The Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory LISA Gets the Green Light The science of studying gravitational waves just got a big boost thanks to the European Space Agency. Its science program committee just approved the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna—affectionately known as LISA—for official planning and building. That means gravitational wave astronomers will take their next steps to capture information about gravity waves from space. LISA—or something like it—has been on the drawing boards since the 1980s. The current LISA observatory was proposed about a decade later and scientists flew a “pathfinder mission” to test out its principal design. Now, it’s going to be a full-fledged setRead More →

Perseverance is Definitely Inside an Ancient Lake on Mars The search for life on alien worlds has captivated us for hundreds of years. In some respect, the search for life has expanded to the search for water since it is not unreasonable to assume if there is water then there is a good chance there is life too. When NASA selected the landing site for Perseverance, they were looking for such a body of water and settled upon the Jezero Crater. Images from orbiters reveal a crater that looks like it has been filled with water in the past but further investigations were needed toRead More →

Japan’s SLIM Lander Finds Power Even Though It’s Face Down The Moon is a bit of a hot bed for exploration of late.  The Japanese agency JAXA have been getting in on the act but their SLIM lander fell on its side with its solar panels pointing toward the ground. Until today, JAXA thought that was it but today it seems that they have managed to re-established contact again. JAXA’s first lunar lander known as SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) was designed to demonstrate the ability to land on the Moon. The mission was particularly wanting to show how precision can be applied toRead More →

This is How Astronauts Would Escape from the Artemis II Launch Pad Space exploration is a tricky and at times, dangerous business. The safety of the crews is of paramount importance and escape technology is always factored into spacecraft design. Whilst Artemis I did not require such provisions when it launched Artemis II with astronauts on board is being prepared with a ski-lift style escape system to take them far away from the launch pad.  Artemis I was launched back in November 2022 after a total of four failed launches. at 6:47 UT the first of the Artemis series of spacecraft lifted off safely forRead More →

Did We Find Exomoons or Not? The Question Lingers. Do exoplanets have exomoons? It would be extraordinary if they didn’t, but as with all things, we don’t know until we know. Astronomers thought they may have found exomoons several years ago around two exoplanets: Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b. Did they? In 2017, researchers found evidence of moons around Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b. It was an exciting result, though the researchers warned their findings were inconclusive. They hoped that the Hubble would be able to confirm the exomoons. “Finally, we report evidence for an exomoon candidate Kepler-1625b I, which we briefly describe ahead of scheduled observations of theRead More →

Atmosphere Pressure Changes Could Explain Mars Methane One ongoing mystery on Mars is the sporadic detection of atmospheric methane. Since 1999 detections have been made by Earth-based observatories, orbital missions, and on the surface by the Curiosity Rover. However, other missions and observatories have not detected methane at all, and even when detected, the abundances appear to fluctuate seasonally or even daily. So, where does this intermittent methane come from? A group of scientists have proposed an interesting theory: the methane is being sucked out of the ground by changes in pressure in the Martian atmosphere. The researchers simulated how methane moves underground on MarsRead More →

Another Explanation for K2-18b? A Gas-Rich Mini-Neptune with No Habitable Surface Exoplanet K2-18b is garnering a lot of attention. James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopy shows it has carbon and methane in its atmosphere. Those results, along with other observations, suggest the planet could be a long-hypothesized ‘Hycean World.’ But new research counters that. Instead, the planet could be a gaseous mini-Neptune. K2-18b is in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star about 134 light-years away. It’s about 2.6 Earth radii and about 8.6 Earth masses. Its orbital period is only 33 days, so it’s close to its star. But since the star is aRead More →

It’s a Fine Line Between a Black Hole Energy Factory and a Black Hole Bomb Black holes are powerful gravitational engines. So you might imagine that there must be a way to extract energy from them given the chance, and you’d be right. Certainly, we could tap into all the heat and kinetic energy of a black hole’s accretion disk and jets, but even if all you had was a black hole in empty space, you could still extract energy from a trick known as the Penrose process. First proposed by Roger Penrose in 1971, it is a way to extract rotational energy from aRead More →

NASA Gives us an Update on its Long-term Plans for the Moon and Mars Going to Mars is a major step in space exploration. It’s not a quick jaunt nor will it be easy to accomplish. The trip is already in the planning stages, and there’s a good chance it’ll happen in the next decade or so. That’s why NASA and other agencies have detailed mission scenarios in place, starting with trips to the Moon. Recently, NASA updated its “Moon to Mars Architecture” documents, including a closer look at some key decisions about Mars exploration. Those decisions cover a wide gamut of challenges to livingRead More →

There’s Less Dark Matter at the Core of the Milky Way Science really does keep you on your toes. First there was matter and then there were galaxies. Then those galaxies had more stuff in the middle so stars further out were expected to move slowly, then there was dark matter as they actually seemed to move faster but now they seem to be moving slower in our Galaxy so perhaps there is less dark matter than we thought after all!  Let’s start with dark matter.  It is a strange and mysterious form of matter that doesn’t really seem to behave in any way likeRead More →

Plants Growing in Space are at Risk from Bacterial Infections I have spent the last few years thinking, perhaps assuming that astronauts live off dried food, prepackaged and sent from Earth. There certainly is an element of that but travellers to the International Space Station have over recent years been able to feast on fresh salad grown in special units on board. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that pathogenic bacteria and fungi can contaminate the ‘greens’ even in space. It’s been at least three years that astronauts have been able to eat fresh lettuce and other leafy items along with tortillas and powdered coffee.. Specially designedRead More →

Is the Habitable Zone Really Habitable? The water that life knows and needs, the water that makes a world habitable, the water that acts as the universal solvent for all the myriad and fantastically complicated chemical reactions that make us different than the dirt and rocks, can only come in one form: liquid. The vast, vast majority of the water in our universe is unsuitable for life. Some of it is frozen, locked in solid ice on the surface of a world too distant from its parent star or bound up in a lonely, wayward comet. The rest is vaporized, existing as a state ofRead More →

NASA Wants to Put a Massive Telescope on the Moon As part of the Artemis Program, NASA intends to establish all the necessary infrastructure to create a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development.” This includes the Lunar Gateway, an orbiting habitat that will enable regular trips to and from the surface, and the Artemis Base Camp, which will permit astronauts to remain there for up to two months. Multiple space agencies are also planning on creating facilities that will take advantage of the “quiet nature” of the lunar environment, which includes high-resolution telescopes. As part of this year’s NASA Innovative Advance Concepts (NIAC) Program,Read More →

New Types of Hidden Stars Seen for the First Time In the early days of telescopic astronomy, you could only focus on one small region of the sky at a time. Careful observations had to be done by hand, and so much of the breakthrough work centered around a particular object in the sky. A nebula or galaxy, quasar or pulsar. But over the years we’ve been able to build telescopes capable of capturing a wide patch of sky all at once, and with automation, we can now map the entire sky. Early sky surveys took years to complete, but many modern sky surveys canRead More →

The Improbable Origins of Life on Earth We do not yet know how, where, or why life first appeared on our planet. Part of the difficulty is that “life” has no strict, universally agreed-upon definition. Normally this is not an issue, as the vast majority of life is most definitely alive, and only biologists interested in the extreme edges – viruses, prions, and the like – need to worry about precise classifications. But to study the origins of life we must, by necessity, examine a process that takes non-living matter and fundamentally changes it. Presumably this process happened in stages, with fits and starts alongRead More →

New Webb Image of a Massive Star Forming Complex The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaborative effort between NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has revealed some stunning new images of the Universe. These images have not only been the clearest and most details views of the cosmos; they’ve also led to new insight into cosmological phenomena. The latest image, acquired by Webb‘s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), is of the star-forming nebula N79, located about 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The image features a bright young star and the nebula’s glowing clouds of dust and gas from which newRead More →

NASA collaborating on European-led gravitational wave observatory in space The first space-based observatory designed to detect gravitational waves has passed a major review and will proceed to the construction of flight hardware. On Jan. 25, ESA (European Space Agency), announced the formal adoption of LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, to its mission lineup, with launch slated for the mid-2030s. ESA leads the mission, with NASA serving as a collaborative partner. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

New data, same appearance for M87* Nearly five years ago, a globe-spanning team of astronomers gave the world its first-ever glimpse of a black hole. Now the team has validated both their original findings and our understanding of black holes with a new image of the supermassive black hole M87*. This supermassive black hole, 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, resides at the center of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster, located 55 million light-years from Earth. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →