NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now marked itself safe from its closest-ever encounter with the sun.The probe sent a signal just before midnight on Dec. 26, saying it was “alive” and doing fine. This should come as a relief to NASA scientists since communication with the probe “went dark” Christmas Eve when it made its record-breaking closest ever pass — a mere 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface, according to a NASA blog. That might seem like a big distance, but in the universe ...read more
The enigmatic idea of dark energy has consistently been referenced to explain the universe’s expansion, but new research may upend years of cosmological beliefs with a shocking claim made by scientists: dark energy doesn’t actually exist.This revelation backpedals on a theory that astrophysicists have commonly followed in the hunt for answers to one of the universe’s most mystifying questions: how its perpetual expansion is possible. The endeavor to understand this concept may need to chan ...read more
Centaurs — celestial bodies that combine asteroids’ rockiness and comets’ gaseousness — are relatively rare and short-lived components of our solar system. A team of astronomers has in one of these hybrid objects called Chiron now characterized what could be considered a unicorn among centaurs.Learning About CentaursChiron contains signs that it has emitted both carbon dioxide and methane — the first time the two gasses were found released from a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO), a team of ...read more
In the United States alone, there were almost 417,000 COVID-19 deaths in 2021. A year afterward, in 2022, there were around 187,000, and a year after that, in 2023, there were about 50,000.The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive surge in mortality in the U.S., resulting in reduced life expectancy. But today, life expectancy is recovering, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After dropping to 76.4 years in 2021, it increased by 1.1 years in 2022 (the CDC reported ...read more
Right on time for the surge of holiday travel, a new iteration of the World Magnetic Model (WMM) has just been released, forecasting the future of Earth’s magnetic field. The updated model shows the latest location of the magnetic north pole, which has been gradually shifting toward Siberia over the past decades. What is the World Magnetic Model?The WMM, required to update every five years, follows changes in Earth’s magnetic field. The model provides crucial information for the airline and ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine