The exploration of space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life

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Credit: Scientia

"Perhaps this is the scariest and most inspiring photograph in space."

Astronaut Bruce McCandless floats freely, untied from the safety of the Space Shuttle, with nothing but his Manned Maneuver Unit keeping him alive. During this space walk, the first in history, Bruce McCandless was 98 meters from the Challenger, without any connection cable.

McCandless was also part of the crew that put the Hubble Telescope in orbit in 1990.

Photo Credit: Vision of Astronomy

 

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Credit: NASA Solar System Exploration

Around Halloween in 2015, a skull-shaped dead comet tumbled past Earth, as seen in this actual radar image. Peer into some of the most frightful corners of the cosmos with our top 10 sinister solar system facts: https://go.nasa.gov/2JepR7J. #NASAHalloween

 

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Credit: Starlight Attire

The Ghoul of IC 2118

Inspired by the Halloween season, this portrait shows a cosmic cloud with a scary visage

This scene lies within the dusty expanse of nebula IC 2118 in the constellation Orion

Often identified as the ‘Witch Head Nebula’, it has spiky stars for eyes with the ghost seeming to reach toward Orion’s hot supergiant star

 

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Credit: International Space Station

241 people from around the world have lived and worked on the space station since Nov. 2, 2000.

#SpaceStation20th

https://www.nasa.gov/station20

 

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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station. ​

Photo Credit: Wikipedia International Space Station

 

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Credit: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

On Nov. 2, 2000, the first-ever crew & mission aboard the International Space Station arrived. Our orbiting laboratory has been continuously inhabited ever since: over 240 humans from 19 countries have visited, performing over 230 spacewalks and over 3,000 research investigations.

#SpaceStation20th

 

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Astronomers have finally found the cause of mysterious fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, have puzzled astronomers since they were first discovered
in 2007. Now, researchers have caught one coming from a dead star in our own galaxy.

After more than a decade of detective work, astronomers have found the best evidence yet for what’s causing fast radio bursts, or FRBs. These strange blasts of radio waves, which last just milliseconds, have become one of the most exciting mysteries in astronomy. And, in the end, it appears the prime suspect simply turned itself in.

Magnetars, short for “magnetic stars,” are the highly magnetic remnants of massive dead stars. Astronomers had long suspected these enigmatic beasts could be the source of FRBs. However, there’s only a handful of magnetars known in our Milky Way galaxy, and they all seemed too tame to be causing these extreme signals.

Then, in late April, a magnetar dubbed SGR 1935+2154 started blasting out X-rays near the center of our galaxy, some 30,000 light-years away. As the buzz about this object built, astronomers turned their ground and space-based telescopes in its direction just in time to catch X-rays, gamma rays — and eventually, the blast of a fast radio burst.

The discovery was detailed in a series of three papers published in the journal Nature on November 4.

It was the first FRB ever observed in our home galaxy, as well as the first FRB accompanied by other kinds of detectable radiation. Most importantly, it’s also the first FRB clearly associated with a single object.

The new findings have implications beyond our galaxy, too.

Click HERE to read the rest of the article.

 

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Credit: Science Updates