Posted on July 23, 2018
There are so many accomplishments in science every day, every year. Today is the anniversary of several in the area of space exploration:
A volcano erupting in Japan |
The two tails of a comet: The bright tail is made of dust reflecting sunlight... The fainter, bluer tail is made of glowing electrically-charged ions... |
Hale-Bopp became visible to the naked eye in May 1996, and it was bright enough by January of 1997 to provoke a lot of curiosity. At that time, the internet was becoming the internet - and websites tracking the comet sprang up and helped people get more excited about the comet.
Because it was visible to the naked eye a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811, Hale Bopp was named the Great Comet of 1997.
Hale-Bopp taking advantage of all the usual photo ops. Above, Joshua Tree National Park in California. Below, one of the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. |
On this date in 2015, NASA announced the discovery of a rocky planet around another star - a planet whose orbit is in the "Goldilocks Zone" scientists think best suited to the development of life. Unfortunately, sensing a planet that is 1,400 light years away from us is hard, and it may be that the planet doesn't actually exist. Scientists aren't sure - but they ARE sure that we should try to check and recheck the finding until we are sure that it does or does not exist!
Since we don't even know if this exoplanet (planet from outside of our solar system) exists, we certainly do not have a photo of it! This is an artist's concept of what our current data tells us... |
If you are wondering how far 1,400 light years are, this planet is about 8,230,100,000,000,000 miles away. It takes light 1,400 years to travel there, and humans and spaceships cannot travel as fast as light. So...we're not going to this planet (if it exists) any time soon!
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