Category Archives: Astronomy

Uranus marches to the beat of its own weird little drum.

Although it shares many similarities with our Solar System's other ice giant, Neptune, it has a bunch of quirks that are all its own.

And one of these is impossible to miss: Its rotational axis is so skewed it may as well be lying down. That's a whopping tilt of 98 degrees from the orbital plane.

And, to top it all off, it's rotating clockwise the opposite direction from most of the other planets in the Solar System.

A new study has found a plausible explanation for this weird behavior: A moon migrating away from the planet, resulting in Uranus being pulled over onto its side. And it wouldn't even need to be a big moon. Something half the mass of our own Moon could have done it, although a larger moon would be the more likely contender.

The reasoning has been laid out in a paper led by astronomer Melaine Saillenfest of the National Centre for Scientific Research in France. This paper, not yet peer-reviewed, has been accepted into the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and made available on preprint resource arXiv.

Scientists have come up with models to explain this weird behavior, such as a massive object that collided with Uranus and literally smacked it sideways, but the more favored explanation is a bunch of smaller objects.

However, this hypothesis raises issues that are even more difficult to explain: namely, those pesky similarities to Neptune.

The two planets have extremely similar masses, radii, rotation rates, atmosphere dynamics and compositions, and wacky magnetic fields. These similarities suggest that the two planets could have been born together, and they become much more difficult to reconcile when you throw planet-tipping impacts into the mix.

This has led scientists to seek other explanations, such as a wobble that could have been introduced by a giant ring system or a giant moon early in the Solar System's history (albeit with a different mechanism).

But then, a few years ago, Saillenfest and his colleagues found something interesting about Jupiter. Thanks to its moons, the gas giant's tilt could increase from its current slight 3 percent to around 37 percent in a few billion years, thanks to the outward migration of its moons.

Then they took a look at Saturn and found that its current tilt of 26.7 degrees could be the result of the rapid outward migration of its largest moon, Titan. This could have happened, they found, almost without having any effect on the planet's spin rate.

Obviously, that raised questions about the most tilted planet in the Solar System. So the team performed simulations of a hypothetical Uranian system to determine whether a similar mechanism could explain its peculiarities.

It's not unusual for moons to migrate. Our own Moon is currently moving away from Earth at a rate of about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) per year. Bodies orbiting a mutual center of gravity exert a tidal force on each other that gradually causes their rotations to slow. In turn, this loosens gravity's grip so that the distance between the two bodies widens.

Turning back to Uranus, the team performed simulations with a range of parameters, including the mass of the hypothetical moon. And they found that a moon with a minimum mass of around half that of Earth's Moon could tilt Uranus towards 90 degrees if it migrated by more than 10 times the radius of Uranus at a rate higher than 6 centimeters per year.

However, a larger moon with a size comparable to Ganymede was more likely, in the simulations, to produce the tilt and spin we see in Uranus today. However, the minimum mass about half an Earth Moon is about four times the combined mass of the current known Uranian moons.

The work accounts for this, too. At a tilt of about 80 degrees, the moon became destabilized, triggering a chaotic phase for the spin axis that ended when the moon ultimately collided with the planet, effectively "fossilizing" Uranus' axial tilt and spin.

"This new picture for the tilting of Uranus appears quite promising to us," write the researchers.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time that a single mechanism is able to both tilt Uranus and fossilize its spin axis in its final state without invoking a giant impact or other external phenomena. The bulk of our successful runs peaks at Uranus's location, which appears as a natural outcome of the dynamics," they continue.

"This picture also seems appealing as a generic phenomenon: Jupiter today is about to begin the tilting phase, Saturn may be halfway in, and Uranus would have completed the final stage, with the destruction of its satellite."

It's not clear whether Uranus could have hosted a moon large enough and at a high enough migration rate to produce this scenario, and it will, the researchers say, be challenging to show with observations.

However, a better understanding of the current rate of migration for Uranus's moons would go a significant way towards resolving these questions. If they are migrating at a high rate, this could mean that they formed from the debris of the ancient moon following its destruction many eons ago.

Bring on that Uranus probe.

The research has been accepted into Astronomy & Astrophysics and is available on arXiv.

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Astronomers Think They Know The Reason For Uranus's Kooky Off-Kilter Axis - ScienceAlert

A new month means new night sky sights overhead.

This month features two meteor showers peaking - the Draconid and Orionid.

But, due to the full moon for the second weekend of the month, the Draconid peak will likely be washed out thanks to the moon's brightness.

The Orionid peak would be the better to look out for since it'll come around the time of the new moon.

Around the same time as the peak of the Draconid meteor shower and full moon, the solar system's smallest planet - Mercury - reaches something that's called "greatest western elongation." That means that early risers have a good shot of seeing Mercury in the morning ahead of sunrise.

In case you miss that morning, Mercury actually gets brighter through the month.

This month's full moon is called the "hunter's moon" due to the hunters hunting and prepping meat ahead of the winter season.

Something else of note - even though we won't see it here in North America - is a partial solar eclipse. Next month brings a total lunar eclipse, known as a "blood moon," that we'll be able to see in the Americas.

More upcoming eclipses, click here.

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October Astronomy Sights You'll Want to Try and See - NBC Connecticut

The University of Toronto team originally thought that the "sparks" might actually be separate objects far past or in front of the Sparkler Galaxy. However, the fact that all three versions of the Sparkler Galaxy show the same dots strongly suggests they are connected.

The astronomers believe the sparkles are globular clusters like the ones seen around the Milky Way. Crucially, though, we're seeing clusters that are much, much older and were created at a much earlier time in the history of the Universe.

The image we see of the Sparkler Galaxy, in fact, shows what it looked like nine billion years ago, roughly 4.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The University of Toronto team explained that the galaxy cluster is redder than expected, meaning it is older than they would have thought, given how early it is in the Universe, relatively speaking.

That means they believe the globular sparkles formed only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. They may even contain some of the very first stars to have formed in the Universe. In an interview with the BBC, one of the astronomers, Dr. Lamiya Mowla from Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, said, "when we first opened the SMACS image, we too were searching for the furthest stuff, the farthest things. And then we literally got sidetracked by the shiniest, sparkly object."

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Astronomers may have found some of the very earliest stars thanks to James Webb - Interesting Engineering

Light pollution. Satellite trains and radio frequency interference. Encroaching civilization. These all pose threats to ground-based astronomy. But, did anyone ever think that global climate change might wreak havoc on observatories? It turns out the answer is yes.

Were all familiar with the predictions about global climate change. It will make hot places hotter, cold places colder, and bring wilder weather to places around the planet. Economically, its effects already make a dent in global trading and are changing living conditions for millions of people. And, inevitably, it will change astronomy and the places where astronomers do their work.

Infrared-sensitive instruments like those at the Subaru observatory function well due to a lack of water vapor in the high-altitude air.Julie Thurston Photography/Moment Mobile/Getty Images

Observations from ground-based telescopes are incredibly sensitive to local atmospheric conditions. Most observatories are located well above sea level. Less atmosphere to peek through means better astronomical data.

And there are other factors, too. For example, observatories on the Big Island of Hawaii sit atop a 4,000-meter volcano. Infrared-sensitive instruments, like those at the Subaru and Gemini observatories, function very effectively there. Thats because there is so little water vapor in the high-altitude air, and near-infrared light can slip right through.

Many telescopes are also built in deserts, which also have less cloudy nights and lower water vapor content. Those are observing sites much more sensitive to climate change. Wilder conditions will adversely affect observatories long before their instrument lifetimes are up.

Back when these places were planned and built, selection committees only looked at shorter-term atmospheric analyses (like five years or so of weather data). They also used older climate models to project future conditions at the sites. As astronomy faces the challenges of global climate change, it looks like itll have to improve its site selection criteria and look at longer-term climate predictions.

Thats the conclusion a team of researchers came to, led by Caroline Haslebacher at the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. They analyzed environmental conditions at a number of the worlds sites. The group also looked at the site selection process for each facility. Team members recommend that planners use longer timeframes and newer climate models to predict atmospheric conditions at new sites.

Locations like the ESO Observatory in Chile will experience rising temperatures and atmospheric water concentrations, affecting their data quality.REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

So, how will things change for astronomy in the age of anthropogenic climate change? For one thing, global warming has the effect of putting more water into the atmosphere. To be specific, major astronomical observatories from Hawaii to the Canary Islands, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, and Australia will experience an increase in temperature and atmospheric water content by 2050. Those changes will affect observing time and the quality of data they obtain.

Nowadays, astronomical observatories are designed to work under the current site conditions and only have a few possibilities for adaptation, said Haslebacher, the lead author of the study. Potential consequences of the climatic conditions for telescopes, therefore, include a higher risk of condensation due to an increased dew point or malfunctioning cooling systems, which can lead to more air turbulence in the telescope dome.

Its likely that the technology and observing practices in current facilities can adjust to these conditions in the short term. However, for future observatories, planners should use better atmospheric models in site selection criteria. Haslebacher points out that improved data is the key to avoiding the degradation of ground-based astronomy.

Even though telescopes usually have a lifetime of several decades, site selection processes only consider the atmospheric conditions over a short timeframe. Usually over the past five years too short of capturing long-term trends, let alone future changes caused by global warming, she said.

High-tech climate models are important in planning the construction and maintenance of observatories.Tyler Savitski / 500px/500Px Plus/Getty Images

The fact that past planners didnt take the effects of climate change into account was not simply an oversight. They had to plan with the information they had. Study co-author Marie-Estelle Demory (of the Wyss Academy at the University of Bern, Switzerland) points out that state-of-the-art climate models are incredibly important for future observatory sites.

Thanks to the higher resolution of the global climate models developed through the Horizon 2020 PRIMAVERA project, we were able to examine the conditions at various locations of the globe with great fidelity, she said. This is something that we were unable to do with conventional models. These models are valuable tools for the work we do at the Wyss Academy.

Global climate change isnt going away. Its something that well all have to deal with in the coming decades. For astronomers, its yet another challenge to face. The silver lining is that the data are there to help, according to Haslebacher. This now allows us to say with certainty that anthropogenic climate change must be taken into account in the site selection for next-generation telescopes and in the construction and maintenance of astronomical facilities, she said.

This article was originally published on Universe Today by Carolyn Collins Petersen. Read the original article here.

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Extreme heat is messing with astronomy heres how scientists are adapting - Inverse

Work type: Full-timeDepartment: Department of Physics (25600)Categories: Academic-related Staff

Applications are invited for appointment as Post-doctoral Fellow in Astrophysics/Astronomy in the Department of Physics (Ref.: 516723), to commence in the fall of 2023 or earlier for up to three years, subject to funding availability and satisfactory performance.

Applicants should possess a Ph.D. degree in Physics, Astronomy, or a related area. Those who are expected to complete a Ph.D. degree before fall 2023 will also be considered. The appointees will join the group of Assistant Professor Jane Dai to collaborate on projects related to black hole astrophysics, including (but not limited to) black hole accretion disks and jets, tidal disruption events, X-ray binaries, X-ray reflection and reverberation, and AGN feedback. More information about the group can be obtained at: https://www.physics.hku.hk/~janedai/ The successful appointee is expected to carry out original research in theoretical and computational astrophysics and he/she can spend part of their time (percentage negotiable) on independent projects. Enquiries about the posts can be sent to Dr. Jane Dai at: lixindai@hku.hk.

Founded in 1887, the University of Hong Kong is a top public research university (ranked 21st internationally and third in Asia by QS in 2022). It has also been constantly ranked as the most international university in the world, with English as the mainlanguage of instruction. The Department of Physics hosts a large group of researchers working in astronomy and astrophysics with diverse research interests. Information about the Department and the Astronomy and Astrophysics group can be obtained at: https://www.physics.hku.hk/research/research-groups/astrophysics.

A highly competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience will be offered, in addition to annual leave and medical benefits. At current rates, salaries tax does not exceed 15% of gross income.

The University only accepts online applications for the above posts. Applicants should apply online and upload a cover letter, an up-to-date C.V. including a list of publications, a research statement up to 3 pages, and contact information of at least three referees. Review of applications will commence as soon as possible and continue until December 20, 2022, or until the post is filled, whichever is earlier.

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Post-doctoral Fellow in Astrophysics / Astronomy in the Department of Physics job with THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG | 311581 - Times Higher Education

Way back in 1979, astronomers spotted two nearly identical quasars that seemed close to each other in the sky. These so-called 'Twin Quasars' are actually separate images of the same object.

Even more intriguing: the light paths that created each image traveled through different parts of the cluster. One path took a little longer than the other.

That meant a flicker in one image of the quasar occurred 14 months later in the other.

The reason? The cluster's mass distribution formed a lens that distorted the light and drastically affected the two paths.

Fast-forward to 2022. A team of astronomers from the University of Valencia reported on their study of a similar effect with another distant quasar.

They spent 14 years measuring an even longer time delay between multiple images of their target quasar: 6.73 years the longest ever detected for a gravitational lens.

The galaxy cluster SDSS J1004+4112 plays a role in the delay. The combo of galaxies and dark matter in the cluster is really entangling the quasar light as it passes through.

That's causing the light to travel different trajectories through the gravitational lens. The result is the same strange time-delayed effect.

"The four images of the quasar that we observe actually correspond to a single quasar whose light is curved on its path towards us by the gravitational field of the galaxy cluster," said Jos Antonio Muoz Lozano, professor of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and director of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia.

"Since the trajectory followed by the light rays to form each image is different, we observe them at different instants of time; in this case, we have to wait 6.73 years for the signal we observed in the first image to be reproduced in the fourth one."

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey first discovered cluster SDSS J1004+4112. Hubble Space Telescope imaged it in 2006. It was the first image of a single quasar with its light split into five images by lensing.

Gravitational lensingcreates an optical effect as light passes through a region of space with a strong gravitational influence.

The observed time delay dangles some interesting clues about lensing clusters in front of astronomers. Galaxy clusters are astonishingly massive and the largest gravitationally bound structures we know of in the universe. Some contain thousands of galaxies.

The combined gravity of the galaxies, plus the intermingled dark matter in the cluster can entangle light from more distant objects as it passes through or near the cluster. It turns out that the mass of all the 'stuff' in the cluster is spread out unevenly. That can affect the path of light through the cluster.

So, astronomers need all the data they can get about the distribution of matter in a cluster. That includes dark matter. It all helps them to understand how it affects the path of light from a distant quasar.

"Measuring these time delays helps to better understand the properties of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, their mass, and its distribution, in addition to providing new data for the estimation of the Hubble constant," Lozano said.

In addition to the mass distribution, observational data also helps understand other characteristics of the lensing cluster, said Raquel Fores Toribio, a postdoctoral student at the University.

"In particular, it has been possible to constrain the distribution of dark matter in the inner region of the cluster, since the lensing effect is sensitive not only to ordinary matter but also to dark matter," she said.

She added that calculating the time delay also allows other discoveries, including the distribution of stars and other objects in the area of space between galaxies in the cluster.

In addition, it will help astronomers to calculate the size of the distant quasar's accretion disk.

A recently published paper describes the team's use of new light curves for the four bright images of the SDSS J1004+4112 gravitational lensing system.

The observations occurred over 14.5 years at the 1.2-meter telescope located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO, USA), in collaboration with scientists at The Ohio State University (USA).

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

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Astronomers Witness Light Delayed by Almost 7 Years as It's Warped by a Galaxy Cluster - ScienceAlert

The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a huge but low-surface-brightness planetary nebula. Images can reveal striking detail around the inner edge of the nebulas main envelope and fainter outer regions. Image: Kfir Simon.

The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293 and Caldwell 63) is arguably Aquarius showpiece deep-sky destination. As one of the largest and most remarkably structured of all planetary nebulae, its one of the must-see but trickier to image objects of the autumn sky. Looking like a giant, colourful celestial smoke-ring, the Helix can prove somewhat challenging though always irresistible for visual observers.

The Helix Nebula has a declination of 20 degrees, which places it in the more southerly reaches of Aquarius. Unfortunately, it never achieves an altitude of 20 degrees from UK shores, culminating at around 18 degrees from the south of England at about 11pm BST at the end of September. Its essential to take advantage of every degree of altitude to get the best view of the Helix on any given night, so try to observe it when it very close to or on the southern meridian.

Its immediate environs are noticeably lacking in bright stars to signpost the way, but you can use lowly (declination 29 degrees) but bright Fomalhaut (magnitude +1.17, alpha [] Piscis Austrini) if you can see it (youll need to secure a good southern outlook in any case to see the Helix). Upsilon () Aquarii (magnitude +5.2), which is located about 10 degrees (approximately the width across your knuckles held out at arms length) north-west of Fomalhaut, is handily located just over a degree east of the Helix Nebula.

If Fomalhaut is not visible or youre not sure youve identified it correctly, check out an alternative route starting from the higher-lying star Skat (magnitude +3.2, delta [] Aquarii). Moving south-westwards, look out for magnitude +4.7 66 Aquarii some four degrees away and then a further 2.8 degrees on is the aforementioned upsilon.

On a fine, moonless night at a site free from major light pollution, the Helix, which shines with a catalogued magnitude of +7.5, should be snared through an 80100mm (~three- to four-inch) telescope operating at the lowest magnification and, preferably, with an O-III or UHC filter. Its symmetrical eye, or oval-shaped form, extends to at least 14, half the apparent diameter of the full Moon, afflicting the Helix with a chronic low surface brightness that makes a bit of a mockery of its relatively bright-sounding magnitude its light being spread over a large area of sky!

Observers using telescopes in the 200mm (eight-inch) class, probably observing from more southern climes where the Helix lies higher in the sky, have reported seeing a blue-green hue. The Helixs reddish hue, from the light of hydrogen-alpha which dominates in the vast majority of images, wont be seen, but it radiates substantially in the blue-green light of doubly-ionised oxygen (O-III). The Helixs magnitude +13.5 central star should be visible in such an aperture.

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The Helix Nebula: a big and good-looking planetary! Astronomy Now - Astronomy Now Online

Humankind will soon get even more awe-inspiring images from space thanks to a gigantic camera built in the Bay Area.

The camera, which features 3.2 billion pixels, was built at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.

"We'll find 20 billion galaxies and about 17 billion stars," SLAC astrophysicist Risa Wechsler said.

The camera is part of a near $1 billion project to put an ultra-powerful scope, called LSST or large synoptic survey telescope, in a Chilean observatory to deliver the latest in jaw-dropping images from space.

"We'll be able to look at the origins and history of our solar system and also potentially to find objects that could threaten the Earth eventually, so that's interesting in its own right," said Steven Ritz, a physics professor at UC Santa Cruz.

With its ability to look deep into the universe, think of the camera as a three-ton, two-story history book.

"LSST is giving us a time machine," Wechsler said. "These images are telling us about the past. When we look farther away, we're learning about the further away past and keep going."

There is still a lot of testing to be done. When that wraps up, everything glass the lens and the filters will be removed and packed separately. The whole unit will be shipped sometime around May to Chile where it will be reassembled and then installed inside an observatory.

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Massive Camera for Astronomy Built in the Bay Area - NBC Bay Area

This year, the Open World Astronomy Olympiad (OWAO) was organised for the first time ever and was held in Saransk, Russia from September 26 to October 2. The competition seeks to promote astronomy education, recognise bright students, and build worldwide academic relations.

Hritom Sarker Oyon, from Adamjee Cantonment Public School, bagged the silver medal at the competition while the bronze winners include Imdadullah Raji from Notre Dame College, Ahnaf Anwar Nafi from Chattogram College, Radh Chowdhury from Dhaka Residential Model College, Faiyaz Siddiquee from DPS STS School, and Md Faijul Kabir Jishan from Ananda Mohan College.

The competition was conducted remotely with the exams being monitored through video surveillance. It consisted of four rounds theoretical, practical, observational, and test rounds. Participants were required to use computers for data processing and analysis.

The selection process for the competition was regulated by the Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (BDOAA). The activities of the organisation include conducting several regional and national olympiads on astronomy and astrophysics (A&A), hosting the A&A camp, and sending students to different international olympiads.

After rigorous training at the camp, a team of six members was selected and led by Md. Arman Hasan, Fahim Rajit Hossain, and Md. Mahmudunnobe, all of whom are academic team members of BDOAA. During the process, the participating members gained in-depth astronomical knowledge by developing various mathematical and observational abilities.

Maisha Islam Monamee is a student of IBA, DU, and a freelance journalist who likes reading, scribbling, and blogging. Write to her at mislammonamee@gmail.com

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Bangladesh wins 1 silver and 5 bronze medals at Open World Astronomy Olympiad - The Daily Star

Motherboard explores UFOs, UFO culture, and the paranormal.

In September, Ukrainian astronomers published a report detailing what they thought were unexplained aerial phenomena, or UAPs, flying above the war-torn region. Now, alien-hunting Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has weighed in on the science out of Kyiv with a paper posted online on Wednesday and found a down-to-earth explanation for the puzzling observations, which the Ukrainians attributed to so-called phantom UAPs.

Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project at Harvard University, a program that uses scientific rigor to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life and technology, and former chair of the schools astronomy department. Hes gained accolades and notoriety in equal measure in recent years for feats such as getting the U.S. military to confirm that an interstellar object entered Earths atmosphere using classified data, and for hypothesizing that alien technology zipped by our planet in 2017.

Loeb told Motherboard on the phone that people constantly ask him to comment or study unidentified aerial phenomena. He claimed the authors of the initial paper out of Kyiv had contacted him with their work but that he hadnt looked at it. The skies above Kyiv, Loeb said, are the last place people should be looking for UAPs right now.

In science, were trying to minimize the noise so that we can pick up the signal and therefore Ukraine would be the last palace on earth where I would search for unidentified aerial phenomena The noise level is so high, he said.

Ukraine is at war, and during a war theres lots of stuff flying through the sky. Drones, aircraft, and artillery shells, and satellites would conflict with any observations made of the sky. Its sort of like saying, I want to find the stars that are in the Milky Way galaxy and I will look during the daytime, Loeb said.

But everything changed when Sean Kirkpatrick, the newly appointed head of the Pentagons All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) showed up at Loebs home, he said, and asked him to look into the phenomenon of UAPs. According to Loeb, Kirkpatrick didnt mention the Kyiv report specifically. Loeb recalled it later that evening and decided to work through its observations in the morning. Within an hour he concluded that they got the distance to their dark objects wrong by a factor of ten, he said in a writeup of his observations on Medium.

The Ukrainian UAP paper identified two kinds of objects it labeled phantoms and cosmics. Phantoms were dark objects and cosmics were luminous. He focused on the phantoms at first because, if theyre dark, it means theyre blocking light and probably in earths atmosphere. The paper suggested that these phantoms were 3-12 meters in length and moving at speeds of up to 15 km per second at a distance of up to 10-12 km.

According to Loeb, an object that fits that description would cause an incredible disruption to the atmospherea huge fireball, Loeb said. According to Loeb, the energy released by such an object would be equivalent to the amount of energy consumed by everyone on Earth. They certainly dont claim to see a fireball. The objects are dark. They call them phantoms. They dont see anything. So, they made a mistake.

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Objects moving through space displace the matter around them. When a bullet leaves a gun it displaces air and makes a distinctive cracking noise. When a jet goes faster than the speed of sound, the waves of pressure create a sonic boom. And, according to Loeb, with regard to meteors a tenth of the kinetic power is radiated away in the optical band. Anything of the size and speed described in the Kyiv paper would create such a noise and cause a similar explosion of sound and light.

Instead, Loeb believes that the explanation for phantom UAVs in Ukraine is something much more common during war: artillery.

If the Phantom objects are ten times closer than suggested, then their angular motion on the sky corresponds to a physical velocity that is ten times smaller, v 1.5 km s1, and their inferred transverse size would be 0.31.2 meters, both characteristic of artillery shells, he wrote in his paper on the subject. As for the luminous object observed by the Ukrainian astronomers, Loeb concludes that its likely a satellite.

Both Russia and Ukraine have launched artillery shells during the war, and this simple explanation makes a lot of sense. When reached for comment, however, B.E. Zhilyaevone of the Ukrainian authors of the original paperstood by their findings. His team published the data, but are not in the business of speculating on what that data means, he said.

I have read the article by Avi Loeb, I know his comment, Zhilyaev said. Avi Loeb is a theorist. We are experimenters. We observe, process and determine the characteristics of data. Our publication contains just such data. We are not in the business of interpretation. Avi Loeb is trying to interpret our data. This work contains a discovery. Bright and dark objects. Our work can be repeated and verified, although this is a challenging experiment. Our characteristics of the objects are very similar to those of US military pilots and Canadian civilian pilots.

My reply is simple, Loeb said after reading Zhilyaevs response. Being an experimentalist or a theorist is not relevant. All scientists, whether they are experimentalists or theorists, must use logic. Logically, Loeb said, the fact that the objects were dark means that they blocked the light coming from the sky.

The required electromagnetic interaction with light implies that the phantom objects must also interact with air molecules, he said. There is no logical way for the phantom objects to block light but not air molecules because the cross-section for electromagnetic interaction of air molecules with matter is larger than for light with matter.

A popular refrain from people in the UAP community when faced with evidence like this will say that whoever or whatever is behind the phenomenon have access to technology beyond our understanding. But Loeb maintains that advanced technology must still, in effect, follow the laws of physics.

I say that is not possible, Loeb said. Because how do you detect these objects? You detect them by the fact that theyre dark. In order for them to be dark in the background of the day sky, they must block light. Light is electromagnetic, it requires an electromagnetic interaction So if they block light, they must collide with air molecules. You can not, on the one hand, say an object is blocking light and at the same time say it will go through air without pushing it. That is not possible.

UAPs, the new name for UFOs, have become big news in the last few years. The Pentagon declassified several videos of strange objects observed by Navy Pilots after the images had already been leaked to the press. Congress created the AARO to try to figure out whats going on and politicians and military officers have come forward to share their experiences and weigh in.

In this environment, Loeb has become one of the most well-known figures in the scientific community who is keeping his mind open to the possibility of alien intelligence while applying rigorous science. Indeed, he is currently organizing an expedition to search for remnants of an interstellar object on the ocean floor. Most likely, its a meteor that will tell us a lot about the universe beyond our cosmic doorstep. It could also be alien technology, Loeb says, but the former outcome wouldnt be so bad either.

The Pentagons Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates with the AARO, did not respond to Motherboards request for comment.

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Harvard's Top Alien-Hunting Astronomer Has an Explanation for UFOs Spotted Above Ukraine - VICE