Author Archives: Robert Shank

by Paul Sutter https://www.yahoo.com/news/earths-upper-atmosphere-could-hold-150000722.html Earth may be swimming through an ocean of dark matter — and waves in that invisible ocean lapping against our planet’s upper atmosphere may generate detectable radio waves that allow us to finally find this elusive component of the universe, according to new theoretical research. A wealth of astrophysical and cosmological evidence points to the existence of dark matter, from the inexplicable rotation curves of certain galaxies to the growth of the largest structures in the universe. Attempts to explain this wide variety of observations with alternative formulations of gravity have failed, so the vast majority of astronomers think dark matter is some unknown form of matter that only rarely interacts with light or with normal matter. But that is a very broad idea that encompasses a lot of possibilities. Dark matter may be made of massive particles, but searches for those kinds of particles have largely turned up empty. So… Continue reading →

By Sharmila Kuthunur  published May 20, 2024 “We’ll be studying this event for years.” Evan Boyce captured this stunning aurora above the coast of Northern Ireland. (Image credit: Evan Boyce) This month’s ramped-up auroras may have been even more remarkable than we thought. The auroral displays that wowed observers around the world two weekends ago, including folks as far south as Florida in the U.S. and Ladakh in northern India, may have been among the strongest such light shows since record-keeping began. “With reports of auroras visible to as low as 26 degrees magnetic latitude, this recent storm may compete with some of the lowest-latitude aurora sightings on record over the past five centuries, though scientists are still assessing this ranking,” NASA officials said in a statement. “It’s a little hard to gauge storms over time because our technology is always changing,” Delores Knipp, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who focuses on space weather,… Continue reading →