| | June 12
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 | | | Still frame from the Gimbal infrared (FLIR) video, taken by a Navy fighter pilot in 2015 off the coast of Florida/Georgia. Image via Department of Defense/ NBC News. | | |
| | | | Hello and happy weekend, everyone! There will be no EarthSky News on Sunday. Travelin' … See you Tuesday! | | | | NASA and UFOs: Space agency to take closer look | | | NASA and UFOs might (or might not) sound like an odd combination. But the space agency now intends to take a closer look at the phenomenon. That's according to Bill Nelson, who was sworn in as the new NASA administrator as recently as May 3. Nelson, a former Florida senator and spaceflight veteran, told CNN's Rachel Crane on June 3 that he doesn't know - and no one knows - the identity of the high-speed objects that have been observed by Navy pilots. These objects, called UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) by the Navy, are the subject of yet another pending report, this one by the U.S. Pentagon. That report - called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) report - is to be submitted to Congress by June 25. Now, NASA has entered the conversation. | | | | Scientists release best-ever dark matter map | | | Dark matter is a mysterious invisible substance that makes up most of the matter in our universe. We can’t see it, but scientists have been able to infer dark matter’s presence and to study it. Now, scientists have produced the most detailed ever dark matter map, showing the distribution of dark matter as seen from about a quarter of the night sky visible from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Read more. | | | Milky Way center: Threads of hot gas and magnetic fields | | | The bright center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is hidden behind dust. But expand our vision (via telescopes and their instruments) to see different kinds of light - different wavelength regimes of the electromagnetic spectrum - and we can see through the dust. Then go a step further and combine several different kinds of “lights.” At that point, astronomers see fascinating new details, leading to new insights. Astronomer Daniel Wang did just this. He used high-energy X-ray data, gathered over 2 decades, combined with new low-energy radio data. The result is an extraordinary new image of our Milky Way’s central region. See the image and watch a movie. | | | | | | | |
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|  | | | Young moon, Venus, Mars after sunset | | The young moon is back in the west after sunset, passing 2 bright planets - Venus and Mars - plus several bright stars. The waxing crescent will be much easier to see Saturday evening than it was Friday. It's appearing higher in the west each evening due to the moon's motion in orbit around Earth. Read more. | | | | | |
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 | | | Earliest sunrises before the summer solstice | | Early sunrise on a New Jersey beach, June 6, 2018. This great image is from Steve Scanlon Photography. It's the Sands Beach Club in Sea Bright, New Jersey. At mid-northern latitudes, your earliest sunrises of the year happen around now. That's despite the fact that the northern summer solstice - year's longest day for this hemisphere - happens about a week from now. Southern Hemisphere? It's time for your earliest sunsets. Read more. | | |
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