ASTRO-NEWS

Astronomy in current news.  You should READ each article for details because
I will ask questions about them on tests.


BBC Science
ABC Science
space.com
Physics World - Astronomy
phys.org space news
Sci-News: Astronomy
phys.org astrobiology news
The Economist
New Scientist
Real Clear Science
Science Daily
National Geographic Daily Space/Tech News
SciTech Daily/Space News
Daily Galaxy
Universe Today
Space Australia
CBC Tech & Science
Fox Science
CNN Space+Science

Some reputable astronomy/science magazines:
Astronomy Magazine
Sky & Telescope Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Nature Magazine
Scientific American Magazine
Popular Science Magazine
Ars Technica Magazine


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ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2025
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

21 Apr 2025) Ch 20: Telescope finds promising hints of life on distant planet , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 17 Apr 2025, has 0.8' video
21 Apr 2025) Ch 20: NASA rover discovers largest organic compounds yet found on Mars: alkanes , Ian Sample, The Guardian, 24 Mar 2025
21 Apr 2025) Ch 20: complementary video, Largest Organics Yet Discovered on Mars , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 21 Mar 2025, 1.5' video
21 Apr 2025) SKY: Two Meteor Showers Are About to Rock the Night Sky! Lyrids, Eta Aquariids , Physics World, 17 Feb 2025
14 Apr 2025) Ch 19: Ultrahigh-energy neutrino detection opens a new window on the universe , Physics World, 17 Feb 2025
14 Apr 2025) Ch 19: complementary video: Highest energy neutrinos ever observed detected deep in Mediterranean Sea , Video from Space, 2.4' video, Feb 2025
14 Apr 2025) Ch 18: Dark energy: mysterious cosmic force appears to be weakening, say scientists (DESI result) , Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 19 Mar 2025
14 Apr 2025) Ch 18: A more technical article: DESI delivers a cosmological bombshell , Physics World, 1 Apr 2025 (no fooling!)
14 Apr 2025) Ch 18: complementary video, Could dark energy cause the universe to collapse? , CBS News, 24 Mar 2025, 4.7' video
07 Apr 2025) Ch 17: Astronomers reveal largest radio jet ever seen in the early universe , Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), 6 Feb 2025, includes 1.2' video
07 Apr 2025) Ch 16: NASA's SPHEREx Sees 100,000 Galaxies at Once, and it's Just getting started -- "And Wow! Just Wow!" , NASA/JPL, 7 April 2025
07 Apr 2025) Ch 16: complementary video, How NASA's SPHEREx Mission Will Map the Cosmos , NASA/JPL, 2024 April, 2.7' video
31 Mar 2025) Ch 16: Oxygen detected in the most distant galaxy ever found , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Mar 2025
31 Mar 2025) complementary video - Ch 16: Oxygen discovered in most distant galaxy known yet , European Southern Observatory "Chasing Starlight", 20 Mar 2025, 5.9' video
31 Mar 2025) Ch 15: Astronomers discover new giant molecular cloud in the Milky Way , Tomasz Nowakowski , Phys.org 24 Mar 2025
24 Mar 2025) Background - Ch 15: Green Bank Telescope , Wikipedia, linked 31 Mar 2025
24 Mar 2025) Ch 14: Scientists discover black holes spinning unexpectedly fast: "You're essentially looking at its fossil record" , Robert Lea, space.com, 4 Feb 2025
24 Mar 2025) Ch 13: Enigmatic X-Ray Emission from Distant White Dwarf Points to Destroyed Exoplanet , Science News staff, 5 Mar 2025
24 Mar 2025) Ch 13 - complementary video: Mysterious X-ray Signal in Dying Star Points to Destroyed Planet , Chandra X-Ray Observatory, 4 Mar 2025, 2.7' video
17 Mar 2025) Ch 12: Webb Telescope Exposes the Turbulent Secrets of HH 30 , European Space Agency, 7 Feb 2025
17 Mar 2025) Ch 11: 'Buddy Star' could explain Betelgeuse' varying brightness , Isabelle Dume', Physics World, 6 Nov 2024
3 Mar 2025) Ch 10: NASA Just Found the Sun's Secret Warning Before Massive Solar Flares , Vanessa Thomas, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, 2 Feb 2025
3 Mar 2025) Ch 09: Super-Earth vs. sub-Neptune? The winner is super-Venus as Webb confirms a new type of planet , phys.org, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 15 Jan 2025
24 Feb 2025) Ch 09: Scientists discover exoplanet with supersonic winds -- the fastest in the known universe - a VLT discovery , Sharmila Kuthunur, space.com, 24 Jan 2025
24 Feb 2025) Ch 09 complementary video: An exoplanet with extreme supersonic winds , ESO News, 24 Jan 2025, 1.5' video
24 Feb 2025) Ch 08: NASA's Webb Just Found Something Unexpected Beyond Neptune - 3 classes of Kuiper Belt Objects , NASA, 14 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025) Ch 08: Asteroid contains building blocks of life, say scientists , BBC, 29 Jan 2025, Rebecca Morelle & Alison Francis
24 Feb 2025) complementary video: NASA finds key ingredients of life in asteroid samples - OSIRIS-Rex result on Bennu , CBS News, 3 Feb 2025, 3.7' video; first 1.45' on Bennu
17 Feb 2025) Ch 07: New study on moons of Uranus raises chance of life - Re-analysis of Voyager 2 data , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 11 Nov 2025
17 Feb 2025) Ch 07: complementary video: Could Uranus' Moons Harbor Alien Life? New Findings Spark Hope , WION, Nov 2024, 2.8' video
10 Feb 2025) Ch 06: Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on the far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes, scientists say (Lunar Reconniassance Orbiter result) , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 5 Feb 2025
10 Feb 2025) Ch 06: complementary video: Grand Canyons on the Moon , Nature, 4 Feb 2025, 2.8' video
10 Feb 2025) Ch 06: complementary science article: Grand Canyons on the Moon , David A. Kring et al., 4 Feb 2025, Nature Comm., 16, 1146
10 Feb 2025) Ch 06: Remember the 'mini-moon' last year? Study finds it was likely just a chunk of the actual moon , Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 29 Jan 2025
10 Feb 2025) Ch 06: complementary video: Earth is about to gain a new 'mini moon' , BBC Global, Nov 2024, 2.6' video, interview with Dr. Davide Farnocchia, JPL
03 Feb 2025) Ch 06: Buried Continents: Ancient Mega-Islands Discovered Deep Beneath Earth's Surface , Utrecht Univ (Netherlands), 27 Jan 2025
03 Feb 2025) Ch 04: March 13-14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) , Time and Date
29 Jan 2025) Ch 03: Secrets of Andromeda Revealed in s Epic 2.5 Billion Pixel ImageHubble , Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), 22 Jan 2025
29 Jan 2025) Ch 03: Einstein Probe detects puzzling cosmic explosion , European Space Agency (ESA), 23 Jan 2025
22 Jan 2025) Ch 03: A CubeSat Mission Will Detect X-rays from GRBs and Black-Hole Mergers , Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today, 2025 Jan 7
22 Jan 2025) Ch 03: Goodnight, Gaia! ESA spacecraft shuts down after 12 years of Milky Way mapping , Robert Lea, space.com, 2025 Jan 15
22 Jan 2025) Complementary video: First Data from ESA's Gaia Mission , ESA (European Space Agency), 2016, 3.5' video
15 Jan 2025) Ch 02: The shape of light: Scientists reveal image of an individual photon for 1st time ever , Victoria Atkinson, space.com, 2024 Dec 3, suggested by Juneau Hartsfield (Nov 2024)
08 Jan 2025) Ch 01: In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , NPR, All Things Considered, Richard Harris, 2018 Aug 27
08 Jan 2025) SKY: Comet Set to Outshine Venus in the Night Sky , Newsweek, Jess Thomson, 7 Jan 2025
08 Jan 2025) Ch03, 06: BepiColombo to swing by Mercury for the sixth time , European Space Agency, 6 Jan 2025
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ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2024
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

03 Dec 2024) Ch 20: 2-billion-year-old rock could help understand very early life on Earth and the hunt for evidence of life on Mars , Univ. Tokyo, 3 Oct 2024, lead author Yohi Suzuki
03 Dec 2024) complementary video: Two-Billion-Year-Old Microbes: How did they survive , WION Podcast, 12 Oct 2024, 3' video
03 Dec 2024) Ch 20: Giant meteorite impact 3.26 billion years ago may have aided early life , Harvard Univ., 24 Oct 2024
26 Nov 2024) Ch 19: An impossibly huge ring of galaxies might lead us to new physics. Here's how , Keith Cooper, space.com, 22 Jan 2024
26 Nov 2024) complementary video: Astrophysicists find Big Ring of Galaxies that Should Not Exist , Sabine Hossenfelder, 19 Jan 2024, 5' of content
26 Nov 2024) Ch 19: Einstein Vindicated: Stunning Cosmic Map Confirms Gravity Theory Across Billions of Years , U. Portsmouth, England, 26 Nov 2024
19 Nov 2024) Ch 18: Mysterious Ultra-Massive Galaxies Spotted in Early Universe (redshifts 5 to 9) , Science News Staff, 13 Nov 2024
19 Nov 2024) Ch 18: James Webb Confirms Hubble's Calculation of Hubble-Lemaitre Constant , Mark Thompson, Universe Today, 17 Nov 2024
19 Nov 2024) Ch 18: complementary video: Expansion Rate: The Hubble Tension , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Adam Riess, 2023 (5' video)
19 Nov 2024) SKY: Geminid meteor shower begins tonight. Here's what to expect from one of the best meteor showers of the year , Brett Tingley, space.com, 19 Nov 2024
12 Nov 2024) Ch 17: A Bubbly Origin for Odd Radio Circles , Kerry Hensley, AAS Nova, 8 Nov 2024
12 Nov 2024) complementary 2.7' video: "Odd radio circles" in the sky a "genuine mystery" , BBC News, 2021, interview with Ray Norris, CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Western Sydney Univ., Australia
12 Nov 2024) Ch 16: First section of Euclid space telescope's map of the universe revealed , Nicola Davis, The Guardian, 15 Oct 2024
12 Nov 2024) Complementary 1.9' video: Euclid telescope reveals first piece of cosmic 3D map , New Scientist, 30 Oct 2024
12 Nov 2024) Background: Euclid Space Telescope , Wikipedia, linked 12 Nov 2024
07 Nov 2024) Ch 16: Astronomers' discovery of distant Milky Way-like galaxy challenges our theories of how cosmos evolved , Jack Guy, CNN, 16 Oct 2024
07 Nov 2024) related 1.0' video, Most distant rotating galaxy yet is a space oddity , ESO News, Oct 2024
07 Nov 2024) Ch 16: James Webb Telescope Uncovers "Inside-Out" Galaxy Growth in the Early Universe, redshift 7.43 , Lydia Amazouz, Daily Galaxy, 12 Oct 2024
07 Nov 2024) SKY: How to spot a fireball from the first branch of the Taurid meteor showers , Taylor Nicioli, CNN, 4 Nov 2024
07 Nov 2024) SKY: Sun erupts with powerful X2.3 solar flare, triggers radio blackouts , Meredith Garofalo, space.com, 6 Nov 2024
29 Oct 2024) Ch 15: New view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way hints at an exciting hidden feature , Robert Lea, space.com, 27 Mar 2024
29 Oct 2024) Ch 14: Omega Centauri's Monster Black Hole , Rami Mandow, Space Australia, 12 July 2024
29 Oct 2024) complementary 1.7' video, Hubble Finds New Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri , NASA Goddard, July 2024
22 Oct 2024) SKY: Halley's Comet Debris Ignites Fiery Fireballs in the Orionids Meteor Shower , Wayne Smith, NASA, 20 Oct, 2024
22 Oct 2024) Ch 13: Look to the sky in 2024 to see a nova from a distant star (T Cor Bor). It has a peculiar Louisiana tie. , Robin Miller, The Advocate, 12 Jul 2024
22 Oct 2024) Ch 13: Look to the sky in 2024 to see a nova from a distant star (T Cor Bor). It has a peculiar Louisiana tie. (text only version, on Protected site) , Robin Miller, The Advocate, 12 Jul 2024
22 Oct 2024) Accompanying video: T Coronae Borealis - A Once in a Lifetime Nova Explosion! , Physics at U Exeter, 12 Jul 2024, 6' video (with guide how to see it)
22 Oct 2024) Ch 12: These "failed stars" orbit so closely it took 29 years to tell they were a pair , Robert Lea, space.com, 16 Oct 2024
22 Oct 2024) accompanying animation, The brown dwarf Gliese 229B binary motion , Badastronomer.com, 17 Oct 2024 (0.7' animation)
15 Oct 2024) SKY: Your Ultimate Guide To Finding The Comet Every Night This Week -- Before It Fades , Jamie Carter, Forbes Magazine, 15 Oct 2024
15 Oct 2024) SPACE PROBE: SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches NASA's Europa Clipper probe to explore icy Jupiter ocean moon (video) , Josh Dinner, space.com, 14 Oct 2024
15 Oct 2024) Ch 11: An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren't certain what it is , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 Aug 2024
15 Oct 2024) Ch 10: High-resolution images of the sun show how flares impact the solar atmosphere , Matt Williams, Universe Today, 24 Sep 2024
08 Oct 2024) Ch 09: "Sub-Earth" exoplanet discovered around the closest solo star to us , Robert Lea, space.com, 1 Oct 2024
08 Oct 2024) Ch 09: Solution to a Cosmic Mystery: Flyby of a star explains dynamics of the solar system beyond Neptune , Juelich Forschungzentrum, Germany, incl. 2.1' video, based on paper by S. Pfalzner, A. Govind & S. Portegies Zwart
03 Oct 2024) Ch 08: 2nd Kuiper Belt? Our solar system may be much larger than thought , Keith Cooper, space.com, 18 Sep 2024 (Subaru Telescope discovery)
03 Oct 2024) Ch 08: "Salt Water": Evidence of habitability discovered on Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt , Tarun Mishra and Manoj Kumar, Business Today, 30 Sep 2024 (very nice slides!; Dawn mission discovery)
03 Oct 2024) Background: NASA Dawn Mission , Wikipedia, linked 3 Oct 2024
03 Oct 2024) SKY: Earth To Get A Comet, A Solar Eclipse, Aurora And A "Mini-Moon" This Week , Jamie Carter, Forbes Magazine, 29 Sep 2024
24 Sep 2024) Ch 07: NASA's Juno probe spots massive new volcano on Jupiter moon Io , Andrew Jones, space.com, 11 Sep 2024
24 Sep 2024) Ch 07: New moons! Uranus now has 28 and Neptune 16 - discovery with the Magellan Telescopes , Paul Scott Anderson, EarthSky.org, 27 Feb 2024
24 Sep 2024) background: The 6.5m diameter Magellan Telescopes in Chile , Wikipedia, posted 25 Sep 2024
17 Sep 2024) Ch 06: The discovery of a possible sign of life in Venus' clouds sparked controversy. Now, scientists say they have more proof , Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 29 July 2024
17 Sep 2024) complementary 5' video, Life on Venus? Phosphine found? Astrobiologist David Grinspoon explains , VideoFromSpace, 2020; Dr. Grinspoon was then from the Planetary Science Institute; in 2024 works for NASA-HQ
17 Sep 2024) Ch 06: China moon samples reveal water molecules in groundbreaking discovery, scientists say , Jessie Yeung, CNN, 5 Aug 2024
17 Sep 2024) complementary 1.8' video, CCTV News Agency (funded by Chinese government) , Jessie Yeung, CNN, 5 Aug 2024
10 Sep 2024) Ch 06: Vast 'doughnut' discovered in molten metal of Earth's core , Petro Stock, The Guardian, 30 Aug 2024
10 Sep 2024) Ch 05: Glass shards reveal what was inside a Renaissance alchemist's demolished laboratory , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 28 July 2024
03 Sep 2024) Ch 05: Johannes Kepler thought he sketched Mercury orbiting across the sun. It was Sunspots! , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 Aug 2024
03 Sep 2024) Ch 05: Archaeologists discover 1st astronomical observatory from ancient Egypt , Reham Atya, livescience.com, 29 Aug 2024
03 Sep 2024) supplementary 2.1' video, 27 Aug 2024, Ancient Astronomical Observatory Discovered in Egypt , Lost History Channel, 2.6' video
03 Sep 2024) SKY: Today's New Moon Sets up a "Supermoon Eclipse" and a "Ring of Fire" , Jamie Carter, Sr. Contributor, Forbes Magazine, 2 Sep 2024
03 Sep 2024) SKY DETAILS: Lunar Eclipse information for Sep 17, 2024 , Timeanddate.com
27 Aug 2024) Ch 03: Europe's JUICE probe snaps hi-res pics of Earth and the moon on its way to Jupiter , Keith Cooper, space.com, 26 Aug 2024
27 Aug 2024) Ch 03: Scientists collect high-resolution images of the North Star's surface for 1st time [interferometry] , Monisha Ravisetti, space.com, 21 Aug 2024
20 Aug 2024) Ch 01: Visibility of stars in the night sky declines faster than previously thought , by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, 19 Jan 2023
20 Aug 2024) Ch 01: In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , Richard Harris, NPR, 27 Aug 2018
20 Aug 2024) Related 2' video: Is there a reproducibility crisis in science? , Nature Video, 2016

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ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2022
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

29 Nov 2022) Ch 20: Traces of ancient ocean discovered on Mars , Adrienne Berard, Pennsylvania State University, 27 Oct 2022
29 Nov 2022) Ch 20: Ancient bacteria might lurk beneath Mars' surface , Northwestern University, 25 Oct 2022
29 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 20: 'Super bacteria' survive in space for years , BBC World Service, 22 Sep 2020, 2.2' video
22 Nov 2022) Ch 19: Protons are 5% smaller than previously thought , Phil Plait, SYFY Wire, 24 June 2022
22 Nov 2022) Ch 18: Hubble identifies unusual wrinkle in expansion rate of the universe , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 23 May 2022
22 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 18: The Hubble Constant measurement mystery: Professor Wendy Freedman explains , U. Chicago, 16 July 2019, 2.2' video
15 Nov 2022) Ch 17: Astronomers have detected one of the biggest black hole jets in the sky , Luke Barnes , Miroslav Filipovic , Ray Norris , Velibor Velovi, space.com, 30 Aug 2022
15 Nov 2022) complementary site, Ch 17: Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Wikipedia) , Wikipedia, linked 15 Nov 2022
15 Nov 2022) Ch 17: X-shaped radio galaxies might form more simply than expected , Amanda Morris, Northwestern U., 29 Aug 2022
15 Nov 2022) complementary video Ch 17: The Secret Behind X-Shaped Galaxies , LiveScience, 13 May 2020, 3.8' video
08 Nov 2022) Ch 16: Gamma Rays From a Dwarf Galaxy Solve an Astronomical Puzzle , The Conversation, discovery by Roland Crocker et al., 5 Sep 2022
08 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 16: Fermi discovers giant bubbles in Milky Way , NASA, 2013, 1.5' background video
08 Nov 2022) Ch 15: Black hole: First picture of Milky Way monster , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 12 May 2022
08 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 15: Milky Way's Black Hole imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (4K UHD) , European Southern Observatory/Event Horizon Telescope, June 2022, via SciNews, 3.5' video
01 Nov 2022) Ch 14: Most powerful gamma ray burst ever seen could help reveal how black holes are born , Tereza Pultarova,space.com, 18 Oct 2022, has somewhat related 1.2' video
01 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 14: The biggest explosion on record? , David Darling, 2.8' video
01 Nov 2022) Ch 13: James Webb telescope solves dusty star mystery , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 12 Oct 2022
01 Nov 2022) complementary video, Ch 13: Cosmic Dust Rings Spotted by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope , NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 18 Oct 2022, 2.1' video
25 Oct 2022) Ch 13: Newly-Discovered Cataclysmic Variable Has Extremely Short Orbit , 6 Oct 2022, Science News
25 Oct 2022) complementary video - Ch 13: Zwicky Transient Facility , 6 Feb 2017, 2.1' video
25 Oct 2022) Ch 12: ALMA discovers birth cry from a baby star in the Small Magellanic Cloud , Kazuki Tokuda, 30 Aug 2022, Osaka University, Japan
25 Oct 2022) complementary video: Ch 12: The First cry From a Brand new Baby Star , NASA Space News, 22 Sep 2022, 3.8' video
18 Oct 2022) SKY: Surprise discovery of radio signals could help track space junk and limit global security risks , Jake Sturmer, Christian Cominos, and Bethanie Alderson, Australian Broadcasting Corp.
18 Oct 2022) Ch 08: DART's Impact Altered Orbit of Dimorphos, NASA Says , staff, Science News, 12 Oct 2022
17 Oct 2022) complementary video: NASA mission successfully changed the motion of an asteroid , Kristin Fisher, CNN, 2022.10.12, 4.2' video
17 Oct 2022) Ch 11: Hubble sees red supergiant star Betelgeuse slowly recovering after blowing its top , Claire Andreoli (NASA Goddard), Ray Villard (Space Telescope Science Inst.) and Andrea Dupree (Harvard), 11 Aug 2022
17 Oct 2022) Complementary Video: Ch 11: Never Before Seen! Red Supergiant Star Betelgeuse Slowly Recovering After Blowing Its Top , complementary 3.1' video, NASASpaceNews, 13 Aug 2022
13 Oct 2022) Ch 10: Supercomputer simulations reveal how the Sun accelerates charged particles , Physics World, 06 Oct 2022
13 Oct 2022) Ch 09: Scientists find remains of cannibalized baby planets in Jupiter's cloud-covered belly - favors core accretion , Harry Baker, space.com, 20 June 2022
06 Oct 2022) Ch 07: Jupiter's volcanic moon Io may spew sulfur to icy neighbor Europa's surface , Andrew Jones, space.com, 25 July 2022
06 Oct 2022) Ch 08: Dimorphos: Nasa flies spacecraft into asteroid in direct hit , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 27 Sep 2022
06 Oct 2022) Ch 08: complementary video: How NASA's DART spacecraft diverts asteroids , New Scientist, 26 Sep 2022 (1.6' video)
27 Sep 2022) Ch 06: NASA's Mars lander hears the 'bloop' of meteorites hitting the Red Planet , Robert Lea, space.com, 20 Sep 2022
27 Sep 2022) Ch 06: First underground radar images from Mars Perseverance rover reveal some surprises , Holly Ober, UCLA, 25 Aug 2022
20 Sep 2022) Ch 06: 4 billion-year-old chunk of Earth's crust found below Australia , Stephanie Pappas, space.com, 28 Aug 2022
20 Sep 2022) Ch 06, related video: 4 billion-year-old chunk of Earth's crust found below Australia , Science for Nature (Cosmology), 24 Aug 2022, 3.5' video
20 Sep 2022) Ch 04/06: Byzantine Records of Solar Eclipses Have Refined Measurements of Earth's Spin , Michelle Starr, Science Alert, 18 Sep 2022
13 Sep 2022) Ch 06: Ice at the Moon's poles might have come from ancient volcanoes , Anna Gibbs, Science News, 24 May 2022
13 Sep 2022) Ch 06: Supplementary video: More water and ice found on the moon, NASA says (from SOFIA Observatory) , Kiet Do, CBS News, 27 Oct 2020, 2.6' video
13 Sep 2022) Ch 06: 'Completely new' type of magnetic wave (Coriolis wave) found surging through Earth's core , Brandon Specktor, Live Science, 26 May 2022
13 Sep 2022) Ch 06: Supporting video: Earth generates a mysterious magnetic wave every 7 years, new study , ESA, VideoFromSpace, 2.3' video, 25 May 2022
06 Sep 2022) Ch 03 and Ch 14: Aftermath of explosive stellar merger (gamma ray burst) seen in a new light , Physics World, 14 Aug 2022, uses data from Atacama Large Millimeter Array
06 Sep 2022) Ch 03: James Webb Space Telescope: How will it work? , BBC, 25 Dec 2022, 4.5' video
06 Sep 2022) GENERAL: Frank Drake 1930-2022 , SETI Institute, 2 Sep 2022, 3.9' video
30 Aug 2022) Ch 03: Seeing universe's most massive known star: Groundbreaking observation from Gemini Observatory , Nat'l Optical-IR Lab (NOIRLAB), 18 Aug 2022, has 1.2' video
30 Aug 2022) Ch 01: As reflective satellites fill the skies, students are making sure astronomers can adapt , U Arizona, 29 Aug 2022, has undergraduate lead author
23 Aug 2022) Ch 01: Dark skies over Presteigne helping track asteroid hazards , BBC, 8 June 2022, 2.3' video
23 Aug 2022) Ch 01: Satellite pollution is threatening to alter our view of the night sky , Kristin Fisher, CNN, 4 Apr 2022, with 3.6' video
23 Aug 2022) Ch 01: In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , Richard Harris, NPR, 27 Aug 2018
23 Aug 2022) Ch 01: These are science's Top 10 erroneous results , Tom Siegfried, Science News, 10 Nov 2020
Lesson: Science is an on-going process to understand our world and universe by seeking reproducible results, and by discarding old models when new evidence or methods point to different ideas.
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ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2022
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

19 Apr 2022) Ch 20: Explanation for formation of abundant features on Europa bodes well for search for extraterrestrial life , Danielle Tucker, Stanford U, 19 Apr 2022
19 Apr 2022) Ch 19: A decade of science and trillions of collisions show the W boson is more massive than expected , John Conway, UC-Davis, 19 Apr 2022
19 Apr 2022) Ch 19: supporting video - Standard Model Broken at Fermilab? , David Darling, 3' video
12 Apr 2022) Ch 18: Cosmic dawn: Astronomers work out when the first stars shone , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 24 June 2021, 2.9' video
12 Apr 2022) Ch 17: Astronomers Describe Their Discovery of Alcyoneus -The Largest (Radio) Galaxy in the Universe , Daily Galaxy, 22 Feb 2022
12 Apr 2022) Ch 16: Astronomers spot most distant galaxy yet at 13.5 billion light-years away (z=13.27) , Stefanie Waldek, space.com, 7 Apr 2022.04
12 Apr 2022) Ch 16: supporting video: NEW RECORD With Many questions waiting JWST to answer, Hubble HD1, Earendel , NASA Space News, 7 Apr 2022, 2.2' video
05 Apr 2022) OTHER NEWS - 'Visionary' US astrophysicist Eugene Parker dead at 94; had Parker Solar Probe named after him , Issam Ahmed, phys.org, 16 Mar 2022
05 Apr 2022) OTHER NEWS - video supp, Tribute to Eugene Parker, Namesake of NASA's Parker Solar Probe , NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, 16 Mar 2022, 2.2' video
05 Apr 2022) Ch 16 - Hubble: 'Single star' detected at record-breaking distance , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 31 Mar 2022
05 Apr 2022) Ch 16 - supporting video: Record Broken: Hubble Spots Farthest Star Ever Seen , NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, 30 Mar 2022, 2' video
05 Apr 2022) Ch 15 - Giant galactic bubble is driving star formation, new study finds - it's the "Local Bubble", 300 pc wide , Charles Q. Choi, space.com, 12 Jan 2022
05 Apr 2022) Ch 15 - supporting video: A Bubbly Origin for Stars Around the Sun , Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 12 Jan 2022, 1.2' video
29 Mar 2022) Ch 14 - Scientists claim hairy black holes explain Hawking paradox , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 17 Mar 2022
29 Mar 2022) Ch 14 - supporting video: Soft Hair on Blacks Holes- An Explanation Hawking's Black Hole "Hairs" , Natasha Stamler, 7 Apr 2016, 3.4' video
29 Mar 2022) Ch 08 - Pluto's giant 'ice volcanoes' made from many recent smaller eruptions: New Horizons study , Belinda Smith, Australian Broadcasting Corp., 29 Mar 2022
29 Mar 2022) Ch 08 - supporting video: Volcanoes on Pluto Don't Spew Lava... They Spew ICE! , How the Universe Works, 22 Feb 2017, 3.3' video
22 Mar 2022) Ch 13 - Unknown space object beaming out radio signals every 18 minutes remains a mystery , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 26 Jan 2022
22 Mar 2022) Ch 13 - Supporting video, Scientists in Australia discover 'first of its kind' object in the Milky Way that flashes on and off , EuroNews, 26 Jan 2022, 0.9' video
22 Mar 2022) Ch 13 - Cosmic 'Spider' Found to Be Source of Powerful Gamma-Rays , NOIRlab (Nat'l Optical-IR Lab), 12 Jan 2022
22 Mar 2022) Ch 13 - supporting video, Cosmic 'Spider' Found To Be Source of Powerful Gamma-Rays , SciTech Daily, 1.4' video, 27 Jan 2022
08 Mar 2022) Ch 12 - The sun used to have rings like Saturn , Yasemin Saplakoglu, space.com, 11 Jan 2022
08 Mar 2022) Ch 11 - Astronomers discover exceedingly rare magnetic hybrid pulsating star , Vanderbilt University, phys.org, 11 Feb 2022
01 Mar 2022) Ch 10 - Ancient solar storm smashed Earth at the wrong part of the sun's cycle -- and scientists are concerned , Brandon Specktor, space.com, 31 Jan 2022
01 Mar 2022) Ch 10 - supporting video: A massive solar storm smashed Earth 9,200 years ago. , Savitri Cuisine, 5 Feb 2022, 3.3' video
01 Mar 2022) Ch 07 - Saturn's ice moon could be a 'stealth' ocean world hospitable to life , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 24 Jan 2022
01 Mar 2022) Ch 07 - supporting video: Death Star moon Mimas may be hiding a secret ocean , Cambrie Caldwell, Space TV, 16 Feb 2022, 2.2' video
22 Feb 2022) Ch 09 - Possible 3rd planet spotted around Proxima Centauri, the sun's nearest neighbor star , Mike Wall, space.com, 10 Feb 2022, has 1' video
22 Feb 2022) Ch 08 - Psyche, the iron giant of asteroids, may be less iron than researchers thought , Brown Univ., 15 Feb 2022
22 Feb 2022) Ch 08 - supporting video, Inside NASA's Psyche Mission to Study a Metallic Asteroid , Dr. Tim McCoy, 2020, NASA, 2.5' video
15 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - 'Significant amounts of water' found in Mars' massive version of the Grand Canyon , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 16 Dec 2021
15 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - supporting video: Liquid water found in Valles Marineris canyon on Mars , Sky News Australia, interview with Dr. Brad Tucker, 18 Dec 2021, 1.9' video
15 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - NASA's Parker Solar Probe has captured the first visible-light [not precisely so, really near-IR!] images of Venus , Elizabeth Howell, CNN, 10 Feb 2022, has 3.4' video
15 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - supporting website, [Wavelength] Sensitivity of the Human Eye , giangrandi.org, Switzerland, linked 15 Feb 2022
08 Feb 2022) Ch 03 - Astronomers stand up to satellite mega-constellations , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 4 Feb 2022
08 Feb 2022) Ch 03 - supporting video: Astronomers Join Forces to Push Back Against Satellite 'Pollution' Ruining The Skies , Internat'l Astronomical Union/Wonder World, 8 Feb 2022, 4.5' video
08 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - Widespread Megaripple Activity Detected Across the North Polar Region of Mars , Planetary Science Institute, 6 Feb 2022, includes 4.2' video, from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
01 Feb 2022) Ch 03 - Expanded U Hawaii asteroid tracking system [Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)] can monitor entire sky , U Hawaii, 29 Jan 2022
01 Feb 2022) Ch 03 - supporting video: Defenders of Planet Earth - Survey Telescopes That Spot Asteroids , VideoFromSpace, 7 July 2017, 2.8' video
01 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - Moon's crust may have formed from 'slushy' magma ocean long ago , Rahul Rao, space.com, 18 Jan 2022
01 Feb 2022) Ch 06 - supporting video, Lunar Magma Ocean , Dr. Tim Swindle, U Arizona Lunar & Planetary Lab, 29 Mar 2021, 2.2' video
25 Jan 2022) Ch 06 - Earth's Core Is Cooling Faster Than Expected , Orlando Jenkinson, Newsweek, 18 Jan 2022, has interesting but only partially related 1.3' video
25 Jan 2022) Ch 06 supporting video - Earth's insides are cooling faster than scientists thought , Jame Andy, Earth Science TV, 17 Jan 2022, 3.2' video; (note it's Dr. Murakami, a professor in Zurich)
25 Jan 2022) Ch 03 - James Webb telescope parked in observing position (L2) , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 24 Jan 2022
25 Jan 2022) Ch 03 supporting video - What are Lagrange Points? , Dr. Adriana Ocampo Uria, planetary scientist/Science Program Mgr, NASA HQ, 1.7' video
18 Jan 2022) Ch 03 - NASA's newly launched X-ray space telescope is ready to start observing the cosmos: IXPE launched 8 Dec 2021 , Amy Thompson, space.com, 11 Jan 2022, includes 4' video
18 Jan 2022) Ch 03 - James Webb Space Telescope, the biggest ever built, fully unfolds giant mirror to gaze at the cosmos , Mike Wall, space.com, 8 Jan 2022, includes 8'm video
18 Jan 2022) Ch 03 - supplementary video, James Webb Space Telescope , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 15 Jan 2020, 3.7' video
11 Jan 2022) SKY - A kilometer-wide asteroid will make its closest pass by Earth next week , Katie Hunt, CNN, 11 Jan 2022
11 Jan 2022) Ch 01 - Light Pollution - Visible and Invisible Effects on Us and Our Environment , Samantha Lott, Lab Roots, 31 Dec 2021, includes great 9' video
11 Jan 2022) Ch 01 - People Who Fall for Pseudoscience Use Less Evidence to Reach Conclusions , Ross Pomeroy, realclearscience.com, 3 Jan 2022

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ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2021
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED


30 Nov 2021) Ch 20 - Scientists discover trace of ancient life in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby , Katie Hunt, CNN, 25 Oct 2021
30 Nov 2021) Ch 20 - Supporting video: 2.5 billion-year-old traces of life unlocked from primeval Ruby , Happy To Be Informed, 27 Oct 2021, 1.5' video
30 Nov 2021) Ch 19 - New dark matter map reveals cosmic mystery , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 27 May 2021
30 Nov 2021) Ch 19 - supporting video, Dark Matter findings suggest Einstein's Theory of Relativity may be wrong , BBC, 27 May 2021, 2.7' video
23 Nov 2021) Ch 18 - Astronomers discover largest known spinning structures in the universe , Charles Q. Choi, 14 June 2021, space.com
23 Nov 2021) Ch 18 - explanatory video, Discovery of the rotation of galaxy filaments , David Darling, 16 June 2021, 2.1' video
23 Nov 2021) Ch 17 - A powerful jet emerges from a black hole in unprecedented detail in new images , Tereza Pultarova, 19 July 2021, space.com
23 Nov 2021) Ch 17 - supplementary video, How the Event Horizon Telescope took first ever image of a black hole , National Science Foundation, 10 Apr 2019, 1.6' video
23 Nov 2021) SKY - Mission to smack Dimorphos asteroid set for launch , Paul Rincon, BBC, 23 Nov 2021
16 Nov 2021) Ch 16 - Mystery solved! Bizarre Hubble double galaxy caused by 'ripple' in space , Rahul Rao, space.com, 2021.10.19, has 1.1' video
16 Nov 2021) Ch 16 - What's Killing Galaxies? Solving a Long-Standing Mystery in Astrophysics , Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), 14 Nov 2021
16 Nov 2021) Ch 16 - supporting video: Galaxies Are Being Killed Off and Scientists Don't Know Why , Amaze Lab, 23 Sep 2019, 1.1' video
16 Nov 2021) SKY - Almost Total Lunar Eclipse , Sci Tech Daily, with 1' video by Molly Wasser & Ernie Wright, NASA, 13 Nov 2021
16 Nov 2021) SKY - The Beaver Moon lunar eclipse on Nov. 19 will be the longest of the century. , Joe Rao, space.com, 16 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021) Ch 15 - supporting video: Mysterious radio signal from Milky Way could be 'new class of object' , Sky News Australia, 16 Oct 2021, 2.5' useful video
09 Nov 2021) Ch 14 - Stellar Collision Triggers Supernova Explosion , Dave Finley, Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory, 2 Sep 2021
09 Nov 2021) Ch 14 - supporting video: Stellar collision triggers a supernova , David Darling, 4 Sep 2021, 3.0' video
02 Nov 2021) Ch 13 - Over a thousand cosmic explosions traced to mysterious repeating fast radio burst , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 14 Oct 2021
02 Nov 2021) Ch 13 - Astronomers see white dwarf 'switch on and off' for first time , Durham Univ (UK), phys.org, 18 Oct 2021
26 Oct 2021) Ch 12 - Strange brown dwarf 'The Accident' hints at possible treasure trove of cosmic anomalies , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 2 Sep 2021
26 Oct 2021) Ch 11 - 'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 16 June 2021
19 Oct 2021) Ch 10 - Physicists led by University of Iowa more fully describe sun's electric field , Richard C. Lewis, 14 Oct 2021, U Iowa
14 July 2021) Supplemental 5' video - Measuring The Sun's Electric Field , Cosmoknowledge, 19 July 2021
19 Oct 2021) Ch 08 - NASA launches robotic archaeologist Lucy on ambitious mission to Trojan asteroids , Amy Thompson, 16 Oct 2021, space.com, has 4.8' video on mission science, other videos
12 Oct 2021) Ch 09 - Exceptionally rare planet with three suns may lurk in Orion's nose , Brandon Specktor, 1 Oct 2021, space.com
12 Oct 2021) Ch 09 - Astronomers spy first moon-forming disk around an exoplanet , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 22 July 2021
12 Oct 2021) Ch 09 - Background 1.3' video: Moon-forming disk around an exoplanet , European Southern Observatory, 22 July 2021
12 Oct 2021) Ch 08 - How to watch NASA's Lucy asteroid mission launch this week online , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 12 Oct 2021
12 Oct 2021) Ch 10 - Northern Lights shimmer farther south than usual tonight as geomagnetic storm hits Earth , Katie Hunt, CNN, 12 Oct 2021
12 Oct 2021) Background - Aurorae: FIPEX (Flux [PhI] Probe-EXperiment), detecting upper atmosphere oxygen from the ISS Columbus module , European Space Agency, European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF)
05 Oct 2021) Ch 08 - The 'megacomet' Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the find of a decade. Here's the discovery explained. , Meghan Bartels, 7 Sep 2021, space.com, has 1.1' video
05 Oct 2021) Ch 07 - "Mushball" hailstones on Uranus may explain an atmospheric anomaly there (and on Neptune, too) , Tereza Pultarova, 1 Oct 2021, space.com
28 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Thousands of Ancient Super-Eruptions Have Been Detected on Mars , Michelle Starr, Science Alert, 16 Sep 2021
28 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - A new clue emerges of what may lie beneath the Martian south pole , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Aug 2021
21 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Curtin University Models Nearly Invisible Ancient Lunar Impacts , Vanessa Chapman, spaceaustralia.com, 20 Sep 2021
21 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Cows toilet trained to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , BBC, 14 Sep 2021
14 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse , Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 5 Aug 2021
14 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Climate crisis: background - Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) , Wikipedia, 14 Sep 2021
14 Sep 2021) Ch 01 - Rapid increase in global light pollution , U Exeter, England, 14 Sep 2021
07 Sep 2021) Ch 03 - Some of the universe's stars have gone missing. But where did they go? , Giles Sparrow, All About Space magazine, 20 May 2021
07 Sep 2021) Ch 06 - Climate crisis has shifted the Earth's axis, study shows , Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 23 Apr 2021
31 Aug 2021) Ch 01 - In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , Richard Harris, NPR, 27 Aug 2018
31 Aug 2021) Ch 03 - Scientists want to build a new, very different Arecibo Telescope to replace fallen icon , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 22 July 2021
31 Aug 2021) Ch 03 - complementary 1.2' video: World's Largest Radio Telescope Collapses , The Telegraph, 4 Dec 2020
24 Aug 2021) Ch 01 - Astronomers ask UN committee to protect night skies from megaconstellations , Tereza Pultarova, space.com, 27 Apr 2021
24 Aug 2021) Ch 01 - 'No Parallels': 2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded Unesco world heritage status , Dan Collyns, The Guardian, 27 Jul 2021


ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2021
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

20 Apr 2021) Ch 20 - Worlds With Underground Oceans – Like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus – May Be More Conducive to Supporting Life Than Earth , Southwest Research Institute, 20 Mar 2021, has videos 1.9', 13'
20 Apr 2021) Ch 20 - Organic materials essential for life on Earth are found for the first time on the surface of an asteroid , Royal Holloway, U London, 4 Mar 2021
20 Apr 2021) Ch 20 - complementary video: Organic materials ... on the surface of an asteroid , Earth Update, 5 Mar 2021, 1' video
20 Apr 2021) NEWS - NASA successfully flies small helicopter on Mars , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 19 Apr 2021, has 0.8' video
13 Apr 2021) Ch 19 - New Physics II: Muons: 'Strong' evidence found for a new force of nature [from Fermilab, Chicago] , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 7 Apr 2021, has 1.6' video on 4 forces of nature (READ FOURTH)
13 Apr 2021) Ch 19 - Complementary video: New Physics II: Scientists find "strong evidence" for new mystery sub-atomic force of nature , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 7 Apr 2021, 3.2' video (SEE THIRD)
13 Apr 2021) Ch 19 - New Physics I: Machine finds tantalising hints of new physics [CERN finds Beauty Quark?] (READ FIRST) , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 23 Mar 2021
13 Apr 2021) Ch 19 - Complementary video: New Physics I: [CERN finds Beauty/Bottom Quark?] , David Darling, Breakthrough at Large Hadron Collider, 24 Mar 2021 (3.9' video) (SEE SECOND)
13 Apr 2021) Ch 18 - How fast is the universe expanding? Galaxies [surface brightness fluctuations] provide one answer. (READ SECOND) , Robert Sanders,UC-Berkeley News, 2021.03.08
13 Apr 2021) Ch 18 - Complementary video: Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SEE FIRST) , Chris Impey, Teach Astronomy, U Arizona, 23 Jul 2010, 1.4' video
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - New image reveals supermassive black hole's swirling magnetic field (read FOURTH) , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 30 Mar 2021
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - complementary video: How Magnetic Fields Affect Black Hole Images (watch THIRD) , Event Horizon Telescope, 24 Mar 2021, 1.4' video
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - complementary video: What is Polarization? (watch SECOND) , Event Horizon Telescope, 24 Mar 2021, 1.8' video
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - Background: Event Horizon Telescope - (read FIRST) , Wikipedia, linked 8 Apr 2021
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - Gigantic jet spied from black hole in early universe , Science Daily + Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr for Astrophysics, 9 Mar 2021
06 Apr 2021) Ch 17 - Complementary Gigantic jet video, Tour: PJ352-15 , NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, 9 Mar 2021, 3.2' video
30 Mar 2021) Ch 16 - short version: ALMA captures distant colliding galaxy dying out , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Jan 2021
30 Mar 2021) Ch 16 - detailed version: ALMA captures distant colliding galaxy dying out as it loses the ability to form stars , ESO, 11 Jan 2021
30 Mar 2021) Ch 16 - galaxy dying out - accompanying video , Universal Citizen, 16 Jan 2021, 3.1' video
30 Mar 2021) Ch 15 - A stream of nearly 500 stars in the Milky Way is actually a family , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 18 Jan 2021, includes 1' video
23 Mar 2021) Ch 15 + SKY - Finnish astrophotographer [JP Metsavainio] spends 12 years creating a Milky Way mosaic , Eoin McSweeney, CNN, 20 Mar 2021, GREAT images on link to artist site
23 Mar 2021) Ch 15 - Galaxy-Size Bubbles Discovered Towering Over the Milky Way , Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 6 Jan 2021
23 Mar 2021) Ch 15 - Complementary Video: Fermi [satellite] discovers giant gamma-ray bubbles in the Milky Way , NASA, 9 Nov 2010 (1.5' video)
23 Mar 2021) Ch 08 - Scientists determine the origin of extra-solar object 'Oumuamua' , Arizona State Univ, 17 Mar 2021, has great 3.5' video
16 Mar 2021) Ch 14 - Scientists revisit the 1st black hole they ever discovered and realize it's bigger than they thought , Charles Q. Choi, space.com, 19 Feb 2021, has 2' video
16 Mar 2021) Ch 13 - Reclusive Neutron Star May Have Been Found in Famous Supernova SN 1987A , Chandra X-ray Science Center, 27 Feb 2021, has 3.2', 0.8' videos
09 Mar 2021) Ch 13 - Rare supernova relic found at the core of our Milky Way [found by Chandra X-ray Observatory] , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 10 Mar 2021, has 0.7', 3' videos
09 Mar 2021) Ch 12 - Prebiotic ingredients for life found around young star , Paul Sutter, space.com, 27 Jan 2021, has 3.7' video on star formation + 2 (less related) videos
02 Mar 2021) Ch 11 - 'Sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system' discovered whirling through the Milky Way , Rafi Letzter, space.com, 26 Jan 2021
02 Mar 2021) Ch 11 - 'Sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system' - complementary 3.3' video , Absolute Cosmos, 31 Jan 2021
02 Mar 2021) Ch 10 - Sunquakes likely triggered deep beneath solar surface , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 8 Jan 2021
02 Mar 2021) Ch 10 - Sunquakes - complementary 2.1' video , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 9 July 2009
23 Feb 2021) Ch 06 + Ch 10 - Amazing close-up of Venus captured by NASA Parker Solar Probe , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 24 Feb 2021
23 Feb 2021) Ch 09 - Potentially habitable exoplanet candidate spotted around Alpha Centauri A in Earth's backyard , Mike Wall, space.com, 10 Feb 2021, has 3.7' and 1.0' videos
23 Feb 2021) Ch 09 - The Milky Way may be swarming with planets with oceans and continents like here on Earth , U Copenhagen, phys.org 22 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021) Ch 07 - Largest sea on Saturn's mysterious moon Titan could be more than 300m (1,000 feet) deep , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 23 Jan 2021
16 Feb 2021) Ch 07 - Complementary video: Titan's Largest Sea , Cosmoknowledge, 30 Jan 2021, 8.6' video
16 Feb 2021) Ch 08 - Dinosaurs may have been killed off by a comet instead of an asteroid , Mega Marples, CNN, 17 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021) Ch 08 - Complementary video: Comet may have killed dinosaurs , Harvard U, 15 Feb 2021, 4' video
16 Feb 2021) Ch 06 - Touchdown! NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars to begin hunt for signs of ancient life , Mike Wall, space.com, 2021.02.18, includes 6 complementary videos
09 Feb 2021) Ch 06 - MESSENGER Saw a Meteoroid Strike Mercury , Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today, 2 Feb 2021
09 Feb 2021) Ch 06 - A Crater on Venus Indicates the Planet Hasn't Been Volcanic for a Long Time , Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today, 1 Feb 2021
02 Feb 2021) Ch 01 - SpaceX has darkened its Starlink internet satellites with visors to avoid disrupting the night sky - but they can still ruin astronomers' data , Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Business Insider-India, 10 Jan 2021
02 Feb 2021) Ch 01 - complementary video: New SpaceX Satellite Coating Could Ease Tension with Astronomers , Thomas Industry Update, 31 Dec 2020, 2.3' video, explains problem and attempted solution (not nearly good enough)
02 Feb 2021) Ch 06 - The Solar Wind is More Attracted to the Earth's North Pole Than the South. Why? , Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today, 19 Jan 2021, has 2.3' and 4' videos on story + background on aurorae (Ch 6)
26 Jan 2021) Ch 03 - Building a giant 2-D map of the universe to prepare for the largest 3-D map , Glenn Roberts, Jr., Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l Lab, 14 Jan 2021
26 Jan 2021) Ch 03 - Final data release from DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys issued , Amanda Kocz, NOIRLab, 14 Jan 2021, has complementary 1.2' video for above article
26 Jan 2021) Ch 06 - Atmospheric CO2 will pass an alarming milestone in 2021 , Harry Baker, space.com, 14 Jan 2021
19 Jan 2021) Ch 03 - Here's the Extremely New Website for the Extremely Large Telescope , Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today, 18 Jan 2021, has great 2' video, first light in 2025
19 Jan 2021) Ch 03 - supplementary material: Extremely Large Telescope website , European Southern Observatory
19 Jan 2021) Ch 03 - Astronomers are still reeling from the loss of iconic Arecibo radio telescope , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 14 Jan 2021, has 1' and 7.6' videos
12 Jan 2021) Ch 01 - Exponential growth bias: The numerical error behind Covid-19 , David Robson, BBC, 12 Aug 2020
12 Jan 2021) Ch 01 - These are science's Top 10 erroneous results , Tom Siegfried, Science News, 10 Nov 2020
12 Jan 2021) Ch 06 - On Mars, internal heat may have powered habitable hotspots long ago , Mike Wall, space.com, 2 Dec 2020, with 1.7' and 3.3' videos

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2020
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

01 Dec 2020) SKY/MAJOR NEWS: The Arecibo radio telescope's massive hanging platform has collapsed , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 1 Dec 2020 - a tragedy for astronomy, luckily nobody was injured
01 Dec 2020) Ch 20 - Is the Phosphine Biosignature on Venus a Calibration Error? , Arwen Rimmer, Sky & Telescope, 17 Nov 2020
01 Dec 2020) Ch 20 - Latest News About Phosphine On Venus featuring Dr Clara Sousa-Silva , 27 Oct 2020, 26' video interview
01 Dec 2020) Ch 20 - The Great Venus Phosphine Debate featuring Prof Jane Greaves , Interview by Dr. David Kipping (Columbia U), 21 Nov 2020, 22' video
25 Nov 2020) Ch 20 - More than half of all sunlike stars in the Milky Way may have a habitable planet , Mike Wall, space.com, 2 Nov 2020, has 3.3' video on TESS result, 1.1' video on habitable planet found in Kepler data
25 Nov 2020) Ch 20 - On Mars, 4 supersalty lakes may be hiding under the south pole ice cap , Charles Q Choi, space.com, 28 Sep 2020, has great 5.5' video
25 Nov 2020) Ch 19 - Neutrinos yield first experimental evidence of catalyzed fusion dominant in many stars - CNO cycle detected in sun (at 1% level) , U Mass-Amherst, 25 Nov 2020; good background on neutrinos for Final Project
17 Nov 2020) Ch 18 - Gravitational lenses measure universe expansion , Bruno Van Wayenburg, Leiden Institute of Physics, 17 Nov 2020, has good 1' video
17 Nov 2020) Ch 18 - Scientists nail down the total amount of matter in the universe , Mike Wall, space.com, 2 Oct 2020, has 5.2' video
17 Nov 2020) Ch 17 - Biggest cosmic explosion ever detected left huge dent in space , Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 27 Feb 2020
17 Nov 2020) Ch 17 - supporting 3.4' video: A Tour of the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe , Chandra X-ray Observatory, 27 Feb 2020
10 Nov 2020) Ch 17 - Surprise! The ring around M87 galaxy's monster black hole wobbles over time. , Mike Wall, space.com, 23 Sep 2020
10 Nov 2020) Ch 17 - supporting video: The Wobbling Shadow of the M87* Black Hole , Event Horizon Telescope, 21 Sep 2020, 2.3' video
10 Nov 2020) Ch 16+17 - Andromeda galaxy's 'halo' is nudging the Milky Way , Ashley Strickland, CNN 28 Aug 2020
10 Nov 2020) Ch 16+17 - supporting video: Andromeda Has A Supermassive Halo , Ardit Bicaj and Russell Archey, Cosmoknowledge, 3.6' video, 12 Sep 2020
05 Nov 2020) Ch 16 - Beyond the Milky Way, a Galactic Wall [similar to the Great Attractor] , Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 10 Jul 2020
05 Nov 2020) Ch 16 - supporting video: This Massive Wall of Galaxies Is Lurking Beyond the Milky Way , Julien Huguet, @HuggetOut, 14 Sep 2020, 4' video
05 Nov 2020) Ch 15 - We Just Found The Fastest Star in The Milky Way, Travelling at 8% The Speed of Light , Michelle Starr, MSN, 13 Aug 2020
05 Nov 2020) Ch 15 - supporting video: Scientists discovered fastest moving star in Milky Way , Absolute Cosmos, 13 Aug 2020, 3.1' video
05 Nov 2020) Ch 13 - Fast radio burst may have come from [a magnetar in] the Milky Way , Kristen Rogers, CNN, 4 Nov 2020; also suggested by Astro 107 alumna Brianna McCrea (Sp 2020)
05 Nov 2020) Ch 13 - supporting video: Milky Way galaxy fast radio burst detected for first time , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 4 Nov 2020, 3.3' video
27 Oct 2020) Ch 14 - Black hole breakthroughs win Nobel physics prize: prediction + observations in Galactic center , Paul Rincon, BBC, 6 Oct 2020
27 Oct 2020) Ch 14 - 2020 Nobel physics prize - supporting video , Reuters, 6 Oct 2020
27 Oct 2020) EXPLORATION+Ch 06 - Water on the moon is more common than we thought, studies reveal: 'cold traps' exist in sunlit areas , Chelsea Gohd, CNN, 26 Oct 2020, includes 1' and 2' videos
22 Oct 2020) Ch 13 - Exploding stars created the calcium in our bones and teeth , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 5 Aug 2020
22 Oct 2020) Ch 13 - 5.2' Video Supplement on above Ca-producing supernova , Caitlin Hofmeister, SciShow, 7 Aug 2020, second half is on SN 1987 neutron star
22 Oct 2020) Ch 12 - Volunteers spot almost 100 cold brown dwarfs near our sun , Chelsea Gohd, space.com, 19 Aug 2020, has 3.7' video on clouds in a brown dwarf
22 Oct 2020) Ch 08+20 - NASA's first attempt to sample an asteroid in space made a mess. It's the best mess ever, scientists say. , Tariq Malik, space.com, 21 Oct 2020, has 1.2'+2.9' videos
15 Oct 2020) Ch 11 - The bizarre dimming of bright star Betelgeuse caused by giant stellar eruption , Mike Wall, space.com, 13 Aug 2020, has 1' video
15 Oct 2020) Ch 11 - 'Superflares' may make it hard for life to begin around [red] dwarf stars , Mike Wall, space.com, 9 Oct 2020, has 4' video on flare stars
08 Oct 2020) SKY - You don't want to miss Mars shining bright this fall -- unusually close approach to Earth , Joe Rao, space.com, 30 Sep 2020
08 Oct 2020) Ch 10 - NASA spots 'nanojets' on the sun that may solve hot solar mystery , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 08 Oct 2020, has 1.2' video
08 Oct 2020) Ch 09 - Scientists spot a triple-star system shredding its planet-forming disk in a cosmic first , Chelsea Gohd, space.com, 03 Sep 2020, has 1.5' video
29 Sep 2020) Ch 09 - Giant planet found orbiting a dead white dwarf star , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 16 Sep 2020, from a TESS discovery
29 Sep 2020) Ch 09 - 2.2' Video Supplement -- Giant planet found orbiting a dead white dwarf star , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 16 Sep 2020
29 Sep 2020) Ch 08 - Rainbow meteorite discovered in Costa Rica may hold building blocks of life , Rafi Letzer, space.com, 24 Aug 2020, has good 6.4' video on meteorite types
29 Sep 2020) Ch 08 - 4.6' video supplement -- Rainbow meteorite discovered in Costa Rica may hold building blocks of life , Science Magazine, 19 Aug 2020
29 Sep 2020) Ch 07 - Hubble spies new storm on Jupiter; smaller cyclone is darkening , Stephen Clark, Space Flight Now, 18 Sep 2020 (following suggestion by Daniel Salmon)
22 Sep 2020) SKY - A newly discovered asteroid will pass close to Earth on Thursday (7am EDT Sep 24) [only 5-10m in diameter, 22000 km away, no threat] , Pedram Javaheri, CNN, 23 Sep 2020
22 Sep 2020) Ch 08 - Astronomers find "northern lights" surrounding Rosetta's famous comet for the first time , Sophie Lewis, CBS News, 22 Sep 2020, includes 4' video on Rosetta mission
22 Sep 2020) Ch 07 - Jupiter's ocean moons raise tides on each other , Mike Wall, space.com, 28 Aug 2020, 1.8' video on Europa, 13' video on water satellites + possible life
15 Sep 2020) Ch 06 - Strange chemical (PH3) in clouds of Venus defies explanation. Could it be a sign of life? , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 14 Sep 2020, includes 2' video plus others (incl. 16' video on ALMA)
15 Sep 2020) Ch 06 - SUPP VIDEO: Is there life floating in the clouds of Venus? , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 14 Sep 2020, has 3' video on effect of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) on life (not pretty!)
15 Sep 2020) Ch 06 - Strange gas signature (O3, CO2 UV lines) on Mars may help explain methane mystery , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 28 July 2020, includes 2' video
08 Sep 2020) Ch 06 - Aurora mysteries unlocked with NASA's THEMIS mission , Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, 14 Aug 2020, has great 2.5' video
08 Sep 2020) Ch 03 - James Webb passes critical test as telescope moves toward 2021 launch , Chris Gebhardt, nasaspaceflight.com, 25 Aug 2020, has great 3.7' + 1.7' videos
08 Sep 2020) SKY - Mercury-Moon-Spica triangle (dusk); Mars meets Mira (late evening) , Anna Salleh, ABC Science, 4 Sep 2020; remember the description is from Australia - where it says look north, look south
01 Sep 2020) Ch 06 - Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice in less than 30 years , Robin McKie, The Guardian, 23 Aug 2020
01 Sep 2020) Ch 03/08 - Arecibo Observatory weathers Tropical Storm Isaias to track potentially dangerous asteroid (before the telescope got damaged) , Elizabeth Howell, space.com 08 Aug 2020
01 Sep 2020) SKY - Satellite 'constellations' are threatening astronomical observations , Bob McDonald, CBC Radio, Quirks & Quarks, 8' audio interview with NASA's Dr. Sten Odenwald, 01 May 2020
THIS IS THE BASIS FOR AN EXTRA CREDIT PROJECT - SEE BOTTOM OF MAIN CLASS WEBSITE
25 Aug 2020) SKY - Hubble snaps close-up of celebrity comet NEOWISE , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 21 Aug 2020
25 Aug 2020) Ch 03 - The best place to see stars from Earth also happens to be the coldest place on the planet , Chelsea Gohd, space.com, 4 Aug 2020
25 Aug 2020) Ch 03 - Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico suffers serious damage after cable breaks , Mike Wall, space.com, 13 Aug 2020
18 Aug 2020) Ch 01 - When 'math is accessible to any brain,' we can make better political, social choices, says mathematician John Mighton , Allie Jaynes, CBC, 21 Jan 2020
18 Aug 2020) Ch 01 - Exponential growth bias: The numerical error behind Covid-19 , David Robson, BBC, 12 Aug 2020
18 Aug 2020) SKY - Perseid meteor shower 2020 brings celestial fireworks to the night sky (photos) , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 14 Aug 2020

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      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2020



14 Apr 2020) CH 20 BIG STORY The Curiosity rover found organic molecules on Mars. This is why they're exciting , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 6 Mar 2020 (has 1' video with principal investigator Jennifer Eigenbrode)
14 Apr 2020) CH 20 BIG STORY Creatures found deep beneath the sea [in volcanic rock] give hope for life on Mars , Andrew Griffin, The Independent, 2 Apr 2020 (with 0.8' video)
14 Apr 2020) CH 19 (+ others) Did this newfound particle form the universe's dark matter? , Chelsea Gohd, space.com, 5 Mar 2020, includes 2.9' video on dark matter review
07 Apr 2020) SKY: How to see the 'Super Pink Moon' online in live webcasts today , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 7 Apr 2020, has 2' video
07 Apr 2020) SKY: Photos - Super Moon from Europe , BBC, 7 Apr 2020
07 Apr 2020) CH 18 (+ others) Scientists are baffled: What’s up with the universe? (Hubble Constant discrepancies) , Joel Aschenbach, Washington Post, 1 Nov 2019
07 Apr 2020) CH 18 (+ others) (plain text version if you cannot access the above Washington Post article) , Joel Aschenbach, Washington Post, 1 Nov 2019
07 Apr 2020) CH 17 (+ others) Event Horizon Telescope: Black hole produces twisting jet , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 7 Apr 2020, includes 1.5' video interview
31 Mar 2020) CH 16 Dead monster galaxy found lurking in the distant universe , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 5 Feb 2020
31 Mar 2020) CH 16 Companion video (7') to monster galaxy contributed by Sarah Moser, full of good science/details , Unveiled, 22 Feb 2020
31 Mar 2020) CH 16+17 Slime mold helps astronomers map the universe's dark matter , John Wenz, Astronomy Magazine, 12 Mar 2020, has 2' video of UL alumnus Joe Burchett (MS Physics, 2011)
31 Mar 2020) CH 15 Alien Cluster of Young Stars Invading the Milky Way , Max Goldberg, The Daily Galaxy, 8 Jan 2020, has 3.7' video
24 Mar 2020) CH 14 Space-warping star system proves Einstein's general theory of relativity right. Again , Genelle Weule, Australian Broadcasting Corp, 30 Jan 2020
24 Mar 2020) CH 13 Scientists trace famed 1987 supernova to weird blue supergiant star , Chelsea Gohd, space.com, 22 Mar 2020, has good 3.7' and 0.9' videos
24 Mar 2020) SKY: Comet ATLAS may put on quite a show (in May) , Bob Yirka, Phys.org 23 Mar 2020
19 Mar 2020) CH 12 The strange orbits of 'Tatooine' planetary disks , Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory, 19 Mar 2020, has 2.3' video
19 Mar 2020) CH 11 Unusual tear-drop shaped, half-pulsating star discovered by amateur astronomers , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 Mar 2020 (based on contribution from class member M. Bland)
19 Mar 2020) SKY The 2020 vernal equinox will bring the earliest spring to the US in 124 years , Joe Rao, Hayden Planetarium, 17 Mar 2020
19 Mar 2020) WHAT IS SCIENCE How to flatten the curve of coronavirus, a mathematician explains , The Conversation, 16 Mar 2020 (application of mathematics)
03 Mar 2020) CH 10 New type of explosion spotted on sun's surface , Ashley Strickland, CNN 19 Dec 2019
03 Mar 2020) CH 9 Teen intern at NASA discovers new planet...in just three days , Madeleine Simon, The Hill, 13 Jan 2020 (courtesy of H. Beumel)
03 Mar 2020) CH 9 Video supplement on Wolf Cukier's discovery of a new planet , CBS News, 1' video
25 Feb 2020) CH 10 Solar Orbiter launch: what is it and what's it going to do? , Laura Foster, BBC, 2020.02.09, includes 2.7' video (most of content)
25 Feb 2020) CH 9 ESA CHEOPS mission launched: Exoplanets in focus , Deutsche Welle, 19 Dec 2019
18 Feb 2020) CH 8 When Pluto's frozen heart beats, it creates wind , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 4 Feb 2020, has 1' fly-over video
18 Feb 2020) CH 8 New data from New Horizons' fly-by of Ultima Thule/Arrokoth could settle the controversy over how our solar system first formed , Suzannah Lyons, Austral. Broadcast. Corp., 16 Feb 2020, has 2 very short videos
11 Feb 2020) CH 6 MAVEN explores Mars to understand radio interference on Earth , Glyn Collinson, NASA, 4 Feb 2020, has 2.3' video
11 Feb 2020) CH 6 Water found an inch beneath the Martian surface could help future astronauts , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Dec 2019
11 Feb 2020) CH 6 Mars, already largely desert, is losing water quicker than expected, study says , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 10 Jan 2020, has 1' video of Martian fly-over
04 Feb 2020) CH 6 There May Be Active Volcanoes on Venus: New Evidence , Charles Quoi, 3 Jan 2020, has 4' video
04 Feb 2020) CH 3 Telescope captures most detailed pictures yet of the sun , Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 29 Jan 2020 (with 0.5 min video)
04 Feb 2020) CH 3 Supporting Material: Inouye Solar Telescope First Light , National Solar Observatory, Jan 2020 (many photos/links)
28 Jan 2020) CH 3 Four ways the Mars 2020 rover will pave the way for a manned mission , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2019.12.27
28 Jan 2020) CH 3 A brain transplant for one of Australia's top telescopes , Ray Norris (professional astronomer), The Conversation, 2020.01.20
21 Jan 2020) CH 6 Earth's oldest known impact crater may tell us a lot about our planet's frozen past , Mike Wall, space.com, 21 Jan 2020
21 Jan 2020) CH 6 Complementary Article on Yarrabubba crater in Australia - world's oldest impact structure -- good graphics , Genelle Weule, Australian Broadcasting Corp, 21 Jan 2020
21 Jan 2020) CH 3 China's 500-meter FAST radio telescope is now operational , Evan Gough, Universe Today, 21 Jan 2020
14 Jan 2020) CH 3 How NASA's Webb Telescope Will Search for Oxygen on Alien Worlds , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 2020.01.07 (has 2 videos, 4' and 1')
14 Jan 2020) CH 3 It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 2020.01.07
14 Jan 2020) CH 3 LSST preview video , Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab, 2017.11.29
14 Jan 2020) CH 1 In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , Richard Harris, NPR, 27 Aug 2018
07 Jan 2020) CH 1 SpaceX Starlink mega-constellation: 'Limited time' to fix brightness issue , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 9 Jan 2020
07 Jan 2020) CH 6 Greenland rocks suggest Earth's magnetic field is older than we thought , Alexandra Witze, Nature, 10 Dec 2019

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2019
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED


26 Nov 2019) NASA maps Saturn's moon Titan, which may support extraterrestrial life , Chris Ciaccia, Fox News, 19 Nov 2019
26 Nov 2019) Strange life forms found deep in a mine point to vast 'underground Galapagos' , Corey S. Powell, 7 Sep 2019
19 Nov 2019) Probing the Universe's Dark Energy with a super-telescope , Pallab Ghosh, 28 Oct 2019
19 Nov 2019) NASA's TESS Mission Spots Its 1st Star-shredding Black Hole , Jeanette Kazmierczak, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 26 Sep 2019; contributed by A Ismail
15 Nov 2019) STARGAZING SPECIAL: The Leonid meteor shower peaks this weekend , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 Nov 2019
12 Nov 2019) New map of the Milky Way provides more evidence that it's warped and twisted , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 02 Aug 2019
12 Nov 2019) German X-Ray Telescope (eROSITA) Takes First Images of Universe. Here They Are! (has 3.8' video) , Chelsea Gohd, CNN, 28 Oct 2019
05 Nov 2019) What Voyager 2 has learned since entering interstellar space (1.2' video) , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 5 Nov 2019
05 Nov 2019) Voyagers shed light on Solar System's structure (good science content - READ THIS) , Paul Rincon, BBC, 4 Nov 2019
05 Nov 2019) Mercury Transit 2019: Here's Why This Celestial Event Is So Rare , Joe Rao, space.com, 4 Nov 2019
05 Nov 2019) Mercury Transit 2019: How to Watch the Rare Event Live Online , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 8 Nov 2019
31 Oct 2019) Repeating outbursts of 40,000-degree wind discovered near black hole , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 Aug 2019
31 Oct 2019) It's an asteroid! No, it's the new smallest dwarf planet in our solar system: Hygiea , Ashley Strickland & Amy Woodyatt, CNN, 28 Oct 2019
24 Oct 2019) Star 'Families' Stick Together in the Milky Way, Gaia Maps Reveal , Passant Rabie, space.com, 9 Sep 2019
24 Oct 2019) Astronomers spy two baby stars in a cosmic pretzel: Barnard 59 in the Pipe Nebula , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 4 Oct 2019
24 Oct 2019) video: ALMA observations of Barnard 59 , European Southern Observatory (ESO), 5 Oct 2019
24 Oct 2019) Details: Barnard 59 (part of dark Pipe Nebula) optical image and description from ESO , SciTechDaily, 15 Aug 2012
17 Oct 2019) Organic compounds have been found on Saturn's moon Enceladus , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 10 Oct 2019
17 Oct 2019) 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to 3 astronomers: Jim Peebles (cosmology), and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz (exoplanets) , nobelprize.org, 8 Oct 2019
17 Oct 2019) Details/9' interview: 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics , nobelprize.org, 8 Oct 2019
10 Oct 2019) Saturn overtakes Jupiter as planet with most moons - and you can help name them! , Paul Rincon, BBC, 07 Oct 2019
10 Oct 2019) Water found on 'mind-blowing' planet around distant star , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 11 Sep 2019
10 Oct 2019) WATCH THE SKY: Draconids Meteor Shower Visible Tonight (10 Oct 2019) , Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd, Astronomy Essentials, 06 Oct 2019
01 Oct 2019) Saturn's Rings May Be Ancient After All , Mike Wall, space.com, 16 Sep 2019
01 Oct 2019) 2nd interstellar visitor to our solar system confirmed and named Comet 2I/Borisov (2nd Interstellar object) , Ashley Strickland, space.com, 24 Sep 2019
More information: First measurements of 'interstellar comet': GTC shows composition similar to those in our solar system , Paul Rincon, BBC, 17 Sep 2019
24 Sep 2019) Life may have existed on warm, rainy, ancient Mars before winter came , Ashley Strickland, space.com, 20 Aug 2019
24 Sep 2019) Some of Saturn Moon Titan's Methane Lakes May Sit in 'Explosion Craters' , Mike Wall, space.com, 9 Sep 2019
17 Sep 2019) Astronomers Get the Goods on Jupiter-Smacking Space Rock , Mike Wall, space.com, 17 Sep 2019
17 Sep 2019) An asteroid larger than some of the world's tallest buildings will zip by Earth Saturday , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 14 Sep 2019
10 Sep 2019) NASA joins climate change battle in Greenland (3' video) , Fred Pleitgen, CNN, 19 Aug 2018
10 Sep 2019) China's Lunar Rover Has Found Something Weird on the Far Side of the Moon , Andrew Jones, space.com, 30 Aug 2019
03 Sep 2019) It is Not Too Early to Plan for the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 , Doris E. Salazar, 22 Aug 2019
03 Sep 2019) Earth's roaming magnetic poles create longer periods of instability, study says (incl. 1' video) , Ashley Strickland, CNN, 7 Aug 2019
27 Aug 2019) Japan's Hayabusa2 Asteroid Probe Packs Its Space-Rock Bag for Return to Earth , Meghan Bartels, space.com, 27 Aug 2019
27 Aug 2019) The (galaxy) behemoths date to within 2 billion years after the Big Bang , Maria Temming, 7 Aug 2019
20 Aug 2019) In Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test , Richard Harris, NPR, 27 Aug 2018
20 Aug 2019) Hawaii protests continue against a volcano telescope , BBC, 20 Aug 2019
20 Aug 2019) Background: Thirty Meter Telescope, cost >$1B, with US, Japan, China, India participation , Wikipedia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2018
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

17 Apr 2018) NASA's TESS Satellite Launches to Seek Out New Alien Worlds , Mike Wall, space.com, 18 Apr 2018
17 Apr 2018) Does Titan's Hydrocarbon Soup Hold A Recipe for Life? , Lisa Kaspin-Powell, Astrobiology Magazine, 26 Feb 2018
10 Apr 2018) Conservationists use astronomy software to save species , Pallab Ghosh, BBC, 3 Apr 2018
10 Apr 2018) Hubble Telescope Discovers a Light-Bending 'Einstein Ring' in Space , Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor, 10 Apr 2018
03 Apr 2018) Defying Theories, This Ghostly Galaxy Has Almost No Dark Matter , Nola T. Redd, Space.com Contributor, 28 Mar 2018
03 Apr 2018) Rare Cosmic Alignment Reveals Most Distant Star Ever Seen , Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor, 02 Apr 2018
27 Mar 2018) Gravitational waves -- and light -- seen in neutron star collision , William Harwood, CBS News, 16 Oct 2017
27 Mar 2018) In Rare Supernova, Cocooned Star Dies Super-Rapid Death , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 26 Mar 2018
20 Mar 2018) Astronomer 'Wins Cosmic Lottery' with 1-in-10-Million Supernova Shot , Mike Wall, space.com, 21 Feb 2018
20 Mar 2018) Related Video , Todo Noticias/Wochit News, 23 Feb 2018
20 Mar 2018) No Alien Megastructure: Star's Weird Dimming Likely Caused by Dust , Mike Wall, space.com, 3 Jan 2018
06 Mar 2018) Five-Exoplanet System Discovered Thanks to Citizen Scientists (has 2 videos) , Calla Cofield, space.com, 14 Jan 2018
06 Mar 2018) Quirky Comet Has Unexpected Composition, NASA Study Shows: Methane! (has video) , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 27 Nov 2017
27 Feb 2018) NASA's SDO Reveals How Magnetic Cage on the Sun Stopped Solar Eruption , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 23 Feb 2018
27 Feb 2018) Could Methane on Saturn's Moon Enceladus be a Sign of Life? , Mike Wall, space.com, 27 Feb 2018
20 Feb 2018) A Giant Storm on Neptune Is Disappearing as Hubble Telescope Watches , Sarah Lewin, space.com, 16 Feb 2018
20 Feb 2018) More Jupiter Weirdness: Giant Planet May Have Huge, 'Fuzzy' Core , Mike Wall, space.com, 26 May 2017
13 Feb 2018) Juno Probe Completes 10th Science Flyby of Jupiter; Citizens Produce Amazing Images , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 10 Feb 2018
13 Feb 2018) Trump's NASA Budget Would Cancel Space Telescope & 5 Earth Science Missions , Sarah Lewin, space.com, 12 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018) Mystery Solved! Discovery of Organic Molecules Explains Universe's Infrared Glow , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 16 Jan 2018
06 Feb 2018) Lunar Fountain? Accessible Ice Could Lurk in Moon's Lava Tubes , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 18 Jan 2018
30 Jan 2018) Astronomers Angered by Company's 'Artificial Star' , Andrew Griffin, The Independent, 28 Jan 2018
30 Jan 2018) Moon has a water-rich interior , Brown University, Science Daily, 24 July 2017
23 Jan 2018) Get Ready for the 'Super Blue Blood Moon' Eclipse of Jan. 31! , Joe Rao, space.com, 19 Jan 2018
23 Jan 2018) Flying telescope yields insights into birth of stars , Paul Rincon, BBC, 10 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018) Most scientists 'can't replicate studies by their peers' (cancer, drug trial studies etc.) , Tom Feilden, Today Programme, 22 Feb 2017
16 Jan 2018) OPINION (read on your own): There's a good reason Americans are horrible at science: It's taught as facts rather than a method , Danielle Teller, qz.com, 09 Jan 2016
16 Jan 2018) Mystery Solved! Discovery of Organic Molecules Explains Universe's Infrared Glow , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 16 Jan 2018
9 Jan 2018) ESO Observations Show First Interstellar Asteroid is Like Nothing Seen Before: VLT reveals dark, reddish and highly-elongated object , ESO (European Southern Observatory), 20 Nov 2017
9 Jan 2018) No Alien Megastructure: Star's Weird Dimming Likely Caused by Dust , Mike Wall, space.com, 3 Jan 2018


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2017
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED

18 Apr 2017) Bringing Silicon to Life (with 3.7' video) , Whitney Clavin, Caltech, 24 Nov 2016
18 Apr 2017) Potential Energy Source for Life Spotted on Saturn Moon Enceladus (with 1.2' video) , Mike Wall, space.com, 13 Apr 2017
11 Apr 2017) Speedy universe expansion challenges Einstein's theory , Stuart Clark, The Guardian, 26 Jan 2017
11 Apr 2017) Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovers the most extreme blazars yet (has 2.5' video) , Francis Reddy, phys.org, 30 Jan 2017
04 Apr 2017) Stars Born Inside Violent Black Hole Jets Spotted for the 1st Time , Calla Cofield, space.com, 27 Mar 2017
04 Apr 2017) Quasars Reveal Early Structure of Milky Way-Like Galaxies , Jesse Emspak, space.com, 27 Mar 2017
28 Mar 2017) Intergalactic collision birthed a sparkling ring of young stars (around Large Magellanic Cloud) , Ken Croswell, New Scientist, 20 Jan 2017
28 Mar 2017) Dark Matter Halos of Early Galaxies Much Larger and Diffuse - Dominated By Normal Matter (has 1' video) , results from European Southern Obs., Daily Galaxy, 17 Mar 2017
21 Mar 2017) Part-Time Pulsars Perform 'Cosmic Vanishing Act' , Sarah Levin, space.com, 5 Jan 2017
21 Mar 2017) Cassini Says Farewell to Saturn's Delicious 'Ravioli' Moon Pan , Calla Cofield, space.com, 20 Mar 2017
07 Mar 2017) Planet Formation May Rely on Dusty 'Traffic Jam' In Early Star System , Sarah Levin, space.com, 13 Feb 2017
07 Mar 2017) World's Oldest Fossils found in Canada, [Remnants around Hydrothermal Vents] say Scientists , Nicola Davis, The Guardian, 1 Mar 2017
28 Feb 2017) How to predict and prepare for space weather , The Economist, 25 Feb 2017
28 Feb 2017) 7 Earth-Size Alien Planets Circle Nearby Star (with 3.8' video) , Mike Wall, space.com, 22 Feb 2017
28 Feb 2017) Supplement: Spitzer Light Curve of Trappist 1 (with 2' video) , Steve Spaleta, space.com, 22 Feb 2017
21 Feb 2017) Life's Building Blocks Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres , Mike Wall, space.com, 17 Feb 2017
21 Feb 2017) Jupiter's Little Red Spot Eyed by NASA Juno Spacecraft , Christine Lunsford, space.com, 13 Feb 2017
14 Feb 2017) Akatsuki Spies Massive Wave on Venus , David Dickinson, Sky & Telescope, 17 Jan 2017
14 Feb 2017) Companion video about Akatsuki , SciShow Space, 20 Jan 2017
14 Feb 2017) MRO Spacecraft 'Sees' the Mysteries Buried Under the Polar Ice Caps of Mars , Ian O'Neill, space.com, 04 Jan 2017
07 Feb 2017) EXTRA CREDIT: Penumbral lunar eclipse, Snow Moon and New Year Comet to coincide in spectacular celestial display this month , Sophie Curtis, Daily Mirror, 7 Feb 2017
07 Feb 2017) EXTRA CREDIT: NASA page on 10 Feb 2017 penumbral lunar eclipse , eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
07 Feb 2017) Mud Cracks on Mars Suggest a Watery Ancient Past (has 1.5' video) , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 6 Feb 2017
07 Feb 2017) Mars Mystery: How Was Ancient Red Planet Warm Enough for Liquid Water? (has 1.5' video) , Charles Q. Choi, space.com, 6 Feb 2017
31 Jan 2017) Chunks of Failed Planets Might Have Scarred Early Earth , Nora T. Redd, space.com, 23 Jan 2017
31 Jan 2017) Earth's Moon formed 4.51 billion years ago, millions of years earlier than previously believed , Princeton University, 12 Jan 2017
24 Jan 2017) Breakthrough Starshot Enlists Giant Telescope to Seek Planets at Alpha Centauri (with 1.6' video) , Calla Cofield, space.com, 09 Jan 2017
24 Jan 2017) BACKGROUND: Hopkinsville, Kentucky 'Ground Zero' For 2017 Solar Eclipse (2.3' video) , NBC News, 02 Sep 2014
24 Jan 2017) This Is How YOU Can Do Science During the Great American Eclipse , Elizabeth Howell, Seeker, 20 Jan 2017
17 Jan 2017) 'Leap Second' Will Make New Year's Eve Just a Little Bit Longer , Tia Ghose, livescience.com, 30 Dec 2016
17 Jan 2017) Ancient eclipse records revise modern calculations of Earth's spin , Bianca Nogrady, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Science, 6 Dec 2016
10 Jan 2017) Cassini's Breathtaking New View of Saturn's Enigmatic Hexagon , Ian O'Neill, seeker.com, 4 Jan 2017
10 Jan 2017) Many Psychology Findings Not as Strong as Claimed, Study Says , Benedict Carey, New York Times, 27 Aug 2015
10 Jan 2017) Cancer Biology Reproducibility Project Sees Mixed Results (from The Reproducibility Project) , Courtney Humphries, NOVA Next, 18 Jan 2017
10 Jan 2017) Most scientists 'can't replicate studies by their peers' (cancer, drug trial studies etc.) , Tom Feilden, Today Programme, 22 Feb 2017
10 Jan 2017) OPINION: There's a good reason Americans are horrible at science: It's taught as facts rather than a method , Danielle Teller, qz.com, 09 Jan 2016

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2016
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED


06 Dec 2016) Did Asteroids Deliver Key Building Block of Life to Earth? , Keith Cooper, space.com, 16 Sep 2016
06 Dec 2016) Did NASA Mars Rover Find a Signature of Past Life? , Leonard David, space.com, 22 Nov 2016
01 Dec 2016) Astronomers spot signs of weird quantum distortion in space , Adrian Cho, Science Magazine, 30 Nov 2016
29 Nov 2016) Huge Underground Ice Deposit on Mars Is Bigger Than New Mexico - has as much water as Lake Superior (has 4.5' video) , Mike Wall, space.com, 22 Nov 2016
29 Nov 2016) The Universe Is Directionless, Study Finds , Calla Cofield, space.com, 26 Sep 2016
22 Nov 2016) A new class of galaxy has been discovered, one made almost entirely of dark matter , Rachel Feltman, Washington Post, 25 Aug 2016
22 Nov 2016) Accompanying 1' video on YouTube for new class of galaxy article , 27 Aug 2016
22 Nov 2016) Bright radio burst detected by Parkes telescope sheds light on the Universe's cosmic web , Anna Salleh, Australian Broadcasting Corp., 18 Nov 2016
22 Nov 2016) Accompanying 1' video on YouTube , 24 Feb 2016
22 Nov 2016) FUN: Trailer - The Dish: The Parkes Telescope's Contribution to Apollo XI Coverage , 2' video, Warner Brothers, 11 Jul 2011
15 Nov 2016) Surprise! Cold Gas 'Halos' Found Around Brightest Objects in Universe , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 26 Oct 2016
15 Nov 2016) Cosmic 'Echoes' Reveal Stars Devoured by Black Holes , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 20 Oct 2016
10 Nov 2016) Massive Gas Cloud Will Collide With Milky Way, Eventually (has 3.4' video) , Steve Spaleta, space.com, 10 Oct 2016
10 Nov 2016) Close galactic encounter leaves 'nearly naked' supermassive black hole , Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Science Daily, 2 Nov 2016
10 Nov 2016) Details on NRAO's VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array) from Wikipedia , Wikipedia, 2 Nov 2016
10 Nov 2016) FUN: November's Supermoon Is Closest Since 1948: 5 Surprising Facts , Elizabeth Howell, space.com, 10 Nov 2016
01 Nov 2016) Hubble detects giant 'cannonballs' shooting from star , NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 6 Oct 2016
01 Nov 2016) Oldest known planet-forming disk discovered , Carnegie Institute of Science, 21 Oct 2016
25 Oct 2016) RIP, Schiaparelli: European/Russian Mars Lander's Crash Site Seen By NASA Probe , Mike Wall, space.com, 21 Oct 2016
25 Oct 2016) Pluto's 'Heart' Hints at Deep, Underground Ocean (includes 1.75min video) , Hanneke Weitering, space.com, 23 Sep 2016
18 Oct 2016) Saturn's moon Dione harbors a subsurface ocean , Royal Observatory of Belgium/Science Daily, 5 Oct 2016
18 Oct 2016) Scientists Found A New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System , Stephanie Liebergen, Science Daily, 11 Oct 2016, is 1' video
18 Oct 2016) New Dwarf Planet Found in Our Solar System (space.com text to go with video above) , Calla Cofield, space.com, 11 Oct 2016
18 Oct 2016) FUN: 3 'Supermoons' In Last 3 Months of 2016 - NASA Explains | Video , Steve Spaleta, space.com, 16 Oct 2016, has 3.5' video
11 Oct 2016) New Low-mass objects (Brown Dwarfs with disks) could help refine planetary evolution , Science Daily, 26 Sep 2016
11 Oct 2016) NASA's STEREO Probe Sees the Edge of the Sun, Birthplace of the Solar Wind , space.com, Elizabeth Howell, 19 Sep 2016 (includes 2' video)
06 Oct 2016) On Jupiter's Moon Europa, More Tantalizing Signs of Giant Water Plumes , Mike Wall, space.com, 26 Sep 2016 (includes 2' video)
06 Oct 2016) TW Hydrae: Star's dust cloud gives birth to giant planet , Paul Rincon, BBC, 14 Sep 2016
27 Sep 2016) First Comet-Orbiting Spacecraft Set to Crash-Land Friday Sep 30, 2016 , Megan Gannon, space.com, 27 Sep 2016
27 Sep 2016) China begins operating world's largest radio telescope , Gillian Wong, phys.org, 25 Sep 2016 (suggested by Johnryan McCleery)
27 Sep 2016) Huge Mars Lakes Formed Much More Recently Than Thought , Mike Wall, space.com, 16 Sep 2016
20 Sep 2016) BASIC ASTRONOMY RESEARCH APPLIED: Cancer Research Aided by NASA's Space Exploration , Samantha Mathewson, space.com, 20 Sep 2016
20 Sep 2016) Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level ever , Ben Westcott, CNN, 16 Sep 2016
20 Sep 2016) Moon's Birth May Have Vaporized Most of Earth, Study Shows , Charles Q. Choi, space.com, 13 Sep 2016
13 Sep 2016) Asteroid probe begins seven-year quest , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 16 Sep 2016
13 Sep 2016) Jupiter Juno mission: Five facts you need to know , Rebecca Morelle, BBC, 4 July 2016
13 Sep 2016) Related: New Images of Jupiter , Rebecca Morelle, BBC, 2 Sep 2016
06 Sep 2016) FUN/LESSON - BLOCKBUSTER NEWS DOESN'T STAND UP TO VERIFICATION: Signal from sun-like star likely of Earthling variety , Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN, 31 Aug 2016
06 Sep 2016) Philae: Lost comet lander is found , Jonathan Amos, BBC, 06 Sep 2016
06 Sep 2016) NASA's Mission to Asteroid Bennu: OSIRIS-Rex Complete Coverage , space.com, 29 Aug 2016
30 Aug 2016) FUN: Venus-Jupiter Conjunction 2016: When, Where and How to See It , Joe Rao, space.com, 2016 Aug 27
30 Aug 2016) A Previously Undiscovered Asteroid Just Came Very Close to Earth , Ria Misra, gizmodo.com, 29 Aug 2016
30 Aug 2016) ESOcast87: Planet found around closest Star (6' video) , European Southern Observatory ESOcast 87, 2016 Aug 24
23 Aug 2016) Many Psychology Findings Not as Strong as Claimed, Study Says , Benedict Carey, New York Times, 27 Aug 2015
23 Aug 2016) OPINION: There's a good reason Americans are horrible at science: It's taught as facts rather than a method , Danielle Teller, qz.com, 09 Jan 2016
23 Aug 2016) 'Great American Total Solar Eclipse' Just 1 Year Away , Joe Rao, space.com, 19 Aug 2016

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2016
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED


19 Apr 2016) To Alpha Centauri at 20% Lightspeed - No Breakthrough Yet: Stephen Hawking's Interstellar 'Starshot' Faces Challenges , space.com, 15 Apr 2016 (after intro, skip ahead to 5' mark on video)
19 Apr 2016) "Older is Better" -- SETI Institute Scanning 20,000 Red-Dwarf Stars for Signs of Technology-Based Life , Daily Galaxy, 4 Apr 2016
12 Apr 2016) Tetraquarks: New four-flavor particle discovered , Science Daily, 25 Feb 2016
12 Apr 2016) Supermassive Black Holes Could Be Everywhere , Discovery Channel, 6 Apr 2016
05 Apr 2016) Farthest Galaxy Yet Smashes Cosmic Distance Record (redshift z=11.1) , space.com, 3 Mar 2016
05 Apr 2016) Supermassive Black Hole Jets Detected Exceeding Known Physical Limits --"Hotter Than 10-Trillion Degrees" , Daily Galaxy, 29 Mar 2016
29 Mar 2016) Stunning Milky Way photo shows star-forming regions , CNN, 24 Feb 2016
29 Mar 2016) Flyby Comet Was WAY Bigger Than Thought , space.com, 28 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016) Extra Credit: Lunar Eclipse link , space.com, 22 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016) 2 Comets Will Pass By Earth This Week - The Closest In 250 Years (text) , Science Alert, 21 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016) 2 Comets Will Pass By Earth This Week - The Closest In 250 Years (video) , Science Daily, 20 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016) First Supernova Shock Wave Image Snapped by Planet-Hunting Telescope , space.com, 22 Mar 2016
08 Mar 2016) New Giant Stars Found Outside Our Galaxy, using Hubble and Spitzer , insidescience.com, 08 Jan 2016
01 Mar 2016) NASA: Understanding the Magnetic Sun with UV Observations and the Potential Field Source Surface Model , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 29 Jan 2016
01 Mar 2016) Bow waves betray dozens of runaway stars , BBC, 06 Jan 2016
23 Feb 2016) Ancient Impacts Mysteriously Erased From Asteroid Vesta , space.com, 19 Feb 2016
23 Feb 2016) Massive Planets May Punch Puzzling Holes in Planetary Nurseries , space.com, 30 Dec 2015
16 Feb 2016) Super-Earth Exoplanet's Atmosphere Characterized for 1st Time: lots of H, He , space.com, 16 Feb 2016
16 Feb 2016) Einstein's gravitational waves 'seen' from black holes with LIGO , BBC, 11 Feb 2016
09 Feb 2016) White House Proposes $19 Billion 2017 NASA Budget , space.com, 9 Feb 2016
09 Feb 2016) New study challenges Jupiter's role as planetary shield, protecting Earth from comet impacts , Science Daily, 3 Feb 2016
02 Feb 2016) Moon was produced by a head-on collision between Earth and a forming planet , UCLA, 28 Jan 2016, text for details of BBC interview
02 Feb 2016) Moon and Earth have Exactly the Same Oxygen Isotopes - Collision to Form Moon was Head-On , BBC, 29 Jan 2016, 2' radio interview
02 Feb 2016) Gullies on Mars Sculpted by Dry Ice rather than Liquid Water - not good places for life? , Science Daily (French CNRS), 22 Dec 2015
28 Jan 2016) 'Planet Nine' May Exist: New Evidence for Another World in Our Solar System , space.com, 20 Jan 2016, 2 videos, one with Mike Brown
28 Jan 2016) Rogue Planet Finds Home in Biggest Solar System Ever Seen, using 2MASS, WISE, Gemini-South 8m telescope , space.com, 26 Jan 2016
21 Jan 2016) Four new elements added to periodic table , Earthsky, 06 Jan 2016
21 Jan 2016) Colossal star explosion detected (with twin 14cm "telescopes", has 7m40s audio interview) , BBC, 14 Jan 2016
12 Jan 2016) Space: What does 2016 have in store? JUNO, gravity waves, Falcon rocket, Exomars, Rosetta's end , BBC, 06 Jan 2016
12 Jan 2016) Many Psychology Findings Not as Strong as Claimed, Study Says , New York Times, 27 Aug 2015
12 Jan 2016) OPINION: There's a good reason Americans are horrible at science: It's taught as facts rather than a method , Danielle Teller, qz.com, 09 Jan 2016
07 Jan 2016) Black Hole in Nearby Galaxy Caught 'Burping' galactic Gas Supply; more news: Star-Starved Black Hole , BBC, 05 Jan 2016
07 Jan 2016) Companion Interview: Black hole in Nearby galaxy caught 'burping' galactic gas supply , BBC, 05 Jan 2016
07 Jan 2016) WFIRST: NASA's Next Major Space Telescope Project Officially Starts in February , space.com, 06 Jan 2016 (has video)



      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2015
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED


07 Dec 2015) Surfing Einstein's Waves: ESA's New LISA Pathfinder Mission Launches to Seek Space-Time Ripples , space.com, 04 Dec 2015
07 Dec 2015) In Alien Solar Systems, Twin Planets Could Share Life , space.com, 07 Dec 2015
07 Dec 2015) FUN: Comet Catalina flies by Moon and Venus , National Geographic, 05 Dec 2015
02 Dec 2015) Monster Black Hole Eats Star, Returns Leftovers , space.com, 01 Dec 2015
02 Dec 2015) Farthest Galaxy Detected, Redshift z=8.68, 13.2 Gyr Old , Caltech, 03 Sep 2015
23 Nov 2015) Hubble Uncovers the Fading Cinders of Some of our Galaxy's Earliest Homesteaders , sciencedaily.com, 05 Nov 2015
23 Nov 2015) Dark Matter Dominates in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy , sciencedaily.com, 18 Nov 2015
16 Nov 2015) Bad News for Terraforming: Mars' Atmosphere Is Lost in Space (due to Solar Wind) , space.com, 06 Nov 2015
16 Nov 2015) Swift and NuSTAR Satellites See Black Hole Has Major Flare , NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, 27 Oct 2015, suggested by C. DeGeorge
(09 Nov 2015) Our Milky Way Galaxy Has a Mysterious 'Great Dark Lane' , space.com, 6 Nov 2015
(09 Nov 2015) Mars atmosphere 'eroded by Sun activity' , BBC, 5 Nov 2015
(02 Nov 2015) Skull-Shaped Halloween Asteroid Zips by Earth, a Treat for Scientists , space.com, 1 Nov 2015
(02 Nov 2015) Rosetta detects molecular oxygen on Comet 67P for first time , ABC, 28 Oct 2015
(02 Nov 2015) Neutrino 'flip' wins physics Nobel Prize , BBC, 6 Oct 2015
(26 Oct 2015) Hot, Dense Material Surrounds O-type Star with Largest Magnetic Field Known , Florida Tech, 22 Sep 2015
(26 Oct 2015) How neutrinos saved your teeth from cavities , Science Magazine, 11 Sep 2015
(19 Oct 2015) Something Strange Is Happening Inside Saturn: ring waves from planetary vibrations , space.com, 29 Sep 2015
(19 Oct 2015) Giant 'Hole' in Sun Is 50 Earths Wide , space.com, 15 Oct 2015
(19 Oct 2015) Supplementary video of sunspot, ejection beside hole , space.com, 16 Oct 2015
(12 Oct 2015) Fresh views of Ceres but 'spots' remain mysterious , BBC, 30 Sep 2015
(12 Oct 2015) These Mysterious Blazing-Fast Ripples Racing Around a Star Defy Explanation , space.com, 7 Oct 2015
(07 Oct 2015) Latest images reveal Pluto's hazy horizon , BBC, 17 Sep 2015
(07 Oct 2015) Rosetta's 'rubber duck' comet was once two objects , BBC, 28 Sep 2015
(28 Sep 2015) NASA's LADEE spacecraft finds neon in lunar atmosphere , Science Daily, 17 Aug 2015
(28 Sep 2015) Salty Water Flows on Mars Today, Boosting Odds for Life , space.com, 28 Sep 2015
(28 Sep 2015) RELATED 2' VIDEO: Nasa: 'Liquid water has been found on Mars' , BBC, 28 Sep 2015
(21 Sep 2015) Carbon Monoxide 'Fire Fountains' Erupted on the Moon , Discovery Channel, 24 Aug 2015
(21 Sep 2015) How quake in Chile stacks up , CNN, 17 Sep 2015
(14 Sep 2015) Big year ahead for James Webb telescope , BBC, 31 Jul 2015
(09 Sep 2015) NASA's SOFIA: Why A Plane Is A Good Place For A Telescope , Science Daily, 20 Jun 2015
(09 Sep 2015) Giant Magellan Telescope gets green light for construction , Science Magazine, 04 Jun 2015
(09 Sep 2015) VIDEO COMPANION: Largest telescope gets approval for construction (GMT = Giant Magellan Telescope) , Science Daily, 03 Jun 2015
(31 Aug 2015) The Average Body Temperature Is Not 98.6F , Real Clear Science, 30 Aug 2015
(31 Aug 2015) Many Psychology Findings Not as Strong as Claimed, Study Says , New York Times, 27 Aug 2015
(26 Aug 2015) Rosetta Spacecraft, Philae Lander See What a Comet Is Made Of , National Geographic, 30 Jul 2015
(26 Aug 2015) Search For Alien Life Just Got A $100M Boost - from a Russian Billionaire , Science Daily, 20 Jul 2015
(26 Aug 2015) Companion article: Accelerating search for intelligent life in the universe , Science Daily, 20 Jul 2015


      PREVIOUS ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2015
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED
(28 Apr 2015) Wait a Minute, Dark Matter May Not be Dark After All , Discovery Channel, 14 Apr 2015 (supplemental, suggested by J Burch)
(21 Apr 2015) Mysterious 'Cold Spot' in CMB: Fingerprint of Largest Structure in the Universe? , Discovery Channel, 20 Apr 2015
(21 Apr 2015) Life Might Thrive 12 Miles Beneath Earth's Surface , livescience.com, 4 Feb 2015
(21 Apr 2015) The Worlds Beyond: Number of Missions to Outer Planets is About to Dwindle , The Economist, 4 Apr 2015
(21 Apr 2015) Light Relief -- Space is Home: Espresso Machine for an Italian Astronaut , space.com, 21 Apr 2015
(14 Apr 2015) Evidence of liquid water found on Mars , BBC, 13 Apr 2015
(14 Apr 2015) NASA Mars Rover's Weather Data Bolster Case for Brine , BBC, 13 Apr 2015 (more detailed article suggested by K. Gomez)
(14 Apr 2015) Paradox about Black Holes and Event Horizons , space.com, 25 Jan 2015 (suggested by C. Kronk)
(14 Apr 2015) Dark matter map unveils first results , BBC, 13 Apr 2015
(07 Apr 2015) Hubble Finds Phantom Objects Near Dead Quasars , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Hubble Space Telescope), 7 Apr 2015
(07 Apr 2015) Faraway Planet Gains a Fourth Sun , National Geographic, 10 Mar 2015 (suggested by M. Swinford)
(31 Mar 2015) The Milky Way: A Galactic Vampire , The Economist, 21 Feb 2015
(31 Mar 2015) Galactic 'Missing Link' Reveals Early Galaxy Formation , space.com, 5 Mar 2015
(24 Mar 2015) Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Unleashes Record-Breaking X-ray Flare , space.com, 12 Jan 2015
(24 Mar 2015) Milky Way 'Bones' Could Reveal Secrets About Our Galaxy (undergrad research from ACC) , space.com, 20 Jan 2015
(10 Mar 2015) Sun Unleashes 1st Monster Solar Flare of 2015 (Photos, 1 min Video) , space.com, 11 Mar 2015
(10 Mar 2015) Astronomers Find a Long-Lost Ocean on Mars (+4 min video) , National Geographic, 12 Mar 2015 (suggested by M. Lewis)
(3 Mar 2015) Stellar intruder's daring fly-by of the solar system , New Scientist, 19 Feb 2015
(3 Mar 2015) Alien star system buzzed the Sun , BBC, 18 Feb 2015
(3 Mar 2015) 4 NASA Satellites to Seek Energy Eruptions in Earth's Magnetic Field , space.com, 3 Mar 2015
(24 Feb 2015) Comets Are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream, Scientists Say , space.com, 23 Feb 2015
(24 Feb 2015) 1,000 Alien Planets! NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Hits Big Milestone (with 3.5 min video) , space.com, 23 Feb 2015
(17 Feb 2015) New Photos of Dwarf Planet Ceres Reveal Mysterious Bright Spots , National Geographic, 17 Feb 2015
(17 Feb 2015) Mystery Mars haze baffles scientists , BBC, 16 Feb 2015
(10 Feb 2015) Heart of Earth's inner core revealed , BBC, 9 Feb 2015
(10 Feb 2015) Pluto's evaporating ice leaves it with a blank face , New Scientist, 6 Feb 2015
(03 Feb 2015) Meteorite may represent "bulk background" of Mars' battered crust , Science Daily, 30 Jan 2015
(03 Feb 2015) Alamo impact crater: New study could double its size to 110-150 km , Science Daily, 23 Jan 2015
(03 Feb 2015) Photo: Alamo Crater, Nevada , impactcraters.us
(27 Jan 2015) Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturn's (includes video) , U. Rochester, 26 Jan 2015
(27 Jan 2015) Near Asteroid 2004 BL86 Details: It has a Moon , BBC, 27 Jan 2015
ASSOCIATED VIDEOAsteroid BL86 Radar Images , space.com, 26 Jan 2015
(20 Jan 2015) New Telescope in Chile Now Searching for Alien Planets , space.com, 19 Jan 2015
(20 Jan 2015) Big Asteroid to Zoom by Earth on Jan. 26 , space.com, 14 Jan 2015
(20 Jan 2015) FOR FUN: Comet Lovejoy photos (maximum brightness this week) , National Geographic, 13 Jan 2015
(13 Jan 2015) Volunteer 'Disk Detectives' top one million classifications of possible planetary habitats , Science Daily, 7 Jan 2015
(13 Jan 2015) Saturn pinpointed to within one mile by giant telescope , space.com, 9 Jan 2015
(8 Jan 2015) Green Comet Lovejoy Now Visible in "Heavenly River" of Stars: Where to Look , space.com, 7 Jan 2015
(8 Jan 2015) Telescope Captures Stunning Images of Alien Planets and Young Star , space.com, 8 Jan 2015


      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2014
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
(13 Dec 2014) FOR FUN: Geminids, Year's Best Meteor Shower, Peaks This Weekend , weather.com, 12 Dec 2014
(08 Dec 2014) Comet dust found in Antarctica , Science Magazine, 5 Dec 2014
(08 Dec 2014) NASA Unveils Most Amazing View of Jupiter's Moon Europa Ever (Video) , space.com, 24 Nov 2014
(01 Dec 2014) Big Bang Mystery Extends into Nearby Galaxy: Stars should contain three times as much lithium as they do , National Geographic, 10 Sep 2014
(01 Dec 2014) Supermassive Black Holes Even Heavier Than Thought , space.com, 26 Nov 2014
(24 Nov 2014) "Swiss cheese" galaxy resembles those that changed the youthful universe , Science Magazine, 9 Oct 2014
(24 Nov 2014) Rare Flickering Black Hole Jet Challenges Theories , space.com, 6 Nov 2014
(17 Nov 2014) Background: MAGIC Telescope, Canary Islands, detects particles made when gamma rays hit our atmosphere , Wikipedia, 24 Nov 2014
(17 Nov 2014) Jellyfish galaxies found spawning in clusters , New Scientist, 28 Jan 2014
(17 Nov 2014) FOR FUN: Leonid Meteor Shower Forecast for Nov 17-18 , space.com, 17 Nov 2014
(12 Nov 2014) BREAKING NEWS: PHILAE LANDS ON COMET 67P , BBC, 12 Nov 2014
(10 Nov 2014) Mars spacecraft, including MAVEN, reveal comet flyby effects on Martian atmosphere , Science Daily, 7 Nov 2014
(10 Nov 2014) Lost in Space: Half of All Stars Are Rogues Between Galaxies , space.com, 6 Nov 2014
(03 Nov 2014) Big blue star is an X-ray oddball: it has X-ray pulses corresponding with magnitude changes , New Scientist, 16 Jun 2014
(03 Nov 2014) White Dwarfs May Hold Nuclear Trigger for Explosive Supernovas , space.com, 27 Aug 2014
(27 Oct 2014) Chaotic Cosmic Wombs May Birth Backwards Planets , New Scientist, 21 Oct 2014
(27 Oct 2014) Huge Magnetic "Ropes" Drive Powerful Sun Explosions , space.com, 22 Oct 2014
(20 Oct 2014) JUST FOR FUN: Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks This Week: How to See It (remnant of Halley's Comet) , Science Daily, 16 Oct 2014
(20 Oct 2014) NASA IRIS Spacecraft (launched 2013) Provides New Information About Sun's Atmosphere , Science Daily, 16 Oct 2014
(20 Oct 2014) Partial Solar Eclipse to Darken US Skies This Week (has video) , space.com, 20 Oct 2014
(20 Oct 2014) Louisville Astronomical Society site -- Observing Eclipse at Bernheim Forest , Louisville Astronomical Society, 20 Oct 2014
(13 Oct 2014) Mystery of "Hot Jupiter" Planets' Crazy Orbits May Be Solved , space.com, 11 Sep 2014
(13 Oct 2014) Bizarre Shape of Uranus' "Frankenstein" Moon Miranda Explained , space.com, 3 Oct 2014
(08 Oct 2014) The Mystery of Saturn's Expanding F Ring , medium.com, Aug 2014
(08 Oct 2014) Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have Plate Tectonics Just Like Earth , space.com, 8 Sep 2014
(29 Sep 2014) Massive "ocean" discovered towards Earth's core , New Scientist, 12 Jun 2014
(29 Sep 2014) Electric Moon Sparks May Break Down Lunar Dirt , space.com, 2 Sep 2014
(24 Sep 2014) Why India's Mars Mission is so Cheap - and Thrilling , BBC, 23 Sep 2014
(22 Sep 2014) Ozone Layer Showing 'Signs of Recovery', UN says , BBC, 10 Sep 2014
(22 Sep 2014) MAVEN spacecraft enters Mars orbit to explore its climate change , CNN, 22 Sep 2014
(15 Sep 2014) Rosetta: Audacious Comet Landing Site Chosen , BBC, 15 Sep 2014
(15 Sep 2014) Solar Storms Are Bombarding Earth Now, Amped-up Auroras Possible , space.com, 15 Sep 2014
(08 Sep 2014) Newly Found Asteroid to Pass Close to Earth on Sunday , CNN, 4 Sep 2014
(08 Sep 2014) Meteorite Leaves Crater in Nicaraguan Capital Managua , BBC, 8 Sep 2014
(08 Sep 2014) James Webb Space Telescope's Giant Sunshield Test Unit Unfurled First Time , universetoday.com, 26 Jul 2014
(03 Sep 2014) The Mystery of Saturn's Expanding F Ring, medium.com, Aug 2014 , medium.com (blog for www.arXiv.org), 01 Sep 2014
(03 Sep 2014) Hopkinsville Preparing Early for Huge Crowds on 'The Darkest Day' , WAVE3, 27 Aug 2014
(27 Aug 2014) Rosetta's 10-billion-tonne Comet , BBC, 27 Aug 2014
(27 Aug 2014) Lakes Under the Ice: Antarctica's Secret Garden , Nature, 20 Aug 2014




(16 Apr 2013) Dark matter experiment CDMS sees three tentative clues , BBC, 15 Apr 2013
(16 Apr 2013) Dark Matter: The hunt for the missing 85% of matter in the universe is closing in on its quarry , The Economist, 6 Apr 2013
(16 Apr 2013) Deepest undersea vents discovered by UK team , BBC, 21 Feb 2013
(09 Apr 2013) Higgs Boson Discovery Confirmed After Physicists Review Large Hadron Collider Data At CERN (good video, see first) , Huffington Post, 14 Mar 2013
(09 Apr 2013) Confirmed! Newfound Particle Is a Higgs Boson (good video, details, see second) , livescience.com, 14 Mar 2013
(09 Apr 2013) Simple but Challenging:The Universe according to Planck , ESA (European Space Agency), 21 Mar 2013
(02 Apr 2013) Mystery of Vanishing Dwarf Galaxies Explained? , space.com, 19 Mar 2013
(02 Apr 2013) Whoa! Mini-Supernovas Discovered (science) , space.com, 26 Mar 2013
(02 Apr 2013) Scientists Discover New Type of Supernova (video) , WCPO Cincinnati Ch. 9 TV, 27 Mar 2013
(26 Mar 2013) Icy Cosmic Start for Amino Acids and DNA Ingredients , Science Daily, 28 Feb 2013
(26 Mar 2013) Comet, Not Asteroid, Killed Dinosaurs, Study Suggests , space.com, 22 Mar 2013
(19 Mar 2013) Gamma-ray burst 'hit Earth in 8th Century' , BBC, 21 Jan 2013
(19 Mar 2013) Baffling Star Birth Mystery Finally Solved , space.com, 13 Jan 2013
(05 Mar 2013) Hidden Moons Lurk in Saturn's Rings , Discovery, 27 Feb 2013
(05 Mar 2013) Bright Comet Set for Dazzling Sky Show this Month , space.com, 04 Mar 2013
(26 Feb 2013) NASA Telescope Reveals 'Magnetic Braids' in Sun's Atmosphere , space.com, 23 Jan 2013
(26 Feb 2013) Russian Meteor Explosion: NASA Video , space.com, 26 Feb 2013
(26 Feb 2013) Russia meteor's origin tracked down: Apollo asteroid group , space.com, 26 Feb 2013
(26 Feb 2013) Apollo Asteroid Group , Wikipedia, 26 Feb 2013
(19 Feb 2013) Meteorite fragments found in Russia's Urals region , BBC, 18 Feb 2013
(19 Feb 2013) Meteor Blast Over Russia Feb. 15: Complete Coverage , space.com, 15 Feb 2013
(19 Feb 2013) Proof! Mysterious Cosmic Rays Born in Star Explosions , space.com, 14 Feb 2013
(12 Feb 2013) Saturn moon Enceladus eyed for sample-return mission , MSNBC, 13 Jan 2013
(12 Feb 2013) Mars Rover Finds Intriguing New Evidence of Water , National Geographic, 15 Jan 2013
(05 Feb 2013) The new black: Soot is even worse for the climate than was previously thought , The Economist, 19 Jan 2013
(05 Feb 2013) Earth Safe from Asteroid's Close Flyby Next Week , space.com, 04 Feb 2013
(29 Jan 2013) Alien Auroras May Light Up Exoplanet Night Skies , space.com, 21 Jan 2013
(29 Jan 2013) The Moon: Not Green Cheese After All , realclearscience.com, 30 Dec 2012
(29 Jan 2013) Mapping the Moon with gravity: NASA's latest Moon mission ends with two bangs , The Economist, 22 Dec 2012
(22 Jan 2013) 'Zombie' Planet's Rogue Orbit Around Star Shocks Scientists , space.com, 9 Jan 2013
(22 Jan 2013) Fermi telescope may change to dark matter hunting , BBC, 18 Jan 2013
(15 Jan 2013) NASA's Donated Spy Telescopes May Aid Dark Energy Search , space.com, 14 Jan 2013
(15 Jan 2013) Biggest Thing in Universe Found -- Defies Scientific Theory , National Geographic, 11 Jan 2013
(15 Jan 2013) Audio Interview: Biggest Thing in Universe Found -- Defies Scientific Theory , 12 Jan 2013
(08 Jan 2013) Celestial flybys set to thrill in 2013 , Cosmos Magazine, 07 Jan 2013
(08 Jan 2013) 17 Billion Earth-Size Alien Planets Inhabit Milky Way , space.com, 07 Jan 2013
(08 Jan 2013) Comment on 17 Billion Earth-Size Planets , G. Williger, 08 Jan 2013
(08 Jan 2013) Audio Comment on 17 Billion Earth-Size Planets , G. Williger, 08 Jan 2013


ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2012
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)

PRESENTED    ARTICLE / SOURCE / DATE PUBLISHED
(10 Dec 2012) Image of the Day: NASA Fermi Satellite Captures Earthly Anti-Matter Explosions [from lightning] (VIDEO) , dailygalaxy.com, 07 Dec 2012
(03 Dec 2012) Curiosity Rover Finds Organic Signal on Mars, But Not Definitive: NASA , space.com, 03 Dec 2012
(03 Dec 2012) Mercury's Water Ice Bodes Well for Alien Life Search , space.com, 30 Nov 2012
(26 Nov 2012) Quasars Help Shed Light on Dark Energy Mystery , Discovery, 13 Nov 2012
(26 Nov 2012) Dark Matter Mystery May Soon Be Solved , space.com, 26 Nov 2012
(19 Nov 2012) NASA Great Observatories Find Candidate for Most Distant Object in the Universe to Date , NASA, 15 Nov 2012
(19 Nov 2012) 'Rogue planet' spotted 100 light-years away , BBC, 14 Nov 2012
(12 Nov 2012) Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks This Week , space.com, 12 Nov 2012
(12 Nov 2012) NASA's NuSTAR Spots Flare from Milky Way's Black Hole , Science Daily, 23 Oct 2012
(12 Nov 2012) Gravitational waves spotted from white-dwarf pair , BBC, 29 Aug 2012
(12 Nov 2012) FURTHER DETAILS: Burnt-out Pair Of Stars Help Prove Einstein's Theory Of General Relativity , redorbit.com, 29 Aug 2012
(05 Nov 2012) New Type of Cosmic Ray Discovered After 100 Years , Science Daily, 16 Oct 2012
(05 Nov 2012) For the first time, an international team has measured the radius of a black hole. , MIT, 28 Sep 2012
(29 Oct 2012) Pluto Has a Fifth Moon, Hubble Telescope Reveals , space.com, 11 Jul 2012
(29 Oct 2012) Sun Unleashes Huge Solar Plasma Wave , space.com, 19 Oct 2012
(22 Oct 2012) Orionid Meteor Shower Wows Weekend Stargazers , space.com, 21 Oct 2012
(22 Oct 2012) Alpha Centauri B Planet Revealed by Telltale Star Wobble , space.com, 22 Oct 2012
(15 Oct 2012) Surprising Troughs on Asteroid Vesta Might Have Resulted From Collision, space.com, 28 Sep 2012
(15 Oct 2012) Why 'Super-Earth' Alien Worlds May Be Unlikely to Support Life, space.com, 25 Sep 2012
(10 Oct 2012) Big sun-diving Comet ISON might be spectacular in 2013, earthsky.org, 25 Sep 2012
(10 Oct 2012) Strange Star Spiral Offers Clues to Sun's Fate, space.com, 10 Oct 2012
(01 Oct 2012) NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface, NASA, 27 Sep 2012
(01 Oct 2012) Uranus Aurorae Glimpsed from Earth, Science Daily, 13 Apr 2012
(24 Sep 2012) New Mars theory casts doubt on planet's habitability, LA Times, 9 Sep 2012
(24 Sep 2012) Mercury's Surface Resembles Rare Meteorites, space.com, 24 Sep 2012
(17 Sep 2012) Dawn probe leaves Asteroid Vesta, BBC, 6 Sep 2012   VIDEO1 (TG Daily)    VIDEO2 (space.com)
(17 Sep 2012) Explosion on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers, space.com, 11 Sep 2012
(05 Sep 2012)  Building Blocks of Life Found Around Young Star, Science Daily, 29 Aug 2012
(27 Aug 2012)  Star is caught devouring planet, BBC, 21 Aug 2012
(20 Aug 2012) NASA/s Curiosity rover zaps Mars rock called Coronation, BBC, 20 Aug 2012

      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2011
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, not the necessarily the date presented to the class)
Mutant Microbes Test Space Radiation Resistance, space.com, 31 Mar 2011
New Estimate for Alien Earths: 2 Billion in Our Galaxy Alone, space.com, 21 Mar 2011
Observation of Rare Particles May Shed Light on Why the Universe Has More Matter Than Antimatter, Science Daily, 28 Mar 2011
Powerful Space Explosion May Herald Star's Death By Black Hole, space.com, 7 Apr 2011
The Most Distant Mature Galaxy Cluster: Young, but Surprisingly Grown-Up, Science Daily, 11 Mar 2011
Suzaku X-ray Satellite Snaps Clearest Picture of Perseus Galaxy Cluster, space.com, 24 Mar 2011
Tycho Supernova Remnant's 'Stripes' Hold Clue to Cosmic Mystery, space.com, 25 Mar 2011
Famous Black Hole Sheds New Light on Warped Space, Magnetic Fields, space.com, 24 Mar 2011
Matter Spotted a Millisecond from Black Hole -- But Is It Really Doomed?, Science Daily, 25 Mar 2011
Rare Observation of Cosmic Explosion, Science Daily, 08 Mar 2011
Scientists Dubious Over Claim of Alien Life Evidence in Meteorite, space.com, 07 Mar 2011
Mysterious Case of Missing Sunspots Solved, space.com, 02 Mar 2011
Icy Saturn Moon Pumps Out 15.8 Gigawatts of Heat Power, space.com, 07 Mar 2011
Solar Experts Detect Waves in Giant Magnetic Holes the Size of the UK: how Corona Heats, Science Daily, 25 Feb 2011
Surprising Earth-like Clouds Found in Saturn Moon's Smog, space.com, 22 Feb 2011
Huge Solar Eruption Actually Made Astronauts Safer, space.com, 18 Feb 2011
New Tool Will Help Astronomers Confirm Possible Alien Worlds, space.com, 15 Feb 2011
Stardust Probe Finds 'Subdued' Crater on Comet Tempel 1, BBC, 15 Feb 2011
Sun Erupts with Most Powerful Solar Flare in 4 Years, space.com, 15 Feb 2011
Sand Dunes on Mars Can Change Faster than Thought, space.com, 3 Feb 2011
Astronomers Find 54 Potentially Habitable Worlds, BBC, 3 Feb 2011
Astronomers Observe Most Distant Galaxy: Redshift 10 (to be confirmed), ScienceDaily, 26 Jan 2011
Sun Unleashes Two Powerful Eruptions, space.com, 28 Jan 2011
Most Distant Galaxy (Proto-)Cluster Found: Redshift 5.3, about 12Gyr old, BBC, 13 Jan 2011
Runaway Star Plows Through Space, sciencedaily.com, 24 Jan 2011
SOFIA Flying Telescope Gives Unique View of Star Formation, BBC, 17 Jan 2011
Precession Means Astrological Signs Are Off, space.com, 14 Jan 2011
Planck Microwave Telescope Observes Giant Galaxy Clusters, BBC, 11 Jan 2011
Astronomers Find Smallest Exo-planet Yet: 1.4 Earth Radii, 4.6 Earth Masses, space.com, 10 Jan 2011

      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2010
(in reverse order of presentation to class -
dates are for publication, unrelated to our semester)
Dark Energy & Flat Universe Exposed by Distortions of Binary Galaxies, BBC, 24 Nov 2010
Another View: Dark Energy & Flat Universe Exposed by Distortions of Binary Galaxies, space.com, 24 Nov 2010
Physicists at CERN Trap Anti-Matter Atoms for First Time, BBC, 17 Nov 2010
Planet of Extragalactic Origin Detected Around Dying Star, BBC, 17 Nov 2010
Universe's Most Powerful Explosions Can Leave Black Hole Graves, space.com, 22 Nov 2010
Gamma Ray Bubble Found around Milky Way: Evidence of Jet? , NASA, 14 Nov 2010 (thanks to David Getty)
New Dark Matter Map Reveals Cluster is Denser than Models Predict, space.com, 12 Nov 2010
Hawking Radiation Observed, The Economist, 29 Sep 2010
Closest Encounter with a Comet: EPOXI and Comet Hartley 2, BBC, 4 Nov 2010
Discovery Puts Spin on Universe's Most Powerful Magnets: Magnetars, space.com, 14 Oct 2010
Densest Yet Neutron Star Packs 2 Suns' Mass in London-sized Space, BBC, 28 Oct 2010
Planet with 2 Suns Challenges Theories, space.com, 22 Oct 2010
Cosmic Distance Record Broken! Redshift 8.55 Galaxy Discovered, BBC, 20 Oct 2010
Exo-Planet Moons can Help to Estimate Stellar Masses, space.com, 18 Oct 2010
Full Moon will Dampen Perseid Meteor Shower (Remnant of Comet Halley), space.com, 18 Oct 2010
Doubt Cast on Existence of Potentially Habitable Planet Gliese 581g, space.com, 12 Oct 2010
Hubble Observes Remnants of Collision between two Asteroids, space.com, 13 Oct 2010
Comet Hartley 2 to Pass Close to Earth, space.com, 01 Oct 2010
Goldilocks Planet Found: Rocky World with Right Temperature for Liquid Water, space.com, 29 Sep 2010
Massive Impact may have Created Mars' Satellite Phobos, BBC, 20 Sep 2010
Invisible Carbon Pumps: Bacteria and non-metabolized CO2 in Oceans, The Economist, 9 Sep 2010
Rumors in Astrophysics Spread at Speed of Light, NY Times, 3 Aug 2010
ESA Plans Large Lunar Lander, BBC, 16 Sep 2010
Halley's comet 'was spotted by the ancient Greeks', BBC, 10 Sep 2010
Changes to Physical Constants Over Long Distances in Universe?, The Economist, 2 Sep 2010
To Find Alien Volcanic Eruptions, Look for Foul Gas, space.com, 7 Sep 2010
Second Super-Fast Flip of Earth's Magnetic Poles Found, New Scientist, 3 Sep 2010
NASA IR WISE Satellite Reveals Eye-Catching Rosette Nebula, space.com, 27 Aug 2010
NASA's Airborne SOFIA IR Telescope Will Likely Help Solve Mysteries about our Galaxy, ScienceDaily, 27 Aug 2010
Microbes Survive 553 Days in Space, BBC, 23 Aug 2010
Psychics Claim of Evidence of Life on Mars Debunked, space.com, 23 Aug 2010



      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2009
SWIFT Satellite Discovers Farthest Object Ever Seen in Universe, a Redshift z=8.2 Gamma Ray Burst, BBC, 28 Apr 2009
DETAILS: Life Around A Red Dwarf (Main Sequence) Star Possible But Difficult, space.com, 09 Apr 2009
DETAILS: Merger of Four Galaxy Clusters In Filament Creates Huge Mass of Super-Hot Gas, space.com, 16 Apr 2009
Balloon-Borne Telescope Reveals Far-IR Background to be Distant Galaxies, Paves Way for Herschel Satellite, BBC, 9 Apr 2009
DETAILS: Some Massive Galaxies May Be Relatively New: Discovery Challenges Galaxy Formation Theories, Science Daily, 11 Apr 2009
DETAILS: New Galaxy Survey Finds Void So Big, It Challenges Models for Evolution of Universe, New Scientist, 4 Apr 2009
Pulsar Energizes X-ray-Emitting Nebula, Resembles Hand Reaching for Light (space.com), space.com, 4 Apr 2009
Pulsar Energizes X-ray-Emitting Nebula, Resembles Hand Reaching for Light (Chandra site), Chandra Science Center, 3 Apr 2009
DETAILS: Mars Domes may be "Mud Volcanoes", BBC, 26 Mar 2009
Post-EVA Spacesuits Retain "Smell of Space", space.com, 27 Mar 2009
DETAILS: Liquid Saltwater Likely Present on Mars -- Photos from Phoenix, Science Daily, 20 Mar 2009
Red Supergiants Confirmed as Progenitors of Core-Collapse (Type II) Supernovae, space.com, 19 Mar 2009
DETAILS: $600M Kepler Mission Launched to Hunt Earth-Sized Planets in Cygnus-Lyra, BBC, 7 Mar 2009
More Details on Kepler Mission, space.com, 6 Mar 2009
20-30m Asteroid Makes Near Miss of Earth - a Common Occurrence, Boston Globe, 4 Mar 2009 (with animation; thanks to Marketa Greer)
IMAGES: 20-30m Asteroid Makes Near Miss of Earth - a Common Occurrence, Sky and Telescope, 1 Mar 2009 (with animation; thanks to Marketa Greer)
Gullies Mark Most Recent Water Flow on Mars: 1.25 Myr ago, space.com, 2 Mar 2009
DETAILS: Cassini Maps Global Pattern Of Titan's Dunes, Science Digest, 2 Mar 2009
Comet Lulin at Perigee 24 Feb: Photos and Finding Charts, Sky & Telescope, 23 Feb 2009
DETAILS: Number of Habitable Planets in our Galaxy: Potentially Billions, space.com, 19 Feb 2009
NASA and ESA Plan to Send Probes to Galilean Satellites, BBC, 18 Feb 2009
Fermi Satellite Observes most Powerful Explosion (Gamma Ray Burst) Ever, BBC, 20 Feb 2009 (thanks to Rebecca Donaldson)
Fermi Satellite Observes most Powerful Explosion (Gamma Ray Burst) Ever - yahoo News version, yahoo News, 19 Feb 2009 (thanks to Rebecca Donaldson)
DETAILS: Mars Mineral Deposits May Indicate Ancient Ice Fields, space.com, 16 Feb 2009
First Gravity Map of Moon's Far Side Revealed -- Shows Big Differences, New Scientist, 16 Feb 2009
DETAILS: Mars Craters Reveal Glacier Activity, space.com, 6 Feb 2009
Comet Lulin to Appear in Spring Sky, space.com, 9 Feb 2009
DETAILS: Exoplanet Sees Extreme Heat Waves, space.com, 28 Jan 2009
House-sized Asteroid Hanging Around Earth-Moon Space, space.com, 25 Jan 2009
DETAILS: Annular Eclipse from South Atlantic to Indonesia 26 Jan, space.com, 23 Jan 2009
Photo of Partial Eclipse from Indonesia, Jakarta Post, 27 Jan 2009
Figures, Maps for Annular Eclipse 26 Jan 2009, Fred Espenak's NASA Eclipse site
Englishman Thomas Harriot Observed Moon With Telescope Before Galileo, BBC, 14 Jan 2009
First Ground-based Detection of Exoplanet Atmospheres, yahoo.com, 14 Jan 2009 (thanks to Kenneth Warren)
DETAILS: First Ground-based Detection of Exoplanet Atmospheres, Science Digest, 15 Jan 2009
Largest, Brightest Full Moon of 2009 on Sat 17 Jan, space.com, 9 Jan 2009
DETAILS: Efforts Increase to find Near-Earth Asteroids and Comets, BBC, 12 Jan 2009
DETAILS: Baby Jupiters Grew Fast (in a few Myr), BBC, 6 Jan 2009
Milky Way 50% Bigger Than Thought, BBC, 6 Jan 2009


      ASTRO-NEWS FOR AUTUMN 2008
Astronomers Find Dimmest "Bulbs" (Coolest Stars, 560-630K or 293-360C) Ever, yahoo.com, 15 Dec 2008 (thanks to Anthony Harrison)
Tycho's Supernova (SN 1572) Confirmed as Type Ia, BBC, 4 Dec 2008 (thanks to Stephanie Sidoti)
DETAILS: Mars Wobbles Created (some) Climate Change, space.com, 4 Dec 2008
Experiments: Bacteria Could Survive in Martian Soil, space.com, 4 Dec 2008
Venus, Jupiter and Moon make Rare Conjunction after Sunset, New Scientist, 1 Dec 2008
Solar Wind Rips Chunks out of Martian Atmosphere, Science Daily, 29 Nov 2008
DETAILS: Plumes from Saturn's Moon Enceladus May Contain Liquid Water, space.com, 26 Nov 2008
NASA and DOE Collaborate on Dark Energy Research, Science Daily, 25 Nov 2008
Sugar Found in Star-Forming Region in Milky Way, BBC, 25 Nov 2008
Super-Jupiter Imaged around Beta Pictoris, space.com, 25 Nov 2008
DETAILS: Supermassive Black Holes' Jets Burp Hot Gas in Galaxies, space.com, 24 Nov 2008
DETAILS: Gemini+Keck Observatories Definitively Directly Image First Multi(3)-planet System in near-IR, Gemini Observatory, 13 Nov 2008
DETAILS: Hubble Space Telescope Definitively Directly Images First Exoplanet in Visible Light, hubblesite.org, 13 Nov 2008
First Fuzzy Photos of Planets Outside Solar System, yahoo.com, 13 Nov 2008 (thanks to Laura Nunnelly for the tip)
DETAILS: Pool Of Distant Galaxies: Deepest Ultraviolet Image Of The Universe Yet, European Southern Observatory, 7 Nov 2008
New Flares of Activity Spotted on the Sun: Solar Cycle Minimum Ends, space.com, 7 Nov 2008
DETAILS: Chandra X-ray Observatory maps Fingers, Loops and Bays around Crab Nebula Pulsar Wind, Science Daily, 6 Nov 2008
DETAILS: French COROT Satellite Detects First Starquakes on Another Star, space.com, 23 Oct 2008
Complex Stellar Nursery Contains 2 of Most Massive Stars Known, Science Daily, 21 Oct 2008
Some Planetary Jet Stream Directions Depend on Quantity of Water Vapor, space.com, 17 Oct 2008
DETAILS: Astronomers find Hottest Exoplanet Yet, space.com, 16 Oct 2008
DETAILS: NASA Plans for Getting Hubble Back Online Before Servicing Mission, space.com, 10 Oct 2008
Second Giant Cyclone Discovered on Saturn's Other (North) Pole, space.com, 13 Oct 2008
DETAILS: Saturn Polar Storms Illustrate Convection, Discover Magazine/Bad Astronomy, 13 Oct 2008
DETAILS: Huge, Dense Planet Discovered by COROT, space.com, 6 Oct 2008
Mercury Messenger makes Second Fly-By, space.com, 7 Oct 2008
Snowfall Seen On Mars, space.com, 29 Sep 2008
DETAILS: Earth's Most Ancient Rocks Found: 4.28 Gyr Old, BBC, 26 Sep 2008
Solar Wind Blows at 50 Year Low, BBC, 24 Sep 2008
Mass Confirmed for most Massive Star in Milky Way Galaxy, space.com, 19 Sep 2008
DETAILS: Saturn's Rings May be Ancient, space.com, 22 Sep 2008
New Type of Stellar Explosion Discovered, a "Supernova Imposter", space.com, 10 Sep 2008
DETAILS: Mini-Sub Designed to Explore Sub-Glacial Lakes - and perhaps Other Worlds, space.com, 11 Sep 2008
Dust Devils Photographed in Martian Arctic, space.com, 12 Sep 2008
ESA Satellite Finds an Earth Creature which can Survive in Space, space.com, 8 Sep 2008
DETAILS: Cassini Probe Discovers New Partial Rings around Saturn, space.com, 5 Sep 2008
ESA INTEGRAL (gamma ray) Satellite Discovers Gamma Rays Aligned with Crab Nebula Pulsar, space.com, 28 Aug 2008
How Allen (radio) Telescope Array combines Details with Big Picture, space.com, 26 Aug 2008
DETAILS: Second Galaxy Cluster Found with Dark and Normal Matter Separated, BBC, 30 Aug 2008
DETAILS: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Team Finds Icy Asteroid Beyond Neptune (and others), BBC, 25 Aug 2008
Mars Phoenix Lander Tests All Layers of Surface, space.com, 22 Aug 2008
Teacher Finds New Class of Astronomical Object, BBC, 5 Aug 2008


      ASTRO-NEWS FOR SPRING 2008
NASA Phoenix Probe to Land near Mars' North Pole in May, space.com, 11 Apr 2008
Intelligent Life may be Rare in the Universe , space.com, 10 Apr 2008
Coolest Brown Dwarf Yet Found: 350C, ``Missing Link" between Stars, Planets , space.com, 10 Apr 2008
British Astronomer: Modified Gravitational Law may explain Dwarf Galaxy Motions , BBC, 5 Apr 2008
British Astronomers find Baby Planet undergoing Formation, BBC, 2 Apr 2008
Early Universe has both Old Galaxies and High Star Formation Galaxies, space.com, 1 Apr 2008
Northern Irish Astronomers find 10 Exo-planets via Transit Method with SuperWasp, BBC, 1 Apr 2008
OSU Astronomers find Close Binary "Peanut Stars" forming Rare Yellow Supergiants, space.com, 31 Mar 2008
Titan could have an Ocean, space.com, 20 Mar 2008
Brightest Object Ever: Gamma Ray Burst, 5th mag, 2.5 Gpc away, space.com, 21 Mar 2008
First Discovery of Methane on Exoplanet "Hot Jupiter", BBC, 19 Mar 2008
Potential Gamma Ray Burster 8kpc away could be Harmful to Earth Life, space.com, 10 Mar 2008
Small 2007 Peruvian Crater Made by High Speed, melted Stony Meteorite, space.com, 11 Mar 2008
Shiny-bottomed Craters Discovered on Mercury by Messenger, space.com, 11 Mar 2008
New Data from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe Reveal Early Universe Neutrinos, space.com, 7 Mar 2008
Nearest Star System (Alpha Centauri) may have Terrestrial Planets, space.com, 7 Mar 2008
Avalanche photographed on Mars!, space.com, 3 Mar 2008
Venus' Rotation, Lack of Water may be due to early Head-On Collision, space.com, 28 Feb 2008
Mysterious Transient Bright Haze from Sulfuric Acid (H2SO4) Found in Venusian Atmosphere, ESA's Venus Express & space.com, 22 Feb 2008
First Stars May Have Been Made of Dark Matter, BBC, 19 Feb 2008
20-60% of Sun-like Stars in Milky Way: Evidence for Rocky, Earth-like Planets; Kuiper Belt may have Earth-size Planets, BBC, 17 Feb 2008
Early Mars Probably Too Salty for Life, BBC, 15 Feb 2008
Total Lunar Eclipse on Wed 20 Feb 2008, Sky & Telescope, Feb 2008
NASA's Deep Impact Probe starts to look for Exoplanets, space.com, 11 Feb 2008
New Theory says Dark Matter and Dark Energy could be Same Thing, space.com, 11 Feb 2008
Telescope arms race: 30m telescopes planned, space.com, 4 Feb 2008
Messenger: Mercury's Volcanic Past Revealed, new "Spider" Feature Seen, BBC, 30 Jcn 2008
Venus and Jupiter approach rare Conjunction, space.com, 28 Jan 2008
First Image for Approaching 250m diameter Asteroid, space.com, 28 Jan 2008
USAF says UFOs were F16 Jets, CNN, 23 Jan 2008
Texans report UFOs, CNN, 17 Jan 2008
Curious Clouds Seen on Mars by ESA's Mars Express, space.com, 21 Jan 2008
Mercury visited for first time since 1974, Mercury Messenger, 15 Jan 2008
Hubble Peers into Dark Matter Web, BBC, 14 Jan 2008
Wherever Planet Can Form Around Stars, They Do, BBC, 11 Jan 2008
Stars Getting Ripped Apart Produce Anti-matter, space.com, 11 Jan 2008
Spiral Galaxy Arms Orbit Backward, space.com, 11 Jan 2008
Baby Versions of Milky Way observed, space.com, 8 Jan 2008
Hubble Servicing Mission in Aug 2008 (fixes, improvements) described, space.com, 8 Jan 2008
Bill Gates & Charles Simonyi donate $30M to Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project in Chile, space.com, 8 Jan 2008


 ASTRO-NEWS FROM 2006-2007 (STILL INTERESTING!)
Comet Holmes erupts, brights to once-in-century level, MSNBC, 6 Nov 2007