bad Batch's Pabu, the worlds of the Chiss Ascendancy explored in Timothy Zahn's canon Thrawn, and much, much more. There's even an accompanying list of every star system charted on the map, including its reference grid on the map as well as the sector and region it belongs to. Star Wars RPG fans, fanfic writers, and more, rejoice! The map itself can be fully zoomed in on for better staring on the official site, but there is something breathtaking about just staring at the whole thing as in. Letting the words and hyperspace routes sort of blur, the regions of space and the official sectors of the galaxy intermingle, you really do remember that the Star Wars galaxy is a galaxy. It's huge! People on one end of it could never see or know what's going on on the other. Luke's line in A New Hope about Tatooine feeling like it was so far away from that bright light of the deep core feels so much more real when you see the the sheer distance Tatooine has from what was declared the 'hub' of galactic existence. The fact we have so many modern stories obsessed with maps, aside from speaking to Star Wars' own fascination with archival history and mythmaking, becomes so much more poignant in a way when confronted with the sheer scale of what these maps represent in a vast, cosmic scale. It makes other thematic ideas about the universe that much grander and impactful too—like the thought that Nemik's manifesto in Andor spread from one young man in one tiny cell of resistance in one tiny segment of the universe to the point that it was on Coruscant in the heart of the ISB, it was on Yavin IV, it was, as Major Partagaz despairingly admits, everywhere. The fires of the Clone War raged across this space. The Rebellion against the Empire sparked and flourished, from isolated pockets to a unified alliance that had members all over. The Resistance did it all over again years later, pulling together people from across these star systems to stand against the First Order, lying in wait at the galaxy's fringes. And that yes, the Force itself connects every living thing on all these bright lights across the universe. Star Wars is so, so very big. Its stories can do anything and be anything in a sandbox as vast, almost incomprehensibly so, as the one laid out here. With so much room, there's room for everything—including going beyond it. And that's what Star Wars should always feel like, so free and full of possibility. That's a lot to get out of just staring at a galaxy map, to be sure. But sometimes being given the scope of the thing allows us to comprehend our place in the universe—even a fictional one like Star Wars'. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
