Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  3 months ago

Content Warning

"Chance of 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 smashing into Earth rises yet again to 3.1%, #NASA reports" by @LiveScience - As astronomers' observations have narrowed the estimate of #asteroid#2024YR4's orbit, Earth's size is now a larger fraction of the reduced cross-section of possible paths. So probability goes up until impact is ruled out. 96.9% chance the eventually-narrowed path will eliminate impact with Earth. Computation continues. https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/chance-of-city-killer-asteroid-2024-yr4-smashing-into-earth-rises-yet-again-to-3-1-percent-nasa-reports #astronomy#LowFlyingRocks
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  3 months ago

Content Warning

"NASA massively lowers impact risk of 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 to 1 in 360" by @Spacecom / @RobertLea - #Asteroid#2024YR4 dropped from 3 to 1 on the Torino Scale of impact hazards. Telescope observations have narrowed down its orbit estimate, and chances of impact in 2032. As of Tuesday it was listed as 3.1%. It dropped to 0.28% as of Thursday when the article was written. (Minor update to 0.36% today.) It's expected to drop to zero. https://www.space.com/asteroid-2024yt4-impact-risk-drop-nasa #astronomy#LowFlyingRocks
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

"You’re going to see more ‘city-killer’ asteroids, but fret not, MIT astronomer says" by KTLA Los Angeles - #Asteroid#2024YR4 is a useful example of what we're likely to see more often as astronomers get better equipment to locate rocks that have always been out there but previously passed unseen in the dark. Observation of an asteroid's orbit should look like this each time. https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/city-killer-asteroids-more-common/ #astronomy#PlanetaryDefense#PlanetaryDefence#LowFlyingRocks #space
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

"Asteroid 2024 YR4 is going to miss Earth, but the story doesn’t end there" by @arstechnica / @sciguyspace - The orbit of #Asteroid#2024YR4 has been narrowed down enough to know it will not hit Earth. Get used to more asteroids being evaluated as potential threats. The good news is that humanity is increasingly able to find these threats which were already out there. Don't be a dinosaur.🦕🦖🌠 https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/asteroid-2024-yr4-may-be-a-dud-but-we-will-soon-find-many-more-threats/ #astronomy#PlanetaryDefense#PlanetaryDefence#LowFlyingRocks #space
Mark McCaughrean
Mark McCaughrean  ·  last month

Content Warning

Wow – didn’t think I’d be in tears today, but this message sent home from Gaia as it was shut down forever today hits hard 😭

What you’re seeing is a map of the 106 CCD detectors that Gaia used to measure the positions of billions of stars in the Milky Way for the past 11 years 🛰️✨

They were turned off in a special sequence … 😕

#SpaceScience#Astronomy#Science

Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

Webb unmasks true nature of the Cosmic Tornado

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a beautiful juxtaposition of the nearby protostellar outflow known as Herbig-Haro 49/50 with a perfectly positioned, more distant spiral galaxy.

📷 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_unmasks_true_nature_of_the_Cosmic_Tornado

#JWST#Webb#Astronomy#Astrophysics #Astrodon #science #news #galaxy

Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a conical shaped orange-red cloud known at Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. At this same location there is a background spiral shaped galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.
Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a conical shaped orange-red cloud known at Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. At this same location there is a background spiral shaped galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.
Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a conical shaped orange-red cloud known at Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. At this same location there is a background spiral shaped galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

But seriously, one clever trick (among many) which astronomers use to determine the distance of an astronomical object is to make observations 6 months apart, when Earth is at opposite sides of its orbit around the Sun. The apparent change in position of the star relative to farther objects in the background (parallax) indicates how much the view was affected by the change in Earth's position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_parallax #astronomy #science
Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

Last night we were over at the Leiden University board game society demoing the Acrux star board game.

This is the latest near final prototype with the box and folding board.

The rules are solidifying now but the students suggested one interesting variation we are going to try out.

#boardgames #astronomy

Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

Next week I'm launching Star Central on Horizon Worlds: a galactic cartography "world" on the largest social VR app. Horizon Worlds has a reputation as a hang out for badly behaved kids playing shooter games. But what if there was content that appealed to a different (and older) group of people?

There are a couple of walkable Gaia maps, but the most exciting bit is the Star Cinema with immersive audio and image presentations that take the audience travelling across the galaxy.

#astronomy #vr

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈  ·  2 months ago
We could be so close to finding 'another Earth' around a nearby star, but Musk is going to be stopping that, he'll be cutting SETI, he'll be cutting anything he doesn't understand....Musk is holding back Humanity from it's destiny among the Stars.

A reminder, his rocket is behind schedule for NASA's return to the Moon, it'll be a Chinese moon with Elon in charge.

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

We already know he hates ground based Astronomy, I figure he'll be looking at all the Space Telescopes, wondering what the profit in them all is and shutting them down.

He's erasing Grace Hopper, he'll be renaming the Nancy Grace Roman telescope after a white dude.

#Astronomy#JWST #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

The 20-inch diameter #telescope 🔭 will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the unknown #NEOs ☄️ larger than 140 meters 📏. It will launch around 📆 September 2027 to detect and observe #asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact 💥 threat to Earth https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/spacex-nasa-rocket-asteroid

#AsteroidThreat#NASA#Astronomy

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

A single #HAMMER impactor (9-meter-tall, 8.8-ton) could deflect an object ☄️ 90 meters in diameter 📏 by around 1.4 Earth radii with 10 years of lead time – from the time of launch to anticipated Earth impact. If limited to #telescopic 🔭 observations, it’s possible that researchers may not be 100 percent certain of an #impact until less than a year before collision 💥. https://www.llnl.gov/article/44186/scientists-design-conceptual-asteroid-deflector-and-evaluate-it-against-massive-potential

#AsteroidThreat#AsteroidDeflection#Astronomy

Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  3 months ago

Content Warning

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.

😩

#astronomy #vr

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