Yes, ‘Oumuamua is weird; and no, it is probably not a probe sent by an alien civilization. Sometimes scientists (and journalists) should be a little more careful when making (and reporting on) extraordinary claims, especially when the word “alien” is involved.
Extremely accurate measurements of the position of β Pictoris from the Hipparcos and Gaia satellites allow the direct measurement of the mass of the imaged planet β Pic b.
This week about 500 astronomers met in Boston, MA for the 20th Cambridge Workshop on Cool stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun (Cool Stars) meeting.
Continuing on the thread from Friday’s post, I also attended the recent SPIE meeting. Here are my thoughts, as someone who is on the science side of the field, on the engineering and instrumentation conference.
Radio observations of the diffracted shadow cast by an asteroid can be used to nail down its location and determine its size and shape.