Hacker News with Generative AI: Astronomy

Largest ever photomosaic of Andromeda galaxy from NASA's Hubble (nasa.gov)
In the years following the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most important nearby stellar island to our Milky Way — the magnificent Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31).
Astronomy, Space Exploration, Galaxy, Hubble Telescope, NASA
12 points by NKosmatos 1 day ago | 1 comments
Astronomers discover neutron star with an incredibly slow six-hour spin (abc.net.au)
In our galaxy, about 13,000 light-years away, a dead star called ASKAP J1839-075 is breaking all the rules … extremely slowly.
Astronomy, Neutron Stars, Space, Physics
16 points by Brajeshwar 2 days ago | 1 comments
Recalibrating 'Hot Jupiter' Migration (centauri-dreams.org)
What catches your eye in this description of an exoplanetary system? Start with a ‘hot Jupiter,’ with a radius 0.87 times that of our Jupiter and an orbit of 7.1 days. This is WASP-132b, confirmed in 2016, and first discovered through the labors of the Wide-Angle Search for Planets program.
Exoplanets, Astronomy, Space Exploration, Hot Jupiters
5 points by JPLeRouzic 2 days ago | 0 comments
Sky-scanning complete for Gaia (esa.int)
ESA’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise our view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.
Space Exploration, Astronomy, Milky Way, ESA, Gaia
175 points by sohkamyung 3 days ago | 66 comments
Lunase moon phase watch mechanism (genuineideas.com)
Before there were clocks there were the heavens. The sun to mark the day and the moon to light the night- their shadows counting down the hours. Overhead, celestial bodies arced across the sky, charting a map to the seasons and subtly precessing across the centuries.
Watches, Timekeeping, Astronomy, History
29 points by huhtenberg 3 days ago | 5 comments
X-ray flashes from nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously (news.mit.edu)
One supermassive black hole has kept astronomers glued to their scopes for the last several years. First came a surprise disappearance, and now, a precarious spinning act.
Black Holes, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Science, Space
81 points by rbanffy 4 days ago | 4 comments
World's darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject (eso.org)
On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world [1].
Astronomy, Chile, Environmental Impact, Industrial Development, Light Pollution
251 points by Breadmaker 6 days ago | 160 comments
Mercury's shadowy North Pole revealed by M-CAM 1 (esa.int)
Space Exploration, Astronomy, Solar System, Planetary Science, Mercury
81 points by divbzero 7 days ago | 15 comments
A rare alignment of 7 planets is about to take place (sciencealert.com)
A very rare treat is about to grace Earth's night skies.
Astronomy, Space, Planets
201 points by koolba 9 days ago | 83 comments
Bad Moon Rising (archaeology.org)
Archaeology, Folklore, Astronomy
42 points by samclemens 9 days ago | 55 comments
Combining 15s interval whole-sky-camera photos to form a 4y spanning keogram (astrodon.social)
Astronomy, Image Processing, Data Visualization, Time-lapse Photography
531 points by nebalee 14 days ago | 83 comments
Life Without Stars: Stanets and Ploons (theeggandtherock.com)
Last year, the James Webb Space Telescope made a startling new discovery about how, and where, planets can form.
Astronomy, Space Exploration, Scientific Discoveries, Exoplanets
3 points by davezatch 14 days ago | 0 comments
"Life Without Stars? Request for feedback on a chapter of a non-fiction book (theeggandtherock.com)
Last year, the James Webb Space Telescope made a startling new discovery about how, and where, planets can form.
Space Exploration, Astronomy, Science, Writing, Feedback
12 points by JulianPGough 14 days ago | 6 comments
A brief history of Time Scales (ucolick.org)
A definition for the term "time scale": 16th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union Grenoble, France (1976) Resolution No. 4 by Commissions 4 (Ephemerides) and 31 (Time) 3.(a) a useful time scale is generated by any process which enables dates to be assigned to events
Astronomy, History, Time
4 points by geerlingguy 16 days ago | 0 comments
Are there more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way? (2016) (snopes.com)
Although both figures are rough, a recent estimate for the number of trees on Earth exceeds the highest estimates for the number of stars in the Milky Way.
Science, Astronomy, Earth, Milky Way
108 points by alexmolas 16 days ago | 90 comments
Astronomers discover an ultra-massive grand-design spiral galaxy (phys.org)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has detected a new grand-design spiral galaxy as part of the PANORAMIC survey.
Space, Astronomy, Galaxies, Telescopes
10 points by gmays 18 days ago | 0 comments
Gamma-ray bursts: what do we know today that we did not know 10 years ago? (arxiv.org)
I discuss here the progress made in the last decade on few of the key open problems in GRB physics.
Gamma-ray bursts, Astrophysics, Science, Astronomy
16 points by belter 19 days ago | 0 comments
JPL Horizons on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service (nasa.gov)
The JPL Horizons on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service provides access to key solar system data and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for solar system objects ( loading… ). ( unable to load body counts… please try later ).
Space Exploration, Astronomy, Data Science, Solar System
125 points by perihelions 19 days ago | 25 comments
Celestial Phenomena in 16th-Century Germany (publicdomainreview.org)
The villagers of Strasbourg may have heard about a war in heaven while reading the Book of Revelation; in 1554, they witnessed one with their own eyes.
History, Astronomy, Germany
25 points by Brajeshwar 21 days ago | 3 comments
Planet 9: Inside the search for a hidden planet in our solar system (cnn.com)
Space, Astronomy, Solar System, Planets
6 points by Tomte 21 days ago | 0 comments
Seyfert Galaxies (seyfertgalaxies.com)
Almost all Seyfert galaxies are spiral galaxies and have been among the most intensively studied objects in astronomy, primarily because they are thought to be nearby, low-luminosity versions of the same phenomenon observed in quasars.
Astronomy, Galaxies, Quasars
59 points by kaycebasques 21 days ago | 5 comments
Neutron Stars with Less Mass Than a White Dwarf Might Exist (universetoday.com)
Most of the neutron stars we know of have a mass between 1.4 and 2.0 Suns. The upper limit makes sense, since, beyond about two solar masses, a neutron star would collapse to become a black hole. The lower limit also makes sense given the mass of white dwarfs. While neutron stars defy gravitational collapse thanks to the pressure between neutrons, white dwarfs defy gravity thanks to electron pressure.
Astronomy, Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs, Physics
28 points by rbanffy 22 days ago | 3 comments
Name a Quasi-Moon (radiolab.org)
The Name a Quasi-Moon contest is now officially open! From now until January 1, 2025, cast your vote to name earth’s quasi-moon, currently known as (164207) 2004 GU9.
Space, Astronomy, Contests
6 points by robin_reala 23 days ago | 1 comments
James Webb's Big Year for Cosmology – Universe Today (universetoday.com)
The James Webb Space Telescope was designed and built to study the early universe, and hopefully revolutionary our understanding of cosmology. Two years after its launch, it’s doing just that.
Space Exploration, Cosmology, Science, Astronomy
4 points by rbanffy 23 days ago | 0 comments
Wishing Everyone a Happy Solsthelion !! (ycombinator.com)
The period from Solstice (Dec 21st) to Perihelion (Jan 4th) neatly covers this period of time, and is purely astronomical, not related to anything derived from human cultures.
Astronomy, Solstice, Perihelion
10 points by ColinWright 24 days ago | 0 comments
Parker Solar Probe attempts closest ever fly-by of Sun (bbc.com)
A Nasa spacecraft is attempting to make history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun.
Space Exploration, Solar System, Astronomy, NASA
6 points by astdb 25 days ago | 0 comments
Enough water to fill trillions of Earth's oceans found circling a black hole (earth.com)
Astronomers have identified a remarkable water reservoir hidden in a corner of the cosmos, circling a quasar more than 12 billion light-years away.
Space, Astronomy, Black Holes, Water
16 points by spopejoy 25 days ago | 4 comments
Supernovae Evidence for Foundational Change to Cosmological Models (arxiv.org)
We present a new, cosmologically model-independent, statistical analysis of the Pantheon+ type Ia supernovae spectroscopic dataset, improving a standard methodology adopted by Lane et al.
Astronomy, Supernovae, Cosmology, Scientific Research
107 points by jandrewrogers 26 days ago | 74 comments
We May Be on the Brink of Finding the Real Planet Nine (scientificamerican.com)
Most astronomers would love to find a planet, but Mike Brown may be the only one proud of having killed one. Thanks to his research, Pluto, the solar system’s ninth planet, was removed from the pantheon—and the public cried foul. How can you revise our childhoods? How can you mess around with our planetariums?
Astronomy, Science, Solar System, Pluto
14 points by danboarder 30 days ago | 7 comments
Moon (ciechanow.ski)
In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor.
Space, Astronomy, Earth, Moon
3128 points by todsacerdoti 31 days ago | 250 comments