A millisecond pulsar is a neutron star that spins very quickly, emitting radiation pulses at regular intervals. The rotational period of a millisecond pulsar is less than 10 milliseconds, which is equivalent to 6,000 to 60,000 revolutions per minute. How are they created? Millisecond pulsars are created when a neutron star accretes matter from a nearby companion star. This process is called "exchange" and can occur when ancient neutron stars interact with normal stellar binaries. The neutron star replaces the lowest mass star in the binary. #astronomy #science #space #astrology

Auroras are brilliant ribbons of light weaving across Earth's northern or southern polar regions. These natural light shows are caused by magnetic storms that have been triggered by solar activity, such as solar flares (explosions on the Sun) or coronal mass ejections (ejected gas bubbles). Energetic charged particles from these events are carried from the Sun by the solar wind. When these particles seep through Earth's magnetosphere, they cause substorms. Then fast moving particles slam into our thin, high atmosphere, colliding with Earth's oxygen and nitrogen particles. As these air particles shed the energy they picked up from the collision, each atom starts to glow in a different color. #astronomy #science #space #astrology

The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago — mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system — and may still be in the process of building, says Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team leader Jeff Moore of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.. That suggests the close-up region, which covers less than one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today. Moore and his colleagues base the youthful age estimate on the lack of craters in this scene. Like the rest of Pluto, this region would presumably have been pummeled by space debris for billions of years and would have once been heavily cratered — unless recent activity had given the region a facelift, erasing those pockmarks. #science #astronomy #space #astrology

Due to the small size of Mars’ moon Phobos (about 20 by 25 km (12 by 16 mi)) and its rapid orbital motion, an observer on the surface of Mars would never experience a solar eclipse for longer than about thirty seconds. Phobos also takes only 7 hours 39 minutes to orbit Mars, while a Martian day is 24 hours 37 minutes long, meaning that Phobos can create two eclipses per Martian day. These are annular eclipses, because Phobos is not quite large enough or close enough to Mars to create a total solar eclipse. The highest resolution, highest frame rate video of a Phobos transit has been recently released from the Mastcam-Z on Perseverance rover. #science #astronomy #space #astrology

(Not to scale) The main difference between active and inactive satellites is that active satellites amplify signals before re-transmitting them to Earth, while inactive satellites do not: Active satellites: Amplify transmitted signals before re-transmitting them to Earth, which results in excellent signal strength. Inactive satellites: Orbit space as junk, and are often spent rocket boosters. Here are some other things to know about satellites: Orbit Most satellites orbit in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is between 100 to 1,200 miles from Earth's surface. Size Satellites can range in size from toaster-sized CubeSats to school-bus-sized Hubble Space Telescope #science #astronomy #space #astrology