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An Incoming ‘Stream’ from Alpha Centauri?

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Published: October 22, 2024 12:52

Here’s an interesting thought. We know that at least two objects from outside our Solar System have appeared in our skies, the comet 2I/Borisov and the still enigmatic object called ‘Oumuamua. Most attention on these visitors has focused on their…

SETI: Learning from TRAPPIST-1

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Published: October 17, 2024 17:51

Given our decades-long lack of success in finding hard evidence for an extraterrestrial civilization, it hardly comes as a surprise that a recent campaign studying the seven-planet TRAPPIST-1 system came up without a detection. 28 hours of scanning with…

A Gravitational Wave Surprise

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Published: October 16, 2024 12:57

I think gravitational wave astronomy is one of the most exciting breakthroughs we’re tracking on Centauri Dreams. The detection of black hole and neutron star mergers has been a reminder of the tough elasticity of spacetime itself, its interplay with…

Catches, Comets and Europa

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Published: October 15, 2024 14:11

If the public seems more interested in spaceflight as a vehicle for streaming TV dramas, the reality of both the Europa Clipper liftoff and the astounding ‘catch’ of SpaceX’s Starship booster may kindle a bit more interest in exploring nearby space. When I…

Go Clipper

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Published: October 14, 2024 09:36

Is this not a beautiful sight? Europa Clipper sits atop a Falcon Heavy awaiting liftoff at launch complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Launch is set for 1206 EDT (1606 UTC) October 14. Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary…

Is Dark Energy Truly a Constant?

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Published: October 11, 2024 19:11

In a tantalizing article in The Conversation, Robert Nichol (University of Surrey) offers a look at where new physics might just be emerging in conjunction with the study of dark energy. Nichol is an astronomer and cosmologist deeply experienced in the…

Planetary Defense: Good News from the Taurids

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Published: October 9, 2024 15:40

Evidently discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1786, Comet Encke was the first periodic comet to be found after Halley’s Comet. It was named after Johann Franz Encke, who first calculated its orbit. It comes into play this morning because it…

Advancing Space Technology and Preparing for Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence through Multilateralism

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Published: October 4, 2024 20:03

Is it possible that we can account for the Fermi paradox by looking to our own behavior as a species? Some science fiction of the 1950s pointed in that direction, as witness The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Dr Kelvin F Long addresses the question in…

Third Time’s a Charm: A Planet at Barnard’s Star

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Published: October 1, 2024 13:01

If you follow the fortunes of the stars closest to us, you know that Barnard’s Star has always excited interest, both because of its proximity to our system (about six light years) but also because of the early work on the star performed by Peter Van de…

We Are the Music: Reflections on Galactic Immensity

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Published: September 27, 2024 15:03

While I’m immersed in the mechanics of exoplanet detection and speculation about the worlds uncovered by Kepler, TESS and soon, the Roman Space Telescope (not to mention what’s coming with Extremely Large Telescopes), I’m daunted by a single fact. We keep…

Habitability around F-class Stars

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Published: September 25, 2024 12:42

Some years back I read a science fiction story in which the planet where the action took place orbited an F-class star. That was sufficiently odd to get my attention, and I began to pay attention to these stars, which represent on the order of 3 percent of…