| | June 29
Probing the Earth Transit Zone | | | |
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 | | | Artist’s concept of the Earth Transit Zone. The zone is indicated by the line of brighter stars (they aren’t really brighter). That's the plane of the Milky Way in the background, the sun on the left and a backlit Earth in the foreground. If there are any alien astronomers in the Earth Transit Zone, they'd sometimes see Earth cross the face of the sun. Have they noticed our planet? Do they suspect Earth is inhabited? Image via Cornell University/ OpenSpace/ American Museum of Natural History. | | |
| Astronomers see 2,034 stars in Earth Transit Zone | | Scientists have identified 2,034 star systems within 326 light-years whose potential astronomers could find Earth much as we've found most known exoplanets. That's by seeing our pale blue dot cross the face of our sun. At such times, Earth would be backlit by our sun. But Earth's atmosphere would be visible and would contain clues Earth is inhabited. This special vantage point is the Earth Transit Zone. Co-author of the study Lisa Kaltenegger said, “From the exoplanets' point-of-view, we are the aliens.” Fascinating topic! Watch a video and read more. | | | | An Antarctic lake suddenly disappears | | | Scientists saw an ice-covered lake atop the Amery Ice Shelf in Antarctica in April 2019. But by June of that year it had drained away, leaving behind a doline – a crater-like sinkhole with the fractured remains of the ice cover – where the lake had once been. Read more. | | | | Here's why Mars selfies are serious business | | | NASA’s Perseverance rover has been touring Mars since it touched down on the red planet's surface back in February 2021. In early April, it claimed the attention of fans with its first selfie on the neighboring planet, posed with its companion spacecraft, the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. But the action behind this image - and all Mars selfies - isn't as simple as saying cheese. It took about a week to execute the series of individual commands needed. Now NASA has released a video, showing the sequence in which Perseverance acquired the 62 photos needed for its first Mars selfie. See the video. And learn why, to space engineers, Mars selfies are serious. | | | | | |
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|  | | Moon, Jupiter, Saturn late night till dawn | | Before dawn on Wednesday morning, watch for Jupiter near the moon. Saturn is also nearby. By early August, Saturn will be opposite the sun, rising in the east when the sun sets in the west. Astronomers call this an opposition of Saturn. Saturn's opposition comes on August 2, and Jupiter's opposition comes on August 20. Read more. | | | | | |
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 | | | Here's why selfies on Mars are serious business | | NASA's Perseverance Mars rover acquired the images to create this selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter in April 2021. See the rover tracks? And see the helicopter, about 13 feet (4 m) from the rover in this image? The rover's WATSON camera, located at the end of the its robotic arm, acquired the images. Watch this NASA video - released June 25 - showing how Mars rovers make selfies. | | |
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