Image (Credit): View of an arm of the Messier 51 galaxy from both JWST and the Hubble Space Telescop. (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team)
This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope, which together scanned about 9,000 star clusters in the four galaxies. What you are looking at above comes from the spiral arm of one of the galaxies – Messier 51 (M51).
A large, long portion of one of the spiral arms in galaxy M51. Red-orange, clumpy filaments of gas and dust that stretch in a chain from left to right comprise the arm. Shining cyan bubbles light up parts of the gas clouds from within, and gaps expose bright star clusters in these bubbles as glowing white dots. The whole image is dotted with small stars. A faint blue glow around the arm colours the otherwise dark background.
If the recent release of UFO information by the White House was not all that exciting, then you may want to turn to Hollywood for a boost.
On June 12th, Steve Spielberg’s movie Disclosure Daycomes to your local movie screen. From what I read in the press and previews, it should lift your spirits if you are looking for something strange out there, real or imaged.
However, if you want a good summary of the upcoming film then you are out of luck. Everyone is talking about how Spielberg is the master of hiding the plot from the rest of us. I suppose that will keep us in suspense, but will it put butts in theater seats?
If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to eight billion people. We are coming close to … Disclosure Day.
While that summary was worthless, you have a lot of information to play with in the film trailers. You can also see what other are saying, from those who are pulling apart the trailer to others who are posting their theories about the real story behind all the hype.
So I recommend you review all of this to determine whether this film might be for you.
Or you can simply await full disclosure on June 12th without ruining the surprise.
Planetary scientists say they’ve taken a step closer to solving the mystery of where the material that formed Earth comes from. While Earth resides in the inner Solar System with Mercury, Venus and Mars, it’s been proposed that up to 40% of the material that formed our planet came from the outer reaches, beyond the orbit of Jupiter. But a new study looking at the chemistry of meteorites has found that Earth is likely made entirely from the inner Solar System. In particular, Earth’s make-up is strikingly similar to that of Mars and Vesta, one of the biggest objects in the asteroid belt.
A comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare look at how alien planetary systems may form under conditions very different from those that shaped our own cosmic neighborhood. The object, called 3I/ATLAS, was discovered less than a year ago as it traveled through our solar system. Although scientists still do not know exactly where it originated, new research led by the University of Michigan suggests the comet formed in an extremely cold region of space…“Our new observations show that the conditions that led to the formation of our solar system are much different from how planetary systems evolved in different parts of our galaxy,” said Luis Salazar Manzano, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Astronomy.
In the foothills of the Argentine Andes, the enormous Chinese radio telescope sits in one of the world’s premier stargazing locations, surrounded by vast, undulating mountain ranges and beneath skies untouched by light pollution. It is also on the opposite side of the planet from Beijing, offering China a window on the half of the heavens it would not otherwise see. But the Chinese telescope at the site, the Cesco observatory in San Juan Province, picks up no signals. After the U.S. government repeatedly pressed them on the issue, the Argentine authorities stopped the project’s completion. Lacking key parts, the telescope now sits dismembered, its gigantic antenna pointing blindly at the sky.
Image (Credit): Image of the three dots NASA’s Apollo 17 crew reported seeing during their lunar visit. (NASA)
“Now we’ve go a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver.”
“There’s a whole [bunch] of big ones on my window down there – just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”
-Statements by Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, respectively, per a recently released Department of Defense document that is part of information being released that may apply to UFOs. Of course, as you read more of the transcript, you will find that the astronauts casually discuss how these particles look like “jagged, angular fragments” that may be ice chunks or paint chips. The media is certainly playing up the various sightings and issues, but I recommend reading of the transcripts to get a better feel for what was said and the various explanations proposed.
Our Awesome Universe 