Meanwhile in time and space

This is pretty awesome.

Progress, as they say, is slow. In science, this is often true even for major breakthroughs; rarely is an entire field of research remade in a single swoop. The Human Genome Project took a decade. Finding the first gravitational waves took multiple decades. So it’s hard to overstate the enormous leap forward that astronomy took on Aug. 17, 2017.

On that day, astronomers bore witness to the titanic collision of two neutron stars, the densest things in the universe besides black holes. In the collision’s wake, astronomers answered multiple major questions that have dominated their field for a generation.

  FiveThirtyEight

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In Case You Missed It

Last night was the first of three supermoons coming at the end of this year. The next two are November 14 and December 14.

November’s date is expected to reach “extra-supermoon” status as it becomes a full moon within about two hours of perigee, making it the closest full moon of the 21st century.

The extra-supermoon phenomenon won’t be witnessed again until November 25, 2034.

  RT