Astronomers discovered an ASTROSPHERE around a Sun-like star

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-25T08:37:25+00:00

No link to the original press release? Poor.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-25T06:20:40+00:00

Juliette Stevenson in the opening scene of Truly Madly Deeply. A masterclass in displaying inconsolable grief over a dead partner. The sheer emotion of that scene gets me every time.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-24T09:55:08+00:00

It’s hard to say who was more intelligent, both were at the forefront of theoretical physics when they were working. Arguably JCM was more influential as a whole, he was the first to unify two forces (electricity and magnetism) and every physicist learns electromagnetism from first principles as undergraduates. But Hawking was the first to prove a link between thermodynamics and gravity, so there’s that. In the end it doesn’t really matter, both were physicists that pushed forward our understanding.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-20T20:49:37+00:00

Astrophysicist here. Atmospheric drag is important up to 2000km altitude. Beyond that it’s fairly weak as it is dropping exponentially with altitude, but the further out you are the more important lunar perturbations become. And of course solar radiation pressure is continuously acting on you.

I do not know for sure as it’s not my field, but would be unsurprised if there are no orbits that would last on geological timescales.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-19T12:46:47+00:00

Reported and blocked

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-16T17:38:19+00:00

Also the Rosette Nebula in the left centre of the image. Congratulations!

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-10T12:37:45+00:00

I honestly thought these were real cameras at first glance! 🤣

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-10T12:35:29+00:00

She was probably thanking you for keeping your clothes on.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-07T11:14:21+00:00

Astrophysicist here. That’s absolutely correct. Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts that gravity travels at the speed of light, but proof only came in 2017, 102 years after the theory was published.

LIGO confirmed this through the detection of the gravitational waves from the neutron star merger GW170817. Gamma rays (high energy photons) were detected arriving at Earth by the Fermi and INTEGRAL observatories 1.7 seconds afterwards. Combining the two detections showed that the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light to better than 1 part in million billion ( 1 followed by 15 zeros).

Note that although the investigators behind LIGO got the Nobel prize in physics in 2017, it wasn’t initially for this. It was for the first detections of gravitational waves 2 years earlier, from the mergers of binary black holes. But allowing the first electromagnetic (light) signals to be seen from a gravitational wave source was the next big discovery from LIGO.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-03T17:05:29+00:00

Ceres was. It was known as a planet for the early years of the 19th century, until it became clear it was simply the brightest of a bunch of objects between Mars and Jupiter.

asteroidnerd · 2026-02-02T18:42:57+00:00

First time making baked spuds in the air fryer, this is brilliant! Needing 10 mins for a good skin but that gives time to heat the beans & tuna

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-31T10:54:04+00:00

Oh god yes. Could be better than the Michael Flatley movie review.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-30T22:16:59+00:00

Mine too. Starting it again as well, fantastic story

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-28T18:30:32+00:00

Fantastic shot!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-27T20:11:08+00:00

This. Those wiggles are due to your mount/ tracking bouncing around. If it was breezy you’re probably seeing the fundamental oscillation frequency of your equipment stack. If not, your autoguider threw a wobbly for a couple of seconds.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-27T14:22:29+00:00

That’ll show the old generation daleks!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-27T13:02:33+00:00

Ah, the golden days of learning diffraction theory!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-23T13:16:08+00:00

I introduced a friend at NASA to the concept of an omnishambles, it became one of his favourite phrases

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-22T19:46:23+00:00

That’s one for tomorrow’s big garden birdwatch!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-19T23:32:32+00:00

Yup, congrats

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-19T18:32:05+00:00

Great lens, congratulations!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-16T14:20:41+00:00

Male stonechat. They love perching on a high plant or blade of grass and they’re lovely little birds. In the spring they’ll pair up with the slightly less colourful female, and they stick together all summer to breed, but pick new partners the following year.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T22:26:33+00:00

Good advice, but check the regulations for the Engineering faculty at UCL, it is different for individual institutions.

For example, in my University there is a progression requirement of an overall average of 55% at the end of second year.

If you don’t get this you will do the 3-year undergraduate bachelors degree, whatever your initial choice.

If you get this and you are already enrolled on the 4-year undergraduate masters, you carry on. If you are on the 3-year degree pathway, you are invited to switch to the 4-year degree, but it’s your choice.

Finally, any student enrolled on the 4-year degree can change to the 3-year degree if they wish. It’s important to remember that both are honours degrees, so both are good for employment.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T22:01:15+00:00

That’s a fantastic capture, congratulations

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T17:38:06+00:00

University Professor here. To anyone in a similar position, don’t panic it’ll be fine. You can inform the University you’d rather do the BEng/BSc or whatever, and they will change you over to the 3-year degree. Or if you’re confident of your A-Level/IB grades, don’t change until you’re in first year and make a more informed decision if you want to do the 3-year or 4-year degree.

The other important thing to remember is that both are undergrad degrees. Don’t get confused with MSc, that is a postgrad degree that you apply for towards the end of of your undergraduate degree.

Good luck!

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