Nature Hub

  Aleks Phillips   BBC New  ,   Michael Bristow,    BBC World Service Edited by - Amal Udawatta US Navy HMNZS Manawanui capsized after running aground off the coast of Samoa The Royal New Zealand Navy has lost its first ship to the sea since World War Two, after one of its vessels ran aground off the coast of Samoa. HMNZS Manawanui, a specialist diving and ocean imaging ship, came into trouble about one nautical mile from the island of Upolu on Saturday night local time, while conducting a survey of a reef. It later caught fire before capsizing. All 75 people on board were evacuated onto lifeboats and rescued early on Sunday, New Zealand's Defence Force said in a statement. Officials said the cause of the grounding was unknown and will be investigated. Reuters All 75 people on board have now safely been rescued The incident occurred during a bout of rough and windy weather. Military officials said rescuers "battled" currents and winds that pushed life rafts and sea boats

   From - Sky & Telescope   By - Colin Stuart  Edited by - Amal Udawatta Orion stars in this image of Orion (at left). Orion's belt also points the way to orange Aldebaran at right. Akira Fujii Astronomers may have discovered a companion star orbiting around Betelgeuse, one of the brightest and most famous stars in the sky. The gravity of this partner could help explain the way Betelgeuse regularly brightens and dims. What's more, Betelgeuse could consume this companion in as little as 10,000 years. . Betelgeuse is one of the best studied stars, with detailed records  stretching back more than a century. Thanks to these observations, astronomers know that Betelgeuse is highly variable. The star pulsates violently, which alters its brightness in a pattern that repeats roughly every 400 days. However, there is a second pattern of brightness variation lasting approximately 2,000 days. This second pattern also appears in measurements of the star’s motions toward and away from E

    From - Sky & Telescope   By - Bob King  Edited by - Amal Udawatta For a short time every 13.5 to 15.7 years, Saturn's rings appear exactly horizontal from Earth. They temporarily disappear from view in amateur telescopes due to their extraordinary thinness. Although the main rings are 300,000 kilometers across, they can be as thin as 10 meters (33 feet) in places. To scale, Saturn's rings are much thinner than a standard sheet of paper. Earth passes through the ring plane on March 23, 2025. NASA Saturn passed opposition on September 8th and is now well placed in the southeastern sky at nightfall in Aquarius. I can still recall the first time I found the planet from my front yard in the winter of 1965. It was situated in almost the same location you'll find it tonight, a few degrees northwest of the "crooked fingertip" asterism formed by the three Psis — Psi 1  (ψ 1 ), Psi 2  (ψ 2 ), and Psi 3  (ψ 3 ) Aquarii. Wish me happy birthday — I'm two Saturn-yea

        From - Sky & Telescope         By  -     Monica Young        Edited by - Amal Udawatta   A pair of plasma jets powered by a supermassive black hole span far beyond their host galaxy — potentially affecting the cosmic web around it. The supermassive black hole at the center of a massive galaxy has powered a giant pair of plasma jets, spanning 23 million light-years long from tip to tip. That’s almost 10 times the distance between our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. Astronomers have nicknamed the record-breaking system Porphyrion, after the king of the giants in Greek mythology. And the giant is indeed the king of many: A new catalog of such radio-emitting giant jet pairs tallies more than 11,000 of them, each spanning more than 2.3 million light-years. “Giant jets were known before we started the campaign, but we had no idea that there would turn out to be so many,” says Martin Hardcastle (University of Hertfordshire, UK), coauthor on two associated studies. Porphyrion’s

  From - Sky & Telescope By-  Jamie Carter Edited by - Amal Udawatta According to scientists, September's equinox can mean stronger, more intense Northern Lights.   (Image credit: Westend61 via Getty Images) September could be a prime time to see vibrant auroras, thanks to a quirk of Earth's tilt that leads to more intense geomagnetic activity around the equinox. September could be a prime time to see vibrant auroras, thanks to a quirk of Earth's tilt that leads to more intense geomagnetic activity around the equinox In May, the  most powerful geomagnetic storm  in more than two decades slammed Earth, leading to intense  northern lights  displays as far south as Florida and Mexico. With solar activity continuing to escalate  at record pace , could a similar display be due in September? There's no guarantee, but there are reasons to believe that the few weeks on either side of this month's fall  equinox  (Sept. 22) could see geomagnetic storms more intense than u