The latest Mercury, July / August 2020, is now available

The latest Mercury newsletter is now available, the July / August 2020 issue can be downloaded from the Digital media | Mercury page.

In this issue:

Coordinators Report
The Romans’ pre-Julian calendar
Dates for your diary
Noctilucent Cloud Season Arrives!
Members Photos
Mount Tufley Observatory

Astronomy News Feeds

Astronomy
Radio Astronomy
Space
Dark Matter

LOFAR Detects Lowest-Frequency Fast Radio Bursts to Date

16 April 2021

Using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), astronomers from the Canadian ... A researcher team led by McGill University astronomer Ziggy Pleunis ... [...]

Lyrid meteor shower, first supermoon of 2021: Cosmic spectacles to watch for this month

16 April 2021

... comet's tail, Michael Narlock, head of astronomy at Cranbrook Institute of Science, said. Thatcher is the comet that causes the Lyrid meteor shower. [...]

Rare astronomical phenomenon tonight

16 April 2021

Rare astronomical phenomenon tonight. April 17, 2021. James Kon. A rare Mars occultation will be visible in the Brunei sky tonight ... [...]

Supermoons on the rise this spring, including the 'pink' and 'flower' full moons

16 April 2021

The term “supermoon” was coined not by an astronomer but by astrologer Richard Nolle, who in a 1979 magazine article said he considered the moon ... [...]

X-rays of Uranus were discovered by astronomers

16 April 2021

It is named after Subramanya Chandrasekhara (1910-1995), an American astronomer of Indian descent. In 1999, the Observatory launched the ... [...]

Montgomery Ballet director's 'other' career reaches astronomical heights

16 April 2021

Montgomery Ballet director's 'other' career reaches astronomical heights. Mitsios, a software engineer and Coast Guard reservist, is also the artistic ... [...]

Australian Government Invests $50M for SKA Telescope Project Supported by Pawsey ...

16 April 2021

These dipole antennas, which will number in their hundreds of thousands, will survey the radio sky in frequencies as low at 50Mhz. “When the telescope ... [...]

Fast radio bursts shown to include lower frequency radio waves than previously detected

16 April 2021

The study focussed on an FRB source first detected in 2018 by the CHIME radio telescope in British Columbia. Known as FRB 20180916B, the source ... [...]

Some astronomical terms get lost in translation, depending on the language

16 April 2021

Radio telescopes detect signals at a longer wavelength than optical telescopes, making them ideal for looking at gases but not light or stars. In 1970, a ... [...]

NASA is developing a plan to build an Arecibo-like telescope on the moon

16 April 2021

NASA is paying a team of researchers to develop a plan for a telescope on the far side of the moon. The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), as the ... [...]

Video: Mapping the radio sky

16 April 2021

The VLA Sky Survey is using this method to create a map of nearly 80% of the observable sky. Host Summer Ash of the National Radio Astronomy ... [...]

Mysterious Giant Radio Pulses From Pulsars Are Hundreds of Times More Energetic Than ...

16 April 2021

... Kashima 34-m telescope, which was a valuable instrument for the radio astronomy community but was irreparably damaged by a typhoon in 2019.”. [...]

Dublin school opens much-anticipated new science, engineering building

16 April 2021

The school district held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning for the new space, which also will feature a shop space, an academic support ... [...]

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of April 12, 2021

16 April 2021

Scientific activities conducted aboard the International Space Station the week of April 12 included testing autonomous robots, harvesting leafy green ... [...]

President Biden nominates former astronaut Pamela Melroy for NASA deputy administrator

16 April 2021

As a NASA astronaut, Melroy flew three space shuttle missions during the ... Nelson's confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is scheduled for Wednesday (April 21). During his ... [...]

NASA Celebrates Earth Day by Showing How We Are #ConnectedByEarth

16 April 2021

NASA's investment in space – both the unique Earth science conducted in orbit ... The event platform will feature live presentations by NASA scientists, ... [...]

How to make a road trip from Tampa to NASA to watch a rocket launch on the Space Coast

16 April 2021

NASA rocket launch viewed from Space View Park in Titusville, FL. Author: Ric Kearbey. Published: 2:56 PM EDT April 16, 2021. [...]

The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Lick the Space Rock, Kyle

16 April 2021

This week, the out-of-touch guide is taking a look at science. We got aerospace engineers licking space rocks, YouTube influencers using lie detectors ... [...]

Planet Nine May Actually Be a Tiny Black Hole at the Edge of Our Solar System

16 April 2021

"Primordial black holes could be [...] dark matter," said Sebastien Clesse, a University of Brussels cosmologist in Belgium, to New Scientist. [...]

Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker Featured in IN PROGRESS: BENEATH THE SURFACE

16 April 2021

It begins with dark matter, where the body and voice exist as multiple creative possibilities within this dark space, and explores the connection ... [...]

New particles, new physics: An experiment at Fermilab points to undiscovered forms of matter and ...

16 April 2021

Another discrepancy is the presence of dark matter, which our telescopes cannot see but which we know is there from its gravitational footprint. [...]

Neural plasticity depends on this long noncoding RNA's journey from nucleus to synapse

16 April 2021

Long noncoding RNAs have often been described as "genomic dark matter," because their role in cells has yet to be fully characterized, especially in ... [...]

NASA develops plan to build an Arecibo-like telescope on the Moon

16 April 2021

Studying the early universe could help scientists understand the origins of dark matter, which outweighs visible matter six to one. “This is at the stage ... [...]

On the pulse of pulsars and polar light

16 April 2021

At the South Pole, a powerful set of telescopes could add a new function: studying the nature of dark matter and the history of stars. Only satellites can ... [...]