This is an email from Last but not least stories for you, a newsletter by Amazing Science.
Jul 2, 2020
What geological traces could have left a hypothetical industrial civilization that flourished and disappeared many millions of years ago?
The Smallest Star
For all we know, it’s 2MASS J0523–1403, a tiny red dwarf at the lower end of the main sequence.
How to Observe an Exoplanet in High Resolution Using Sun’s Gravity
The project of a space mission never attempted before, capable of producing the image of an exoplanet’s surface up to distances of 100 light-years from the Earth with the resolution of 1 megapixel, enough to see the presence of any signs of life clearly.
The Future Through Science Fiction Eyes
There is something paradoxical in science fiction. It shows us extraordinary technological innovations that, however, never turn into reality (hibernation, interstellar travel, flying cars, etc.). At the same time, it almost always fails to anticipate the innovations that really transform the world.
Thought Experiments With Gravity
Even before completing general relativity, Einstein had devised ingenious thought experiments, which demonstrated the unexpected consequences of gravity on light and time. The predictions of those thought experiments were later all confirmed by observation.
The Memory Paradox in Time Travel
If it were possible to go back in time, the future from which we come would appear to our memory as our past, even if those events, seen from the past, have not yet happened. Paradoxical!
Alnilam, the Brightest Gem in the Orion’s Belt
Life and times of the blue supergiant that occupies the central position in one of the most famous and recognizable asterisms of the sky.
