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The Party's Over for These Youthful Compact Galaxies
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By USH
Over the years, numerous mysterious events have been witnessed in the sky, defying explanation. Recently, yet another unusual sky phenomenon was observed over Southern Australia capturing attention and sparking curiosity.
Video footage reveals what appears to be a dome-shaped structure, with an even stranger detail: lightning seems to bounce off or perhaps even originate from within the dome.
The mysterious formation has led to numerous theories. Some viewers suggest it could be a unique (red) rainbow or a rare weather event like a haboob (sandstorm). Others speculate it might be the result of weather manipulation or even an energy field projected over the region.
Opinions also vary on the lightning, some say it’s bouncing off the dome, while others believe it could be emanating from within. Although it may just be an unusual natural phenomenon, the seemly strange interaction with the lightning remains unexplained.
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By USH
A strange image has been circulating across social media in Thailand, showing a large, dark pillar-like structure mysteriously appearing in the sky over Ubon Ratchathani. According to the photographer, the picture was taken on Sunday, October 20, 2024, while they were trying to capture the "beautiful, colorful sky.
This peculiar sighting isn't entirely unprecedented. Similar strange phenomena have been reported before. On October 7, 2015, a mysterious "floating city" with skyscrapers appeared in the clouds over Foshan, Guangdong province in China. Again, on March 18, 2016, ghostly buildings were seen above the sea along the port of Dalian, in Liaoning Province, China, lingering in the sky for several minutes.
Most recently, on September 11, 2020, an eerie image resembling the Hogwarts School from Harry Potter was spotted hovering over modern buildings in Jinan, Shandong Province. On July 14, 2022, a bizarre occurrence was also witnessed by residents in Haikou, Hainan, where a mysterious floating city appeared in the sky.
Scientists suggest that these events are most likely optical illusions, with mirages being the leading theory. Mirages occur when light rays bend, causing distant objects or parts of the sky to appear displaced. One specific type, known as a Fata Morgana, can create towering, distorted images of distant objects, contributing to these surreal sights.
Although the sightings between 2015 and 2022 were witnessed by many, the photographer in Thailand later realized that the mysterious pillar hadn't been visible to the naked eye at the time. This discovery has led some to speculate that the phenomenon might have been caused by a Project Blue Beam test, holographic technology, or even a temporary vortex connected to a parallel universe.
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By NASA
9 min read
Launch Your Creativity with These Space Crafts!
In honor of the completion of our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s spacecraft — the vehicle that will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function once there — we’re bringing you some space crafts you can complete at home!
Join us for a journey across the cosmos, starting right in your own pantry.
Stardust Slime
Did you know that most of your household ingredients are made of stardust? And so are you! Nearly every naturally occurring element was forged by living or dying stars.
Take the baking soda in this slime recipe, for example. It’s made up of sodium, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. The hydrogen was made during the big bang, right at the start of the universe. But the other three elements were created by dying stars. So when you show your friends your space-y slime, you can tell them it’s literally made of stardust!
Instructions:
1 5 oz. bottle clear glue ½ tablespoon baking soda food coloring 1 tablespoon contact lens solution 1 tablespoon glitter Directions:
Pour the glue into a bowl
Mix in the baking soda
Add food coloring (we recommend blue, purple, black, or a combination).
Add contact lens solution and use your hands to work it through the slime. It will initially be very sticky! You can add a little extra contact lens solution to make it firmer and less goopy.
Add glitter a teaspoon at a time, using as much or as little as you like!
Space Suckers
Now let’s travel a little farther, past Earth’s atmosphere and into the realm of space. That’s where Roman is headed once the whole observatory is complete and passes all of its testing!
Roman will scan the skies from space to make it extra sensitive to faint infrared light. It’s harder to see from the ground because our atmosphere scatters and absorbs infrared radiation, which obscures observations.
Some astronauts have reported that space smells metallic or like gunpowder, but don’t worry — you can choose a more pleasant flavor for your space suckers!
Ingredients
2 cups sugar 2/3 cup light corn syrup 2/3 cup water gel food coloring flavor oil edible glitter dust sucker sticks sucker mold Directions
Prep the molds by adding sucker sticks.
Mix sugar, light corn syrup, and water together in a pot on the stove over medium heat.
Turn it up to medium-high heat and let it boil without stirring for about 6 minutes.
Quickly stir in the flavor oil of your choice, gel food coloring, plus as much edible glitter as you like (reserve some for dusting).
Carefully but quickly spoon the mixture into the molds. Spin the sticks so they’re evenly coated. Add a sprinkle of reserved edible glitter and allow to harden.” An image on the left side of the card shows the result: a deep purple sucker with silver glitter embedded.
Fizzy Planets
As we move toward our outer solar system, we’ll pass the orbits of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. While they don’t actually fizz like the mini planets you can make at home, they do have some pretty exotic chemistry that stems from their extreme pressures, temperatures, and compositions. For example, the hydrogen in their cores behaves like liquid metal instead of a gas. It even conducts electricity!
Roman will use multiple planet-spotting techniques –– microlensing, transits, and direct imaging –– to help us study a variety of worlds, including both gas giants and rocky worlds similar to our own.
Ingredients
3 cups baking soda ¾ cup water food coloring ¼ cup vinegar Directions
Mix a few drops of food coloring into ¼ cup of water and pour into a bowl with 1 cup of baking soda.
Repeat step one two more times using different colors.
Scoop together bits from each mixture to form small balls. Add an extra splash of water to any mixture that’s too crumbly.
Douse the balls with vinegar using an eye dropper or teaspoon and watch them fizz!
Marshmallow Constellations
As we venture farther out into space, we’ll reach some familiar stars! Constellations are groups of stars that appear close together in the sky as seen from Earth. But if you actually journeyed out to them, you might be surprised to discover that they’re often super far apart from each other!
Though constellations aren’t made of stars that are actually bound together in any way, they can still be useful for referencing a cosmic object’s location in the sky. For example, you can use a pair of binoculars or a telescope to take a look at the nebula found beneath Orion’s Belt, marked by the glitter patch in the recipe card above! You can find the constellation printables here.
Supplies
toothpicks or mini pretzel sticks mini marshmallows constellation printables scissors Directions
Attach marshmallows to toothpicks or pretzel sticks using the constellation cards as a guide. Carefully trim toothpicks or pretzel sticks as needed using scissors.
Black Hole Bath Bombs
Black holes –– objects with such strong gravity that not even light can escape their clutches –– lurk unseen throughout our galaxy. Stray too close to one and you’re in for a wild ride! But they aren’t cosmic vacuum cleaners, despite what you may have grown to believe. Just keep your distance and they’ll affect you the same way as any other object of the same mass.
Astronomers have found dozens of black holes in our galaxy by seeing how their gravity affects nearby objects. But there may be 100 million more that lack a visible companion to signal their presence. Roman will find some of these solitary black holes by seeing how their gravity focuses the light from farther stars.
Ingredients
1 cup baking soda ½ cup citric acid ½ cup cornstarch 2 tablespoons coconut oil black food coloring optional: 2 teaspoons essential oil for scent optional: ½ cup Epsom salt Directions
Mix the baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, and Epsom salt (optional) together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix the coconut oil, food coloring, and essential oil (optional).
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture slowly while whisking it all together. Add a couple tiny splashes of water and whisk it in quickly.
Tightly press the mixture into round molds. Leave them for a few hours and then they’ll be ready to use!
Galaxy in a Jar
Now let’s go so far we can see our Milky Way galaxy from the outside — something many astronomers probably wish they could do at times!
Sort of like how Earth’s atmosphere can affect our view of space, dust in our galaxy can get in the way, too. That makes it easier to study other galaxies than our own in some ways! Roman’s combination of a large field of view, crisp resolution, and the ability to peer through dust make it the ideal instrument to study the Milky Way. The mission will build on previous observations to generate the most detailed map of our galaxy to date.
Ingredients
hot water glitter glue glitter super glue (optional) Directions
Mostly fill a 16 oz. glass jar with very hot water, leaving a couple inches of space at the top.
Add at least ¼ cup of glitter glue in colors of your choosing.
Add loose glitter a couple of teaspoons at a time, using as much or as little as you like! You can use a combination of fine and chunky glitter for an extended swirling effect.
Optional: Super glue the lid to the jar.
Once the water has sufficiently cooled, give the jar a gentle shake to see your galaxy swirl!
NOTE: Closely monitor children to ensure the jar doesn’t break.
Pinwheel Galaxy Pinwheels
As we continue our cosmic excursion, you’ll see other galaxies sprinkled throughout space. Many are spiral galaxies, like our Milky Way and the Pinwheel Galaxy from the craft described above. (You can find more detailed instructions and the printout you’ll need here.)
But galaxies come in other varieties, too. Through Roman’s wide, deep surveys, astronomers are sure to see every type. Scientists will study the shapes and distances of billions of galaxies to help us understand dark energy — a mysterious pressure that’s speeding up the universe’s expansion.
Supplies
Pinwheel Galaxy printout pipe cleaner or chopsticks scissors popsicle stick single hole puncher Directions
Cut out the hexagonal shape for your galaxy pinwheel.
Make cuts down the white lines.
Punch holes in the white dots: six around the edges and one in the center.
Turn the paper so it’s face-down.
Thread a pipe cleaner through the center hole.
Going around the circle, fold each flap so the pipe cleaner goes through the hole.
Tie a knot in the pipe cleaner to secure the front of the pinwheel. Wrap the other side of the pipe cleaner around a popsicle stick.
Universe Dough
We’re nearing the end of our voyage, having traveled so far through space and time that we can take in the whole universe! We’ve learned a lot about it, but there are still plenty of open questions. Some of its biggest components, dark energy and dark matter (invisible matter seen only via its gravitational influence), are huge mysteries Roman will explore. And since the observatory will reveal such large, deep swaths of space, who knows what new puzzles we’ll soon uncover!
Ingredients 1 cup flour ½ cup salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil ½ cup hot water food coloring glitter Directions
Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
Add several drops of food coloring to hot water, and stir into dry mixture along with the oil.
Add as much glitter as you like and knead it into the dough for several minutes.
Add water or flour as needed to adjust the consistency.
Still feeling crafty? Try your hand at these 3D and paper spacecraft models. If you’re eager for a more advanced space craft, check out these embroidery creations for inspiration! Or if you’re ready for a break, take a virtual tour of an interactive version of the Roman Space Telescope here.
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Last Updated Sep 27, 2024 Related Terms
For Kids and Students Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope NASA STEM Projects View the full article
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By USH
In the remote wilderness of the Shoria Mountains in southern Siberia, a long-hidden secret has remained untouched for millennia. Far from the reach of modern civilization, a discovery was made that would challenge our understanding of ancient human history.
In 2013, a team of 19 researchers, led by Georgy Sidorov, embarked on an expedition to explore this mysterious region. Their destination was Gora Shoria, a mountain towering 3,600 feet above sea level in a remote part of Russia. Intrigued by reports of strange megalithic structures, the team ventured into this secluded terrain.
What they found was extraordinary: an immense super-megalith dating back roughly 100,000 years that defied conventional history. These massive stone blocks, later known as the Gornaya Shoria Megaliths, appeared to be made of granite, featuring flat surfaces and precise right angles. The most astounding detail was the weight of the stones, exceeding 3,000 tons—making them the largest megaliths ever discovered.
The arrangement of these granite blocks suggested a deliberate design, far beyond what could be explained by natural formations. The blocks were carefully stacked, reaching a height of approximately 140 feet. This raised profound questions: how were such massive stones carved, transported, and assembled in this remote and rugged landscape?
Some researchers have speculated about the existence of a pre-flood civilization, a sophisticated society wiped out by a cataclysmic event.
Also a deep, narrow vertical shaft was uncovered. The shaft, lined with parallel stone slabs, appeared to be human-made.
The walls of the shaft were straight and polished, descending 40 meters (around 130 feet) before opening into a vast underground hall, 36 meters (around 118 feet) high. These walls were constructed from large megalithic blocks, perfectly fitted with minimal gaps. Some of the stones resembled columns, reinforcing the idea of deliberate design. The full explored length of the shaft spanned over 100 meters (approximately 350 feet).
The precision and scale of this structure left no doubt that it was an artificial creation of immense proportions. The polished walls and massive blocks bore a striking resemblance to the shafts within the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt, suggesting a level of architectural sophistication that defies conventional explanations.
Speculation abounds regarding the shaft’s original purpose. Some believe it served an advanced technological function or was part of a larger, undiscovered structure. The exploration team took over an hour to reach the bottom of the shaft, which required significant climbing expertise and endurance. It is believed that additional chambers and channels, still unexplored, may lie even deeper underground.
How could these gigantic 200-ton stone blocks have been assembled with such accuracy, deep underground? What kind of technology was used to construct the shaft and underground chamber?
Some researchers have speculated that it may have been part of an ancient factory, a seismological research device, or even an energy generator. Others believe it was the underground portion of a long-lost pyramid that once stood on the surface of the mountain.
Despite differing theories, we may wonder what ancient forces or lost civilizations left their mark on this remote corner of the world?
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By NASA
NASA, ESA/Matthias Maurer An astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped this picture of the Moon as the station orbited 265 miles above the U.S. state of Minnesota on Dec. 17, 2021.
Astronauts aboard the orbital lab take images using handheld digital cameras, usually through windows in the station’s cupola, for Crew Earth Observations. Crew members have produced hundreds of thousands of images of the Moon and Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, International Observe the Moon Night, everyone on Earth is invited to learn about lunar science, participate in celestial observations, and honor cultural and personal connection to the Moon. Find an event to join in the celebration.
Image credit: NASA, ESA/Matthias Maurer
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