Big Bang Alert

What if the Big Bang was a… big bite?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Hypothesis: Four billion years ago, a proto-planet, Theia, collided with Earth to form the moon. How do we know that? Enter Qian Yuan and team from Arizona State University. They

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Star-Crossed Friends

Is Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse… DYING?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientists are keeping a close telescope on the tenth brightest star, Betelgeuse. Jared Goldberg and team from Flatiron Institute saw it dim and brighten. This pulsing light usually signals a star’s DEATH! BUT a closer

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Planetary Diet

Look out – it’s the attack of the planet-eating suns!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When two stars form at the same time, they should be chemically identical … like twins! But some pairs are more like distant cousins. And as it turns out

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Asteroid Blaster

Asteroid passing next to the milky way

AHHH! An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth! What to do??? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: ready…aim…FIRE! But would that REALLY work? Let’s find out! George Flynn at State University of New York crushed up real meteorite fragments, acquired from the Vatican Observatory. Then,

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Planetary Diet

Look out – it’s the attack of the planet-eating suns!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When two stars form at the same time, they should be chemically identical … like twins! But some pairs are more like distant cousins. And as it turns out

Continue reading

Asteroid Blaster

Asteroid passing next to the milky way

AHHH! An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth! What to do??? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: ready…aim…FIRE! But would that REALLY work? Let’s find out! George Flynn at State University of New York crushed up real meteorite fragments, acquired from the Vatican Observatory. Then,

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Vanishing Planets

Who can solve the Case of the Vanishing Planet…?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science… and a cold case from outer space. In two thousand four, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a photo of the planet Fomalhaut-b.  Astronomers noticed something odd about Foh-b. It wasn’t

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Cosmic Colors

The Milky Way and many stars shine through trees

Can you paint with all the colors of… the climate?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Looking for a vacation home… on another planet? Earth isn’t the only planet where life — like us — can kick back! But how can we tell if a planet

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Galaxy Roughhousing

Does our galaxy need a collision damage waiver?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. Scientists know that the Milky Way doesn’t have a perfect disk shape. Instead, it’s slightly bent, like a brim of a sunhat. But what’s causing this elegant curve? Enter a team

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Star in a Bottle

Catch a falling star and put it in a….bottle? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Among the stars in the sky, Tabby’s Star is a real puzzle. Since it was discovered in twenty-fifteen, astronomers have noticed that it randomly dims — by as much as

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