James' World 2

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A fireball that blazed through the skies over Papua New Guinea in 2014 was actually a fast-moving object from another star system, according to a recent memo released by the U.S. Space Command (USSC).

The object, a small meteorite measuring just 1.5 feet (0.45 meter) across, slammed into Earth‘s atmosphere on Jan. 8, 2014, after traveling through space at more than 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h) — a speed that far exceeds the average velocity of meteors that orbit within the solar system, according to a 2019 study of the object published in the preprint database arXiv.

That 2019 study argued that the wee meteor’s speed, along with the trajectory of its orbit, proved with 99% certainty that the object had originated far beyond our solar system — possibly “from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy,” the authors wrote. But despite their near certainty, the team’s paper was never peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, as some of the data needed to verify their calculations was considered classified by the U.S. government, according to Vice.

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A fireball that flared over Earth in 2014 was actually a rock from another star system (Image credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock)

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If you only look at one “space photo” this year then this one has to be it.

Here it is to download—the Sun, our life-giver, in stunning 83-megapixel glory. You can zoom in like never before to see a close-up its filaments and flares.

Taken from halfway between Earth and the Sun, it was created on March 7, 2022, by the camera onboard the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

A mosaic of 25 individual 10-minute exposures taken one after the other, it took the spacecraft four hours to create it.

The image measures a whopping 9148 x 9112 pixels. That’s 83 megapixels. For comparison, a 4K TV has 3840 x 2160 pixels, which is 8 megapixels.

Here’s that image (though you need to download the bigger version to appreciate how detailed it is).

Not at all surprisingly it’s the highest resolution image of the Sun’s full disc ever taken, though special cameras were used so it could also include its outer, hotter atmosphere, the solar corona that’s normally only visible during a total solar eclipse on Earth.

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The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has returned an incredible 83-megapixel image of the Sun.  ESA/ATG medialab

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Sadness. Disappointment. Frustration. Anger. These are some of the reactions from LGBTQ+ astronomers over the latest revelations regarding NASA’s decision not to rename the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), given that the agency long had evidence suggesting its Apollo-era administrator James Webb was involved in the persecution of gay and lesbian federal employees during the 1950s and 1960s.

The new information came to light late last month when nearly 400 pages of e-mails were posted online by the journal Nature, which obtained the exchanges under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Since early last year, four researchers have been leading the charge for NASA to alter the name of the $10-billion flagship mission, launched in December 2021, which will provide unparalleled views of the universe. The e-mails make clear that, behind the scenes, NASA was well aware of Webb’s problematic legacy even as the agency’s leadership declined to take his name off the project.

“Reading through the exchanges, it seems that LGBTQ+ scientists and the concern we raised are not really what they care about,” says Yao-Yuan Mao of Rutgers University, who maintains the online Astronomy and Astrophysics Outlist of openly LGBTQ+ researchers.

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Artist’s conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (CC BY 2.0)

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