#rebecca smethurst

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight:

The football field's in-joke

[monkeyandelf]

Extraterrestrial life has probably already been discovered by the James Webb Telescope. Why is the truth hidden from us and what scientists say

More recently, the scientific community has been abuzz with stunning information. They say that James Webb, the most powerful telescope today, has already discovered life on one of the exoplanets, but NASA is hiding information from the general public. Moreover, this topic was raised not by conspiracy theorists of whom there are a dime a dozen on the Internet, but by quite respectable scientists. For example, astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst, a fellow at the University of Oxford and winner of the Caroline Herschel Lecture Award, said in an interview that she is expecting an article in the near future that will publish convincing evidence of the presence of life on a planet found in deep space. She is echoed by astronaut Timothy Peake, who spent 185 days in space as an ISS flight engineer. They say that the James Webb telescope may have already discovered alien life, but they do not want to publish these results yet, without several double-checks of the results obtained. There are opinions that politicians are slowing down the publication, since society is not yet ready for the disclosure of this type of information. Let's try to figure out what planet we are talking about and why NASA has not yet convened a sensational conference on this matter. Most likely, we are talking about the planet K2-18b. This is a very interesting world, located 124 light years from Earth, which is not that far by cosmic standards. The planet's sun is a small star - a red dwarf. K2-18b circles around it in just 33 days. Thus, its hypothetical inhabitants were lucky. By earthly standards, they celebrate New Year almost every month. In size, the planet is slightly larger than Earth, but somewhat smaller than Neptune. This type of planet is called “Sub-Neptune” and there are a lot of them in the galaxy. K2-18b has quite a lot of hydrogen in its atmosphere. The most curious thing is that the planet is most likely completely covered by ocean.

K2-18b - Ocean planet. Of course, it’s unlikely that Earth’s underwater inhabitants will be comfortable swimming in it, but who knows what forms life on other planets might take? The main question: why did scientists decide that this ocean planet is inhabited? Apart from the fact that it is located in the zone of possible habitability, that is, it is close enough to its star to receive heat, but not far enough away from which it would turn into a kingdom of cold. Molecules of methane and carbon dioxide, as well as the presence of dimethyl sulfide, were found on it. On Earth, dimethyl sulfide molecules are found only in living organisms, so the likelihood of alien life on K2-18b is quite high. This does not mean at all that this life is intelligent and that a high-tech civilization is hiding in the ocean. Maybe it's just small algae. Nevertheless, the significance of the discovery of another form of life in Space is difficult to overestimate. If this is so, then we are not alone in the Universe and among billions of stars we will sooner or later meet intelligent aliens. There may be many reasons why they are in no hurry to make this sensational information public. Perhaps the politicians asked to hold back the information, saying that society is not quite ready yet. NASA employees are playing it safe, afraid of getting into trouble. Or the conspiracy theorists are right and governments have known about aliens for a long time, but are in no hurry to share information. Let's hope that if a planet with the presence of life is discovered, we will soon witness this discovery being the published. Indeed, in the age of the Internet, it is becoming more and more difficult to hide the truth. Read the full article

[josevte72]

EL telescopio James Webb habría encontrado vida extraterrestre en un exoplaneta...

El Telescopio Espacial James Webb ha generado gran expectación al estudiar un exoplaneta en el que tal vez habrían posibles signos de vida, según un artículo reciente de The Spectator. Aunque la respuesta oficial de la NASA es negativa, científicos importantes, como la astrofísica Rebecca Smethurst y el astronauta Tim Peake, sugieren que evidencias sólidas podrían emerger pronto…, seguramente…

[wumblr]

proxima centauri (left) and wolf 359 (right) from two perspectives

brian may worked on this lol... you know, from the band queen?

“It could be argued that in astro-stereoscopy -- 3D images of astronomical objects – NASA’s New Horizons team already leads the field, having delivered astounding stereoscopic images of both Pluto and the remote Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth,” May said. “But the latest New Horizons stereoscopic experiment breaks all records. These photographs of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 – stars that are well-known to amateur astronomers and science fiction aficionados alike -- employ the largest distance between viewpoints ever achieved in 180 years of stereoscopy!”

[skindyedblue]

Thank you @letthebookbegin for tagging me 💜💜💜

TAG FIVE PEOPLE YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW BETTER

Favourite colour: Teal

Currently reading: A Brief History of Black Holes by Dr. Rebecca Smethurst, Women and Other Monsters by Jess Zimmerman, and rereading DCeased: Unkillables

Last song: Dream Girl Evil, Florence and the Machinelast movie: Uh..? I'm unsure? Maybe a documentary of some kind. I don't watch a lot of movies anymore.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: I like all three but Halloween has me leaning toward sweet

Currently working on: Over the weekend it was DM stuff for the campaign, knitting a few projects that will eventually be gifts, some health related appointments, and a 1000 piece puzzle.

I'll tag: @habibinasir , @cephalopodvictorious , @fetchalgernon , @inkcap , @dove29, and anyone else who reads this!

[julandran]

[The Planet 9 theory proposes] that the solar system has a ninth planet — no, not Pluto, but another one — that's way out past the orbit of Neptune, something like 400 to 800 times farther away from the sun than Earth is, weighing in at around 5 to 10-ish times the mass of Earth. Now, it's still a hypothetical planet, though, because, well… it's never been observed. But, if it existed, it would nicely explain the strange clumping of orbits of dwarf planets and asteroids that are found out past Neptune. There have even been some [astronomers] that have suggested that the reason we haven't found Planet 9 yet is that it might be a black hole about the size of a tennis ball. Which I am so on board for it's ridiculous. I want the solar system to have a pet black hole.

Dr. Rebecca Smethurst, Night Sky News, “Is there life on Venus?! And was the Sun born a twin?!”, 20 September 2020

[femslashhistorian]

Top 5 Books To Read This Year

I was tagged by @occidentaltourist and @the-ominous-owl. Thanks

While I read a lot of fanfic, I haven't really read a lot of fiction/published books in the last years. With one exception. I love space and Sci-Fi and sometimes I want to read a good space opera.

Note: All the books are very off topic for my blog. And while it is supposed to be 5 books I have only managed 4-ish. Ah, well.

Fist non-fiction.

Space: 10 Things You Should Know by Rebecca Smethurst

This book is for anyone who wants to easily understand the mind-blowing fundamentals of our extraordinary, expanding universe.  

Written by Oxford astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst and composed of 10 captivating, simple essays, it guides you swiftly through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the big bang, presenting the evidence as to whether we really are alone, illuminating what we still don't know and much more besides.  

I am really fond of her astronomy Youtube channel and I already bought the book. Maybe in 2022 I will actually read it.

Then fiction:

Currently my favorite author for space operas is Glynn Stewart. And this is what fills up the rest of my list.

Unannounced next book in the Scattered Stars Conviction series by Glynn Stewart 

Scattered Stars Conviction

The last reward Kira Demirci expected for heroism in a time of war was to spend the rest of her life dodging assassins - but when her government betrays her as part of their surrender, she and her comrades flee the star system of Apollo to the edge of civilized space.

The Syntactic Cluster is disorganized, disunified, and in desperate need of the nova fighters Kira smuggled out of Apollo with her. With an entire squadron supposed to follow in her wake, it falls to her to build a new home for her comrades.

But their enemy's reach may be longer than her worst nightmares - and even her new friends may not be all that they appear....

Unannounced next book in the Peacekeepers of Sol series by Glynn Stewart 

Peacekeepers of Sol

For 17 years, Colonel Henry Wong and the United Planets Space Force have fought the Kenmiri Empire. They drove the alien overlords back from humanity's borders into their own stars and found allies among the Kenmiri's slaves and subjects.

Now the war is over. A great Gathering has been called of the allies who fought the war, but they only ever shared a common enemy. With the Kenmiri in retreat, a thousand new agendas are revealed.

The United Planets Alliance wants peace above all else. Their allies want everything from new homes to new empires - and all too many of them are prepared to do anything to achieve their goals!

Looking at the releases in the last years, I am hopeful there will be a new book in both series this year.

Evasion (Scattered Stars: Evasion, Book 1) by Glynn Stewart

This is a spin off from the Scattered Stars Conviction series. And it is actually already out.

Tagging @aliceinwondrbra @evilsnowswan and of course anyone else who wants to (no pressure).

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight:

The money-making prisoner

'Karen Puzzles' Kavett, Rebecca 'Dr Becky' Smethurst and Stuart 'Ashens' Ashen face question about a criminally good racket.

[lateralcast]

Lateral Podcast #17:

Some 3-D movies from 1903

'Karen Puzzles' Kavett, Rebecca 'Dr Becky' Smethurst and Stuart 'Ashens' Ashen face questions about political powercuts, red rectangles, and astonishing anvils.

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight:

The Wii Fit impossibility

'Karen Puzzles' Kavett, Rebecca 'Dr Becky' Smethurst and Stuart 'Ashens' Ashen face question about a mysteriously missing assistant.

[lateralcast]

Lateral Podcast #22

Naval gazing

'Karen Puzzles' Kavett, Rebecca 'Dr Becky' Smethurst and Stuart 'Ashens' Ashen face questions about medical methods, musical murders, and McDonald's marketing.

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight:

The bishop that went big time

'Karen Puzzles' Kavett, Rebecca 'Dr Becky' Smethurst and Stuart 'Ashens' Ashen face question about a bishop's rapidly-expanding domain.