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BARRY CENTER ยฎ
Your one-stop shop for telescopes, orrerys, home planetariums, spaceflight simulators, and all your other astronomy and astrophysics needs.
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@VRubinObs ๐ญ Today, #astronomers are aware of only about 40 percent ๐ of potentially hazardous #asteroids โ๏ธ - close-flying objects that are large enough to cause continent-wide destruction if they were to impact ๐ฅ Earth. "The idea is, if there is an object like that, we want to find it while itโs maybe 40 or 50 years out, because that gives us enough time to figure out how weโre going to deflect it.โ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-revolutionary-new-observatory-will-locate-threatening-asteroids-and-millions-of-galaxies-180984514/
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"The YR4 episode is just the beginning for #astronomers gaining the capability to see ๐ญ these objects โ๏ธ before they come calling through our neck of the woods." https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/asteroid-2024-yr4-may-be-a-dud-but-we-will-soon-find-many-more-threats
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The 20-inch diameter #telescope ๐ญ will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the unknown #NEOs โ๏ธ larger than 140 meters ๐. It will launch around ๐ September 2027 to detect and observe #asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact ๐ฅ threat to Earth https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/spacex-nasa-rocket-asteroid
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A single #HAMMER impactor (9-meter-tall, 8.8-ton) could deflect an object โ๏ธ 90 meters in diameter ๐ by around 1.4 Earth radii with 10 years of lead time โ from the time of launch to anticipated Earth impact. If limited to #telescopic ๐ญ observations, itโs possible that researchers may not be 100 percent certain of an #impact until less than a year before collision ๐ฅ. https://www.llnl.gov/article/44186/scientists-design-conceptual-asteroid-deflector-and-evaluate-it-against-massive-potential
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I've been experimenting with trying some of my sky boxes in Horizon Worlds. To my eye they are slightly blurrier than in my Unity Virtual Starship application, but not bad.
Here I am floating in front of the Gum nebula.
Now I just need to figure out how to get buttons and text working! The docs are terrible because Meta keeps changing their APIs and so their examples rarely actually work.
๐ฉ
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My followers may have heard of the neutral hydrogen map of the Milky Way published by Jan Oort, Frank Kerr and Gart Westerhout in 1958.
The Oude Sterrewacht, once directed by Oort, is now part of the Leiden botanical garden, the Hortus Botanicus. It is currently hosting an interesting art and science exhibit, Planten en Planeten (Plants and Planets).
Some of my maps are part of that exhibit, comparing Oort's original map with the new Gaia maps.
And so inspiring this new image.
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"Donโt panic, but an asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032" by @arstechnica - The reason not to panic is astronomers are narrowing down a potentially threatening near-Earth #asteroid orbit with accumulating observations. The Earth occupies some small percent of the potential paths while the orbit remains uncertain. Historically, so far narrowing such orbits has eliminated Earth from the path. No guarantees. Monitor news. https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/thanks-to-nasa-you-probably-wont-have-to-worry-about-this-asteroid-killing-you/#2024YR4 #astronomy#LowFlyingRocks
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"Incoming Asteroid" by XKCD comic (mirror bots @xkcd @xkcdbot ) - The smaller the asteroid/meteoroid, the more common it is. There are literally tons of incoming small meteors every day. The bigger they get, fortunately the less common. https://xkcd.com/3049/ #asteroid #astronomy#LowFlyingRocks#2024YR4
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When PR goes wrong ๐คทโโ๏ธ
If youโre going to advertise a nice space discovery, make sure your lead image shows it clearly.
Donโt lead with a context image in which itโs very hard to see and/or which could be misinterpreted.
Because the press will use that first image & everyone will be confused.
Case in point: this @guardian story about an Einstein ring seen by Euclid, PRโd by ESA this morning.
Can *you* see it? ๐
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You might think that the Einstein ring is the large fuzzy halo around the bright white elliptical galaxy nucleus in that wide-field Euclid image, but itโs not.
The ring is small & tight around the nucleus. Itโs hardly visible at all with the contrast in the main image, but easy once you play with the original data & extract it, as ESA did for this zoomed-in shot.
Except the Guardian photo editors didnโt use it as no-one made it clear to them.
Peter
ยท
4 weeks ago
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"Astronomers just deleted an asteroid because it turned out to be [he who shall not be named]โs Tesla Roadster" by Astronomy Magazine (apparently inactive acct @astronomymag if you know them, bug them to reactivate) - #Asteroid#2018CN41 was "discovered" and then deleted because it's a car. The car was used as a dummy weight for the initial demonstration launch of Falcon Heavy in 2018. https://www.astronomy.com/science/astronomers-just-deleted-an-asteroid-because-it-turned-out-to-be-elon-musks-tesla-roadster/ #astronomy #traffic#LowFlyingRocks#LowFlyingCars
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We're now two-thirds of the way to the 100 euros we need to make the new improved Acrux star board game prototype. I'm hoping that we can raise the remaining amount today and I can start work on it this weekend.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. We just need a few more tips to put us over the top (and for me to stop nagging you!)
Please help: https://tiptopjar.com/kevinjardine
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However nasty the weather is where you are, it's worse on WASP-127b. This planet has howling winds blowing at 9 km/sec (20,000 mph). Temperatures drop 175ยฐ C (315ยฐ F) across its night side.
WASP-127b is also a weird puffball, less dense than balsa wood! What a world.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2502/ #science #nature #astronomy #weather
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The Ring Nebulaโs true structure revealed at last
For nearly 250 years, astronomers have marveled at the Ring Nebula.
At long last, we know its true shape, and while it does possess a ring, it truly is so much more.
bigthink.com/starts-with-... #astro #astronomy #space
The Ring Nebula's true structu...
The Ring Nebula's true structu...
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Remembering another notable date in history: 100 years ago this month, Edwin Hubble proved that our galaxy is just one small island in a vast cosmic sea.
Our awareness of galaxies is just one century old! I dig into the full story in my latest Invisible Universe column:
https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/the-100th-birthday-of-the-universe #space #science #astronomy #history
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The best-ever reconstructed views of the #MilkyWay #galaxy as seen from the outside, released today on the occasion of the end of ESA Gaia science observations. #Astronomy
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This Saturday, my star-themed board game, Acrux, based on data from ESA's Gaia and Hipparcos survey missions, will have its public debut at the Dutch Board Games Association (Ducosim) game fair in Amersfoort. I am busy improving my prototype to make it look as good as possible! #boardgames #astronomy #gaiamission
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"An Evening Sky Full of Planets" is #NASA #astronomy picture of the day #APOD - Rare but occasionally-recurring spectacle in the sky: most of the visible planets line up briefly in a single night-sky view while our orbits put us all on the same side of the Sun. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250111.html
