DailyDirt: Distant Discoveries

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Astronomers are constantly discovering new phenomena (or really, really old stuff, depending on how you look at it) all the time. There is simply a lot of stuff in the universe and we're not going to ever finish looking at all of it. A sizable chunk of the cosmos isn't even observable to us. But it's still fascinating to try to catalog everything out there. Here are just a few discoveries keeping astronomers busy these days.

• A tiny blob of light named UDFj-39546284 is tentatively dubbed the most distant galaxy seen so far. The James Webb Telescope will confirm the classification, and until then there's a 20%(!) chance that this thing isn't a galaxy at all. [url]
• The Kepler telescope has found 54 planets in a "habitable zone" around their respective stars -- and 5 of those are approximately Earth-sized. There are plenty more to find still, too. [url]
• According to statistical analysis, the cosmos is at least 250 times bigger than what we can see. So you can't believe everything you see.. and there's lies, damn lies and statistics to back that up. [url]
• In a not-so-distant court, astrology has been re-affirmed as a "trusted science" in India. Apparently, India's Supreme Court had already ruled astrology as a science in 2004. [url]
• To discover more astronomy-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: astrology, astronomy, cosmos, galaxy, kepler, planet

DailyDirt: Astronomy Makes Astrology Kinda Complicated

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The universe is filled with some weird stuff, and astronomers are always looking out to find new, unexplained phenomena. If our lives were really governed by the motions of distant stars, there'd be a looot of movements to take into account.... Still, there are plenty of folks who are wondering what their new astrology sign might mean. But however the stars move, astrologers probably enjoy all these new astronomical discoveries, if only because it makes their jobs more interesting. So, here are a few cool observations.

The Hubble is looking at a green gas cloud called Hanny’s Voorwerp. The object was discovered in 2007 by Dutch schoolteacher, Hanny van Arkel. [url]

The Kepler telescope found a solid planet about 40% bigger than Earth. That planet is more than a bit too hot for our biology, but there are at least a few hundred more planets in Kepler's sights. [url]

Mars might have giant caves! Or at least, it has big dark craters of some kind. [url]

Here's a "mysteries of space" timeline. Seriously not drawn to scale... especially a googol years in the future. [url]

Filed Under: astrology, astronomy, hanny's voorwerp, hubble, kepler, mars, planet