You know, it wasn't all that long ago that whether there were planets around other stars was an open question. When I was a kid, the theory was that planets only occured after a close encounter or near collision between stars, and thus must be extremely rare. Yes, I know that was stone-knives-and-bearskin time. There were some false alarms, for example, reports of a super-earth around Barnard's star.
The question is now pretty well settled.
First ever direct image of another solar system...
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) January 12, 2025
A multi-planet system to be exact...
With a young, sun-like star...
300 light-years away from us... pic.twitter.com/dYS2jZGnhf
Kepler 1649 c is one of the most Earth-like exoplanets discovered so far.
— FarLife (@FarLife1) January 12, 2025
Located roughly 300 light-years away, this intriguing world is only 1.2 times more massive than Earth, as well as being nearly identical in diameter. It orbits within the habitable zone of a relatively… pic.twitter.com/hjuOKWsabz
And Barnard's Star did finally have a confirmed planetary system.
Barnard’s Star, The “Great White Whale” of Planet Hunting, Has Surrendered Its Secret – Astronomers have found that Barnard’s star has a super-Earth sized planet orbiting just beyond its habitable zone. | Many Worlds @nexssinfo https://t.co/dn2bP31pzt pic.twitter.com/hPfwCnpbF6
— The SETI Institute (@SETIInstitute) November 14, 2018
Also for our VIPs: Great Gobs of Sky Candy
The Sun continues its wicked ways this week, still lots of solar activity. Pictures of aurorae from the Space Station fascinate me. The aurorae are actually underneath the orbit of the ISS.
Earth from space 🌍
— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) January 8, 2025
This video of our home planet was captured during the International Space Station’s Expedition 65. Tag someone who would enjoy this view!
Learn more: https://t.co/yFcRfuydeV pic.twitter.com/oPJwTAtBuJ
Don Pettit, @astro_Pettit on X, always has good stuff. Here's another great picture of aurora. Or aurorae. I don't know — is that one or many?
Flying over aurora; intensely green. pic.twitter.com/leUufKFnBB
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) January 6, 2025
… and the source of the excitement.
Incredibly detailed photograph of our Sun ☀️
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) January 13, 2025
📸: Arturo Buenrostro pic.twitter.com/BVuwwBs5xE
We sort of forget that planets besides Saturn have rings, just not big flashy ones. Here's Jupiter with its subdued rings.
Jupiter and it's rings captured by the James Webb Space Telescope pic.twitter.com/HX9DoOhCXK
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) January 14, 2025
A good source of sky candy is the Astronomy Picture of the Day page and its associated X feed.
The colorful, spiky stars are in the foreground of this image taken with a small telescope on planet Earth. They lie well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. But the two eye-catching galaxies in the frame lie far beyond the Milky Way, at a distance of over 300 million light-years.… pic.twitter.com/TbkwcDYLL6
— Astronomy Picture Of the Day (@apod) January 10, 2025
Big ba-da-boom.
En 2021, el telescopio Hubble observó la estrella AG Carinae. Es una estrella supergigante a 20 000 años-luz del Sistema Solar, en la dirección de la constelación de la Quilla. Es una de las estrellas más luminosas de la galaxia y está rodeada por material expulsado durante un… pic.twitter.com/PP1SvJ4MHU
— Álex Riveiro (@alex_riveiro) January 10, 2025
J.B.S. Haldane said, "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." A hypothetical oddity that showed up this week is the notion of "dark stars," stellar bodies composed of dark matter only. (Remember, the "dark" in "dark matter" means "damned if we know where this extra gravity is coming from.")
Dark stars are a theoretical class of stars that may have existed in the early universe, distinct from the conventional stars we observe today.
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) January 14, 2025
Unlike normal stars, which generate energy through nuclear fusion, dark stars are hypothesized to be powered by the annihilation of… pic.twitter.com/Ee8LT6A22g
I'm starting to try to feature some space history every week. This week, some sad history.
With sadness, we look back on this photo of the crew of STS-107, who launched on space shuttle Columbia on Jan 16, 2003. Their tragic deaths 16 days later are seared into our history, and we vow to keep their memory alive.https://t.co/uA67I7ImWL pic.twitter.com/KjbGdhvn9b
— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) January 16, 2025
But progress is being made. Remember, reusable rockets were considered impossible not so long ago. Especially at NASA.
Leaving Earth for the 25th time pic.twitter.com/DoUPKsEenF
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) January 10, 2025
Makes for some great pictures. This is not AI.
Remember, it's not really progress unless there are some failures along the way…
Starship Flight Test 7: Now That Was One Spectacular Failure https://t.co/uwCKjW3CQQ
— (((Charlie Martin))) (@chasrmartin) January 17, 2025
…but you have to admit, when SpaceX has a failure, it's a pretty flashy failure.
Two successful catches almost felt like too much going well. Well, at least it was a pretty failure of the Starship.
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) January 17, 2025
pic.twitter.com/QhcQNE2I0u
So that does it for another week. Come back next week. Please. :-) And comments are always nice.
