Why Conventional SETI Needs A Major Refocus After decades of searching for alien signals in narrow radio and microwave bandwidths, a new paper suggests that we take a wholly different approach. The idea is to broaden the search to a much wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
CERN Adds a New Particle to Large Hadron Collider’s Subatomic Zoo Scientists at Europe’s CERN research center say the Large Hadron Collider’s LHCb experiment has discovered a “doubly charmed” particle that’s like a proton, but four times as weighty. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Physicists trace the sun’s magnetic engine, 200,000 kilometers below its surface Every eleven years, the sun’s magnetic field flips. Sunspots—dark, cooler regions on the sun’s surface that mark intense magnetic activity and often trigger solar eruptions—appear at mid-latitudes and migrate toward the star’s equator in a butterfly-shape pattern before fading as the cycle resets. While this spectacle on the star’s surface has long been visible to astronomers, where this powerful cycle begins inside the star has remained hidden until now. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Is the Universe Defective? Part 4: Hiding in Plain Darkness The WHAT? Yeah, the vortons. It’s not an anime monster-hunting show. It’s not some AI startup company. It’s a…it’s a thing. I think. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers discover long-period radio transient of unknown origin Using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), astronomers have discovered a new long-period radio transient source, which received the designation ASKAP J142431.2–612611 (ASKAP J1424 for short). The newfound transient has a period of approximately 36 minutes and its nature is unknown. The finding was reported in a paper published March 9 on the arXiv preprint server. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
New Study Complicates the Search for Alien Oxygen Oxygen has been the most important gas in our search for life among the cosmos thus far. On Earth, we have it in abundance because it is produced by biological synthesis. But that might not be the case on other planets, so even if we do find a very clear high oxygen signal in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it might not be a clear indication that life exists there. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, from Margaret Turcotte Seavey and a team of researchers from institutions like the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center andRead More →
Large craters offer clues to the origin of asteroid 16 Psyche Even 200 years after asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered, astronomers continue to puzzle over its formation. Psyche is the 10th-most massive asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the largest known metallic asteroid, at 140 miles in diameter. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Coming Age of Space Stations With the ISS set to retire in 2030, several plans are in place to replace it. These include existing space stations, proposals by rising national space agencies, and commercial space stations. With multiple outposts in orbit, the potential for research, development, and even conflict is considerable! Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Q&A: Reevaluating reaction rates to better understand the stars Thermonuclear reaction rates power the models that explain how stars live, explode and create the elements. A new study co-authored by NC State faculty member Richard Longland provides a comprehensive, statistically grounded reevaluation of these rates, offering a stronger foundation for interpreting astronomical observations and simulating stellar environments. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
A galaxy next door is transforming, and astronomers can see it happening The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors—a small, gas-rich galaxy visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere, and bound to our galaxy by gravity, alongside its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). All three galaxies have been interacting for hundreds of millions of years. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Are Rogue Exomoons the Newest Frontier in the Search for Habitability? There may be as many rogue planets or free-floating planets in the Milky Way as there are stars. If there are billions of these worlds, some of them have likely held onto their moons. New research reveals a pathway to habitability for these rogue exomoons. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Microscopic “Ski-Jumps” Could Shrink Spacecraft LiDAR to the Size of a Microchip Every ounce counts when launching a rocket, which is why considerations for the Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) of every component matters so much. For decades, one of the heaviest and most power-hungry components on a spacecraft has been its optical and communications hardware – specifically the bulky mechanical mirror used for LiDAR and free-space laser communications. But a new paper, published in Nature by researchers at MIT, MITRE, and Sandia National Laboratories, might have just fundamentally changed the SWaP considerations of LiDAR systems. Their technology, which they’re called a “photonic ski-jump” couldRead More →
Extremely rare second-generation star discovered inside ancient relic dwarf galaxy Discovered in the Pictor II dwarf galaxy, star PicII-503 has an extreme deficiency in iron—less than 1/40,000th of the sun. This signature makes it the clearest example of a star within a primordial system that preserves the chemical enrichment of the universe’s first stars. PicII-503 also has an extreme overabundance of carbon, providing the missing link to connect carbon-enhanced stars observed in the Milky Way halo to an origin in ancient dwarf galaxies. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Is the Universe Defective? Part 3: The Great Vanishing Act And yeah, we have a problem. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
How big data is transforming what we know about the universe Science in the modern era is increasingly reliant on enormous datasets and automated analysis. In astronomy, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—a ten-year survey covering the entire southern sky almost a thousand times over the next decade—will test the limits of this reliance. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
A 60-Year Old Mystery About the Moon’s Magnetosphere Is Finally Solved One particularly well known fact about the Moon is that it doesn’t have much of a magnetosphere to speak of. There’s no blanket to protect it from the solar wind ravaging its surface, blowing away its atmosphere and charging the notoriously dangerous dust particles that make up its regolith. However, scientists have also known for around 60 years that some parts of the moon do experience sudden spikes in a magnetic field – some of which are up to 10 times stronger than the background magnetization. Since their discovery, these “lunar external magnetic enhancements”Read More →
Reading Europa’s Fingerprints Beneath Europa’s cracked and frozen shell lies a vast ocean of liquid water and what’s seeping up through that ice may be one of the most compelling clues we have ever found about the moon’s potential for life. A new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope observations has revealed that carbon dioxide on Europa’s surface is far more widespread than previously thought, spreading across multiple regions of geological terrain in a distinctive lens like pattern. The findings are rewriting what we thought we knew about how material moves between Europa’s hidden ocean and its surface. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Life, But Not As We Know It For sixty years, the search for life beyond Earth has been built on the single assumption that alien life will look enough like us to recognise. A radical new idea called Assembly Theory is challenging that assumption. A team from the Arizona State University has proposed applying it to the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, not to look for specific gases, but to measure how much complexity a planetary atmosphere contains, and whether blind chemistry alone could plausibly have produced it. If it works, it could transform the way humanity searches for life among the stars, and redefine whatRead More →
The Sun’s Great Escape Our Sun didn’t always call this quiet corner of the Milky Way home. New research using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite has uncovered evidence that the Sun fled the chaotic heart of our Galaxy four to six billion years ago and it didn’t go alone. A vast migration of stars almost identical to our own swept outward together, a great exodus that may have made life on Earth possible. The story of how astronomers pieced this together is as remarkable as the discovery itself. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Is the Universe Defective? Part 2: The Persistence of Memory But here’s the thing about these defects. They can’t just go away. They’re stuck. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
