Launched on August 12, 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is designed to withstand the brutal near-solar environment and heat of the sun and its atmosphere. Its mission is to probe the near-solar environment and help us answer yet unanswered questions about the hot, tenuous solar corona, the solar wind, coronal streamers and the near-solar environment in[…]
Supernova 1987a was the closest supernova to be observed since Kepler’s supernova in 1604. It was one of the first objects observed with the newly deployed Hubble Space Telescope in 1991 and thus, the first -and closest supernova- to be observed with a modern observing platform. Although it is named and designated according to the[…]
Comet Nishimura will be at its closest approach to the sun this weekend and thus affords us a rare opportunity to observe it at its brightest! Discovered on August 12 of this year by Hideo Nishimura, the comet originated in the Oort Cloud, a spherical shell of ancient debris, rock and ice left over from[…]
Using data and imagery obtained with the JWST, a recent study claims the universe is now 26.7 billion years old. We will unequivocally show that the age of the universe is still 13.77 Gyr. One of the principal reasons the JWST mission was conceived in the first place was to test existing theories and current[…]
The James Webb Space Telescope has trained its sharp, infrared eyes on the ringed planet and produced this stunning, new image. An excerpt from the Webb blog published by NASA follows: This image was taken as part of Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247. The program included several very deep exposures of Saturn, which were designed[…]
Does the Brightening of Betelgeuse Portend The Immanent Occurrence of a New Galactic Supernova? Betelgeuse is at it again. Back in 2019, the red supergiant star, the bright and iconic right-shoulder of Orion had dimmed dramatically and uncharacteristically resulting in a flurry of speculation that the star was about to end its life in[…]
New podcast by Astronomy for Change’s James Daly, Ph.D:
The southern extent of NGC-1365 showing the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus at the bottom left. A plethora of background galaxies are visible, with one prominent elliptical galaxy to the southwest (upper right) amid the other edge-on galaxies. Appearing as a small bright sphere, this galaxy is 2.9 billion light-years distant or 52x more distant than[…]
Full 6 waveband Composite Image of Stephan’s Quintet In the ERO release images of this group of galaxies by NASA, much to do was made about their interaction. In the NASA release, NIrCam (near IR) and MIRI (mid IR) data were included in the composite images. While it was briefly mentioned in the news release,[…]
Composite Image Produced from Two Flagship Orbiting Observatories At 32 million light years, this image of the Grand Design spiral galaxy, M-74 appears in this composite rendition using JWST and Hubble data. The JWST component includes data in the 2, 3 and 3.6 micron range. The Hubble component includes 435 nm, 555 nm, 656 nm[…]
On July 12th of this year, the world was gifted with 5 studies and a treasure trove of data and images, content released through NASA’s Early Release Observations (ERO) program for JWST (attribution at the foot of this page). The great thing about a public space agency: the fruits and products of the agency are[…]
The tiny red dot at the center of this image is our galaxy of interest, z13.1,13.1 billion light years distant. Heavy Element Nucleosynthesis, the process by which heavy elements are synthesized in the cores of high-mass stars, was ongoing in this galaxy less than 700 million years after the big bang. Note: this video is[…]
Note: This article is an addendum to James Webb Space Telescope Full Science Operations Begin As 5 ‘First Light’ Images Are Released (1 of 5). Some important discoveries and confirmations have been realized with the first public release of JWST data and imagery. We can unequivocally state that our evolutionary theories of the early universe[…]
Update: James Webb Space Telescope Full Science Operations Get Underway As 5 ‘First Light’ Images Are Released To kick off the beginning of full science operations for the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA will be hosting a full public event Tuesday, July 12th. During the event, a traunch of full-color images and data will be[…]
On August 8 and visible now during the summer, the faint cataclysmic variable star RS Ophiuchi at over 6,500 light-years distant brightened from magnitude 11.2 to 4.8 during the August 8-9, 2021 time frame. It went from a threshold small-telescope object to naked-eye visibility within 24 hours. Irish amateur Astronomer Keith Geary was the first[…]
This pair of images represent Hubble’s targets on July 17, 2021 and demonstrate the telescope’s return to full science operations on that date. The images are part of a study being conducted by Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle. The Galaxies ARP-MADORE2115-273 is a rare example of an interacting pair of galaxies[…]
With a period of 24 days, TOI-1231-b orbits an M-class (M3V) star of 0.48 solar masses, first discovered by the TESS orbiting exoplanet finder in 2019. Further confirmation came from the Planet Finder Spectrograph on the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Led by Jennifer Burt of NASA/JPL, her team at JPL and the University[…]
Using the Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) attached to the 10 meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, we’ve observed a long-postulated, third type of supernova, an “Electron Capture” supernova. It is believed, based on composite imaging across multiple spectral regimes, the famous Crab Nebula may have been[…]
On December 17, 2020, Dr. James Daly of Astronomy For Change interviewed Alberto Caballero, founder of the The Exoplanet Project and The SETI Project. Alberto holds a Master’s degree and is the host of the “Exoplanets” YouTube channel whose focus is habitable exoplanets, extraterrestrial intelligence and Interstellar Travel. Alberto is also involved with the Habitable[…]
Please visit our Patreon page to learn what happened “A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far Away….” VIdeo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Astronomy For Change: https://astronomyforchange.org Buy us a Coffee? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/astronomychange Follow Us On Twitter: https://twitter.com/astronomychange Why not support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/astronomyforchange Imagination is more important than knowledge An index of[…]
Recently, we published an article with video celebrating the Anniversary of the famous May 29th, 1919 Total Solar Eclipse instrumental in confirming a key prediction of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Update Not only was this eclipse instrumental in confirming a key aspect of Einstein’s GTR, the duration of totality was just under 7 minutes,[…]
Every year on this date, the anniversary of the famous May 29, 1919 Total Solar Eclipse, we celebrate Einstein’s Triumph, the experiment that provided incontrovertible evidence for the veracity of his theory on Gravity, the General Theory of Relativity. Up until the turn of the 20th century, the natural universe was governed by Newton’s Laws;[…]
By James Daly, Ph.D NASA Video at foot of article NASA Hubblesite news release here On the occasion of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 31st successful year in orbit last Saturday (4/24, launch date: 4/24/1990), the iconic orbiting telescope was tasked with capturing AG Carinae, a blue supergiant star in the southern constellation of Carina. This[…]
A quick video showing the placement of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies with the massive elliptical galaxy Messier-87 at its center. Imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope, M-87 is shown here surrounded by thousands of globular star clusters. Our Milky Way galaxy, a member of the Local Cluster of Galaxies is, in turn, a member[…]
In a stunning image, worthy of publication on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day or, as a new category, as “Astronomy Picture of the Year”, Finnish Astrophotographer JP Metsavainio has produced a GigaPixel class image that took 12 years and more than 1,250 hours to produce! Join Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change has[…]
Link to video below As we all mourn the passing of Larry King, an icon, a professional with an uncommon sense of honesty, integrity and decency, a giant among journalists and communicators, let us remember him as a science communicator as well, the “middle-man” as such, between the science professional and the common man. Link[…]
This is the second part in the two part series showcasing and explaining the amazing physics and technology that made NASA’s latest mission to Mars such a resounding success. In the first video Dr. Daly explains the physics behind the launch and cruise phases of the mission, complete with explanations, diagrams, theory and calculations specific[…]
Link to video below With this video, Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change presents Part 1 of a multi-part series on the amazing physics and technology behind the brilliant journey and successful landing of the Mars2020 Perseverance Rover. In this first video, Dr. Daly will discuss and describe the basic physics behind the mission[…]
Link to video below Beginning Friday, March 5th, the asteroid 99942 Apophis or simply Apophis, passes 1/10 of an Astronomical Unit from earth, making that the first of 4 such close approaches. In this video, Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change describes the asteroid’s trajectory and this passage while presenting some history and context[…]
Video Link Below With this video we introduce a new program feature at Astronomy for Change: “The Mystery and Wonder of Astronomy”. The true structure of spiral galaxies, as yet undetermined into the first quarter of the 20th century with Edwin Hubble, Harlow Shapley, Heber Curtis and Fritz Zwicky making great strides in determining the[…]
Video link below We were reminded of the enormous power of our home star on November 29 of last year (2020), when NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a powerful Solar Flare, entitled the ‘Anemone’ Eruption’! In this video, Dr. James Daly presents and discusses our sun and the spectacular display witnessed on November 29, 2020.[…]
Link to video below As we all mourn the passing of Larry King, an icon, a professional with an uncommon sense of honesty, integrity and decency, a giant among journalists and communicators, let us remember him as a science communicator as well, the “middle-man” as such, between the science professional and the common man. Link[…]
Link to video below In this video, Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change choreographs the arrival of Perseverance at Mars on Thursday, February 18th and reminds everyone to set their calendars as Astronomy For Change will be live-streaming the event beginning at 1:45 PM, EST. Nine years ago this August, Curiosity rover landed at[…]
In this video, Dr. Daly discusses the advantages of visual astronomy and shares his view of the world, history and how we can back on track – and it’s not that hard! Astronomy for Change: https://astronomyforchange.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/astronomychange Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/astronomyforchange NASA/ Apollo 11 legacy archive video: https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/288/apollo-11-launch/ NASA STS-125 SM4 10th Anniversary video: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/10-years-ago-hubble-s-final-servicing-mission-made-it-better-than-ever Featured[…]
Rather than rewrite the story, we’ll reproduce today’s news release here in its entirety: The Square Kilometre Array Public Website Square Kilometre Array Exploring the Universe with the world’s largest radio telescope SKAO is born – Launch of international Observatory signals new era for radio astronomy Nighttime composite image of the SKA combining all elements[…]
Update: Emergency Action Petition to the WhiteHouse to evaluate and stabilize the Arecibo radio telescope In an unexpected blow to the worldwide Astronomical community, the National Science Foundation announced on Thursday (11/19) that they would soon begin decommissioning the iconic radio telescope, the heart of the Arecibo Radio Observatory. The telescope was made famous in[…]
An interactive Sky Tonight portal is now available on our Web portal. Simply click the Blue Bar (or here) to launch an interactive Sky Tonight application courtesy of Stellarium Web. Imagination is more important than knowledge An index of all articles can be found here. If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting us with[…]
Related articles linked at the foot of this page By James Daly, Ph.D We’ve published a variety of articles to address a new, and growing phenomenon, the belief that the earth is flat. To my mind, it is inconceivable that, in the 21st century, when we’ve brilliantly navigated a robot craft to flyby Pluto some[…]
Related articles linked at the foot of this page By James Daly, Ph.D I wouldn’t normally write about such things as this as there is so much to be concerned of as of late that this topic might seem trivial by comparison. Trivial on its face, yes but it bespeaks a deeper problem with grave[…]
Here at Astronomy For Change, we’ve discussed at length, the recent discoveries, observations and scientific breakthroughs regarding these enigmatic objects whose light was emitted billions of years before the sun burned bright in space: A Discovery that Shook the World! In a galaxy far, far away, KiloNova Explosion From Neutron Star Merger Observed – Gravity[…]
On 3 October of 2017, in what the prestigious Royal Swedish Academy described simply as “a discovery that shook the world”, three Americans were awarded that year’s Nobel Prize in Physics “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”, waves famously predicted by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity 105[…]
In this video, Dr. James Daly celebrates and discusses the Centenary of the first of many confirmations of Einstein’s Theory of Gravity, his General Theory of Relativity. On 29 May, 1919, observations were made of stars in the vicinity of the totally-eclipsed sun, a rare event that provided the conditions necessary for such an experiment[…]
In this video, Dr. Jm Daly discusses recent developments regarding the attempted construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the large Island of Hawaii, Mauna Kea. It is the opinion of Astronomy For Change that the TMT should be built on Site A, Mauna Kea. Dr. Daly makes a case for construction of TMT[…]
In this video, Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change discusses remaining viewing options for the Perseid Meteor Shower and the mid-to-late August Sky, highlighting those constellations and objects of interest that are receding from view with the close of the season. The constellations discussed include Bootes, The Herdsman, Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs, Hercules[…]
Dr. James Daly of Astronomy for Change presents a public lecture on the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative that, if successful, will see the launch of humanities first interstellar mission. Thousands of nano-class, gram-mass scale robotic craft will be launched via a high-power, phased-array microwave laser to 20% the speed of light towards the nearest star system[…]
Dr. James Daly discusses Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Newton’s Laws within the context of a recent study published by UCLA’s Dr. Andrea Ghez of the Supermassive Black Hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The study can be found here: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/07/24/science.aav8137 https://phys.org/news/2019-07-einstein-relativity-theory.html Please like, share and subscribe. This subscription is[…]
Opinion by Dr. James Daly The late Carl Sagan, in his 1995 book “The Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle In the Dark” warns of exactly what is happening today and how reliance on science, reason, thought and collaboration is the antidote to a society that has, quite literally, gone mad. Are we citizens of[…]
The Sky Tonight for the week beginning July 14, 2019. We look at the phase of the moon, some of the prominent summer constellations and planets as well as discuss some interesting aspects of two of the season’s prominent stars. During the video we discuss the star Antares and that it is a highly evolved[…]
During his years working in the Swiss Patent Office, Albert Einstein often imagined what it would be like to ride on beam of light. This thought experiment would come to play a key role in the development of his Special Theory of Relativity, one of the four great works produced during his 1905 Annus Mirabilis.[…]
Well, I did it! Using the college’s 0.63m flagship instrument, I, along with colleagues, visually observed the second most distant globular cluster associated with our Milky Way galaxy! I’m fascinated with relics as they have a story to tell, a deep story of something very old, of a long-gone epoch, a bridge, if you will,[…]
With the first topic of discussion posted, Astronomy for Change launches our new Community Forum and Discussion Board. The first topic of discussion is How Successful will TESS be? Jump right in and let us know what you think of NASA’s new mission of discovery and exploration or introduce a topic of your own.
In Albert Einstein‘s 1915 General Theory of Relativity, his theory on Gravity and a brand new way of looking at the universe, it was predicted that the space in the vicinity of a massive object would be warped and thus, the appearance of anything whose light would pass through this region of space would be[…]
UPDATE: On April 18th at 6:51 PM, EDT, SpaceX is set to launch the small counterpart and addition to the intrepid Kepler Space Telescope now operating with limited control propellant and hence, limited time during the newly designated K2 mission. Having its original mission cut short due to general failure of a second of the[…]
On February 21st, in a heretofore unprecedented accomplishment, an amateur astronomer has recorded the “First Light” of a dying star over 80 million light years distant. As described in the Nature article, the first point of contact for the supernova’s photons after traveling 80 million years, a point in the distant past 15 million years[…]
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. there was this star that, by all known theories of stellar evolution (the study of how stars are born, live and die), should have died. Many stories in the media lately have described this star as the “Zombie” star since, contrary to what should have[…]
Update to European Southern Observatory To Announce “Unprecedented Astronomical Discovery” Monday, 16 October The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has announced the unprecedented discovery and observation of the optical counterpart to the gravitational wave event observed on 17 August (GW170817) of this year. The full announcement and press event can be watched here: This observation is[…]
Update: Update to ESO Announcement – In a galaxy far, far away, the Optical Counterpart to Historic Gravity Wave Detection Observed Media Advisory: Press Conference at ESO HQ Announcing Unprecedented Discovery 11 October 2017 ESO will hold a press conference on 16 October 2017 at 16:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present[…]
Like early explorers mapping the continents of our globe, astronomers are busy charting the spiral structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using infrared images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way’s elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms sweeping off the ends of a central bar of[…]
September 7, 2017 After Cassini: Pondering the Saturn Mission’s Legacy Cassini’s discoveries are feeding forward into future exploration of the solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute › Full image and caption (Author’s note: The Cassini orbiter is scheduled to be deorbited and plunge into Saturn’s cloud tops this Friday, September 15 at 4:55 AM, PDT.[…]
The brilliantly successful New Horizons that flew by Pluto in a spectacular reconnaissance mission on 14 July last year closes out this month with two great stories. New Horizons Spies a Kuiper Belt Companion On its way to a New Years Day 2019 rendezvous with its next port of call, 2014 MU69, New Horizons is[…]
During his years working in the Swiss Patent Office, Albert Einstein often imagined what it would be like to ride on beam of light. This thought experiment would come to play a key role in the development of his Special Theory of Relativity, one of the four great works produced during his 1905 Annus Mirabilis.[…]
In beautiful cadence, the progress of knowledge and understanding cascading across the millennia culminating now, with Juno’s successful arrival at Jupiter. In resounding brilliance, we are in orbit around the largest planet in our solar system, in search of our beginning. In the waning hours of July 4th, Juno successfully began its two year orbit[…]
As I write this post, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has commenced the Jupiter Orbital Insertion (JOI) burn, the most perilous phase of the mission. No spacecraft has ever flown this close to Jupiter or its intense radiation belts. The Juno Mission to Jupiter, has arrived at its destination. Juno is the second spacecraft designed for NASA’s[…]
Scientists are an interesting breed of people, they are creative, adventurers, critical, and pragmatic. This may not be the initial subset of people you would look to for inspiration. However, think for an instance of the motivation required to tackle the great intellectual challenges of our time. Scientists are driven by constant curiosity and inspired[…]
