| | June 6
Best-Ever Dark Matter Map | | | |
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 | | | The Victor M. Blanco Telescope dome in Chile, where the giant Dark Energy Camera acquired the photographs used to create the new dark matter map. Image via Reidar Hahn/ Fermilab. | | |
| | 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. The scientists are part of the Dark Energy Survey, a collaboration of more than 400 scientists from 25 institutions in 7 countries. They used artificial intelligence, or AI, to analyze images of 226 million galaxies in the southern sky. Read more. | | | | 'Ring of fire' solar eclipse on June 10 | | | The new moon will sweep in front of the sun to create this year's first solar eclipse on Thursday, June 10. On that day, the moon in its elliptical orbit around Earth will lie too far from us to cover over the sun completely. So a bright annulus - or ring - will surround the new moon silhouette at mid-eclipse. It's the outer rim of the sun, not quite hidden from view. People have taken to calling these "ring of fire" eclipses. Essentially, they are partial eclipses, albeit very dramatic ones. As with any partial eclipse, you need eye protection to watch an annular eclipse. Watching with the unaided eye will cause eye damage. From much of North America, people will see the sun in eclipse at sunrise on June 10. Northerly and easterly locations in the U.S. have the best view. Read more. | | | | Are organic salts on Mars a clue to life? | | | Salts are common on Mars. They're preserved in rocks and soil, left over from when the planet was wetter than today. Now, scientists at NASA have found evidence that organic salts also likely exist on Mars today. The results are intriguing, because such salts, and other organics, might be created by geological processes. Or they might be remnants of ancient microbial life. Read more. | | | | | |
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|  | | | The Dragon and a former pole star | | The constellation Draco the Dragon as depicted in Uranographia, a celestial catalog, in 1690. Note the circle around the Dragon and the star in the Dragon's Tail. That star is Thuban, a former pole star. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Read more. | | | | | |
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 | | | What makes a halo around the sun or moon? | | View at EarthSky Community Photos. | We get many messages throughout each year from people who spot halos around the sun or moon. They're made by ice crystals and are called 22-degree halos by scientists. They bear this name because the radius of the circle around the sun or moon is approximately 22 degrees. Anubha Singh in Hyderabad, India, caught this solar halo on June 2. Thank you, Anubha! Read more and see more photos. | | |
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