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From the Sciences and Cosmology web page: "Want me to tell you something that will blow your mind or make you lose sleep? Well, look at this picture. Each of those dots you see is a GALAXY... And each GALAXY has roughly 100BILLION STARS. Also, each STAR has at least 1 PLANET. Now how many galaxies do you think there can be in that picture? And this is just a photograph of a very little parcel of the universe. This makes me lose sleep, thinking about how so insignificant we really are. Lol."

You never really know what you might find hiding in your own backyard, especially if those things are particularly adept at escaping detection. Just 1,924 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation of Aquila, astronomers have just discovered a black hole. And it's not just any black hole. Named Gaia BH3, or BH3, the object is the most massive stellar-mass black hole we've ever spotted in the Milky Way, clocking in at a hefty 33 times the mass of the Sun. It's the second-closest black hole we've found to our home-world, and it's just hanging out, quietly in space,...

Caltech and JPL scientists suggest the fingerprints of early photochemistry provide a solution to the long-standing mystery. Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere—one that is far too thin to prevent large amounts of water on the surface of the planet from subliming or evaporating. But many researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in an atmosphere many times thicker than Earth's. For decades that left the question, "Where did all the carbon go?" Now a team of scientists from Caltech and JPL thinks they have a possible answer. The researchers suggest that 3.8 billion...

(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a new strategy in the quest to harness fusion to produce electricity: combining two existing methods of managing plasma to allow greater overall flexibility. The PPPL team’s new dual approach brings together electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) methods with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), marking the first time a simulation showing how they can be used together could facilitate greater control of plasma during fusion reactions. In simple terms, fusion produces energy by replicating the natural processes occurring on the surface of...

Research scientists from Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden say they have created the first two-dimensional single-atom layer of gold using a technique perfected by Japanese smiths over 100 years ago. Dubbed “goldene” in reference to the popular single-atom carbon material graphene that essentially kicked off the 2D materials revolution, the breakthrough material could possess a large number of exotic properties like those found in other single-atom 2D materials. The researchers behind the first-ever accomplishment also say they believe goldene could also offer several immediate applications. These include new methods for harvesting energy, catalysis for hydrogen generation, carbon conversion, water purification,...

Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise.

International Thinktank Applied Physics (AP) has released its “Warp Factory” simulator and toolkit to help scientists and engineers move closer to building a real-world Star Trek-style warp drive. Having already established itself in the nascent field of warp mechanics with the previous release of its “physical warp drive” design in 2021, AP is now offering its expertise to the broader community to advance the development of existing and future warp drive concepts. The Public Benefit Corporation is also putting its money where its mouth is by offering warp field theorists a chance at $500,000 worth of grant money, a commitment...

Scientists have found methane deep within Uranus - revealing the blue planet is gassier than previously thought. Early experiments of Uranus found the planet is primarily made up of Helium and hydrogen with a touch of methane, but a new study said it considerably outstrips previous expectations. What's odd about the methane though, is it isn't in gas-form but is frozen or 'mushy,' - like a 7-eleven Slurpee - and is lodged in Uranus's core. Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology and University of California Santa Cruz revealed that despite findings that said Uranus is made up entirely of...

In the wake of claiming the moon is made of gas and the sun is "almost" too hot to get close to, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has been named the new head of Harvard University's Astronomy Department. The Board of Overseers at the prestigious Ivy League institution was reportedly wowed by Jackson Lee's insights into the cosmos, with the school immediately seeking to get in touch with her about the department head position. "Her knowledge blew us away," said Harvard Interim President Alan Garber. "When she said, 'The moon is made up of mostly gasses. That's why the question...

Social media users trashed Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, after she turned her gaffe about the moon being "made of gases" into a slam of Republicans on social media Tuesday. Reacting to the backlash she received for telling school children that the moon is made of gases ahead of Monday’s eclipse, the lawmaker said that her Republican critics are hounding her because they have a "lust for stupidity." She gave a speech at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston on the day of the eclipse, telling an assembly of students, "Sometimes, you need to take the opportunity just to...

While Democrats and leftist alarmists decry conservatives for supposedly peddling "misinformation" about "the Science™" related to climate, COVID, and genders (there are two, FYI), their own Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas is out and about telling constituents some real whoppers about the solar eclipse.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee ( D-TX) once sat on the House Science Committee and the House Space Committee. But understanding astronomy seems to elude her. Jackson Lee attended an event at Booker T. Washington High School where the “Trust the Science” party member clearly does not understand the science. Jackson Lee explained to the crowd, “You have the energy of the moon at night.” What?

This is what happens when you teach nothing but racism in school, and leave out anything actually, you know, educational. >p> During an event in Houston just before the eclipse Monday morning, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told the audience gathered at the Mickey Leland Federal Building that the moon was made up “mostly of gasses” (it isn’t) and that it's "almost impossible to go near the sun" (we actually can't go near it at all) because it's a "mighty powerful heat" (you don't say!?). Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: It's "almost impossible to go near the sun," but the...

Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called "God particle" that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday following a short illness. Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle, which came to be known as the Higgs boson, in 1964. He theorized that there must be a sub-atomic particle of certain dimension that would explain how other particles—and therefore all the stars and planets in the universe—acquired mass. Without something like...

Explanation: How does a comet tail change? It depends on the comet. The ion tail of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days from March 6 to 14 (top to bottom). On some days, the comet's ion tail was relatively long and complex, but not every day. Reasons for tail changes include the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the comet. Over the course of a week, apparent changes even include a change of...

Explanation: What's happening to the big black hole in the center of our galaxy? It is sucking in matter from a swirling disk -- a disk that is magnetized, it has now been confirmed. Specifically, the black hole's accretion disk has recently been seen to emit polarized light, radiation frequently associated with a magnetized source. Pictured here is a close-up of Sgr A*, our Galaxy's central black hole, taken by radio telescopes around the world participating in the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration. Superposed are illustrative curved lines indicating polarized light likely emitted from swirling magnetized gas that will soon...

There are striking analogies between the interpersonal relationships of humans and the gravitational interaction of physical bodies in space. Consider a two-body system. In both realms, the systems can have stable configurations, leading to long-lived marriages or stellar binaries. But when a third body interacts strongly with these systems, a non-hierarchical three-body system often displays chaos with one of the members ejected and the other two remaining bound. This brings up analogies with interpersonal relationships when a third body is added to a non-hierarchical two-body system. The chaotic gravitational dynamics in a system of three stars inspired the storyline for...

Explanation: In dark evening skies over June Lake, northern hemisphere, planet Earth, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks stood just above the western horizon on March 30. Its twisted turbulent ion tail and diffuse greenish coma are captured in this two degree wide telescopic field of view along with bright yellowish star Hamal also known as Alpha Arietis. Now Pons-Brooks has moved out of the northern night though, approaching perihelion on April 21. On April 8 you might still spot the comet in daytime skies. But to do it, you will have to stand in the path of totality and look away from the...

During a total solar eclipse, the sun's ghostly white corona appears around the black disk of the moon. This total solar eclipse was photographed on Aug. 21, 2017 in Oregon.

Days before one of the researchers’ wedding, a star explodes in a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.A team of Israeli scientists managed to capture and study a once-in-a-lifetime supernova using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, helping mankind better understand this magnificent event. Supernovas, or exploding stars, are phenomenons that occur in our galaxy about once every century, with the last observable explosion taking place hundreds of years ago. Supernovas can’t be predicted, and instead astrophysicists study their aftermath in a way reminiscent of space archaeology. But the researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science learned about the supernova as it was taking place on...