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It’s Official: Astronomers Have Discovered Another Earth
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope discovered an Earth-like planet circling a nearby star within the Goldilocks zone of our galaxy. Kepler-186f is around 500 light-years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation. The habitable zone, also identified as the Goldilocks zone, is the area around a star within which planetary-mass objects with enough atmospheric pressure can sustain…
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Comet Leonard in the evening sky
Comet Leonard is 2021’s best comet Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) – 2021’s best and brightest comet – is now in the evening sky for Northern Hemisphere observers. We heard on December 15, and again around December 19-20, that the comet had brightened more than expected. Is it having outbursts as it nears its closest point…
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German Professor Who Is A Hardcore Star Wars Fan Turns His Observatory Into R2-D2
A German professor has turned an observatory into a massive R2-D2. Dr. Hubert Zitt, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Zweibrücken, is a specialist in electrotechnology and Star Wars. Despite the fact that Zitt only got a PhD for his skills in the field of systems theory of electrotechnology, he is well-known…
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Teenager Captures Incredibly Clear Picture Of Saturn And Its Iconic Rings From His Backyard
A 15-year-old youngster used a telescope in his backyard to snap an image of Saturn that many experienced astronomers would be proud of. Marcus Reed of Seaford, East Sussex, used a 102mm diameter reflector telescope to acquire a crisp view of the gas giant, complete with its spectacular rings. The student said that he remained…
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Megaflash! 2 new world records for lightning
2 new world records for extreme lightning The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said today (February 1, 2022) that the new record-holder for longest single lightning flash took place over the southern United States in 2020. The flash lit up the sky from near Houston to southeastern Mississippi. This part of the U.S. is a known…
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Rogue planets nearly double in number with new discovery
Astronomers announced on December 22, 2021, that they’ve found somewhere between 70 and 170 rogue, or free-floating, planets; that is, planets not currently in orbit around a star. This mass of unattached planets, each approximately the size of Jupiter, lies in a region of the Milky Way known as the Upper Scorpius OB stellar association.…
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Planet orbiting 2 stars discovered by TESS
TESS’s planet orbiting 2 stars Astronomers announced this month (November 10, 2021) that the space-based TESS planet-hunter (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has discovered its first exoplanet orbiting two stars. Such planets are said to be circumbinary worlds. The newly found planet is a gas giant, almost exactly the same size as our solar system’s biggest…
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Western Natal Green snake fights huge Gecko
The Smooth green snake is a “small medium” North American nonvenomous snake. It gets its common name from its smooth dorsal scales. It is uniform light green on its back, with a yellow or white belly. At birth, its dorsal coloration is different than when it matures. At first, it can be olive green, blue-gray,…
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The dasypeltis snake swallowing a large egg
Egg-eating snake, any of the five species of the genus Dasypeltis of sub-Saharan Africa and Elachistodon westermanni of northeastern India. These nonvenomous snakes comprise the subfamily Dasypeltinae, family Colubridae. The mouth is enormously distensible and the teeth are greatly reduced to accommodate a bird’s egg as large as a chicken’s. Ventral spines on the neck…
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King Cobra’s Enemy
King Cobra A king cobra the length of a stretch limo slides through a field. Looking for food, it raises its head and flicks its tongue. Suddenly, a rat scampers past. The snake takes off after the rodent. As it nears its prey, the cobra strikes: It sinks its venom-filled fangs into the rat to…