All posts tagged: Astronomer

Student astronomer discovers rare white dwarf star feeding on a red dwarf companion

Student astronomer discovers rare white dwarf star feeding on a red dwarf companion

Published by Jenni Sidey

ASKAP J1745-5051 did not look like an easy answer to anything. It flashed radio waves every 1.4 hours, then went quiet for stretches. Then it lit up again with a pattern astronomers had trouble classifying. That odd behavior has now helped pin down one of astronomy’s stranger new mysteries. In a study published in Nature Astronomy, an international team reports that ASKAP J1745-5051 is a compact binary system. In this system, a white dwarf is pulling material from a low-mass red dwarf companion. The finding offers some of the strongest evidence yet that at least some long-period radio transients come from white dwarf binaries. Previously, many had suspected they came from slowly spinning neutron stars. The system was first spotted in an untargeted search for circularly polarized radio sources with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP. Additionally, follow-up observations with MeerKAT sharpened its position. Astronomers matched it to a faint optical source in Gaia data. What they found next changed the story. Artist’s impression of the white dwarf binary ASKAP J1745-5051. The smaller, …

Astronomer Warns SpaceX Rocket Will Crash Into The Moon

Astronomer Warns SpaceX Rocket Will Crash Into The Moon

Published by Sam Flores

!function(n){if(!window.cnx){window.cnx={},window.cnx.cmd=[];var t=n.createElement(‘iframe’);t.display=’none’,t.onload=function(){var n=t.contentWindow.document,c=n.createElement(‘script’);c.src=”//cd.connatix.com/connatix.player.js”,c.setAttribute(‘async’,’1′),c.setAttribute(‘type’,’text/javascript’),n.body.appendChild(c)},n.head.appendChild(t)}}(document);(new Image()).src=”https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=8b034f64-513c-4987-b16f-42d6008f7feb”;cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({“playerId”:”8b034f64-513c-4987-b16f-42d6008f7feb”,”mediaId”:”1675d0f4-2c7a-4a08-acb8-10a79be2d3a6″}).render(“6a070419e4b098065be95923”);}); A big section of the SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 is predicted to crash into the moon on August 5, astronomer Bill Gray said on his site, Project Pluto. Gray is the creator of various software, some of which tracks “near-Earth” objects, asteroids, comets, and items in orbit. His calculations found that the “upper stage” part of the rocket – or the bit which carries the “payload” of the vessel, where the important part, be it people or tracking equipment, lies – should hit the Einstein crater of the moon next month.  There are no people on board. Per ScienceAlert, the Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket, which means “its first, larger stage returns to Earth and alights on a barge so it can be refilled and re-flown, while the second stage remains in orbit”. That second part is the bit that’s set to hit the moon.  When exactly will the collision happen?  The astronomer’s best estimation so far is August 5, 7:44am UK time. Will we be able to see …

An Out of Control SpaceX Rocket Is Going to Smash Into Moon, Astronomer Says

An Out of Control SpaceX Rocket Is Going to Smash Into Moon, Astronomer Says

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech One of Elon Musk’s spacecraft will finally reach the lunar surface — but probably not in the way he envisioned. According to a new report, the discarded upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon rocket will smash into the Moon this summer, potentially blasting open a new crater. While it may be of some minor scientific interest, it’s mainly an omen of how space junk may come back to haunt lunar missions in the future. “It doesn’t present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware is disposed of,” report author Bill Gray, an astronomer who created the Project Pluto software used to track near-Earth objects, wrote in the report. The report is yet to be peer reviewed, but Gray isn’t hedging his beats. He’s predicting, with high confidence, that the impact will occur at 2:44 AM EDT on August 5, striking near the Einstein crater on the near side of …

Astronomer Who Discovered Water on Distant Planet Murdered Outside Home

Astronomer Who Discovered Water on Distant Planet Murdered Outside Home

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech A renowned Caltech astronomer who studied distant exoplanets was shot and killed outside his home in a rural area near Los Angeles, the LA Times reported. Carl Grillmair, 67, was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene after deputies responded to a 911 call in the unincorporated community of Llano in Antelope Valley. A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to the torso. The LA County Sheriff’s department said it arrested a suspect, Freddy Snyder, 29, in a nearby carjacking while investigating the shooting. Snyder was charged Wednesday with Grillmair’s murder, along with burglary and carjacking. It’s unclear if Snyder had any relation with Grillmair. Grillmair, a member of Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, better known as IPAC, had spent more than four decades studying distant exoplanets and the structures that make up our galaxy.  As a principal investigator on NASA’s Hubble space telescope and NASA’s Spitzer space telescope, one of …