Month: November 2023

Enlarge / The Garlic Nebula in all its glory.

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It's November 10, and today's photo reveals a faint supernova.

It has the formal name CTB-1, and after its discovery in the 1950s, it was thought to be a planetary nebula. (Regular readers will recall that planetary nebulae turned out to not have anything to do with planets.) CTB, in case you were wondering, stands for "Cal Tech Observatory catalog B."

Enlarge / The Garlic Nebula in all its glory.

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It's November 10, and today's photo reveals a faint supernova.

It has the formal name CTB-1, and after its discovery in the 1950s, it was thought to be a planetary nebula. (Regular readers will recall that planetary nebulae turned out to not have anything to do with planets.) CTB, in case you were wondering, stands for "Cal Tech Observatory catalog B."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

As the football season gets underway every season, two things are certain: There will be some headline-grabbing concussions, and we'll hear the National Football League (NFL) tell us that player health and safety remain a top priority.

The contrast between appearances and that claim is striking. Few fans could forget Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stumbling on the field after a huge hit, being cleared to play and then sustaining another scary injury a few days later. The scene of a wobbly player being escorted off the field after a head impact is all too familiar on high school fields, in college stadiums, and, of course, in the NFL. Yet we hear claims that the game has gotten safer, as the NFL regularly reports progress in the fight against concussions, citing new rules and equipment, greater awareness, improvements in its concussion protocol, and continued research into the issue.

Can we be confident that all of these efforts are making a difference? As we’ll see, the answer may well be no.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

As the football season gets underway every season, two things are certain: There will be some headline-grabbing concussions, and we'll hear the National Football League (NFL) tell us that player health and safety remain a top priority.

The contrast between appearances and that claim is striking. Few fans could forget Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stumbling on the field after a huge hit, being cleared to play and then sustaining another scary injury a few days later. The scene of a wobbly player being escorted off the field after a head impact is all too familiar on high school fields, in college stadiums, and, of course, in the NFL. Yet we hear claims that the game has gotten safer, as the NFL regularly reports progress in the fight against concussions, citing new rules and equipment, greater awareness, improvements in its concussion protocol, and continued research into the issue.

Can we be confident that all of these efforts are making a difference? As we’ll see, the answer may well be no.