Black Hole

^{Source/Credit: The Joe Rogan Experience on YouTube.}

While Joe Rogan has been in some hot water recently, I think we can agree that many of his broadcasts were less controversial and simply fun. He is a good host with plenty of though-provoking questions. I do not want to get into politics, but rather focus on science. And in that case, his two-and-a-half hour discussion on January 28, 2019 with Professor Brian Cox, English physicist and Professor of Particle Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester in the UK, was a terrific way to go over both astronomy and physics.

Some of the topics covered during their talk included the size and complexity of the universe, black holes, wormholes, time travel, the Fermi Paradox, unknown objects at the edge of our solar system, space travel, lasers in space, and the role of artificial intelligence in society. The forum provided plenty of time to cover a large range of topics. It is well worth dropping in and listening.

Some other discussions worth watching include Joe Rogan’s August 22, 2018 discussion with Neil deGrasse Tyson and his May 7, 2020 discussion with Elon Musk.

^{Source: Sciencealert.com webpage – “We’re Going Back to Venus! NASA Announces Two New Missions by 2030.”}

Before we get too far into 2022, it is worth considering some of the top astronomy stories from 2021. Space.com put together a nice list that I highlighted below.

Discovery of Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein: “…It may be 10 times wider and 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet.”
Amateur astronomer discovers a new moon around Jupiter: “The new moon, called EJc0061, belongs to the Carme group of Jovian moons.”
NASA will return to Venus this decade: “…NASA has not launched a dedicated mission to the planet since 1989.”
The sun is reawakening: “In early November, for instance, a series of solar outbursts triggered a large geomagnetic storm on our planet.”
James Webb Space Telescope flies into space: “…JWST is heading to an observational perch located about a million miles from our planet.”
Event Horizon Telescope takes high-resolution image of black hole jet: “The end result is a resolution that is 16 times sharper and an image that is 10 times more accurate than what was possible before.”
Scientists spot the closest-known black hole to Earth: “Just 1,500 light-years from Earth…”
Earth’s second ‘moon’ flies off into space: “…the object, known as 2020 SO, is a leftover fragment of a 1960s rocket booster from the American Surveyor moon missions.”
Parker Solar Probe travels through the sun’s atmosphere: “The probe managed to get as low as 15 solar radii, or 8.1 million miles (13 million km) from the sun’s surface.”
Perseverance begins studying rocks on Mars: “Perseverance is taking its observations from the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, which was home to a river delta and a deep lake billions of years ago.”