ASTRONOMY - An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico

 2023 September 10

An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico
Credit & Copyright: Colleen Pinski

Explanation: What is this person doing? In 2012, an annular eclipse of the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern Pacific Ocean and several western US states. In an annular solar eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block out the entire Sun, leaving the Sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a ring of fire. To capture this unusual solar event, an industrious photographer drove from Arizona to New Mexico to find just the right vista. After setting up and just as the eclipsed Sun was setting over a ridge about 0.5 kilometers away, a person unknowingly walked right into the shot. Although grateful for the unexpected human element, the photographer never learned the identity of the silhouetted interloper. It appears likely that the person is holding a circular device that would enable them to get their own view of the eclipse. The shot was taken at sunset on 2012 May 20 at 7:36 pm local time from a park near Albuquerque. Next month, on October 14, a different narrow swath across North and South America will be exposed to a different annular solar eclipse, if the sky is clear. Simultaneously, cloud-free observers almost anywhere on either continent will be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

ASTRONOMY - Comet Nishimura Grows

 2023 September 9

Comet Nishimura Grows
Credit & Copyright: Peter Kennett

Explanation: Comet Nishimura is growing. More precisely, the tails C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) are growing as it nears the Sun. Discovered only last month, the comet is already near naked eye brightness as it now moves inside the Earth's orbit. The comet will be nearest the Earth next week, but nearest the Sun the week after -- on September 17. Speculation holds that expelled ice and dust from Comet Nishimura's last visit to the inner Solar System may have created the Sigma Hydrids meteor shower which peaks yearly in December. If so, then this meteor shower may become more active, refreshed with new comet debris. Pictured, Comet Nishimura was captured from Edgewood, New Mexico, USA four nights ago, showing a long ion tail structured by interactions with the Sun's wind. Look for this comet near your eastern horizon just before sunrise for the next few mornings, but very near your western horizon just after sunset next week -- as its coma continues to brighten and its tails continue to grow.

MUSIC - Dmitri Chostakovitch - Valse n° 2

"Valse numéro 2"

AERONAUTIQUE - LES INVENTIONS QUI N'ONT JAMAIS VOLE - La machine volante du professeur Wellner

Très jolie, la machine volante du professeur Wellner manque pourtant de praticité. La navette protégeant les passagers est reliée à deux cylindres. Elle aurait pu être très utile pour voyager… si elle avait réussi à voler.

FuturaSciences

ANIMAUX - Le Pétrel de Hall

 

Le Pétrel de Hall vit dans les océans du Sud entre l'Argentine et l'Australie. Ce grand oiseau marin mesure jusqu'à 2,10 mètres d'envergure, soit presque autant qu'un albatros considéré comme le plus grand oiseau du monde.

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky

 2023 September 6

HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky
Credit & Copyright: Video Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration;
Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission)

Explanation: They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light -- Cherenkov radiation --emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest energy photons (TeV) crossing the universe. Operating since 2003 in Namibia, H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter and has discovered over 50 sources emitting high energy radiation including supernova remnants and the centers of galaxies that contain supermassive black holes. Pictured in June, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel and stare in time-lapse sequences shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds -- as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite zips by.

ASTRONOMY - Blue Supermoon Beyond Syracuse

 2023 September 5

Blue Supermoon Beyond Syracuse
Credit & Copyright: Kevin Saragozza

Explanation: The last full moon was doubly unusual. First of all, it was a blue moon. A modern definition of a blue moon is a second full moon to occur during one calendar month. Since there are 13 full moons in 2023, one month has to have two -- and that month was August. The first full moon was on August 1 and named a Sturgeon Moon. The second reason that the last full moon was unusual was because it was a supermoon. A modern definition of supermoon is a moon that reaches its full phase when it is relatively close to Earth -- and so appears a bit larger and brighter than average. Pictured, the blue supermoon of 2023 was imaged hovering far behind a historic castle and lighthouse in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy.

VEGETAUX - Forêt magique

Malgré l'aspect irréel de ces champignons, ces derniers, des lépiotes élevées (Macrolepiota procera) ne donnent pas d’hallucinations. Ils jouent en revanche un rôle essentiel dans l'écosystème, en créant un réseau de racines souterraines et en produisant de la matière organique.

© AGORASTOS PAPATSANIS

AERONAUTIQUE - LES INVENTIONS QUI N'ONT JAMAIS VOLE - L’hélicoptère imaginaire de Gabriel de la Landelle

Souvent attribué à Clément Ader, le terme « aviation » revient en réalité à Guillaume Joseph Gabriel de la Landelle, à qui l'on doit aussi une superbe invention : l'hélicoptère. Il construira le prototype, censé fonctionner avec de la vapeur, en 1861. Il ne s'agit pas encore vraiment de celui que nous connaissons aujourd'hui mais plutôt d'un navire à hélice.

© Gabriel de la Landelle

ASTRONOMY - Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent

 2023 September 4

Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent
Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Al-Harbi

Explanation: As stars die, they create clouds. Two stellar death clouds of gas and dust can be found toward the high-flying constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) as they drift through rich star fields in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Caught here within the telescopic field of view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper right). Both were formed at the final phase in the life of a star. Also known as NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula was shaped as its bright, central massive Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136, shed its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind. Burning through fuel at a prodigious rate, WR 136 is near the end of a short life that should finish in a spectacular supernova explosion. Discovered in 2013, the Soap Bubble Nebula is likely a planetary nebula, the final shroud of a lower mass, long-lived, Sun-like star destined to become a slowly cooling white dwarf. Both stellar nebulas are about 5,000 light-years distant, with the larger Crescent Nebula spanning about 25 light-years across. Within a few million years, both will likely have dispersed.