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So, life on Venus?
We have been dreaming of finding alien life on other planets. Perhaps we don’t have to go far. Scientists found a special type of gas on Venus. Its origin being unknown, the gas could point to the presence of microbes in Venus’s atmosphere.
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Astronomers for Planet Earth
The September issue of Nature Astronomy is dedicated to the carbon footprint of professional astronomy. We are quite the polluters, but there is no reason why we couldn’t reduce the emissions by changing some of our working habits. I briefly summarize the main results of the studies and present the aspirations of the initiative Astronomers for Planet Earth. -
About citizen science. And penguins, voorwerpen, and old weather.
Science is not the property of educated professionals. With a little guidance, everyone can contribute to our collective knowledge. Chris Lintott, the Principle Investigator of Zooniverse, explains the concept and success of citizen science in the book “The Crowd and the Cosmos.”
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EAS 2020: Mega-constellations and astronomy
The annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society EAS 2020 hosted a session on the impact of the upcoming commercial satellite constellations on professional astronomy. Astronomers, engineers, and representatives of companies discussed the future coexistence of astronomy and satellites. My takeaway from the meeting is: it never rains, but it pours.
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Gamma-ray bursts: from dying stars to first galaxies
On 4 October 2017, the Swift satellite detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB), an echo of a dying star. The burst was followed by a long-lived emission, called afterglow, which was quickly observed with the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The results were delightful, as the burst offered a rare opportunity to contribute to the study of the Universe’s rise from the Dark age.