Posted on Dec 16, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Extraterrestrial Life, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Science, Science News, Space News, Universe
This weekend’s stories include Is our evolving relationship with tech shifting our view of reality? to Unsettling Solutions to the Fermi Paradox to Mysterious Light Glowing Throughout Solar System, and much more.
How JWST revolutionized astronomy in 2022, reports Nature.com–The far-seeing observatory has served up revelations from the most distant reaches of the Universe to a moon orbiting Saturn.
Aliens haven’t contacted Earth because there’s no sign of intelligence here, new answer to the Fermi paradox suggests, reports Stephanie Pappas for Live Science. “A new paper claims that intelligent aliens would only be interested in contacting the most technologically advanced planets, and Earth doesn’t make the cut.”
The place that defines a new Earth epoch, reports Nature.com–“Nine candidate sites are in the running to be the location for the ‘golden spike’ of the Anthropocene, a physical marker for a site that defines a geological epoch. Each spot is being considered for how reliably its mud, ice or sediment preserves markers such as radioactive isotopes from nuclear-bomb tests, ash from fossil-fuel combustion or microplastics. If one is accepted within the next six months, it would end the 12,000-year-old Holocene and officially acknowledge that humans have profoundly changed the planet.”
Could the Government Really Cover Up UFOs?–asks the Wall Street Journal. ” U.S. military intelligence agencies were supposed to deliver a long-anticipated report at the end of October, and it could drop any day now. It’s a sequel to a document published in June 2021. The reports were requested by the Senate to make clear what the Navy knows about 144 puzzling incidents that occurred during training exercises off the California coast from 2004 to 2021. In all these incidents, unrecognized objects were apparently seen or detected.”
“Pale Blue Pod,” a show that attempts to make complex conversations about the universe feel intimate, emotional, and profound. The Cosmos has spawned a galaxy of cosmological podcasts. There’s “Houston We Have a Podcast,” the official podcast of NASA; “The Supermassive Podcast,” whose host, Izzie Clarke, brings listeners the latest news in astrophysics; and “Astronomy Cast.” But no star stuff has been as auditorily compelling as the new “Pale Blue Pod”.
Is our evolving relationship with tech shifting our view of reality?–This year saw the launch of ChatGPT, an AI that anyone can converse with, and the news that a quantum computer simulated a wormhole. Are our sensibilities about what is real changing, asks Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for New Scientist.
University of Montréal astronomers find that two exoplanets may be water worlds, reports Canada’s Udemnouvelles. “These worlds, located in a planetary system 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, are unlike any planets found in our solar system.”
James Webb Space Telescope spots rare red spiral galaxies in the early universe, reports Robert Lea for Space.com–“Astronomers analyzed red spiral galaxies in one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images, that of the galaxy cluster SMACS J0723.3–7327.The researchers determined that some of these galaxies represent the most distant spiral galaxies ever seen.”
JWST gets first glimpse of 7-planet system with potentially habitable worlds--Astronomers have been eager for the landmark telescope to study the TRAPPIST-1 system, reports Nature.com.
There must be a singularity at each black hole’s center–We’ll never be able to extract any information about what’s inside a black hole’s event horizon. Here’s why a singularity is inevitable, reports Big Think.
Fusion power is a scientific triumph, but not (yet) a commercial one. How do we make it so? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, reports Don Lincoln for Big Think.
Astronomers Spot Mysterious Ghostly Light Glowing Throughout Solar System–Scientists used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the presence of an unexplained glow amid the blackness of space, reports Eric Mack for CNet.
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
Your free daily fix of stories of space and science –a random journey from Planet Earth through the Cosmos– that has the capacity to provide clues to our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our Anthropocene epoch.
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