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Ask HN: Dear astronomers, what are the most interesting things in space lately?

• bell-cot 6mo ago
  The most interesting things that you could observe yourself (say, with no more than binoculars and a dark-ish sky)? Or things you'd need fancier instruments to observe? Or are you thinking more of interesting fields of research in astronomy?
  • chistev 6mo ago
    Assume yes to all.
  • simonebrunozzi 6mo ago
    > Or are you thinking more of interesting fields of research in astronomy? This, primarily.
    • defrost 6mo ago
      Xenobiology is a field of research in the study of the universe- lots of biology, speculative chemistry, and instrumentation design for detecting trace signatures and furious debate about whether observed signature imply life .. or something else. Building a SKA radio telescope network has many challenges, not the least being increased noise from the LEO shell. TBH there's a long long list of 'interesting' parts to the modern study of everything "out there", the greater question is what kinds of things do you find interesting? Eg: Maggie Aderin found her way in via Engineering and then applied work on satellites and telescopes .. but is that really "astronomy" or just watchmaking for astronomers? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3trm0Y2037DNmqMyjm5gQvS/dr-maggie-aderin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3trm0Y2037DNmqMyjm... Either way, there's still a tonne of research that goes into the gadget building side of things, this goes hand in hand with those that theorise about black holes eating out the centres of galaxies, the cosmic background, on so on.
    • bell-cot 6mo ago
      For a regular little "What's up in Astronomy?", Dr. Becky's YouTube channel isn't bad: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYNbYGl89UUowy8oXkipC-Q https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYNbYGl89UUowy8oXkipC-Q
• tomsop 6mo ago
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• tomsop 6mo ago
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