Universe expansion rate - faster than expected

The universe is getting bigger every second. The space between galaxies is stretching, like dough rising in the oven. But how fast is the universe expanding? As Hubble and other telescopes seek to answer this question, they have run into an intriguing difference between what scientists predict and what they observe.

See the full article at PhysOrg.

Magnetic North - more north than it used to be!

(Marc Ward/Shutterstock)

Have a compass?  Ever used one?  They point north, right?  Well, sorta ... they point to the geomagnetic north, different from the geographic north, and it moves about 30 miles further north every year. But recently it started moving faster than ever before. Interesting stuff - and lots of interesting concerns.

See the full article at Science Alert.

NASA study verifies global warming trends

A new study by researchers from NASA has verified the accuracy of recent global warming figures.
See the complete article at Physics World.

(Image courtesy: iStock/oonal)

Now without getting into the argument of 'what' or 'who' is causing the warmup, I find it interesting that this new study, which uses data from two different systems, finds a statistical correlation between the two data sets indicating a relationship strong enough to verify that global warming is occurring.

I would like to get my hands on the raw data they used and run my own analysis, but this is just one more piece of evidence pointing to a warmer earth.

Black Hole finally imaged

The first-ever image of a black hole was released Wednesday by a consortium of researchers, showing the "black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon."

Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al

The world was treated to the first-ever image of a black hole today, as an international team of researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope project released their image of a supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87 (M87). This image shows a dark disc with the outline of emissions from hot gases swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon.

Located in the Virgo galaxy cluster, the enormous black hole is 55 million light-years from Earth. It has a mass of about 6.5 billion times that of our sun.

And for those of you who may have seen the movie, "Interstellar" - yep, it turns out it looks just like that! Wow.

Check out the full article at NPR

Also, see the article in National Geographic and this YouTube video really explains the image very well - worth watching to the end.

'Bombing' Asteroids and the "Illusion' of Space

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully “bombed” asteroid Ryugu in the name of scientific research.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Hayabusa2 dropped a small explosive box which sent a copper ball the size of a baseball slamming into the asteroid, and that data confirmed the spacecraft had safely evacuated and remained intact.

Full article here.

Credit:  Getty Images

And just when you thought causality works - think again, or maybe you did already ... see the article here.

Fireballs

Apparently March and April have been good months for Fireball sightings.  Check the latest that occurred Thursday morning visible across the SE US.

Fireball Streaks Across the SE US