EarthSky News - Sept 12 - Age of Humans in a Galactic Context

September 11 Age of Humans in a Galactic Context by:

Our Age of Humans in a galactic context    A proposed new classification system - somewhat like the well-known Kardashev scale for classifying extraterrestrial civilizations - and a new way of thinking about human sustainability on Earth. Cassini makes 'goodbye kiss' flyby of Titan Cassini's final flyby of Titan - Saturn's large moon - went as planned yesterday. The spacecraft is now on a course that'll bring a fiery end to its mission, this Friday. X-ray astronomy and planet-hosting stars X-ray astronomers explored how quickly young stars settle down after blasting the space around themselves - including any possible planets - with energetic radiation. Ultraviolet light key to life search, too? Too little UV light, and life might not start. Too much, in the form dramatic UV flares from stars, and the atmospheres of orbiting planets might undergo damage.

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Another X-flare from the sun We're near solar minimum, but the sun has been active! Click here for a video of solar flares so far in September and for news of Sunday's X-flare.

Last night's moon over Freedom Tower Gowri Lakshminarayanan wrote: "This is a 21-image composite of the rising waning gibbous moon (~63%) over the Freedom Tower in New York. I made it as a mark of respect for those innocent lives lost 16 years back ..." Submit your photo to EarthSky here!

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