Friday, August 30, 2019

Aug 30 - Tracking Star Families, Hurricane Dorian

FaceBookShare
TwitterShare
color-instagram-96.png
color-link-96.png

A face-on view of star families - sibling stars born from a single cloud of gas - in our Milky Way galaxy, within 3,000 light-years of our sun (center of image). The Milky Way is 100,000 light-years wide. Stars in clusters today appear as dots. Co-moving groups - stars born together and still moving together in space - appear as thick lines. The diagram is based on data from the astoundingly useful second data release of the European Space Agency's Gaia mission. Read more.

Gaia tracks sibling stars in Milky Way

Rather than leaving home young, as expected, star siblings are more likely to stick together in long-lasting, string-like star groups, according to a new study of data from ESA's Gaia spacecraft. Read more.

Arecibo gets $19M grant to find and study near-Earth objects

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has, since the 1990s, been finding about 60 to 120 of these objects every year. The new grant will boost Arecibo's ability to search for and analyze these objects - called NEOs - with the goal of protecting Earth. It comes on the heels of a $12.3M grant earlier this month, which was aimed in part at fixing damage to Arecibo's big dish from Hurricane Maria in 2017. Read more.

What we're reading 

 

From Associated Press … Florida braces for Hurricane Dorian

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands got lucky as Dorian brushed past the islands leaving relatively minor damage. However, the National Hurricane Center said the Category 2 storm is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 with winds of 130 mph (209 kph) and slam into the U.S. on Labor Day Weekend, somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia - a 500-mile (805-kilometer) stretch that reflects the high degree of uncertainty this far out. Read more from AP.

For the latest predictions on Dorian ...
Visit the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Year's closest supermoon today

Today - August 30, 2019 - presents the closest new moon of the year, exactly a fortnight (about 2 weeks) before the year's farthest and smallest full moon on September 14, 2019. Read more. Supermoons can bring particularly high tides, especially along stormy coastlines. 

Thank you all for shopping at The EarthSky Store! Your support helps EarthSky keep going.

Kids tees, long sleeved tees, toys, and more. Your support means the world to us and allows us to keep going. Click here to shop.

Predicted arrival time of winds

View larger. | Diagram from the U.S. National Hurricane Center showing predicted arrival times of winds from Dorian, as of Friday morning at 5 a.m. AST (same as Eastern Daylight Time). Go to the National Hurricane Center for the latest predictions about Dorian.

When we have a new moon ...

Simulation of a full Earth as viewed from today's new moon. A new moon is between the sun and Earth. When the moon is new for us on Earth, any beings on the moon would see a full Earth. Image via Fourmilab.
Submit your photo to EarthSky here!
Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Instagram
Website

No comments:

Post a Comment