Podcasts about whirlpool galaxy

Every month, subscribers at the Touch Tone tier of Beautiful/Anonymous+ get a bonus follow-up episode with a past caller. For February, that call is with one of our community's most beloved callers, "The Whirlpool Galaxy" (EP104, March 19, 2018). We've decided to share the first part of this conversation with everyone in the Beautiful/Anonymous community because we know how important this caller and her story have become to all of you, and she has some truly incredible updates to share. Enjoy!  In her first call, "The Whirlpool Galaxy," our caller spoke with Gethard about coping with the grief from an unbelievable tragedy and her work as a new astrophysics researcher. Since then, she has become an integral part of the Beautiful Anonymous community, returning for the first in-person follow-up, and joining us at Beautiful/CONonymous to co-host a screening of her favorite movie, Contact. She returns to Beautiful/Anonymous this week to catch us up on the incredible developments in her life since. And, of course, she takes her turn at the Wheel of Random Questions. Watch the trailer for Space, Hope and Charity here: https://www.spacehopecharityfilm.com/ Sign up for Beautiful/Anonymous+ to get access to exclusive content.

From July 25, 2023. Astronomers have found evidence of a possible planet outside of our Milky Way galaxy. If confirmed, this is the first time that a planet has been detected in another galaxy. It is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51, also called the Whirlpool Galaxy.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

An exoplanet denser than steel. The Whirlpool Galaxy from JWST. We finally learn where the solar wind comes from. The ISS is getting gigabit internet.

An exoplanet denser than steel. The Whirlpool Galaxy from JWST. We finally learn where the solar wind comes from. The ISS is getting gigabit internet.

Novae in M51: a New, Much Higher Rate from Multi-epoch HST Data by Shifra Mandel et al. on Monday 17 October Accurate determination of the rates of nova eruptions in different kinds of galaxies give us strong constraints on those galaxies' underlying white dwarf and binary populations, and those stars' spatial distributions. Until 2016, limitations inherent in ground-based surveys of external galaxies - and dust extinction in the Milky Way - significantly hampered the determination of those rates and how much they differ between different types of galaxies. Infrared Galactic surveys and dense cadence Hubble Space Telescope (HST)-based surveys are overcoming these limitations, leading to sharply increased nova-in-galaxy rates relative to those previously claimed. Here we present 14 nova candidates that were serendipitously observed during a year-long HST survey of the massive spiral galaxy M51 (the "Whirlpool Galaxy"). We use simulations based on observed nova light curves to model the incompleteness of the HST survey in unprecedented detail, determining a nova detection efficiency $epsilon = 20.3$ percent. The survey's M51 area coverage, combined with $epsilon$, indicates a conservative M51 nova rate of $172^{+46}_{-37}$ novae yr$^{-1}$, corresponding to a luminosity-specific nova rate (LSNR) of $sim10.4^{+2.8}_{-2.2}$ novae yr$^{-1}$/$10^{10} L_{odot,K}$. Both these rates are approximately an order of magnitude higher than those estimated by ground-based studies, contradicting claims of universal low nova rates in all types of galaxies determined by low cadence, ground-based surveys. They demonstrate that, contrary to theoretical models, the HST-determined LSNR in a giant elliptical galaxy (M87) and a giant spiral galaxy (M51) likely do not differ by an order of magnitude or more, and may in fact be quite similar. arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.06503v2

Novae in M51: a New, Much Higher Rate from Multi-epoch HST Data by Shifra Mandel et al. on Thursday 13 October Accurate determination of the rates of nova eruptions in different kinds of galaxies give us strong constraints on those galaxies' underlying white dwarf and binary populations, and those stars' spatial distributions. Until 2016, limitations inherent in ground-based surveys of external galaxies - and dust extinction in the Milky Way - significantly hampered the determination of those rates and how much they differ between different types of galaxies. Infrared Galactic surveys and dense cadence Hubble Space Telescope (HST)-based surveys are overcoming these limitations, leading to sharply increased nova-in-galaxy rates relative to those previously claimed. Here we present 14 nova candidates that were serendipitously observed during a year-long HST survey of the massive spiral galaxy M51 (the "Whirlpool Galaxy"). We use simulations based on observed nova light curves to model the incompleteness of the HST survey in unprecedented detail, determining a nova detection efficiency $epsilon = 20.3$ percent. The survey's M51 area coverage, combined with $epsilon$, indicates a conservative M51 nova rate of $172^{+46}_{-37}$ novae yr$^{-1}$, corresponding to a luminosity-specific nova rate (LSNR) of $sim10.4^{+2.8}_{-2.2}$ novae yr$^{-1}$/$10^{10} L_{odot,K}$. Both these rates are approximately an order of magnitude higher than those estimated by ground-based studies, contradicting claims of universal low nova rates in all types of galaxies determined by low cadence, ground-based surveys. They demonstrate that, contrary to theoretical models, the HST-determined LSNR in a giant elliptical galaxy (M87) and a giant spiral galaxy (M51) likely do not differ by an order of magnitude or more, and may in fact be quite similar. arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.06503v1

This week on Episode 535 of Priority One: Content deals continue at ViacomCBS, so you'll see what IP Bob can guarantee to be on TV.  A touching farewell to Tilly, with the character's far future plans on the tip of Mary Wiseman's tongue.  In gaming news, some fresh and refreshed games to add to your Trek catalog, and Mudd is back with a fresh Intel in a big ship bundle.  And before we review the most recent episode of Discovery, Dr. Robert Hurt tells us how we're looking for planets not just around distant stars, but in distant galaxies!  TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Not Every Loss Is Eternal By Jake Cobb If you haven't watched Star Trek: Discovery's season 4 episode 4 “All is Possible” our next story contains spoilers. You've been warned. Still here? Good! Let's get started! In the aforementioned “All is Possible”, Discovery said goodbye to one of its own: Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly. This week, TVInsider sat down with Tilly actor Mary Wiseman to talk about the episode, her departure, and the future of Tilly. Before going any further, let's get the big question out of the way: will Tilly be back, and in what capacity? Wiseman answered (unsatisfyingly) ”I can say that you'll see me later on in the season.” She continued (also unsatisfyingly) ”I'll say that her hair is slightly different and she's wearing a different outfit.” And she'll make new friends along the way! Image: ViacomCBS, via Tor. Being less vague, Wiseman recalled her on-screen goodbyes, telling TVInsiders Meredith Jacobs ”you tend to create a found family and that's very much the story of our show, both on and offscreen, that we are a found family. So it felt really important to honor those relationships…[i]t kind of feels like...she's going off to do this thing and all of these people show up for her to say, ‘we'll still be here for you when you come back and we love you and we'll miss you'.” It's true, we'll miss you–a lot. ViacomCBS: Deal With It By Cat Hough In some not very shocking news, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish confirmed that Paramount+ is moving towards exclusivity for its major IP franchises, by reducing the amount of third-party licenses...just like the recent buy-back deal for Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix. In a recent media conference, Bakish was asked about the third-party licensing deals and he said that while the company continues to bring in revenue for many deals cut before the launch of Paramount+, its priorities have definitely changed and that they are not likely to renew any prior third-party deals.   They are altering the deal. Pray they do not alter it further. Image: ViacomCBS/Trekmovie Bakish elaborated on this, saying, “as we increasingly transition to leveraging our particular franchises and original production for our owned and operated streaming assets, principally Paramount+…that, in turn, will create a decline in that third-party business over time as these deals roll off. I would note that as an example of that, we just took back Star Trek: Discovery internationally from Netflix. And so we now have that property globally. That's clearly a core franchise for us, and it's working.” It appears that these efforts are working for Bakish, as he stated that Paramount+ had its best week ever and best month ever in November. However, Discovery has yet to be confirmed for a fifth season. Historically, additional season pickups are announced around the time of the launch of a new season, which they did for Star Trek: Prodigy. Paramount+ Opens Revenue Channels By Cat Hough Speaking of Paramount+, it just announced the launch of 18 linear channels that let subscribers surf through dedicated-themed collections of shows called Live Channels. The content comes from all ViacomCBS properties including CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and the Smithsonian Channel as well as from other sources. The themed “live” channels, streaming 24 hours per day, feature the service's most-streamed genres or specific franchises like Star Trek. Just think Star Trek Channel: all Trek, all the time.   Not like this. Not like this....Image: ViacomCBS, via Space.com Paramount+ Live Channels also will potentially provide a new bucket of advertising inventory for the streaming service to sell. At launch, there won't be ads in the channels for either the Paramount+ Premium ($9.99/month) or the ad-supported Essential ($4.99/month) tiers, but eventually ViacomCBS may introduce ads for customers with the Essential package. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can try Paramount+ for 30 days free by using the promo code “PEAKSALE.” Quick News Roundup A Star Trek Adventures-based audio play, Star Trek: Europa, is now available as a podcast with 10 episodes online.  The series follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Europa, a Luna-class starship with a new prototype positronic-bioneural computer system and an advanced AI. The ship's mission is exploration following the Dominion War. It's available on all of your favorite podcast apps.   In other audio news comes a cryptic tweet with very few details. Coming soon fresh outta spacedock is a new STO series, “Ex Astris: The Ships of Star Trek Online.”  The tweet comes from Daniel Orrett, writer and creator of the science fiction audio drama Sojourn HQ.  Which could imply an audio drama telling the story of STO ships?  With no release date, we'll have to simply wait and see.   STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Mudd-Slinging Continues Unabated By Cat Hough Just in time for the holidays when you have all the extra money, a new bundle hits Mudd's Market on December 22nd! Mudd's Secret Intel Choice Pack will be available for 29,500 Zen, and you can choose any three of the following options:  Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer Son'a Intel Battlecruiser Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought Cruiser Na'Qjej Intel Battlecruiser 50x Master Keys 1 Epic Phoenix Box Token 9x T6x Upgrade Tokens 10x Gold Tech Upgrades Image: Cryptic Studios. Or you can spend 60,000 Zen and get Mudd's MEGA Secret Intel Bundle: a one stop purchase to obtain all eight items in the pack at once! NOTE: Both packs are 50% off in the Zen store from December 22 through January 5.  Star Trek Faces A Resurgence By Ross McQueen Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative adventure game featuring dialog choices, relationship building, and exploration. Alongside dialog-driven role playing and rich branching storylines, you will also engage with the Star Trek universe in a variety of other gameplay styles, including shuttle piloting, phaser fights, tricorder scanning, stealth, and micro-gameplay mechanics. https://youtu.be/XNer-6JEJk0 Star Trek: Resurgence follows two principal characters through a single epic story, with gameplay switching between the characters, similar to Telltale's Game of Thrones or Tales from the Borderlands. Star Trek: Resurgence is a single player experience without microtransactions, DLC or other additional monetization models.  The Armada Is Mobilized, Captains By Ross McQueen Grab yourself an energy drink or three, a bowl of your favourite snacks and let's LAN party like it's 1999!  Actually, the correct temporal coordinates are 2000 and 2001, with Star Trek: Armada and Armada II now available on the GOG store. Anyone else here a Ressikan flute playing? No? Just me? Image: Activision, via GOG. This comes after GOG and Activision teamed up to celebrate 55 years of Star Trek, rereleasing six games including Voyager Elite Force and  Star Trek: Bridge Commander updated to work on modern operating systems. In Star Trek Armada, war is raging in the Alpha Quadrant with four races to command. The story is then expanded in Armada II, with Species 8472 entering the fray in Federation Space. Both games are available to purchase on the GOG store. A Dual Trilogy In Fleet Command By Ross McQueen The latest update has dropped for Star Trek Fleet Command, with Patch 37 bringing with it Part 3 of the Duality Arc, with three notable additions to the game as well as the usual collection of new officers, missions and bug fixes. Officer presets are now available, meaning you can create, name, and save specific sets of bridge officers which may then be assigned to your preferred ship.  Also a third permanent research queue is now unlockable through the in-game store. Kermit gotta get paid, son. Image: Scopely. On top of this, the Syndicate has now arrived!  The morally green Orions bring with them tiers to unlock, daily goal multipliers and an exclusive officer, Ghrush.  You can earn Syndicate XP from select events, a daily claim within the Syndicate menu, or from the Offers tab. ASTROMETRICS REPORT For this week's Astrometics Report, we go way past the final frontier to hunt for exoplanets--not just around other stars, but in distant galaxies. And we aren't just talking the homeworld of the Andromedans from the TOS episode "By Any Other Name." They're just from the Andromeda Galaxy, a mere two million light-years away. No, this tantalizing new discovery was found in the Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51, at a whopping distance of 30 million light-years. And this potential planet was found in a particularly wild system. So how do you search for exoplanets in other distant galaxies, when we've only barely started finding them in the nearby reaches of our very own Milky Way galaxy? It's a classic example of the scientific method at work: thinking about what we know, coming up with a hypothetical way to do a different kind of search, and being rewarded with an exciting detection. Now if you've been following exoplanet discoveries, you may already have heard of a search strategy kjnown as the "transit method." In a nutshell, astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars by looking for a small tell-tale dip in the star's brightness, that would happen when a comparatively tiny planet passes in front of its star--blocking a little bit of its light. This only works with planetary systems that, by the roll of the dice, happen to be aligned perfectly edge-on with our vantage point, allowing us to see the transits. Statistically that's a pretty small fraction of al the star systems out there. But it's been incredibly productive so far, leading to the discovery of nearly five thousand planets around other stars in the Milky Way. Since planets are small compared to stars, these dips in brightness may be only a fraction of a percent of the star's overall brightness. It works best with stars that are nearby and can be measured precisely. So the obvious question is how could you hunt for transiting planets in other galaxies, where the light of the stars gets mushed into an unresolved haze? X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. DiStefano, et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Grendler That very question prompted researcher Rosanne Di Stefano and her team to consider looking far past visible light to another part of the spectrum: namely, X-rays. Only the very hottest processes in the universes light up in this high-energy party of the spectrum, including an unusual kind of system called an X-ray binary. These are typically either a compact neutron star, or black hole, in a close orbit around another star. Gas spilling of the star gets swept up into a disc around the super-dense companion. the inner regions of the disc get heated to incredible temperatures. A large galaxy may gave at most a few dozen X-ray binaries that are so bright we can see them millions of light-ears away. but each one is a single compact source. So what if one of those has an orbiting planet that transits in front of the glowing disk? The team reasoned it would produce a transit signature that would briefly dim the X-ray light, so they went looking for one. And that's how they found the candidate planet in the Whirlpool Galaxy, using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. It turns out x-ray data sets are ideal for this kind of search. These telescopes typically have to sit and stare at a target for days, or even weeks, to collect enough x-ray photons to build up a picture. Those long staring observations are very similar to those used by exoplanet hunters searching in visible or infrared light. The transit they detected indicates a planet in an X-ray binary system called M51-ULS-1, where they saw the X-ray glow vanish for about three hours. They were able to rule out a variety of other factors that can cause X-ray variability, making a Saturn-sized planet the best explanation for what they saw. The signal was so strong because, in this case, the transiting planet would be much larger than the relatively compact part of the disc emitting the X-rays. So in X-ray binary systems, a planet would pretty much block all of the high energy light for a while. Image: NASA/CXC. Now I have to emphasize this is only considered to be a potential planet since confirmations require multiple transit detections. Unfortunately this planet likely has an orbital period of around 70 years or so, which means confirmation could take a very long time. However it points us towards a whole new way to search for other distant planets in the universe, and the awesome thing is that a lot of the data we need is already in hand. This research was carried out on archival data taken in other research programs--reminding us that our vast collections of research data in astronomy can be used to make new discoveries over time. You can bet scientists will continue searching data from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes for other possible planet transits. I should point out any planets in systems like this are not going to be at the top of the list for habitability searches. Such worlds are going to be flooded with deeply-destructive X-rays way past what you'd get in a doctors office. Our search may be restricted to stars a little closer to home. https://youtu.be/oR3Q7RBGmtc Finally I do have to comment on how excited the whole astronomical community is for the upcoming launch of NASA's Webb telescope on December 22. if you want to learn more about Webb, or the exogalactic exoplanet, make sure to check out Ask the Astronomers Live on universeunplugged.org. Every month our host Phil Lamar chats with a couple of astronomers about some of the coolest, or hottest, discoveries in the universe. You can even bring your own questions if you watch live on YouTube or Facebook.

This week on Episode 535 of Priority One: Content deals continue at ViacomCBS, so you'll see what IP Bob can guarantee to be on TV.  A touching farewell to Tilly, with the character's far future plans on the tip of Mary Wiseman's tongue.  In gaming news, some fresh and refreshed games to add to your Trek catalog, and Mudd is back with a fresh Intel in a big ship bundle.  And before we review the most recent episode of Discovery, Dr. Robert Hurt tells us how we're looking for planets not just around distant stars, but in distant galaxies!  TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Not Every Loss Is Eternal By Jake Cobb If you haven't watched Star Trek: Discovery's season 4 episode 4 “All is Possible” our next story contains spoilers. You've been warned. Still here? Good! Let's get started! In the aforementioned “All is Possible”, Discovery said goodbye to one of its own: Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly. This week, TVInsider sat down with Tilly actor Mary Wiseman to talk about the episode, her departure, and the future of Tilly. Before going any further, let's get the big question out of the way: will Tilly be back, and in what capacity? Wiseman answered (unsatisfyingly) ”I can say that you'll see me later on in the season.” She continued (also unsatisfyingly) ”I'll say that her hair is slightly different and she's wearing a different outfit.” And she'll make new friends along the way! Image: ViacomCBS, via Tor. Being less vague, Wiseman recalled her on-screen goodbyes, telling TVInsiders Meredith Jacobs ”you tend to create a found family and that's very much the story of our show, both on and offscreen, that we are a found family. So it felt really important to honor those relationships…[i]t kind of feels like...she's going off to do this thing and all of these people show up for her to say, ‘we'll still be here for you when you come back and we love you and we'll miss you'.” It's true, we'll miss you–a lot. ViacomCBS: Deal With It By Cat Hough In some not very shocking news, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish confirmed that Paramount+ is moving towards exclusivity for its major IP franchises, by reducing the amount of third-party licenses...just like the recent buy-back deal for Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix. In a recent media conference, Bakish was asked about the third-party licensing deals and he said that while the company continues to bring in revenue for many deals cut before the launch of Paramount+, its priorities have definitely changed and that they are not likely to renew any prior third-party deals.   They are altering the deal. Pray they do not alter it further. Image: ViacomCBS/Trekmovie Bakish elaborated on this, saying, “as we increasingly transition to leveraging our particular franchises and original production for our owned and operated streaming assets, principally Paramount+…that, in turn, will create a decline in that third-party business over time as these deals roll off. I would note that as an example of that, we just took back Star Trek: Discovery internationally from Netflix. And so we now have that property globally. That's clearly a core franchise for us, and it's working.” It appears that these efforts are working for Bakish, as he stated that Paramount+ had its best week ever and best month ever in November. However, Discovery has yet to be confirmed for a fifth season. Historically, additional season pickups are announced around the time of the launch of a new season, which they did for Star Trek: Prodigy. Paramount+ Opens Revenue Channels By Cat Hough Speaking of Paramount+, it just announced the launch of 18 linear channels that let subscribers surf through dedicated-themed collections of shows called Live Channels. The content comes from all ViacomCBS properties including CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and the Smithsonian Channel as well as from other sources. The themed “live” channels, streaming 24 hours per day, feature the service's most-streamed genres or specific franchises like Star Trek. Just think Star Trek Channel: all Trek, all the time.   Not like this. Not like this....Image: ViacomCBS, via Space.com Paramount+ Live Channels also will potentially provide a new bucket of advertising inventory for the streaming service to sell. At launch, there won't be ads in the channels for either the Paramount+ Premium ($9.99/month) or the ad-supported Essential ($4.99/month) tiers, but eventually ViacomCBS may introduce ads for customers with the Essential package. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can try Paramount+ for 30 days free by using the promo code “PEAKSALE.” Quick News Roundup A Star Trek Adventures-based audio play, Star Trek: Europa, is now available as a podcast with 10 episodes online.  The series follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Europa, a Luna-class starship with a new prototype positronic-bioneural computer system and an advanced AI. The ship's mission is exploration following the Dominion War. It's available on all of your favorite podcast apps.   In other audio news comes a cryptic tweet with very few details. Coming soon fresh outta spacedock is a new STO series, “Ex Astris: The Ships of Star Trek Online.”  The tweet comes from Daniel Orrett, writer and creator of the science fiction audio drama Sojourn HQ.  Which could imply an audio drama telling the story of STO ships?  With no release date, we'll have to simply wait and see.   STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Mudd-Slinging Continues Unabated By Cat Hough Just in time for the holidays when you have all the extra money, a new bundle hits Mudd's Market on December 22nd! Mudd's Secret Intel Choice Pack will be available for 29,500 Zen, and you can choose any three of the following options:  Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer Son'a Intel Battlecruiser Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought Cruiser Na'Qjej Intel Battlecruiser 50x Master Keys 1 Epic Phoenix Box Token 9x T6x Upgrade Tokens 10x Gold Tech Upgrades Image: Cryptic Studios. Or you can spend 60,000 Zen and get Mudd's MEGA Secret Intel Bundle: a one stop purchase to obtain all eight items in the pack at once! NOTE: Both packs are 50% off in the Zen store from December 22 through January 5.  Star Trek Faces A Resurgence By Ross McQueen Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative adventure game featuring dialog choices, relationship building, and exploration. Alongside dialog-driven role playing and rich branching storylines, you will also engage with the Star Trek universe in a variety of other gameplay styles, including shuttle piloting, phaser fights, tricorder scanning, stealth, and micro-gameplay mechanics. https://youtu.be/XNer-6JEJk0 Star Trek: Resurgence follows two principal characters through a single epic story, with gameplay switching between the characters, similar to Telltale's Game of Thrones or Tales from the Borderlands. Star Trek: Resurgence is a single player experience without microtransactions, DLC or other additional monetization models.  The Armada Is Mobilized, Captains By Ross McQueen Grab yourself an energy drink or three, a bowl of your favourite snacks and let's LAN party like it's 1999!  Actually, the correct temporal coordinates are 2000 and 2001, with Star Trek: Armada and Armada II now available on the GOG store. Anyone else here a Ressikan flute playing? No? Just me? Image: Activision, via GOG. This comes after GOG and Activision teamed up to celebrate 55 years of Star Trek, rereleasing six games including Voyager Elite Force and  Star Trek: Bridge Commander updated to work on modern operating systems. In Star Trek Armada, war is raging in the Alpha Quadrant with four races to command. The story is then expanded in Armada II, with Species 8472 entering the fray in Federation Space. Both games are available to purchase on the GOG store. A Dual Trilogy In Fleet Command By Ross McQueen The latest update has dropped for Star Trek Fleet Command, with Patch 37 bringing with it Part 3 of the Duality Arc, with three notable additions to the game as well as the usual collection of new officers, missions and bug fixes. Officer presets are now available, meaning you can create, name, and save specific sets of bridge officers which may then be assigned to your preferred ship.  Also a third permanent research queue is now unlockable through the in-game store. Kermit gotta get paid, son. Image: Scopely. On top of this, the Syndicate has now arrived!  The morally green Orions bring with them tiers to unlock, daily goal multipliers and an exclusive officer, Ghrush.  You can earn Syndicate XP from select events, a daily claim within the Syndicate menu, or from the Offers tab. ASTROMETRICS REPORT For this week's Astrometics Report, we go way past the final frontier to hunt for exoplanets--not just around other stars, but in distant galaxies. And we aren't just talking the homeworld of the Andromedans from the TOS episode "By Any Other Name." They're just from the Andromeda Galaxy, a mere two million light-years away. No, this tantalizing new discovery was found in the Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51, at a whopping distance of 30 million light-years. And this potential planet was found in a particularly wild system. So how do you search for exoplanets in other distant galaxies, when we've only barely started finding them in the nearby reaches of our very own Milky Way galaxy? It's a classic example of the scientific method at work: thinking about what we know, coming up with a hypothetical way to do a different kind of search, and being rewarded with an exciting detection. Now if you've been following exoplanet discoveries, you may already have heard of a search strategy kjnown as the "transit method." In a nutshell, astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars by looking for a small tell-tale dip in the star's brightness, that would happen when a comparatively tiny planet passes in front of its star--blocking a little bit of its light. This only works with planetary systems that, by the roll of the dice, happen to be aligned perfectly edge-on with our vantage point, allowing us to see the transits. Statistically that's a pretty small fraction of al the star systems out there. But it's been incredibly productive so far, leading to the discovery of nearly five thousand planets around other stars in the Milky Way. Since planets are small compared to stars, these dips in brightness may be only a fraction of a percent of the star's overall brightness. It works best with stars that are nearby and can be measured precisely. So the obvious question is how could you hunt for transiting planets in other galaxies, where the light of the stars gets mushed into an unresolved haze? X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. DiStefano, et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Grendler That very question prompted researcher Rosanne Di Stefano and her team to consider looking far past visible light to another part of the spectrum: namely, X-rays. Only the very hottest processes in the universes light up in this high-energy party of the spectrum, including an unusual kind of system called an X-ray binary. These are typically either a compact neutron star, or black hole, in a close orbit around another star. Gas spilling of the star gets swept up into a disc around the super-dense companion. the inner regions of the disc get heated to incredible temperatures. A large galaxy may gave at most a few dozen X-ray binaries that are so bright we can see them millions of light-ears away. but each one is a single compact source. So what if one of those has an orbiting planet that transits in front of the glowing disk? The team reasoned it would produce a transit signature that would briefly dim the X-ray light, so they went looking for one. And that's how they found the candidate planet in the Whirlpool Galaxy, using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. It turns out x-ray data sets are ideal for this kind of search. These telescopes typically have to sit and stare at a target for days, or even weeks, to collect enough x-ray photons to build up a picture. Those long staring observations are very similar to those used by exoplanet hunters searching in visible or infrared light. The transit they detected indicates a planet in an X-ray binary system called M51-ULS-1, where they saw the X-ray glow vanish for about three hours. They were able to rule out a variety of other factors that can cause X-ray variability, making a Saturn-sized planet the best explanation for what they saw. The signal was so strong because, in this case, the transiting planet would be much larger than the relatively compact part of the disc emitting the X-rays. So in X-ray binary systems, a planet would pretty much block all of the high energy light for a while. Image: NASA/CXC. Now I have to emphasize this is only considered to be a potential planet since confirmations require multiple transit detections. Unfortunately this planet likely has an orbital period of around 70 years or so, which means confirmation could take a very long time. However it points us towards a whole new way to search for other distant planets in the universe, and the awesome thing is that a lot of the data we need is already in hand. This research was carried out on archival data taken in other research programs--reminding us that our vast collections of research data in astronomy can be used to make new discoveries over time. You can bet scientists will continue searching data from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes for other possible planet transits. I should point out any planets in systems like this are not going to be at the top of the list for habitability searches. Such worlds are going to be flooded with deeply-destructive X-rays way past what you'd get in a doctors office. Our search may be restricted to stars a little closer to home. https://youtu.be/oR3Q7RBGmtc Finally I do have to comment on how excited the whole astronomical community is for the upcoming launch of NASA's Webb telescope on December 22. if you want to learn more about Webb, or the exogalactic exoplanet, make sure to check out Ask the Astronomers Live on universeunplugged.org. Every month our host Phil Lamar chats with a couple of astronomers about some of the coolest, or hottest, discoveries in the universe. You can even bring your own questions if you watch live on YouTube or Facebook.

A proposed mission called the Contemporaneous LEnsing Parallax and Autonomous TRansient Assay, or CLEoPATRA, seeks to work with the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope to find rogue planets not orbiting any star. Meanwhile, a possible planet has been discovered in the Whirlpool Galaxy and could be the first planet found outside the Milky Way. Plus, an interview with Dr. Margaret Meixner, Director of Science Mission Operations for the SOFIA telescope.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Xenotransplantation progress, a new exoplanet, algae and beer - a match made in heaven; Facebook's metaverse, and more!Read the blog → thinkinc.org.au/think-inc-thursdays-032/Watch the full ep → instagram.com/thinkinc/channel/Sign up to our newsletter → bit.ly/think-sign-up

A proposed mission called the Contemporaneous LEnsing Parallax and Autonomous TRansient Assay, or CLEoPATRA, seeks to work with the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope to find rogue planets not orbiting any star. Meanwhile, a possible planet has been discovered in the Whirlpool Galaxy and could be the first planet found outside the Milky Way. Plus, an interview with Dr. Margaret Meixner, Director of Science Mission Operations for the SOFIA telescope.

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA Join the Episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP Brian McCarty Water on Mars: discovery of three buried lakes intrigues scientists Researchers have detected a group of lakes hidden under the red planet's icy surface. Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02751-1?fbclid=IwAR0e6lg5T8VK-2e-QE6_E4lLQrNl5GN7-tk0Yrgq-PAWVEzb9w47WOzkYkA Two years ago, planetary scientists reported the discovery of a large saltwater lake under the ice at Mars's south pole, a finding that was met with excitement and some scepticism. Now, researchers have confirmed the presence of that lake — and found three more. The discovery, reported on 28 September in Nature Astronomy1, was made using radar data from the European Space Agency's Mars-orbiting spacecraft, called Mars Express. It follows the detection of a single subsurface lake in the same region in 2018 — which, if confirmed, would be the first body of liquid water ever detected on the red planet and a possible habitat for life. But that finding was based on just 29 observations made from 2012 to 2015, and many researchers said they needed more evidence to support the claim. The latest study used a broader data set comprising 134 observations from 2012 to 2019. “We identified the same body of water, but we also found three other bodies of water around the main one,” says planetary scientist Elena Pettinelli at the University of Rome, who is one of the paper's co-authors. “It's a complex system.” The team used a radar instrument on Mars Express called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) to probe the planet's southern polar region. MARSIS sends out radio waves that bounce off layers of material in the planet's surface and subsurface. The way the signal is reflected back indicates the kind of material that is present at a particular location — rock, ice or water, NASA targeting Halloween for next SpaceX Crew Dragon astronaut launch Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-crew-dragon-launch-nasa-halloween-target/ NASA now plans to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on October 31, a Halloween flight that will mark the first operational use of the capsule following a successful piloted test flight earlier this summer. By delaying the Crew Dragon flight to October 31, the station crew and flight controllers in the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan will get a chance to catch their collective breath while allowing additional time to resolve any open issues. NASA's SpaceX Crew 1 astronauts (L-R): Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Hopkins, Walker and Noguchi are space flight veterans while Glover, an accomplished military test pilot, is making his first. Crew 1 commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi now plan to blast off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:40 a.m. on October 31. Docking at the space station is expected around 5 a.m. on November 1. They will be welcomed aboard by Rubins and her two crewmates, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Whether they might welcome their new crewmates aboard with any Halloween treats is not yet known. SpaceX scales back plans for Starship's first high-altitude flight A 50,000-foot trip won't be quite as ambitious. Link: https://www.engadget.com/spacex-starship-test-flight-reduced-altitude-182324492.html You might want to dial back your expectations for the first high-altitude SpaceX Starship flight. Elon Musk now says the flight with the SN8 prototype will top out at 15km, or close to 50,000ft, instead of the 18km and 60,000ft he'd mentioned earlier. It's not clear what prompted the lowered expectations, but Musk added that the rocket would get its nosecone and front flaps “next week.” While a 50,000-foot trip won't be quite as ambitious, the goal should remain the same. SpaceX wants to show that Starship can perform more than short hops. If the high-altitude test is successful, it's much closer to providing a fully operational rocket. The company is betting its future on Starship in hopes it will enable space tourism and interplanetary trips, and that won't happen without major milestones like this. An SN9 prototype is due in October. First Evidence of a Planet in Another Galaxy The Milky Way is filled with planets. Now astronomers have found the first candidate planet in another galaxy. Link: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/first-evidence-of-a-planet-in-another-galaxy The M51 Whirpool Galaxy Since the first detection of the first exoplanet in 1992, astronomers have found thousands of others. Indeed, they estimate that the Milky Way is home to 40 billion worlds. So it's easy to imagine that planets must be common in other galaxies, particularly those that seem similar to our own. But when it comes to spotting these planets, there is a problem. Other galaxies are so far away and the stars crammed into such a small region of space, as seen from Earth, that it is hard to identify individual ones let alone the effects of any planets around them. So extragalactic planets have sadly eluded astronomers. Now Rosanne Di Stefano at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics along with several colleagues, say they have found a candidate planet in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy some 23 million light years from Earth near the constellation of Ursa Major. This alien world, christened M51-ULS-1b, is probably slightly smaller than Saturn and orbits a binary system at a distance of perhaps ten times Earth's distance from the Sun. The observation was possible because of a special set of conditions. The planet's host binary system consists of a neutron star or black hole which is devouring a massive nearby star at a huge rate. The infall of stardust releases huge amounts of energy, making this system one of brightest sources of X-rays in the entire Whirlpool Galaxy. Indeed, its X-ray luminosity is roughly a million times brighter than the entire output of the Sun at all wavelengths. Hugely bright x-rays sources are rare and sparsely distributed throughout the Whirlpool Galaxy. That means they are easy to isolate against the backdrop of ordinary stars. Show Stuff Join the episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP The Dark Horde Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-dark-horde The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde or https://twitter.com/HordeDark Support the podcast and shop @ http://shopthedarkhorde.com UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com Mail can be sent to: UFO Buster Radio Network PO BOX 769905 San Antonio TX 78245 For Skype Users: bosscrawler

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA Join the Episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP Brian McCarty Water on Mars: discovery of three buried lakes intrigues scientists Researchers have detected a group of lakes hidden under the red planet's icy surface. Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02751-1?fbclid=IwAR0e6lg5T8VK-2e-QE6_E4lLQrNl5GN7-tk0Yrgq-PAWVEzb9w47WOzkYkA Two years ago, planetary scientists reported the discovery of a large saltwater lake under the ice at Mars's south pole, a finding that was met with excitement and some scepticism. Now, researchers have confirmed the presence of that lake — and found three more. The discovery, reported on 28 September in Nature Astronomy1, was made using radar data from the European Space Agency's Mars-orbiting spacecraft, called Mars Express. It follows the detection of a single subsurface lake in the same region in 2018 — which, if confirmed, would be the first body of liquid water ever detected on the red planet and a possible habitat for life. But that finding was based on just 29 observations made from 2012 to 2015, and many researchers said they needed more evidence to support the claim. The latest study used a broader data set comprising 134 observations from 2012 to 2019. “We identified the same body of water, but we also found three other bodies of water around the main one,” says planetary scientist Elena Pettinelli at the University of Rome, who is one of the paper's co-authors. “It's a complex system.” The team used a radar instrument on Mars Express called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) to probe the planet's southern polar region. MARSIS sends out radio waves that bounce off layers of material in the planet's surface and subsurface. The way the signal is reflected back indicates the kind of material that is present at a particular location — rock, ice or water, NASA targeting Halloween for next SpaceX Crew Dragon astronaut launch Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-crew-dragon-launch-nasa-halloween-target/ NASA now plans to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on October 31, a Halloween flight that will mark the first operational use of the capsule following a successful piloted test flight earlier this summer. By delaying the Crew Dragon flight to October 31, the station crew and flight controllers in the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan will get a chance to catch their collective breath while allowing additional time to resolve any open issues. NASA's SpaceX Crew 1 astronauts (L-R): Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Hopkins, Walker and Noguchi are space flight veterans while Glover, an accomplished military test pilot, is making his first. Crew 1 commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi now plan to blast off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:40 a.m. on October 31. Docking at the space station is expected around 5 a.m. on November 1. They will be welcomed aboard by Rubins and her two crewmates, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Whether they might welcome their new crewmates aboard with any Halloween treats is not yet known. SpaceX scales back plans for Starship's first high-altitude flight A 50,000-foot trip won't be quite as ambitious. Link: https://www.engadget.com/spacex-starship-test-flight-reduced-altitude-182324492.html You might want to dial back your expectations for the first high-altitude SpaceX Starship flight. Elon Musk now says the flight with the SN8 prototype will top out at 15km, or close to 50,000ft, instead of the 18km and 60,000ft he'd mentioned earlier. It's not clear what prompted the lowered expectations, but Musk added that the rocket would get its nosecone and front flaps “next week.” While a 50,000-foot trip won't be quite as ambitious, the goal should remain the same. SpaceX wants to show that Starship can perform more than short hops. If the high-altitude test is successful, it's much closer to providing a fully operational rocket. The company is betting its future on Starship in hopes it will enable space tourism and interplanetary trips, and that won't happen without major milestones like this. An SN9 prototype is due in October. First Evidence of a Planet in Another Galaxy The Milky Way is filled with planets. Now astronomers have found the first candidate planet in another galaxy. Link: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/first-evidence-of-a-planet-in-another-galaxy The M51 Whirpool Galaxy Since the first detection of the first exoplanet in 1992, astronomers have found thousands of others. Indeed, they estimate that the Milky Way is home to 40 billion worlds. So it's easy to imagine that planets must be common in other galaxies, particularly those that seem similar to our own. But when it comes to spotting these planets, there is a problem. Other galaxies are so far away and the stars crammed into such a small region of space, as seen from Earth, that it is hard to identify individual ones let alone the effects of any planets around them. So extragalactic planets have sadly eluded astronomers. Now Rosanne Di Stefano at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics along with several colleagues, say they have found a candidate planet in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy some 23 million light years from Earth near the constellation of Ursa Major. This alien world, christened M51-ULS-1b, is probably slightly smaller than Saturn and orbits a binary system at a distance of perhaps ten times Earth's distance from the Sun. The observation was possible because of a special set of conditions. The planet's host binary system consists of a neutron star or black hole which is devouring a massive nearby star at a huge rate. The infall of stardust releases huge amounts of energy, making this system one of brightest sources of X-rays in the entire Whirlpool Galaxy. Indeed, its X-ray luminosity is roughly a million times brighter than the entire output of the Sun at all wavelengths. Hugely bright x-rays sources are rare and sparsely distributed throughout the Whirlpool Galaxy. That means they are easy to isolate against the backdrop of ordinary stars. Show Stuff Join the episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP The Dark Horde Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-dark-horde The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde or https://twitter.com/HordeDark Support the podcast and shop @ http://shopthedarkhorde.com UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com Mail can be sent to: UFO Buster Radio Network PO BOX 769905 San Antonio TX 78245 For Skype Users: bosscrawler

In this episode, we’ll review the news and planets, talk about the Whirlpool Galaxy, a famous spiral galaxy, and then I’ll tell you how you can find two bright stars by using the curved tail of Ursa Major, the great bear. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/starsnstuff/support

Join us as we take a road trip to a star party! The Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS) recently hosted a star party at Stansbury Park Observatory Complex (SPOC). We viewed Jupiter and Saturn through several telescopes, including the 200mm Bogdan Refractor and the 1.8M Clements Reflector. We also were able to look at The Whirlpool Galaxy, Messier 13, Albireo, and other celestial objects through the many telescopes brought to the star party by the SLAS members. Truly an amazing evening of stargazing!

Download Episode! The Discussion: Jeni returns after getting the flu, Paul’s science shows were a wash out at Camp Bestival and Ralph gets a great email about a telescope library service. The News: In the new revamped show format we have 3 minutes to round up the astronomy news stories you might have missed: Jeni: New Gaia data shows us the distance and shape of familiar objects like never before India’s Chandrayaan-1 finds water ice in the moon’s north and south pole craters The Andromeda Galaxy’s dwarf companion was canibalised by a galactic collision Ralph: An ultra-hot 4,000ºC exoplanet An ultra compact dwarf galaxy with a huge supermassive black hole Astronomy favourite Albireo isn’t a binary star after all The big news story: New Horizons spacecraft confirms Voyager data on the Heliosphere The Skyguide: Jeni runs through some top facts about the planet Neptune Paul tells you where to find it and what you can expect to see Ralph runs through the autumn equinox, the constellations Cygnus & Lyra and visiting comet 21P Giacobini Zinner Paul finished with this month’s moon phases Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look at astronomical time travel: I’m still trying to get my head around if bigger telescopes looking at the same thing as my 6 inch reflector are seeing it at a different time or in just more detail. Take the Whirlpool Galaxy for example, can it be seen at different stages in its existence? From Peter Coates in the UK. Episode 75 Part 2 on space exploration comes out in the middle of the month.

Coping with tremendous grief from a recent tragedy, an astrophysics researcher talks to Geth about black holes, extraterrestrial life and the fate of humanity.  This episode is brought to you by Mack Weldon (www.mackweldon.com code: BEAUTIFUL), Your Mechanic (www.yourmechanic.com/STORIES), Stamps.com (www.stamps.com code: BEAUTIFUL), and Talkspace (www.talkspace.com/beautiful).

In Episode SH016 of Star Hopping… We’ll use our star hopping techniques to show you how to find the spiral galaxy Messier 106, the grand design face-on spiral Messier 101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, and finally we are amazed by the famous Whirlpool Galaxy, also catalogued as Messier 51. Intro So we’re back to Read More ... The post SH016 – Find M106, the Pinwheel Galaxy, and the Whirlpool Galaxy appeared first on Star Hopping.

Today, astronomers believe the universe is a violent, constantly changing place. But it was not always the case. At the beginning of the 19th century, many believed fervently that the celestial sky was a constant, divinely perfected, completed creation. But as telescopes got larger, the mystery of the number, origin and role of the "nebulae" - those colourful, cloud-like smudges on the sky – grew and grew. Were they really vast clouds of gas and dust as they sometimes appeared? Or were they merely closely packed, very distant clusters of stars, as some of them allegedly appeared when magnified through the great reflecting telescopes? When some astronomers and writers suggested they were in fact a vision of creation in action, matter condensing to form stars and planets like our own, some establishment religious figures cried foul, fearing the social implications. Could bigger telescopes resolve the crisis? For most of the 19th century, the biggest telescope in the world was in Birr, Ireland, then known as Parsonstown. It was built by an Anglo-Irish nobleman, Willam Parsons, Earl of Rosse, in the midst of the Irish famine. 50 feet long, 6 feet in diameter, the monster instrument was dubbed "The Leviathan". But even thus equipped, in the days before photography and spectroscopy, observers could only describe and sketch what they saw, and it was hard to be objective. As Simon Schaffer, James Bennet, and Chris Lintott narrate, the debate as to the truth of the "Nebular Hypothesis", and the concern as to whether the Irish astronomers really saw what they claimed to see, paved the way for the Darwinian debates in the coming decades. Producer: Alex Mansfield (Photo: NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released 25 April, 2005 shows the spiral galaxy M51 also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. Credit: NASA via AFP/Getty Images)

Galaxies are collections of millions to billions of stars gravitationally bound together. Galaxies come in different shapes and sizes, and fall into three broad categories: spiral (shaped like a pinwheel), elliptical (like a ball, sometimes round and sometimes squashed) and irregular, with no obvious shape or structure. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a spiral.

Hubble's image of M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, shows the majestic spiral arms that are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust. The infrared image from Spitzer also reveals stars and the glow from clouds of interstellar dust.

Pastor Michael Powers: October 8, 2006 The Truth Project, Part 5: Science-What is True? We're going to have a lot of visuals today up on the screen behind you. What we're basically talking about, in the whole Truth Project, is being able to view everything in life through a Biblical lens and through the eyes of God. First of all, I remember being in school and seeing this slow-motion sneeze. I thought that was so cool. The thought that mucus and stuff can fly out of you at 100 miles per hour: now you know why I'm a youth pastor. Why do we not stop and just take a look around? God is calling out to us from His Creation everywhere we go. So we're going to start with the fourth day of the Creation week: the sun, the moon, and the stars. Follow along with me here [in Genesis 1:14 (Page 1 of pew Bibles)], “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years to separate the day from the night and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.' And it was so. God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.” We're going to focus in on one little sentence fragment: “He also made the stars.” I find this amazing. It's an afterthought, “Oh yeah, by the way, He also made the stars.” And then they just move on. Let's take a look through the Hubble telescope, and you, as an American citizen, own these images. If you go to a site called Hubble.org, you will find these. Are you ready? Let's look at the afterthought of the stars (pictures are showing on the screen): the Cat's Eye Nebula; the Orion Nebula; the Boomerang Nebula; the Helix Nebula; Derek Pratt's personal favorite, the Sombrero Galaxy; the Ring Galaxy; the Whirlpool Galaxy; Planetary Nebula M29; Nebula NGC 3603 (What? All the cool names are taken, so now we're just going with numbers apparently.); the Mosaic of the Crab Nebula; the Eagle Nebula; just in is N7 635; and finally the Cone Nebula. Those are the stars that are just flippantly mentioned there. By the Word of the Lord where the Heavens made their starry host by the breath of His mouth. Can you imagine being there when God went, “Hoohhh,” and an entire Whirlpool Galaxy came out of His mouth and was set into place? Now just for fun, this morning, turn to the person next to you and go, “Hoohhh” (congregation laughing). Just kidding. Wouldn't that be fun, to find out who brushed their teeth this morning? He determined the number of the stars and called them each by name. Absolutely amazing to me. If you watch the Truth Project DVD this week, you're going to find out that as of 2003, they figured there are 70 sextillion stars. I don't know what that number means. I think it's kind of a risky name, but that's what we are calling it. That is the number 70 followed by 21 zeros. You cannot fathom, I cannot fathom, what that number means. God called them by name. He doesn't call them N76305; God has really cool names for all of them. Now, just for the purpose of scale, let's just take a look at…(Attention is focused on the screen behind Pastor Michael where pictures are displayed of planets)There's the earth compared to that; Jupiter got cut off in order for me to fit this picture on it, but there's the earth down in the lower left hand corner compared to Jupiter and Saturn. Not there's the sun. Look how small Jupiter is now. The earth is one little dot. That's what most of us would be familiar with. Let's start looking at some suns and things out there that we are not so familiar with. (For a visual for this section, go here: www.hubblesite.org) There's your sun down there, the little BB. Jupiter is one pixel in size. The earth is invisible at this scale. Let's find Arcturus (pointing to it on the current slide) on this next one. Jupiter is invisible at this scale. The sun is one pixel in size. Arcturus looks like a little BB or a marble, and Antares is that huge. This is what is out there. It's almost as if God was like, “You know what? There are some things out there that humans will never see even through the most powerful telescope, but I made it. Why? Because I'm God, and I can.” I find that amazing. He has stuff out there that only He and the angels will see until eternity. (Another clip is played) Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” One of the things that we are going to skip because we don't have time is a video I found that takes us on a six-minute journey from our sun to the outer known edge of our solar system and then to the outer known edge of the universe. If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take 3 billion years to reach the outer edge of our known universe. We're going to find out later this idea of millions and billions of years, as far as how old the earth of the universe is, is totally unbiblical. That is a fictional journey, if we could take that journey at the speed of light. That's how vast our universe is. As you look at the Hubble stars, and you look at these verses [in Psalm8:3, page 535], “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him?” See, we're taught that we are this insignificant speck in the universe, and we know the size of the known universe, and even the earth is an insignificant speck. As we will learn, and hopefully you have learned in your relationship with Christ, is that the God of the universe who breathes galaxies into existence cares about each and every one of us. Not only that, but He knows how many hairs are on our heads. That is an incredible, incredible God. Isaiah 45:18 (page 722) says, “For this is what the Lord says-He who created the Heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-He says: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, “Seek me in Vain.” I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.'” God said it; I believe it; that settles it; thanks for coming, ladies and gentleman. Have a nice day. We literally, if we really believe that what we have faith in is really real, we should be able to walk out of here just on that statement alone. But here's what science teaches us, “And this new discovery completely changes / everything you were ever taught about the origin of life. Oh, wait! A newer discovery totally changes what I just reported,” and on and on it goes because our ideas are fallible. They are man's ideas. When I was growing up, eggs were very good to eat. Then, sometime between my childhood and now, “Eggs are very bad to eat. They are evil. Don't put them in your body.” Now, eggs are good again. Have you ever thought, “What can I eat anymore? I don't know what air I should breathe,” because things change so much as they get all of this new information. The Word of God never changes. Man's ideas change with the wind. This is why it's so important. We'd like to show you the life-changing power of God's word. To start, please write your opinions here in the Book of Genesis, where it doesn't matter what you believe. And that's what we do. It doesn't mean six literal days. You've got God's Word as truth, and man decides what truth is. We put on our glasses, and we look: the facts are the same. Evolution and the Big Bang stories sound interesting. God says the earth was created first and then the sun, the moon, and the stars. Billions of years, the Heat Death, starting with the Big Bang: that's the history according to evolution. You have a six-day Creation. Man sins. You have thousands of years of sin and death. You have a heat destruction. God creates a new heaven and a new earth, and then you have eternity. What happens is we throw the Bible out. We decide, “Hmmm. That sounds interesting. Let's use man-made ideas and revelations.” Six literal days or millions of years? This is why it's important. Don't let anybody tell you that this is a side issue. You look in the Creation story, and it says over and over and over, “There was evening and the morning, first day.” It's almost as if God knew. Caleb, my 11-year old, when I was preparing for kids' camp this summer…As we were going through this, he was kind of paying attention to what I was studying. He said, “Dad, it's almost as if God knew that people were going to come along and say that each day was millions or billions of years. It's like God has a sense of humor, and he put that in there, so there would be no question.” The Hebrew word for day here is the word Yom. It always, always, always means “a literal 24-hour day.” If you were to ask any Hebrew scholar, going just by what the Bible says, “Are these literal days or not?” they would say, “Absolutely, positively it says they are literal 24-hour days.” Then, millions of years come up because of man's outside influence on the Word of God. Also interesting, if you believe in theistic evolution or that God used evolution, and each of those days aren't literal days, they stand for millions or billions of years, I find it interesting that God created the plants on day three and the sun on day four. You tell me how those plants survive on photosynthesis. It's almost as if God says, “Yup, I'm going to throw this one in there. Just wait.” (Genesis 1:31), “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good, and there was evening and morning the sixth day.” Here's what the Bible teaches: Six-day Creation; man; Adam and Eve sin; that causes death and the curse; and everything that goes wrong with the earth is because of that. Evolution teaches that if evolution is true and millions of years are true, you have sin and death before Adam and Eve and before the Garden of Eden. These are two very conflicting stories. So, if God looks down and says, “It is very good,” He should be able to say that; but if evolution is true, and there's all that before Adam and Eve, then God looks down and says, “It is very good.” Or… “After millions of years of mutations, vast extinctions, devastating diseases, and violent death, God saw all that He had evolved, and behold, it was very good.” God created a perfect world. Sin enters the picture, and now we have a cursed world full of sin and death and destruction. Then Jesus comes on the cross, and He makes a way so that our separation from God can be made as far as a relationship goes; and in the future, He's going to make a new Heaven and a new earth. It's going to be like the Garden of Eden all over again. Are you going to base your belief on the infallible Word of God or on man's fallible ideas? Here's the deal: If six Creation days are in your path, then God's the authority. He sets the rules, and you're made with a purpose; but if millions of years are in your past, man is the authority and relative morality. It makes sense why a kid would go to school, pull out a gun, and start shooting people. If kids really are believing what they are taught in our schools, they are taught that they are an accident; there is no God, there is no higher calling that they are accountable to, you can do whatever you want. It's amazing that we're shocked that our students actually believe what they are taught. Here's what it really comes down to. Evolution destroys utterly and finely the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble, you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. If Jesus was not the Redeemer who died for our sins and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing. If you include millions of years and evolution and all of that, Jesus Christ is a liar. The Bible should be thrown out the window. Jesus referred to Genesis many, many times. He is called the “second Adam.” He had to come make right what we made wrong. Here's the deal: the Bible talks about preaching to the Jews and preaching to the Greeks. Preaching to the Jews are people that already have a Creation background. The Jewish people of the time had the Old Testament. They knew the story accurately. When it comes to the cross, that's their stumbling point. You speak to the Greeks, and the cross is foolishness. You have to take them back to the beginning of the story because that has been left out. If you're preaching to the world of Jews, meaning that they have a Creation background, it makes sense that you need to repent, and Jesus died for your sins; but if they don't know that, if that's been taken out of everything, it doesn't make sense at all. Now, we have a second or third generation Greek who has been indoctrinated in this. The Creation has been taken out-God has been taken out-and now they have been trained that way. Now they're teaching our students-our children-and it doesn't make sense. The cross is foolishness. We try to tell them to repent; repent from what? What is sin? We have to take them back to the beginning of the story. See, here's the problem. Satan knows exactly what to do. You destroy the foundation, and everything else comes down. What we do is we shoot at each other-we shoot at the issues, we don't deal with the foundation. We need to build that foundation back up. When you are witnessing to people, you have to know your soil. In the old days, we could just talk about Jesus from the start, and people would understand. Now, we have no understanding. Why? Why aren't people just falling on their knees when they hear the message of the cross? It's because they have not been told the beginning of the story. Let's switch gears. Let's talk about Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin said this: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organism existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. Let's see if Charles Darwin's words come true or not. (Another video is played.) Alright, let's talk about dinosaurs. If there is one tool that has been used to perpetuate the theory of evolution, it's the dinosaurs. We're going to find out if you're indoctrinated or not. A Tyrannosaurus Rex had teeth up to six inches long. So, here's my question for you: how would this dinosaur originally been described: A plant eater, a meat eater, a scavenger, or a plant and meat eater? A plant eater. I know what you're thinking, “Oh, come on. Maybe I've been with you up to this point, but now you are one crazy youth pastor.” Guess what the Bible says? This is what they would have been after the fall of man and the curse that was placed on the earth, but before that, they were created to be plant eaters. Genesis 1:30 (page 2), “‘And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food.' And it was so.” So let's just take a look. Here's a skull of an animal. Look at those teeth. What do you think that animal eats? It's a panda bear; it eats bamboo. Look at this one. It's a fruit bat; it only eats fruit. Here's a creature for you to be glad that it isn't running around Wisconsin. You look at that, and you think “wow!” It could rip a vein out of your neck. It eats seeds. The animal extracts with its sharp K9s, opening up a fruit and splitting the seeds using its incisors. Do you know what big, long scary teeth mean, if an animal has that? It means the animal has long, sharp teeth. That's all it means, but we have been indoctrinated into thinking other things. So how many of you would like to know how we fit dinosaurs in the Bible? I have heard pastors say before, “The Bible is really not a science book; that's why it doesn't mention dinosaurs. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Dinosaurs are in the Bible, but you don't fit them into the Bible because then you're using our ideas of what we believe has happened. You take the Bible and by using the history book of the universe, you explain dinosaurs because this should be our thinking in every area if we're looking through our Biblical glasses. The Bible is never wrong on anything, whether it's science, anthropology, anything. So, let's look at what the Bible says. You look in Job 40:15 (page 529); it talks about a creature called the behemoth. I want you in your head to get an image of what this creature is by God's description, “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron.” He is the chief of the ways of God. “He ranks first among the words of God…” Verse 23 picks up, “When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.” Okay? National Geographic: Here is just the leg bone of a dinosaur. In 1994, the biggest dinosaur they had ever discovered was called Sauroposeidon, 60 tons and 60 feet tall. Since then, they have found a dinosaur called the Argentinasaurus, 125 feet long and 110 tons. One hundred tons is 14 school buses. Let's look at Verse 17, “His tail sways like a cedar.” Do you know what a cedar is? A cedar is a huge tree. The Bible talks about the cedars of Lebanon being used to build Solomon's temple. Now, if you were open up your NIV Bible, you will see a footnote, a little asterisk, by this animal, and it says, “Possibly the hippopotamus or the elephant.” So let's just think about that. There is a tail that sways like a cedar, and let's see if that fits with the elephant. Okay, maybe it's not the elephant; maybe it's the hippopotamus. Have you seen the hippopotamus' tail? It's this little flap of skin like a little yappy dog, and it just goes like that (waving hand back and forth). An elephant's no better. It's a little bit longer, but it's this thin wisp of a thing. What this shows is it has to be…You look at that description, and you tell me what you think that is. What this shows is this: The Bible is the inspired Word of God, but footnotes are not. So, why doesn't the word dinosaur appear in the Bible? Why couldn't God just say, “And let there be dinosaurs,” and there were dinosaurs? Wouldn't that just settle everything? King James' version was transferred into English in the year. The word dinosaur was invented in the year 1841. That's 230 years after the Bible was translated into English. Sir Richard Owen was the one who coined that term first in 1841. That is 230 years after the Bible was translated into English. If you look in an 1891 dictionary, the word dinosaur still does not appear-even in our dictionary 50 years later. Before they were called dinosaurs, they were called dragons by the people who lived on this earth. Now, the dragon that congers up an image in your mind is totally different than a dinosaur now because of the way things have changed as stories have been passed down. In a 1946 dictionary, the first listing: dragon-now rare. That doesn't appear in our dictionaries anymore. The dragons of old are the dinosaurs in history. Evolution teaches that dinosaurs died out 65 million years before man appeared on earth. If that's the case, I want to know how this man knew how to put a cave painting of a dinosaur on the wall if he had never seen a dinosaur and if we hadn't ever dug up the fossils of it until the late 1700s and the 1800s. That looks like a dinosaur to me. There's a petroglyph in National Bridges National Monument that bares striking resemblance to a dinosaur, specifically a branasaurus. What a coincidence. These guys [who drew on their walls] must have had visions of what they were, since they had never seen one. A mummified dinosaur carcass was found in Montana. Soft tissues covering 90 percent of the fossil, nail material, a beak, and skin were preserved. Here's the kicker, if this died out 65 million years ago, you tell me how all of this has been preserved. You say 65 million years ago, but we have no clue; we can't even fathom how long that is. This was in National Geographic. This wasn't some kooky guy making this up. You tell me how that lasted for 65 million years like that. Now, we have found T-Rex elastic tissue, fresh tissue, soft fibers tissue, red blood cells from a T-Rex, blood vessels, and microscopic structure squeezed out of blood vessels. That's made up mostly of water that was found in the leg bone of a T-Rex. You tell me how that lasted 65 million years and never disintegrated, never evaporated, never dried up. It's because we've been lied to. I wish I could talk more about dinosaurs, but I can't because we don't have enough time. Okay, on to fossils. This is how we are taught a fossil forms. A fish dies, it gradually sinks to the bottom. It's slowly covered with sediment, and the minerals and the bones are changed into a fossil. I don't know about you, but any fish I have ever seen floats to the surface, gets eaten, and there is nothing left. The only way that can happen is to be covered in sediments in a very quick process, perhaps Noah's flood; and if you think Noah's flood is 40 days and 40 nights of a soft rain that you could sleep to, you have not read your Bible. They have found fossils that have other fish fossils inside the stomach. Tell me how that happened, if it happened slowly over millions of years. Here is a dinosaur that was giving birth when it was covered so fast that it could not complete the birthing process. This one which is probably my favorite-my youth pastor, 21 years ago, showed this to me when he was teaching us, and it blew me away because of what I had been taught in school. This fish did not have a chance to swallow its dinner before it was covered in sediments. We are taught that the layers of rocks happened over millions and billions of years, slowly over time, and each layer represents long periods of time. Tell me how a tree can be down all the way through millions of years, so that tree just stood there for millions of years, never rotted, never died, never fell over, and the sediment slowly covered the tree. Now, I have two cats. I like cats; forgive me for this scientific experiment. Day 1, you've got a dead cat in the grass. Day 3, you've got a smelly dead cat on the grass-a very smelly dead cat by day 9. Now, part of your dead cat is missing. More of the dead cat is missing. By day 65, you don't have a cat anymore. That's what we observe happening to animals when they die. The Grand Canyon: I remember watching Fred Flintstone. He and Barney are looking at this little sign that says, “The Grand Canyon.” There is a little trickle of water, and Barney says, “Hey, Fred, I don't get it.” Fred says, “Hey, Barney, it isn't anything now, but in a few million years, it's supposed to be really something.” That's how we were taught the Grand Canyon was carved out. These are our standard beliefs. The fossil record was a gradual progression over billions of years. The formation of large canyons? Millions of years. Fossil fuels took millions of years. The geological time scale, the geological column, millions of years. Do you remember Mount St. Helens? We learned by observing science as it happened that you can have rapid sedimentation and rapid canyon formation. Let me read this to you, “Stratified layers up to 400 feet thick formed as a result of landslides, pyroclastic flow, mud flows during Mount St. Helen's eruption. Fine laminae from only a millimeter thick to more than a meter high formed in just a few seconds each. A deposit of more than 25 feet in thickness and containing upwards of 100 thin layers accumulated in just one day on June 12, 1980. We are taught that that is impossible; it takes millions of years. Perhaps the most remarkable, catastrophic event to have occurred at Mount St. Helens was a rapid erosion that was accomplished by mudflows, landslides, and waves of water. On March 19, 1982, a small eruption melted the snow that had accumulated in the crater over the winter. A resulting mudflow eroded a canyon system up to 140 feet deep. The deepest of the canyons pictured (on the screen) here has actually been called the “Little Grand Canyon.” It's 1/40th the size of its namesake. The small creek that now flows through the bottom would appear to have carved this canyon over a great length of time, but this unique event has demonstrated that rapid, catastrophic processes were instead responsible for the canyon. Here's another one. This is near Walla Walla, Washington. The top picture shows a drainage ditch off to the left. In six days, it became 1500 feet long and 120 feet deep. There was so much water that was backed up through this one river system-because of flooding and conditions that had happened which reached this damn section-that it just exploded out, and it carved this in six days. We're taught that fossils formed over long periods of time. Guess what we found? Fossilized manmade clocks; fossilized bells; a fossilized spark plug that fell off of an outboard motor, sank to the bottom of the ocean, and over a period of 30-40 years, a rock formed around it; a fossilized miner's hat-50 years of being dropped in this mine with this mineralized water, and it is totally rock hard. You see, we have been taught that all this has happened over millions of years, and again, I wish I had time to even talk to you about Noah's flood in that. The majority of the fossil record was laid down through Noah's flood. People will tell you it was a local flood. You read the description in the Bible of what it says; here's your local flood: If it was a local flood, why didn't all the people just leave that area? Why did two of every animal have to be on the arc if they could have just lived? Especially the birds, why couldn't they have just flown to a different area? As we close this up [we again refer to Psalm 8:3, page 535], “When I consider Your Heavens, the work of your fingers-the moon and the stars which You have set in place-what is man that you are mindful of him?” God had a plan. We're going to watch a video called “The One Thing You Would Need.” This is God reaching out to His Creation, not abandoning us when we sin, but reaching out to His Creation. I don't know about you, but I am so glad that God did not just abandon us and go His own way. The handout that you hopefully received as you came in (if you didn't, you should be able to grab one on the way out) talks about the history of the universe according to the Word of God. The Seven “Cs” of Creation: Creation; Corruption (the fall of man); Catastrophe (the worldwide cataclysm of Noah's flood); you've got Confusion at the tower of Babel; Christ coming to earth to make things right; what he did on the Cross to allow us to have a relationship with the God of the universe; and in the future, when God takes everything back to the way he originally intended it-Consummation. I hope you take some time to read that through today. I gave that to you beforehand in case I was boring, and you needed something to read. At the back, we have a table that has a lot of resources, and if you want one book that would give you an overview (in case this is all new to you) of this whole controversy and the war of the world views, this is the one to get. It's back there. Paul Ryan has just an amazing knowledge of this subject. If you have any questions, you're welcome to ask me afterwards. You're welcome to talk with him, and hopefully we should be able to answer any questions. If we don't know the answer, we'll make something up (congregation laughing). No, we'll find out the answer for you and get back to you. If something comes up in a discussion, and you have no idea how to answer it, go to www.answersingenesis.org. In case you don't know who Ken Hamm is, he the Australian guy who has a Creation museum opening up in April of next year in Kentucky. Also, my wife and I have a website that if you go to www.heartforteens.com or www.hearthtouchers.com and go to Creation_evolution, it opens up a whole super library of Creation things which should give you answers to anything you'd like. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that Your Word does not change and that we can put our trust in something that has not changed, will not change, and will never change in the future, and that we can trust every single word of Your Bible. Lord, we pray that you will help us to have our Biblical glasses on, that all the training we have had in worldview, that comes from a world's perspective, Lord, you will help us to filter all that stuff through Your Word and be able to live our lives, living out as children of the King of the Universe. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.