(CNN) Astronomers have detected a third exoplanet in the Kepler-88 system more than 1,200 light-years away from us, and this one dwarfs anything in our solar system.
Quite a lot has been going on:
The Next Full Moon Is a "Supermoon" Flower Moon – NASA Solar System Exploration
The Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon, Corn Planting Moon, Milk Moon, the Vesak Festival Moon and a supermoon.
The next full Moon will be on Thursday morning, May 7, 2020, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 6:45 a.m. EDT. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Tuesday evening through Friday morning.
The Maine Farmer's Almanac first published "Indian" names for the full Moons in the 1930s. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in May and the second full Moon of spring, the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Flower Moon, for the flowers that are abundant this time of year. Other names include the Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon.
A Planet Beyond Our Solar System Mysteriously Vanished – Here's What Astronomers Say Now
Clash of Titans: This artist’s illustration depicts the collision of two 125-mile-wide icy, dusty bodies orbiting the bright star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away. Credit: ESA, NASA and M. Kornmesser
What astronomers thought was a planet beyond our solar system has now seemingly vanished from sight, suggesting that what was heralded as one of the first exoplanets to ever be discovered with direct imaging likely never existed.
“These collisions are exceedingly rare and so this is a big deal that we actually get to see evidence of one,” said Andras Gaspar, an assistant astronomer at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory and lead author of a research paper announcing the discovery. “We believe that we were at the right place at the right time to have witnessed such an unlikely event with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.”
"Farside Wakeup" --One of Largest Impacts in Solar System Rang the Moon to
The researchers believe that an active nearside tectonic system on the moon was actually set in motion billions of years ago with a giant impact on the farside that formed the 1500-mile South Pole Aitken Basin, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System, that shattered the interior on the opposite side, the nearside facing the Earth. Magma then filled these cracks and controlled the pattern of dikes detected in NASA’s GRAIL mission.
“This looks like the ridges responded to something that happened 4.3 billion years ago,” said Peter Schultz, a professor in Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. “Giant impacts have long lasting effects. The Moon has a long memory. What we’re seeing on the surface today is testimony to its long memory and secrets it still holds.”
Not to change the topic here:
The Sun Is a Bit Boring, Which May Make It Special - The New York Times
Astronomers have been tracking the appearance of sunspots since the time of Galileo, providing a proxy for solar activity stretching back four centuries. Some previous studies also implied that the sun was quieter than other similar stars. But competing evidence has also found the sun's activity level is normal for stars of its size.
"This triggered the question: 'Is the sun a real sun-like star?'" said Timo Reinhold, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, and co-author of the paper.
Interstellar Comet Sheds Gallons of Water as It Flies Through Solar System | The Weather Channel
Scientists have spotted an interstellar comet releasing jets of water for the first time ever. During its quick fly through our solar system, the interstellar object named 2I/Borisov is shown to have shed eight gallons of water per second. The observation was made by the US space agency NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov was first spotted in August 2019, and is the second known interstellar visitor, after Oumuamua . In October 2019, scientists found the first clue about the comet releasing water, using Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, based in New Mexico.
Say There Were a Black Hole in Our Solar System: How Would We Find It?
Physicist Edward Witten, famed theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study, has an idea. All it requires is an army of small, laser-launched spacecraft with really accurate clocks.
The solar system, at present, has eight planets and a host of dwarf planets (including former planet Pluto). But astronomers have long wondered whether there could be a large ninth planet beyond Neptune that has so far eluded telescopes. Evidence for this planet stems from the strange collective motion of rocks past Neptune; they seem to move as if another massive object, five to 10 times the mass of Earth, were orbiting out there.
"The Search for Techno-Artifacts" --Did an Earlier Civilization Exist in the Solar
Wright , a member of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, has considered the possibility that a technological species could have existed in the Solar System prior to humanity’s rise on Earth in his study, Prior Indigenous Technological Species.
In 2016, Wright authored a paper that discussed possible origins and locations for “technosignatures” of such a civilization while other astronomers have suggested looking for lights on Kuiper Belt Objects that “may serve as a lamppost which signals the existence of extraterrestrial technologies and thus civilizations.”
