Alien megastructure not the cause of dimming of the 'most mysterious star in the universe'
https://phys.org/news/2018-01-alien-megastructure-dimming-mysterious-star.html

A team of more than 200 researchers, including Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Assistant Professor Jason Wright and led by Louisiana State University's
Tabetha Boyajian, is one step closer to solving the mystery behind the "most mysterious star in the universe." KIC 8462852, or "Tabby's Star," nicknamed after Boyajian, is
otherwise an ordinary star, about 50 percent bigger and 1,000 degrees hotter than the Sun, and about than 1,000 light years away. However, it has been inexplicably dimming
and brightening sporadically like no other. Several theories abound to explain the star's unusual light patterns, including that an alien megastructure is orbiting the star.

he mystery of Tabby's Star is so compelling that more than 1,700 people donated over $100,000 through a Kickstarter campaign in support of dedicated ground-based telescope
time to observe and gather more data on the star through a network of telescopes around the world. As a result, a body of data collected by Boyajian and colleagues in
partnership with the Las Cumbres Observatory is now available in a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"We were hoping that once we finally caught a dip happening in real time we could see if the dips were the same depth at all wavelengths. If they were nearly the same, this
would suggest that the cause was something opaque, like an orbiting disk, planet, or star, or even large structures in space" said Wright, who is a co-author of the paper,
titled "The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852." Instead, the team found that the star got much dimmer at some wavelengths than at others.

"Dust is most likely the reason why the star's light appears to dim and brighten. The new data shows that different colors of light are being blocked at different intensities.
Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure," Boyajian said.

Red Iron Models - scale models of the Soviet construction and road machinery
http://www.redironmodels.com/index.html

jen takova zajimavost, ruska firma Red Iron Models vyrabi resinove modely 1/35 Sputniku, Vostoku a Lunochodu. dale tam maji nejaky crowfunding, v ramci ktereho nejvetsim backerum nabizi exkluzivni model Hubblova teleskopu, taky 1/35.

uz drive jsem zvazoval a pak radsi vzdal Voyager od Hasegawy, hlavne kvuli dlouhym stozarum, ktere bylo potreba slozit z leptu a pak jeste stocit do sroubovic, coz ani nevim jestli jde
ten Sputnik je dostatecne primitivni a mozna bych ho dal :)

https://www.nasa.gov/...dard/2017/nasa-s-next-major-telescope-to-see-the-big-picture-of-the-universe

Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubble’s wide-eyed cousin.
While just as sensitive as Hubble's cameras, WFIRST's 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument will image a sky area 100 times larger.
This means a single WFIRST image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures from Hubble.

WFIRST Will See the Big Picture of the Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Nu4DsKlKKMQ

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/arecibo-radar-returns-with-asteroid-phaethon-images

Arecibo’s radar images of Phaethon have resolutions as fine as about 250 feet (75 meters) per pixel.

Sunlight holds the key to planet’s shine | University of Oxford
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-12-22-sunlight-holds-key-planet%E2%80%99s-shine

Changes in solar activity influence the colour and formation of clouds around the planet, researchers at Oxford and Reading universities found.

The icy planet is second furthest from the sun in the solar system and takes 84 Earth years to complete a full orbit – one Uranian year.

The researchers found that, once the planet’s long and strange seasons are taken into account, it appears brighter and dimmer over a cycle of 11 years.
This is the regular cycle of solar activity which also affects sun spots.

Cosmic Filament Probes Our Galaxy’s Giant Black Hole2017-35 | www.cfa.harvard.edu/
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2017-35

The center of our Galaxy has been intensely studied for many years, but it still harbors surprises for scientists.
A snake-like structure lurking near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole is the latest discovery to tantalize astronomers.

In 2016, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University reported the discovery of an unusual filament near the center of
the Milky Way Galaxy using the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The filament is about 2.3 light years long and
curves around to point at the supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), located in the Galactic center.

Now, another team of astronomers has employed a pioneering technique to produce the highest-quality image yet obtained
of this curved object.

James Webb Emerging From Chamber A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgFkqCEntss


Like in the classic holiday song, Webb’s “silver” sunshield and “gold” mirrors shimmer brightly in this image mashup.
These are more than decorations for Webb, and their worth is measured by the scientific discoveries the telescope will make.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/webb-telescopes-silver-and-gold-decorations

!!
A century of galaxy discrimination revealed by giant European astronomy survey - News - Cardiff University
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/...ury-of-galaxy-discrimination-revealed-by-giant-european-astronomy-survey

A huge European astronomy survey, whose results are released today (21 December 2017), has revealed that the view of the Universe
provided by traditional optical telescopes is seriously biased.

The Herschel ATLAS (H-ATLAS) was a survey carried out by an international team led by researchers at Cardiff University with European Herschel
Space Observatory in the far-infrared waveband, which consists of electromagnetic waves with wavelengths 200 times greater than optical light.

Tak je to tu: Two finalists were just selected to further develop their mission concepts through 2018

CAESAR – A mission to return a sample from the nucleus of a comet.
Dragonfly – A drone-like rotorcraft to explore the prebiotic chemistry of Saturn’s moon Titan.

https://www.nasa.gov/.../nasa-invests-in-concept-development-for-missions-to-comet-saturn-moon-titan

Gigantické bubliny na povrchu rudého obra | ESO Česko
http://www.eso.org/public/czechrepublic/news/eso1741/?lang

Astronomové využívající dalekohled ESO/VLT poprvé v historii pozorovali strukturu granulace na povrchu vzdálené hvězdy – stárnoucího rudého obra
π1 Gruis. Tento pozoruhodný nový snímek byl pořízen pomocí přístroje PIONIER. Odhaluje konvektivní buňky o průměru asi 120 milionů kilometrů tvořící
povrchovou vrstvu mohutné hvězdy, která svou velikostí 350krát převyšuje Slunce. Výsledky byly publikovány v prestižním vědeckém časopise Nature.

Tak konečně první skutečné fotky!
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket sets up at Cape Canaveral ahead of launch | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/.../20/spacexs-falcon-heavy-rocket-sets-up-at-cape-canaveral-ahead-of-launch/

Poptávám: elixír nesmrtelnosti. Zn: nespěchám...

Nasa planning 2069 mission to look for life on newly discovered Earth-like planets | The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/...science/nasa-planets-life-space-mission-alpha-centurai-a8119511.html

Mission is as yet unnamed and the technology required to get a craft there does not exist yet

Nasa is reportedly planning an interstellar mission to search for life outside our solar system in the three-star Alpha Centauri system.

The mission is as yet unnamed and the technology required to get a craft there does not exist yet, but the projected launch date would coincide with the 100th
anniversary of the first moon landing. The ambitious mission would require a craft that would need to travel at a minimum of 10 per cent of the speed of light.

Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System: Holiday Special: Eight nights of exoplanet light
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1477/holiday-special-eight-nights-of-exoplanet-light/

NASA bringing you eight examples of light from real planets beyond our solar system. These real images show exoplanets light-years (aka trillions of miles)
away from Earth. Exoplanets are far away, and they are millions of times dimmer than the stars they orbit. So, unsurprisingly, taking pictures of them
the same way you'd take pictures of, say Jupiter or Venus, is exceedingly hard. But new techniques and rapidly-advancing technology are making it happen.