Category Archives: Astronomy

Statistically Improbable – The Strange Case of Comet 3I/ATLAS

An illustration of Comet 3I/ATLAS for the article: "Statistically Improbable - The Case of Comet 3I/ATLAS". Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

A cosmic mytery is unfolding in real-time. 3I/ATLAS is not just a comet. For astrophysicists who have been following its nearing trajectory since 1st July 2025, it is a question mark.

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Mapping the Invisible: How Fast Radio Bursts Illuminate the Universe’s Missing Matter

An illustration for the post "Mapping the Invisible with Fast Radio Bursts" Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

The Universe is vast – and strangely, half-empty. For decades, cosmologists have wrestled with the “missing baryon problem”, a puzzling deficit of ordinary matter…

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Passing Field Stars and The Three-Body Problem

An illustration for "Passing Stars -The Three-Body Problem" shows the looming threat of a passing field star, with its gravitational pull distorting the solar system and endangering Earth.
Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

For billions of years, the Earth has remained relatively stable within our solar system. However, astrophysical simulations do suggest that this tranquility may not last forever.

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The Message to Voyager

A realistic rendition of the Voyager space probe launched in 1977, as it continues its journey through interstellar space away from our Solar system. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

In 1977, humankind sent a machine into the interstellar void to tell the Universe who we were. Now, 48 years later, the void may have answered with a message to Voyager…

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Why Moving Clocks Do Slow Down

A cartoon drawing featuring two cartoon character clocks running the London Marathon. One of the two overtakes the other one who is almost stationary and says: "I'm slowwer". Moving clocks do slow down. Cartoon: NaturPhilosophie with AI

At some point, we’ve all heard about time dilation – every sci-fi fan among us in particular.  And yet, moving clocks DO slow down.  This is not a fiction fantasy.  It’s a little thing called Special Relativity.

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Zero Point Energy and The Vacuum of Space

Zero Point Energy - The Energy of the Vacuum and Black Holes Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

According to whom you ask, Zero Point Energy can do everything… or nothing at all.  But what is it?  Something that pervades all of space, albeit on a microscale?  The kinetic energy a molecule does retain, even when cooled down to absolute zero?  And could it offer us a source of unlimited energy? 

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Eliminating the Impossible – The Complex Electro-Chemistry Behind the Hessdalen Lights

Hessdalen Lights II: A composite picture (in negative colours) showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

A Norwegian valley.  Strange lights observed by many witnesses.  It has been called “Norway’s Roswell”.  But what makes the remote valley of Hessdalen so different from other locations?

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Identifying the Unidentified – The Hessdalen Light Phenomenon, Norway

Hessdalen Lights: A composite picture showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

The Hessdalen Valley of Norway.  Just 15 kilometres across.  Low population density.  But why is there a blue box perched high up on the hillside, with cameras covering the valley?  What’s going on in this secluded valley?! 

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The Brief Flight of the Russian Woodpecker Over The Horizon – And More About Phased Array Radars…

North east of Ukraine, close to the Russian border, is the site of the Duga radar, also known during the 70s and 80s as the Woodpecker – one of the most extraordinary engineering structures ever built.

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Engineering A Star – Nuclear Fusion, Tokamaks and Stellarators

An artist's impression of an atom trapped in a containment field made up of Greek-style columns.  Artwork: NaturPhilosophie
A Stellar Reactor

Greifswald, Northeastern Germany, 2016.  Physicists at the Max Planck Institute have been racing to find a way of producing sustainable, clean energy with a stable nuclear fusion reactor. The challenge? Re-creating the Sun’s powerhouse on a much, much smaller scale.

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