Tag: astronomy

Scientists have fiercely debated the existence of ‘Planet 9’ for a decade. Some say evidence is piling up

Our solar system used to have nine planets. Astronomer Mike Brown, also known as “the man who killed Pluto,” said he got hate mail from kids and obscene calls at 3 a.m. for years after his most famous finding helped change that.

Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech, discovered another small world called Eris in the Kuiper Belt — a vast ring of icy objects beyond Neptune’s orbit that also happens to be the former ninth planet’s neighborhood. The 2005 revelation set off a chain of events that led to Pluto’s still-controversial demotion from planet status the following year.

But now, just as the Kuiper Belt effectively took a ninth planet away, Brown and other scientists believe it could give one back.

The belt, which astronomers believe is made of leftovers from the solar system’s formation, extends 50 times farther from the sun than Earth, with a secondary region that reaches beyond it for nearly 20 times that distance. Pluto, now classified as a dwarf planet along with Eris, is just one of the largest among the scores of icy bodies that exist there — and doesn’t dominate its own orbit and clear the orbit of other objects. That’s why it can’t have the same standing as the remaining eight planets, according to guidelines laid out by the International Astronomical Union.

Because objects in the Kuiper Belt are so far away from the sun, however, they are difficult to spot. For more than a decade, astronomers have been searching that area for a hidden planet that has never been observed, but its presence is inferred by the behavior of other nearby objects. It’s often called Planet X or Planet Nine.

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Academic teases announcement about discovery of alien life

Two groups of rival astronomers are allegedly vying to publish confirmed evidence of an intelligent alien civilization.Various news outlets this week have picked up on the story that British academic Professor Simon Holland is claiming that an announcement about intelligent alien life is imminent.

Holland, who has previously produced documentaries for NASA-funded projects, claims to have received a tip-off from an insider with the Breakthrough Listen project – an alternative to SETI that aims to scour the cosmos for signs of extraterrestrial communications.

“We have found a non-human extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, and people don’t know about it,” Holland told The Mirror. “They found the evidence of a non-human technological signature a few years ago, using the Parkes telescope in Australia.”

Holland maintains that a second group of astronomers in China have also discovered the same evidence and that there is now some sort of race behind the scenes to publish the information.

“This is breaking news, as of yesterday, but the Chinese might be pipping them to the post, with their, FAST [Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope] program,” he said.

“It’s the largest telescope in the world since Arecibo.”

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Egyptologists uncover 2,500 year-old observatory full of precise tools

Egyptologists have excavated a nearly 9,150-square-foot astronomical observatory in modern-day Tell el-Faraeen dating back to the sixth century BCE—the first and largest of its kind from that era. In an August 23 announcement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (interpreted from Arabic to English using Google Translate), the mud brick structure contained numerous tools that, although comparatively simple in design, allowed for the precise study and measurement of solar calendrical dates related to Egyptian religious rites, royal coronations, and agricultural plans.

The facility is located within a sprawling archeological site now known as the Temple of Buto (the Greek name of the Egyptian god, Wadjet), and is located about 50 miles east of Alexandria. Built in the southeastern portion of the temple, the astronomical complex featured an east-facing entrance for sunrises, an L-shaped open central hall supported by columns, and a high, inward sloping mud brick wall “resembling the style of the Egyptian edifice known in temple entrances,” according to the government’s statement.

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NASA Citizen Scientists Spot Unidentified Speeding Object Racing Through Space at 1 Million MPH

A group of citizen scientists participating in NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have discovered a mysterious object zipping through space at a staggering 1 million miles per hour.

“I can’t describe the level of excitement,” Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany, said in a NASA press release. “When I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already.” 

The discovery has left astronomers baffled but excited, as they are now working to determine the identity of this rapid traveler. The breakthrough also underscores the invaluable contributions of citizen scientists to modern space exploration. 

The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a NASA-funded science initiative that invites volunteers worldwide to assist professional astronomers in scanning vast amounts of astronomical data for signs of new celestial objects. 

These volunteers, often called “citizen scientists,” play a crucial role in the discovery process by analyzing images taken by telescopes and satellites, looking for anything unusual that automated systems might have missed.

The initiative was launched in 2017 to enlist the public’s help in scanning the Solar System for smaller, faint celestial objects, including potentially locating an elusive hypothesized ninth planet of our Solar System, often called “Planet Nine.” 

While Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’s main goal is to locate a potential ninth planet in the distant reaches of our Solar System, the project has also led to the discovery of other significant objects, such as brown dwarfs, planetary bodies, and high-velocity stars.

Accessible through the popular citizen-science research portal, the Zooniverse, participants in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project are given access to a vast archive of data, including infrared images captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. 

These images span several years, allowing volunteers to search for moving objects—indications of previously undiscovered celestial bodies. By comparing images taken at different times, volunteers can spot objects that shift position, suggesting they are closer to Earth than distant stars or galaxies.

The recently discovered object, dubbed “CWISE J1249,” was identified by volunteers sifting through NASA data in search of new planetary bodies or other celestial phenomena. 

One of the most remarkable features of CWISE J1249 is its astonishing speed of 1 million miles per hour. For comparison, the fastest man-made object in space is the Parker Solar Probe, which, at its closest approach to the Sun, reaches speeds of 430,000 mph. 

At its current velocity, CWISE J1249 surpasses most known objects in our Solar System and is fast enough to escape the Milky Way’s gravitational pull, propelling it into intergalactic space. 

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47-Year-Old ‘Wow! Signal’ Mystery Solved? Arecibo Observatory Scientists Think They Have an Answer

A team of scientists from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo believe they may have finally solved the 47-year-old mystery of the infamous “Wow! Signal.”

Detected by the Ohio State University Big Ear Telescope on August 15th, 1977, the Wow! Signal got its name because astronomer Jerry R. Ehman was so impressed he wrote “WOW” in the signal printout’s margins. Since then, the signal has continued to fascinate the scientific community, including the possibility that it may have been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization light years from Earth due to its high power, strong signal-to-noise ratio, and narrow bandwidth.

Unfortunately, various efforts to detect a repeat of the signal, which had a frequency and duration that didn’t match any known natural phenomenon, have come up empty, leaving the exact nature and origin of the potentially artificial signal unsolved. Several efforts in the ensuing decades have tried to offer potentially natural explanations for the signal. However, those attempts have also come up short of providing a definitive solution, leaving scientists to wonder if the Wow! Signal was indeed of extraterrestrial origin.

Now, the PHL’s lead researcher, Professor Abel Méndez, and his colleagues say that the vast amount of data they collected with the Arecibo’s iconic 305-meter telescope before it collapsed in 2020, as well as additional data collected by the facility’s 12-meter telescope since 2023, has led them to a potentially ‘astronomical’ solution to this enduring mystery.

“The Wow! Signal may have been caused by a unique astrophysical event: the sudden brightening of a cold hydrogen cloud due to stimulated emission from a transient strong radiation source, such as a magnetar flare or a soft gamma repeater (SGR),” Méndez told The Debrief. “These rare events might cause hydrogen clouds to momentarily shine much brighter, potentially explaining the fleeting nature of the Wow! Signal.”

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THE SEARCH FOR ALIEN TECHNOLOGY MAY HAVE ACTUALLY FOUND SOMETHING

Astronomers scanning distant star systems for signs of alien technology say they have found 60 candidates, including seven M-dwarf stars giving off unexpectedly high infrared heat signatures, which may be surrounded by orbiting extraterrestrial power plants known as Dyson Spheres (DSs).

First proposed by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson back in 1960, confirmation of these aptly named devices would not only represent the first verifiable signs of life beyond Earth but would likely indicate a species that is more technologically advanced than humans since constructing a Dyson Sphere is still well beyond our current capabilities.

The team behind the tantalizing findings says that more follow-up analysis of the data is planned. However, their initial readings appear to be consistent with the presence of alien technology orbiting at least seven of these stars.

HOW TO SPOT ALIEN TECHNOLOGY LIKE A DYSON SPHERE

Since humanity’s most powerful telescopes cannot image objects orbiting distant stars directly, researchers Matías Suazo at Uppsala University in Sweden and Gaby Contardo at the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy knew they would have to analyze light spectrum data emitted by millions of stars across the galaxy to search for signs of alien technology. In the case of Dyson Spheres, the team would need to look for an ‘unnatural’ imbalance between the visible light and the infrared light emitted by a distant star.

That’s because, as proposed by Dyson, the more technologically advanced a species becomes, the more energy it needs. If they become advanced enough, a species could, in theory, surround an entire star with a “sphere” designed to capture all of its emitted energy. The Debrief previously covered the science fiction origins and viability of Dyson Spheres in 2021.

A fully completed Dyson Sphere would be almost impossible to detect from such a long way away since all of its visible light would be captured by the sphere. However, either an incomplete sphere or a swarm of satellites known as a partial Dyson Sphere or a Dyson Swarm would still allow some of the visible light through for Earth’s telescopes to capture. At the same time, the sphere would radiate an excess of heat energy in the infrared spectrum as it captures the star’s radiated energy and then releases it into space.

Suazo and Contrado proposed that if the ratio between visible light and infrared light coming off of any particular star is just right, it would represent compelling evidence for the presence of a Dyson Sphere.

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MIT ASTRONOMERS SAY THEY HAVE DISCOVERED A PLANET CURRENT THEORIES CAN’T EXPLAIN

A team of astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they have discovered a distant planet that they can’t explain with current planet evolutionary theories.

The newly discovered WASP-193b is a gas giant 50 percent larger than Jupiter, the largest gas giant in our solar system. However, it is only one-tenth as dense, making it the second-most dense exoplanet ever found.

The researchers behind the seemingly impossible find, which also includes experts from Belgium and Spain, say these types of “puffy Jupiters” have left astronomers baffled for over 15 years since they cannot explain how they formed using the best modern-day planet forecasting tools

“We don’t know where to put this planet in all the formation theories we have right now because it’s an outlier of all of them,” explained study co-lead author Francisco Pozuelos, a senior researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalucia, in Spain. “We cannot explain how this planet was formed based on classical evolution models.”

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Scientists discover ‘hidden planet’ buried under the Earth’s surface

There’s all sorts of intriguing stuff hidden beneath the Earth’s surface, from massive oceans to water leaking directly into the planet’s core – the latest discovery, though, might be the most interesting of all.

New research has pointed to fascinating findings close to the Earth’s core which experts are claiming to be remains from an ancient planet.

The planet, named Theia, could have collided with our planet billions of years ago and evidence of this event is supposedly found within two blobs far beneath the surface.

These blobs have fascinated the scientific community since they were first discovered back in the 1980s. These structures are the size of entire continents and around twice the size of the moon.

They’re located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and due to the high iron content of these structures, seismic waves pass through them at a slower rate – leading to them being labelled “large low-velocity provinces” (LLVPs).

A study into these LLVPs was published at the end of 2023 in the journal Nature and featured new findings from Caltech researchers.

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SOMETHING IS AFFECTING GRAVITY IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AND ASTRONOMERS SAY IT COULD BE AN UNKNOWN PLANET

In the far reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, a mysterious and yet-unseen world may be lurking in the darkness. Dubbed “Planet 9,” this hypothetical celestial body has been the subject of intense scientific debate and speculation since its existence was first proposed in 2016.

Now, a new study published to the arXiv pre-print service by a team from the California Institute of Technology, Université Côte d’Azur, and Southwest Research Institute has provided compelling evidence supporting the presence of this enigmatic planet.

The origin of the Planet 9 hypothesis stems from the peculiar alignments in the orbits of several distant trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Astronomers over the years have debated that these orbital anomalies could be explained by the gravitational influence of an undiscovered planet, estimated to be about five to ten times the mass of Earth, orbiting the sun at a distance of hundreds of astronomical units. Simply put, something weird is going on around Neptune.

The astronomical community has been divided on the existence of Planet 9. Some scientists argue that the observed orbital alignments could be the result of observational biases or other factors, such as the self-gravity of a massive disk of planetesimals (which are bits of debris that form discs around planets).

However, the study’s authors, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown disagree. Back in 2015, the pair announced new research that provided evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system. Ever since, they have worked hard to prove that their computer simulations are not only accurate, but reflective of what is happening at the far reaches of our solar system.

“The possibility of a new planet is certainly an exciting one for me as a planetary scientist and for all of us,” said the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, Jim Green, back in 2015. “This is not, however, the detection or discovery of a new planet. It’s too early to say with certainty there’s a so-called Planet X. What we’re seeing is an early prediction based on modeling from limited observations. It’s the start of a process that could lead to an exciting result.”

This new study provides a fresh perspective on the Planet 9 hypothesis by focusing on a previously overlooked population of TNOs: long-period, low-inclination, Neptune-crossing objects. Using comprehensive N-body simulations that account for the gravitational influence of all known giant planets, the Galactic tide (a series of forces exerted by objects in our galaxy outside our solar system), and passing stars, the researchers demonstrated that the presence of Planet 9 can naturally explain the observed distribution of these TNOs.

One of the key findings of the study is that Planet 9 can drive the orbits of distant TNOs with semi-major axes greater than 100 AU into Neptune-crossing trajectories, a feat that simulations without Planet 9 struggle to replicate. In short, something out there is causing these effects, and the study argues that the cause of these gravitational shifts is, most likely, a planet.

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8 Extremely Unusual Events That Will Happen During The Month Of April

When is the last time that there was so much buzz about one month?  As we enter April, there is so much anticipation in the air, and it isn’t just because of the Great American Eclipse on April 8th.  In recent days, I have heard from so many people that feel like something really big is about to happen.  I can feel it too.  It is almost as if we are all holding our breath as we wait for the next shoe to drop.  Chaos is threatening to erupt all over the globe, and meanwhile signs in the heavens are literally screaming at us to pay attention.  The following are 8 extremely unusual events that will happen during the month of April…

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