Did you know that:
Astronomers have now seen a Black Hole (BH) jet
turn on then off then on again. Oh, yes, they do emit powerful jets of energy
and particles from their magnetic poles, but not normally in an on again, off
again fashion. Doesn't come from inside the BH though, it's just the leftovers
from their most recent meal.
Black holes aren't the only thing happening in
the sky. There appears to be at least a second planet around Proxima Centauri, the closest str system to us, embedded in the dust ring around this old, small, red dwarf just 4.2 light
years away.
And just because of the passage of a star behind
the biggest moon of Neptune, Triton, scientists have been able to take a look
at its ultrathin atmosphere.
There’s also been some stellar explosions that we
thought were supernovae that just keep happening again and again and again.
What’s going on with that?
A little closer to home a few events have the
astronomical community raising their collective eyebrows: first, we just had a
near miss by an out of our solar system (think interstellar) asteroid; second,
the first Chinese space station, Tiangong 1, will crash, uncontrolled, into the
Earth early next year; and thirdly, we are in the middle of a periodic
conjunction fest of Jupiter and Venus and sometimes the moon.
There’s more but I don’t have time to go on and
on about it. To see a full report on these and other astronomical goings-on ctrl+click on this website: www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news.
Keep looking up,Your Skywatcher Host.
P.S. - Our Nov 2017 meeting will be in the Lakehouse Tuesday, 2017 Nov 14, subject: 40th Anniversay of the Voyager Probes. Doors open at 1830. Meeting begins at 1900.
