Cosma Home > Communication > Knowledge > Realm > Physical > Universe
Spotlight
Related
Pages
Physical Realm
Universe Astronomical Instrument
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid
Posts
- Milky Way Lost & Found (8/15/2018)- Have you seen the Milky Way? You may think that you have, but are you sure? Unless you live in an extremely remote area, or you’ve visited one, then you probably haven’t seen our own galaxy, the Milky Way, very well, or at all. Worse yet, you may not even realize that it’s missing. The … Continue reading Milky Way Lost & Found
Resources
These are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma. More…
General
Dictionary
universe : a distinct field or province of thought or reality that forms a closed system or self-inclusive and independent organization — Webster
OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary
space : a boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction — Webster
OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary
Thesaurus
Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords
Encyclopedia
Universe The Universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. While the spatial size of the entire Universe is still unknown, it is possible to measure the observable universe. — Wikipedia
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. — Wikipedia
Cosmos: SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy (Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing)
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Astrophysics (Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics, Wolfram Research)
Introduction
Portal
Astronomy Guide (Library of Congress)
Astronomy Selected Internet Resources (Library of Congress)
Astronomy and Astrophysics Science Tracer Bullet (Library of Congress)
Archaeoastronomy Science Tracer Bullet (Library of Congress)
Astronomy Subject Primer (National Network of Libraries of Medicine)
Astrophysics, Astronomy, Astrochemistry, Astrobiology & Cosmology Center (Martindale’s Reference Desk)
Space Portal (Wikipedia)
Astronomy Portal (Wikipedia)
Search
Space & Astronomy (Wolfram Alpha)
Astronomy (Wolfram Alpha)
Astrophysics (Wolfram Alpha)
Science
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets; the phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, all phenomena that originate outside Earth’s atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy.
Astronomy is one of the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas performed methodical observations of the night sky. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is now often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics. — Wikipedia
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that employs the principles of physics and chemistry to ascertain the nature of the astronomical objects, rather than their positions or motions in space. Among the objects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background. Their emissions are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, astrophysicists typically apply many disciplines of physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics. — Wikipedia
Outline
Outline of Space sciences (Wikipedia)
Preservation
History
History of Astronomy (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
Quotation
Museum
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (YouTube Channel)
Library
WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library
Participation
Education
SciShow Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space (YouTube Channel)
SciShow Space (YouTube Channel)
Teaching Astronomy Internet Resources (Library of Congress)
Educator Resources (Smithsonian Air & Space Museum)
AstroEdu (International Astronomical Union)
Universe (Space Place, NASA)
What’s in Space (Space Place, NASA)
The Universe (Cosmos4Kids)
Course
Crash Course Astronomy (YouTube)
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (MIT Open Courseware)
Physics and Astronomy (Coursera)
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources
Community
Occupation
Careers in Astronomy (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
The Universe (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
Organization
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
American Astronomical Society (AAS)
Blog
The Science Geek : Astronomy, space and space travel for the non scientist
Astronomy Café
News
Space & Planetary Science EurekaAlert (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
Sky & Telescope Astronomy News
Space.com
Phys.org
ScienceDaily
Scientific American
Smithsonian Magazine
Government
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology)
International Space Agencies (NASA)
Document
Expression
What Space Smells Like (Megan Garber, The Atlantic)
Fun
Humor
How To Go To Space (with XKCD!)
Arts
Astronomy in the Arts (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
Poem
OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
Music
Cosma Posts
- Dark, Deep & Spooky… (8/8/2017)- Today’s physics is “probably” not the kind of thing that you, or at least your parents and grandparents, learned about in school (unless you happen to be a Physicist). Even the most casual science buff knows that today it’s all about exotic stuff like dark matter (NASA), ghost particles (FermiLab) and “spooky action at a … Continue reading Dark, Deep & Spooky…
- Enterprise (1/22/2017)- Star Trek fans, take notice. Here’s a cool new 360° video that takes you where you’ve never gone before… or well, at least not outside of a 2D screen. It’s a grand up-close tour of the Enterprise, and it was posted by CBS to promote the series. Check it out! (This is a 360° YouTube … Continue reading Enterprise
- ExoMars (10/19/2016)- Oct. 21 Update: Unfortunately, the ExoMars mission’s Schiaparelli lander did not make a successful landing due to technical difficulties, and the crash site has been found. Happily, the mother ship did successfully enter orbit. Why Schiaparelli Probe’s Mars ‘Crash Land’ Is No Failure (Mason Peck, Newsweek) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter views Schiaparelli landing site (ESA) Here’s … Continue reading ExoMars
- Exoplanet Junket (6/2/2018)- I’m on a vacation of sorts, so it’s no surprise that stories about travel tend to catch my eye. However, it is surprising if the story happens to be about something that NASA’s done. This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau. The core of the project consists of … Continue reading Exoplanet Junket
- Get Lost in Space! (9/14/2018)- Way back in August, in anticipation of the start of a new school year, I set out to update the pages on this site related to space. Those pages tend to be popular among the teachers and students who use Cosma, and I happen to enjoy updating them, too. It sounded like a short, fun … Continue reading Get Lost in Space!
- Great Views of Earth (4/22/2018)- April 22nd is Earth Day! In honor of that, here are some great ways to see the honoree. First, you can get a nice view from this neat 360° Video from Seeker. It essentially shows you what it would feel like if you could just fly straight up and see the Earth from space. National … Continue reading Great Views of Earth
- Mars 3D (11/16/2016)- Mars is getting even more attention than usual this week, and that is “mostly” because National Geographic began airing their special six part Mars series on Monday nights (9/8c). Here’s a trailer and links about it… Virtual Trip to Mars Offers Ultimate Preview to Crewed Mission (Nadia Drake, National Geographic) Inside Nat Geo’s Incredible Documentary … Continue reading Mars 3D
- Mars is hard! (11/25/2018)- Update 8:30 PM November 26, 2018 (EST) Touchdown! Mars InSight lander reaches red planet (Alexandra Witze, Nature) NASA’s InSight Mission Triumphantly Touches Down on Mars (Ian O’Neill, Scientific American) InSight has landed with Updates (Emily Lakdawalla, Planetary Society) Landing Replay (SciNews) Original Post If you hear a phrase like “six and a half minutes of … Continue reading Mars is hard!
- Milky Way Lost & Found (8/15/2018)- Have you seen the Milky Way? You may think that you have, but are you sure? Unless you live in an extremely remote area, or you’ve visited one, then you probably haven’t seen our own galaxy, the Milky Way, very well, or at all. Worse yet, you may not even realize that it’s missing. The … Continue reading Milky Way Lost & Found
- Moon+H2O=Moonbase? (7/25/2017)- One of the big science stories in the news right now is that Earth’s Moon has more water than scientists expected. This Newsy video is just one of the hundreds of stories flooding news feeds. This round of stories has been inspired by this article in Nature Geoscience. Remote detection of widespread indigenous water in … Continue reading Moon+H2O=Moonbase?
- Octopuses from Space! (5/20/2018)- Did you hear the one about the octopuses from space? It sounds like the title of a cheesy sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, this time, or at least, yet. Instead, it’s actually an oddball theory that’s been put forth in a recently published “scientific” article that’s getting quite a lot of buzz in … Continue reading Octopuses from Space!
- Perspectives on Earth (11/23/2017)- Last week NASA released this fascinating video entitled Our Living Planet based upon 20 years of data from satellites that observe all plant life at the surface of the land and ocean. You can find out more about the video from this article. The Changing Colors of our Living Planet (NASA) Of course, releasing fantastic … Continue reading Perspectives on Earth
- RIP Rossetta! (10/1/2016)- The “Little Mission that Could” has come to an end, but what a mission it was to watch! Rosetta Concludes Mission with a Crash (Megan Gannon, Scientific American) Rosetta Mission Ends With Spacecraft’s Dive Into Comet (Kenneth Chang, New York Times) It was such a joy to watch each historic milestone the mission passed over … Continue reading RIP Rossetta!
- Space Rocks! (1/4/2019)- It was a fantastic holiday season for space fans! In fact, there was so much going on, it was almost impossible to keep up with it all. According to your news sources and interests, you have probably heard about at least some of the amazing things that happened, but chances are you haven’t heard about … Continue reading Space Rocks!
- Strange Things (11/12/2016)- There’s been a ton of cool stuff going on in the 3D/360°/AR/VR hardware and software universe lately, and there’s about to be even more (more on that soon). On the other hand, the 3D/360°/AR/VR content front has been “relatively” static (unless you love Halloween’esque horror, of course). When I went looking for something interesting to … Continue reading Strange Things
- Super Bowl of Astronomy (1/15/2018)- The annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, a.k.a. the “Super Bowl of Astronomy” was held in Washington DC last week. While it might not have as much cachet as the Consumer Electronics Show, great tidbits from the conference do slip into the mainstream media from time to time. For example, Phys.org did a nice … Continue reading Super Bowl of Astronomy
- The waves won! (10/4/2017)- Gravitational waves that is! It has been announced that Rainer Weiss (MIT), Barry Barish (Caltech) and Kip Thorne (Caltech) have won the 2017 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for their decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the first observation of gravitational waves in 2015. Here’s a quick one minute video from Newsy and a … Continue reading The waves won!
- To touch the Sun (6/1/2017)- The big “space” news this week is that NASA has announced that they renamed the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft the “Parker Solar Probe” in honor of Eugene N. Parker, the astrophysicist from the University of Chicago who predicted the solar wind. The probe is scheduled to launch next summer and become the first mission to … Continue reading To touch the Sun
- TRAPPIST-1 (2/23/2017)- You’ve probably heard that NASA has found a trove of “Earth-like” planets circling the TRAPPIST-1 system roughly 40 light years away, but just in case you haven’t, here’s a short 2 minute AP video about the discovery. Here’s another video from NASA/JPL with more explanation. Most entertainingly, here’s a 360° YouTube Video published by NASA/JPL … Continue reading TRAPPIST-1
- Umbraphiles (8/20/2017)- umbraphile : One who loves eclipses, often travelling to see them. — Wiktionary Yes, this is that obligatory post about “The Solar Eclipse” (NASA, Wikipedia). Of course, there had to be one — eclipses really are just too cool to ignore. You’ve already been bombarded with explanations of the science and history of eclipses, but … Continue reading Umbraphiles
- Visioning Spacesteads (8/8/2018)- Space, the final frontier… Humans have been imagining what it would be like to setup homesteads and live in space for about as long as they’ve been imagining how to get there, but the process didn’t really take off until after we actually got there. Back in the 1970’s NASA dedicated some resources to the … Continue reading Visioning Spacesteads
More…
- Feed has no items.
-
Binary neutron star merger produced a compact jet...
on February 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Using a global network of radio telescopes, researchers have found that the binary neutron star merger event GW170817 produced a jet of material expanding at close to the speed of light, a new study reports. […]
-
Astronomers from UCI, other institutions use new...
on February 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
(University of California - Irvine) Scientists from the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have begun using the Habitable Planet Finder, a spectrograph coupled with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas, to hunt for exoplanets at M-dwarf stars. […]
-
Tiny Neptune moon spotted by Hubble may have...
on February 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) After several years of analysis, a team of planetary scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has at last come up with an explanation for a mysterious moon around Neptune that they discovered with Hubble in 2013. […]
-
Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune's smallest...
on February 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
(ESA/Hubble Information Centre) Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune's smallest moon. The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbor Proteus. […]
-
Kazan University to partake in future moon...
on February 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
(Kazan Federal University) Craters on the moon have appeared because of bombardment by minor celestial bodies of the solar system, mostly asteroids. Recent research has shown that craters may contain both the crater's compounds and those of the body which formed it. […]
-
Scientists Find Stellar Flare 10 Billion Times...
by Julie Freydlin on February 21, 2019 at 4:42 pm
Scientists have caught a powerful flare of submillimeter-wavelength radiation from a young star in the Orion Nebula. The post Scientists Find Stellar Flare 10 Billion Times More Powerful Than Those on the Sun appeared first on Sky & Telescope. […]
-
Meet Hippocamp, Neptune’s Smallest Moon
by Kelly Beatty on February 20, 2019 at 6:05 pm
Although first recorded by Hubble in 2004, subsequent imagery shows that this tiny, innermost moon of Neptune likely had had a violent history. The post Meet Hippocamp, Neptune’s Smallest Moon appeared first on Sky & Telescope. […]
-
NASA to Explore Early Universe, Origins of Life...
by David Dickinson on February 19, 2019 at 3:33 pm
The SPHEREX mission will create multiple surveys of the near-infrared sky that will reveal the origins of life and perhaps the universe itself. The post NASA to Explore Early Universe, Origins of Life with SPHEREX appeared first on Sky & Telescope. […]
-
Dwarf Galaxy or Giant Globular Cluster?
by AAS Nova on February 18, 2019 at 2:00 pm
AAS Nova brings us the story of a newly discovered cluster of stars. But the jury's out as to whether this group is a typical ancient stellar cluster or something more. The post Dwarf Galaxy or Giant Globular Cluster? appeared first on Sky & Telescope. […]
-
Listen Up: Get Gravitational-wave Alerts
by Monica Young on February 14, 2019 at 11:58 pm
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) will soon begin a new round of observations. Now you can find out about the discoveries as they happen. The post Listen Up: Get Gravitational-wave Alerts appeared first on Sky & Telescope. […]
-
Solving the jet/cocoon riddle of a gravitational...
on February 22, 2019 at 12:08 pm
An international research team including astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has combined radio telescopes from five continents to prove the existence of a narrow stream of material, a so-called jet, emerging from the only gravitational wave event involving two neutron stars ever observed. With its high sensitivity and excellent performance, the 100-meter radio telescope in Effelsberg played an important role in the observations. […]
-
Image: Restless star makes for stunning storm
on February 22, 2019 at 12:05 pm
Geomagnetic activity caused by our star recently created a stir in the skies over Iceland, resulting in the seeming electrification of the night, as captured here by photographer Ollie Taylor. […]
-
Israel flying to moon after SpaceX launch
on February 22, 2019 at 7:06 am
An Israeli spacecraft rocketed toward the moon for the country's first attempted lunar landing, following a launch Thursday night by SpaceX. […]
-
Touchdown: Japan probe Hayabusa2 lands on distant...
on February 22, 2019 at 7:04 am
A Japanese probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometres away for clues about the origin of life and the solar system landed successfully on Friday, scientists said. […]
-
Research creates DNA-like molecule to aid search...
on February 21, 2019 at 9:39 pm
In a research breakthrough funded by NASA, scientists have synthesized a molecular system that, like DNA, can store and transmit information. This unprecedented feat suggests there could be an alternative to DNA-based life, as we know it on Earth – a genetic system for life that may be possible on other worlds. […]
-
Habitable Zone Planet Finder enables discovery of...
on February 21, 2019 at 2:50 pm
A new astronomical spectrograph provides the highest precision measurements to date of infrared signals from nearby stars, allowing astronomers to detect planets capable of having liquid water on their surfaces that orbit cool stars outside our solar system. […]
-
Tiny Neptune moon spotted by Hubble may have...
on February 21, 2019 at 2:50 pm
After several years of analysis, a team of planetary scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has at last come up with an explanation for a mysterious moon around Neptune that they discovered with Hubble in 2013. […]
-
Ingredients for water could be made on surface of...
on February 20, 2019 at 5:19 pm
When a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind careens onto the moon's surface at 450 kilometers per second (or nearly 1 million miles per hour), they enrich the moon's surface in ingredients that could make water, scientists have found. […]
-
Solar tadpole-like jets seen with NASA'S IRIS add...
on February 19, 2019 at 8:52 pm
Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of the Sun that may help explain why the corona (the wispy upper atmosphere of our star) is so inexplicably hot. […]
-
LOFAR radio telescope reveals secrets of solar...
on February 19, 2019 at 6:29 pm
The team of scientist showed that solar storms can accelerate particles simultaneously in several locations by combining data from the Low Frequency Array, LOFAR, with images from NASA, NOAA and ESA spacecraft. […]
EurekAlert! - Space and Planetary Science The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Astronomy News – Sky & Telescope The essential guide to astronomy / All Sky & Telescope (www.skyandtelescope.com) content is copyrighted. Please contact us for reuse permissions.
- Feed has no items.