So, this is what a black hole looks like

After a decade long attempt, it’s finally happened. We now have the first real image of a black hole. It’s not as majestic as the one in Interstellar but it’s still an impressive feat nonetheless. The snapshot was taken of a supermassive black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy, which is around 55 million light years away. It’s a massive one indeed as its mass is 6.5 billion times that of our Sun. What was captured was the “shadow” created as the event horizon bends and sucks in light.

To get the image, it took eight existing high-altitude telescopes to reach an angular resolution that’s enough to capture what’s considered a relatively compact object (at “just” 24.9 billion miles across) at an extreme distance. There was a need to synchronize atomic clocks and use supercomputers to combine petabytes of raw data from the telescopes. In the future, we’re expected to see and learn more with the Event Horizon Telescope adding the Greenland Telescope, IRAM NOEMA Observatory, and Kitt Peak Telescopes joining the array.

Source: Engadget

Space epic The Expanse cancelled by Syfy after three seasons

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Expanse, which is a sci-fi space epic based on the books of the same title by author James S.A. Corey which focuses on factions from Earth, the Belt and Mars facing off in a precipitous galactic war while a mysterious alien organism tips the balance.

Shot in Toronto, The Expanse features a stellar cast or characters, engrossing visuals and arguably the best special effects for a TV show we've seen. Now on its third season, the show has generated great acclaim and has a solid global fan following. Despite this, Syfy (and by extension their Canadian wing Space), has announced it is dropping the show after the third season concludes.

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NASA comes out with its own spooky Halloween playlist made from sounds heard in space

While Alien reminds us that no one can hear us scream in space, that doesn’t mean it’s bereft of strange sounds. And we get to hear what radio bursts, solar wind, electromagnetic pulses, charged particle bursts, and the like sound like courtesy of NASA. The space agency compiled a SoundCloud playlist with over 20 different space sounds, including plasma waves, “the roar of Jupiter,” Saturn’s radio emissions, and many more. You can read explanations for some of the sounds in this link.

Canada to get its first spaceport, first launch targeted for the year 2020

EchoStar XXIII Mission from SpaceX/Flickr

The town of Canso on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia will be home to Canada’s first spaceport. It’s owned by private Canadian space corporation Maritime Launch Services (MLS) and they plan to begin building the facility by 2018. The area was selected after assessing 14 different areas because of its low population density and that rockets launched from the spaceport will fly over a large body of water. The company is seeking federal and provincial approval before they can begin construction on the site.

The spaceport will be a purely commercial venture between MLS and a Ukrainian firm. MLS wants to start launching as soon as the year 2020 and have as many as eight launches per year by 2022. These initial missions will be involving the Ukrainian-built Cyclone 4M rockets. It isn’t known if MLS will let other private space companies or Canada’s own space agency to use the spaceport. But if it does, it’ll help save them the trip of sending their rockets to Virginia.

Source: Engadget