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Ever since Donald Trump emerged in media as High Priest of Idiocracy, the very word “hoax” has received new fame. Global warming is a hoax generated by the Chinese. Democrats are hoaxes. And now according to the Flat Earth community, the recent launch of the Falcon Heavy from Cape Canaveral with Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster aboard was also a hoax of epic proportions. The Flat Earth community has gained a lot of following and it also includes some high-profile members. Kyrie Irving, the NBA superstar now a affiliate of the Boston Celtics, is also the one. After the SpaceX launch, Edwards whacked together a YouTube video called “FLAT EARTH PROOF (ELON MUSK SPACEX FALCON HEAVY WAS FAKE)!!!!” which postures numerous questions such as “Where the f*ck the satellites at?” and “Why ain’t it spinnin’?” Then there is this one which completely closes the deal: “Where the f*ck the stars at?” It’s tough to debate with thoughtful insights like that. The people at Vice also report that some famo...

👋 Wave hello to yourself! NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and Moon on January 17 from a distance of 39.5 million miles. It's been an incompatible few months on this blue dot of ours, but nothing puts life into perception like this amazing photo captured by a spacecraft literally millions of miles from us. Image Credit: NASA NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, an asteroid-sampling spacecraft, captured the image below as portion of an engineering test on January 17 2018. The probe was stirring away from us at about 8.5 km per second (19,000 miles per hour) when it captured the photo - snapping a minute Earth and Moon sitting together 63.6 million kilometers (39.5 million miles) away from us. In the photo, you can see Earth is the perky dot in the mid of the image, and the Moon is the minor dot to the right. But if you look a little closely, there's way much more to haze upon in the background. As NASA explains , "Several constellations are also visible in ...

You can call it whatever—a purple moon, a blue red moon or a blood moon—but on 31 st Jan, the moon will be a special and you don’t want to miss. Three distinct astronomic events will happen concurrently that night, resulting in what some are referring it as a super blue blood moon eclipse .  This particular astronomical rarity hasn't occurred for more than 150 years. A super moon, like the one observable on New Year's Day, is the term for when a full moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit, appearing bigger and brighter than normal. On Jan. 31, the moon will be full for the second time in a month, a rare occasion—it happens once every two and a half years—known as a blue moon. To top it off, there will also be a total lunar eclipse. But unlike last year's solar eclipse, this sky-watching event isn't going to be as visible in the continental United States. The best views of the middle-of-the-night eclipse will be in central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zeal...

At times, scientists observe flashes of radio bursts with astounding levels of energy, which are called Fast Radio Bursts (FRB’S). Such a flash was observed in 2001, a brilliant burst of light breaching the skies was observed. This event was so powerful that in the matter of seconds, power was released that was equivalent to that of 500 million suns. Just as fast as it had come, the signal disappeared in the matter of milliseconds.  Ever since such an occurrence in 2001, approximately 30 of such flashes have been identified. However, new estimates indicate that these flashes occur almost every second. Dr.Avi Loeb, science professor of Harvard University, says that “in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee, hundreds of FRB’s may have gone off somewhere in the universe.”  The origins these flashes remain unknown but an explanation may have been found. The FRB 121102 is the only one of such flashes that repeats. In fact, scientists have observed at least 150 flashes fro...

A hypothesis dating back almost a century has just been confirmed for the first time-- scientists have finally witnessed lightning trigger nuclear reactions within our atmosphere. Such a hypothesis predicted that high-energy electrons found within lightning are capable of producing gamma rays that would induce nuclear reactions within the thundercloud.  Image: Dmitry Kalinin/Flickr The one downside to such a phenomenon is that it hasn’t ever been definitively observed until now.  Teruaki Enoto of Kyoto University, Japan, who is an astrophysicist, and one of the researchers in this study explained the following to ScienceAlert : “the photonuclear reaction in the atmosphere has been theoretically explained [to be] triggered by such high energy radiation. Several groups have accumulated signatures of this phenomena, such as signals of either neutrons or positrons, which are products of this reaction.” Scientists have been detecting these signals dating all the way back to the 19...

It has been asked frequently-- how come only the past is present in our memories and not the future? Why time travel is not an actuality and the process of aging is irreversible? Why is entropy a definitive constant? What came before the Big Bang? Was time existent before the Big Bang?  The answers to these complex questions can be potentially traced to the moment of the Big Bang. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist of California Institute of Technology whose research focuses on theoretical physics, astrophysics and issues in cosmology, gravitation and field theory addresses this question below. Time definitively infuses our lives for it is constantly measured. It’s tracked, put to use, machines employ time and others are built to keep track of its passage and measure it just as a ruler measures distances. There is a stark difference between the ruler and the clock-- time doesn’t necessarily employ distances but it does take use of direction pointing past from future. Sean Carroll’...

The prospect of an imminent doom hovers over us, scientists warn. A series of 20 deadly earthquakes is emanating next year due to the slowing of earth’s rotation . Scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of Montana say that even fluctuations of a millisecond could increase seismic activity, although their research has been spurned by some scientists. “The correlation between Earth's rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year.” Dr. Roger Bilham, from the University of Colorado, asserted at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Swarms of devastating earthquakes are set to arrive next year due to the slowing of the Earth's rotation, scientists claim. The tidal pull between Earth and moon is apparently the focal reason behind planet’s slow rotation. Little changes in the speed of earth’s rotation could trigger a drastic seismic activity, mai...

Aliens-- always a prevalent topic of discussion and one sparking controversy. It is known to everyone that scientists have been searching for extraterrestrial planets for signs of life. Now, in the hope of making contact with aliens, a message beamed by scientists towards two planets potentially capable of supporting life. The message was directed towards GJ 273-- known as Luyten’s star, a red dwarf, lying 12.36 light years away from Earth but scientists estimate that it will take a mere 12 years to reach it. If any aliens reside on the planets and the message is received and understood by them, and a reply is sent, then it is expected to be received in the duration of the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice in 2042 (June 21st, 2042). However, the plan set in motion does not please all-- Stephen Hawking, amongst other experts, warns us that if aliens were ever to discover life on Earth, it is very probable that such a discovery could be the end of a civilization. Life on Earth would...

Earth’s been getting hit by the fast moving high energy cosmic rays bursting off from outer space. These cosmic rays comprise positrons in a small proportion. But there’s something more, in a greater amount, coming our way. In 2008 PAMELA, a probe in Earth’s orbit, detected more high energy positrons approaching nearby expanse of our galaxy, but nobody was completely sure how they’re formed.   The pulsar at the heart of Crab Nebula (NASA). Astronomers analyzed the data gathered from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory and suggested that these antimatter particles are coming from powerful celestial objects known as pulsars . A pulsar is a highly magnetized neutron star channeling a beam of electromagnetic radiations. It works like a huge particle accelerator; shattering particles together and creating matter from energy, when the beam collides with contiguous gasses and dust. Theoretically, particles like electrons and positrons happen to form, which are abruptly...

An observatory in West Virginia picked up 15 bright radio pulses from a dwarf galaxy, 3 billion light years, earlier this year. The initial results, based on observations carried out by a team of astronomers and astrophysicists, postulate these pulses to have emerged from an unknown source, labelled as FRB 121102. It’s a source of fast radio bursts (FRBs).  They were first detected in 2001, and as the name suggests, FRBs are super-fast and really powerful burst of radio signals. But we still have no idea what causes them.   "The repeating FRB source is an anomaly in the population right now; it's the only one of its kind," says Emily Petroff, a post-doctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. However, Petroff was not directly involved in the current observations.   "We're trying hard to find more (either by checking to see if other FRBs repeat, or trying to find more FRBs and monitor them)," Petroff wrote in an email. "Keep in...

Astronomers have just observed what seems to be the brightest nova ever seen in one of our closest neighbor galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud. Novae are major astronomical events which mostly happen when dying stars intensely erupt back into life for a few weeks or months. This discovery is being considered as one of the most major discoveries of 2017. When astronomers first observed these events in the 16th century, they mistook them for the new stars, hence the Latin name – nova. Novae are fuelled by the interaction between old white dwarf and Sun-like companion stars. Material is transferred from the companion to the white dwarf star, gradually accumulating until it reaches a critical pressure, causing a sudden and huge increase in brightness. An international team of astronomers used telescopes in South Africa, Australia and South America to reveal that the nova SMCN 2016-10a, which was spotted on 14 October 2016, is one of the most luminous novae ever seen in any galaxy. The ob...

If you’ve ever had a chance to camp out to witness the northern lights, you know they can be mysterious and amazing. They’re only observable on dark, clear nights up north when a solar flare or solar wind fires particles toward Earth. Witnessing this phenomenon live requires a bit of luck, but if watchers wish to boost their chances, now's the best time.  As  Thrillist reports , the northern lights are at their peak—and won’t be this bright again until 2025. The colorful lights that appear to bend in the sky over the Arctic Circle are the creation of electrons from the Sun crashing with gases in the planet’s atmosphere. The lights are controlled by the Sun, and as solar activity goes through 11-year cycles, so does the aurora borealis. The Sun is presently at the end of the extreme stage of its cycle. The amplified solar activity makes for northern lights that are more regular and observable farther south. As the Sun starts to move into its least stage of activity, the light s...

How the Earth moves through the space? Here is an impressive visualisation of how our planet is moving through the space. So watch and learn:

Almost 1 billion years from this moment, the sun will enter in its dying phase and blow off its outer atmosphere, eating our minute planet in hot plasma. Fortunately, our galaxy will be left with NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft to remember us as a sign of existence of humans. The two nuclear-powered spacecraft started their mission 40 years ago and became the first and only machines to take close-up photos of Uranus and Neptune, the planets' moons and rings, and some other objects in the outer solar system. The Voyagers are also carrying a golden record of sounds, images, and other info about existence of life on Earth — a simple human collection that aliens might one day discover and decode. The mission is now comprehensive in an extraordinary PBS documentary called " The Farthest ", which premiered on August 23 and re-aired on September 13 at 10 p.m. ET. Brad Smith, a Voyager imaging scientist, said in the movie "Fifty years from now, Voyager will be the science...