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Daily observations of the number of sunspots since 1 January 1900 according to Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC). The thin blue line indicates the daily sunspot number, while the dark blue line indicates the running annual average. The recent low sunspot activity is clearly reflected in the recent low values for the total solar irradiance. Data source: WDC-SILSO, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels. Last day shown: 31 October 2019. Last diagram update: 1 November 2019. [Courtesy climate4you.com] *Deep solar minimum on the verge of an historic milestone* Overview The sun is currently in the midst of a deep solar...

Professor Valentina Zharkova’s recent paper ‘Oscillations of the Baseline of Solar Magnetic Field and Solar Irradiance on a Millennial Timescale’ has been accepted for publishing in Nature. It confirms a Grand Solar Minimum (GSM) from 2020 to 2055, as all four magnetic fields of the sun go out of phase, while also suggesting centuries of natural warming post-Minima. Zharkova’s team’s expanded ‘double dynamo’ calculations match-up almost perfectly with the timelines of past Grand Minimas: the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715), Wolf minimum (1300–1350), Oort minimum (1000–1050), Homer minimum (800–900 BC); as well as with the past Grand Maximas: the Medieval Warm Period...

Mysterious lights hovering above the east Valley have many wondering if we've had a close encounter. The couple says they spotted the phenomenon outside their Mesa home on Sunday around nine that night. They say the object seemed to come from the southeast. The object captured on two cell phones looks like a bright orb hovering silently in the sky. Every few moments, the object appears to drop what looks to be flares towards the ground. ABC15 reached out to several aviation experts who theorized the lights seen Sunday could be from parachute flares used by the military or even...

It's one of the brightest annual displays. Stargazers are in for a treat this December as one of the brightest annual displays is expected to light up the sky. The Geminid meteor shower can be seen between the 4th and the 17th of December, peaking on Saturday 14th when around 120 meteors will be expected to be visible per hour. Thanks to the brightness of the individual meteors, it's considered to be one of the best to observe. "In December every year, the Earth crosses the orbital path of the Apollo asteroid 3200 Phaethon. As the asteroid’s orbit takes it...

The Abell 85 galaxy cluster, which is home to a black hole of 40 billion solar masses Mathias Kluge/USM/MPE ===================================================================== Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the University Observatory Munich have found the largest known black hole in our galactic neighborhood using direct mass measurements. Located 700 million light-years from Earth in the Abell 85 cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Cetus, it has a mass 40 billion times that of the Sun. Ever since the existence of the first black hole was confirmed in 1971, they have gone from being a mathematical curiosity...

Astronomers have captured the best and closest image to date of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, a visitor that originated from outside of our solar system and is currently passing through. On Sunday, the comet will pass within 190 million miles of Earth on its closest approach before continuing on through our solar system. As it gets closer to Earth, the icy comet is shedding more gas and dust through its tail through evaporation. Astronomers at Yale University used the W.M. Keck Observatory's Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, located in Hawaii, to provide the closest look at the interstellar comet since it was first...

The space rock will fly harmlessly past our planet. Asteroid VH5 2019 will make its flyby at about 17.9 lunar distances on Dec. 8, according to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The asteroid has dimensions of 57 meters (187 feet) by 130 meters (426.5 feet), NASA says. Citing the asteroid’s dimensions, the Inquisitr website describes the rock as “pyramid-shaped,” noting that it is almost as large as the famous Great Pyramid of Giza. The Apollo asteroid is one of five space rocks set to fly by Earth over the weekend, according to the Inquisitr,...

Astronomers have discovered more than 20,000 so-called near-Earth asteroids, or space rocks whose orbits pass within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit. Whereas comets erupt with long tails of gas, dust and debris when they streak near the sun, the vast majority of near-Earth asteroids appear inert. However, previous research found that a small number of asteroids, such as the asteroid 133P/Elst-Pizarro, could actively erupt with large amounts of dust and bits of rock — enough to create temporary clouds or comet-like tails that are visible from Earth-based telescopes. Much remains unknown about what drives such...

For a little NASA spacecraft, the weather outside is frightful. The Parker Solar Probe is on a mission toward the sun. The spacecraft has been exposed to scorching temperatures and intense sunlight as it draws closer with every loop around. Eventually, Parker will glide through the star’s outer atmosphere and feel the toastiness of nearly 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (more than 1 million degrees Celsius). Parker is dressed appropriately for the journey. It wears a thick, custom-made shield to protect its scientific instruments and systems, and tubes with flowing water to cool itself down. Inside, it is a cozy 78...

Details regarding the incoming space rock have been collected by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The agency noted that the asteroid, which has been identified as 2019 WW, is currently flying across space towards Earth at an average speed of almost 22,000 miles per hour. According to CNEOS, the asteroid has an estimated diameter of 236 feet, making it longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747 plane. 2019 WW has been labeled as an Apollo asteroid due to its natural orbit. Like other Apollo asteroids, 2019 WW follows a wide orbit around the Sun and the Earth....

Outbursts of energetic particles that hurtle out from the sun and can disrupt space communications may be even more varied and numerous than previously thought, according to results from the closest-ever flyby of the sun. The finding that these energetic particle events are more varied and numerous than previously known was one of several discoveries made by the instrument suite known as the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISOIS), a project led by Princeton University that involves multiple institutions as well as NASA. ISOIS seeks to find out how the particles become so fast moving, and what is pushing...

Humans have good reason to fear comets, asteroids and other massive space objects. Now we’d like to add ‘mini-moons’ to the list of heavenly bodies we should be worried about. Scientists have claimed our planet was recently hit by one of these mysterious rocks, which exploded in a gigantic fireball. A mini-moon is an object which becomes entangled in Earth’s orbit as it’s zooming through space. It will either whirl around the planet harmlessly forever, zoom off back off on its journey through the solar system or, in the worst case, smash into our planet. ‘Objects gravitationally captured by the...

A space enthusiast from Chennai who worked independently, found a debris from the Vikram moonlander that scientists had been looking for and helped guide them to the spot where it had crashed. Shanmuga Subramanian...looked for it on the images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital (LRO) Camera that the US space agency had released to the public. LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro... said that Subramanian "is totally indpendent of the LRO, totally independent of the Chandraayan 2 team, just someone who is very interested in the Chandraayan 2 mission (who) used our data and identified a spot where there was a...

Hold on to your hats, skeptics. The study of alien existence is about to become a real scientific field. Pennsylvania State University is gearing up to make the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) an established field of scientific study. This means that a degree in Alien Research, no matter how outlandish it might sound, is soon going to be a real thing. According to a report, the university is planning on doing this by offering courses on the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life in its course catalog. It will also conduct actual research into the subject through it’s newly-established Penn...

The instrument, called the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE), is located on Queqiao, a Chinese communications satellite that was launched in support of the Chang’e 4 mission, the first soft-landing and robotic mission to the lunar far side. NCLE was developed in the Netherlands by Radboud University, ASTRON, and ISISpace, along with support from Netherland’s Space Office. Queqiao is currently located around 450,000 kilometers (280,000 miles) from Earth, and it’s positioned in a halo orbit that keeps the satellite in the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point (so the satellite stays behind the Moon from our perspective, never coming between Earth and...

NASA reveals the first global geologic map of Titan Shane McGlaun - Nov 25, 2019, 7:09 am CST 1 Titan is the largest moon orbiting Saturn, and NASA has unveiled the first global map of the moon. The map shows a world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters, and other terrain. Titan is important to scientists because it is the only other known planetary body in the solar system, other than Earth, known to have stable liquid on its surface. The significant difference is that instead of water lakes as the Earth has, Titan has methane and ethane hydrocarbons on its...

Asteroids regularly make close approaches to Earth, and Nasa creates alerts for each one of these objects. Sometimes several will even pass by in a single day – completely unnoticed by humanity. For instance, four 'All Saints' asteroids skimmed past Earth on November 1, completely harmlessly. Now Nasa has revealed that another asteroid is scheduled for an Earth fly-by on November 25. The asteroid is called 2019 VF1, named because it was first discovered this year. It measures up to 492 feet (150 metres) across, and will skirt Earth at 4.09am UK time – or 11.09pm on Sunday in New...

Three supermassive black holes found lurking in one galaxy NGC 6240 is a well-studied example of a galaxy merger. But the discovery that it hides three supermassive black holes makes it a stunning example of a galaxy formed through a triple merger. By Alison Klesman  |  Published: Friday, November 22, 2019 RELATED TOPICS: BLACK HOLES | GALAXIES The strange galaxy NGC 6240 is an ultra-rare example of a galaxy harboring three supermassive black holes near its core. Astronomers already knew of the galaxy's active, northern black hole (N), but thanks to cutting-edge 3D-mapping techniques, they've now identified two more —...

Dark Matter Still Missing After Many Decades ... "Big Bang theory in trouble". November 22, 2019 | Jerry Bergman All the proposed candidates for mysterious, unknown stuff have failed to materialize, putting Big Bang theory in trouble. by Jerry Bergman, PhD The cover story of the November 16-22 New Scientist announced prominently on the cover: “DARK MATTER: We still haven’t found it. Our theories are falling apart. Is it time to rethink the universe?” [1] Dan Hooper, author of the cover story, is worried, because Dark Matter theory is a necessary support for the Big Bang. Thus, the Big Bang...

An international team of scientists at NASA have found sugar molecules on two different meteorites, the agency announced on Nov. 19. The new discovery adds to the growing list of biologically important compounds that have been found in meteorites and supports the theory that chemical reactions in asteroids can play an important role in creating and supporting life, the space agency said in a statement. Researchers said they discovered “ribose and other bio-essential sugars” in the extraterrestrial rock, adding that ribose is a “crucial component of RNA (ribonucleic acid)”—essential for the regulation and expression of genes. “In much of modern...