Great Red Spot Shrinking

Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth itself, may be winding down.  It could disappear entirely within fifteen years, scientists say.

Or not.  Astronomers have been observing the Spot essentially ever since they've had telescopes, nearly 400 years.  During that span, the Spot has nearly disappeared on occasion, but it has always come back strong.  We'll see about this time.

The Sun And Lightning

A new study notes a connection between particularly powerful solar flare eruptions and lightning flashes on Earth.  The eruptions seem to increase lightning activity.

Scientists aren't sure yet how the process would work, but the correlation seems to be there.

Russia Hits Back

The U. S. is applying sanctions against Russia-- including against Russian individuals-- to counter Moscow's actions in Ukraine.  Now, Russia may be striking back.

The Russian deputy prime minister, himself a target of sanctions, has said Russia will no longer sell its RD-180 rocket engine to the U.S. for use in military projects.  He also said Russia does not plan to cooperate with the U. S. on ISS beyond 2020.

Hypervelocity Stars

Hypervelocity stars are what the name implies, stars moving at abnormally high speeds; astronomers have recently found a star traveling three times faster than normal stars.  Scientists think such stars are originally in binary systems that venture too close to black holes.  The black hole devours one star and slings the other out of the galaxy.

Astronomers think they can use those stars to learn about dark matter, which seems to surround galaxies. by noting the gravitational influence it exerts on them.

Falcon 9 Delay

SpaceX delayed the next commercial launch of its Falcon 9 rocket this past weekend to study a problem.

The Falcon 9 is to deliver six communications satellites to orbit for ORBCOMM, but the next launch window isn't until late May.

Congress And Space Junk

The committee of the U. S. House charged with overseeing NASA held a hearing Friday to look at the myriad issues involved in dealing with the problem of space junk in low Earth orbit.

That's the good news.  The less good news is that it seems to have taken a Hollywood movie with Sandra Bullock to get Capitol Hill focused on this matter.

Planet X

A durable theory in astronomy holds that the Sun has a large companion far out in the Solar System-- a dim star, a failed star, or a large planet.  Astronomers from Percival Lowell forward have referred to the theoretical body as Planet X.

No such object has yet been found, but astronomers keep searching.  They haven't yet been able to prove Planet X does not exist.