Most Of Moon’s Water Likely Remains Chemically Bound In Its Deep Interior Aside from an unknown quantity of water in the Moon’s permanently shaded polar craters, the lion’s share of what water the Moon may have is likely chemically bound in its deep interior. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
China Successfully Tests Reusable Long March-10B On Friday, July 10th, China achieved a major milestone as its Long March-10B completed a its maiden test flight, which included the retrieval of its first stage booster. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
China Successfully Tests Reusable Long March-10B On Friday, July 10th, China achieved a major milestone as its Long March-10B completed a its maiden test flight, which included the retrieval of its first stage booster. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Gravitational waves reveal hidden populations within black hole mergers Since gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, instruments including LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA have picked up a steady stream of signals from colliding black holes, building a catalog that now numbers in the hundreds. Yet despite this wealth of data, a fundamental question has remained stubbornly unresolved: How do these black holes actually form? phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Oldest quasars ever discovered add to ‘perplexing’ space mystery The Euclid space telescope has spotted the oldest quasars—the brightest objects in the universe—ever discovered, deepening a cosmic mystery that has been puzzling scientists. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Wally Funk, Aviation Pioneer and Oldest Woman to Travel to Space, Dies at 87 Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to launch into space, has died. She was 87. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
X-ray tracking reveals uneven expansion in young supernova remnant G292.0+1.8 By analyzing data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Dutch astronomers have investigated a young, oxygen-rich supernova remnant known as G292.0+1.8. Results of the new study, published June 29 on the arXiv preprint server, yield important insights into the expansion of this remnant. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
A Rapidly-Growing Black Hole in a Nearby Galaxy Could Provide a Window Into the Early Universe. The black hole at the centre of a nearby galaxy is growing exceptionally fast, and is producing a burst of radio emission that has never been observed before. With characteristics that are expected in the early Universe, this unique galaxy provides important insights into the processes that governed the growth of the first black holes. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
To ancient astronomers, Theta Eridani was brighter for 1,000 years—now we know why There’s a bit of a historical mystery surrounding the star Theta Eridani. Ptolemy in the second century A.D. and al-Sufi in A.D. 964 both recorded Theta Eridani as one of the 13 brightest stars in the sky. Hipparchus may have said the same. But there’s a problem. For it to be one of the 13 brightest, it had to be much more luminous than it is today. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers Use a Neutron Star Merger to Measure Cosmic Expansion Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO have combined telescope and gravitational wave data in an attempt to unlock the true value of the Universe’s expansion. Existing measurements of the Hubble Constant have split cosmologists for more than a decade Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
NASA space telescope maps magnetic fields of ‘Lighthouse’ pulsar For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to directly measure the magnetic fields of PSR J1101−6101, a pulsar located within what is often referred to as the Lighthouse Nebula. The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, as NASA continues to explore the secrets of how the universe works. A paper describing the results was published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Only Binary Stars Can Create Interacting Supernovae When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it explodes as a supernova that can light up the sky for months. But some supernovae stay luminous for much longer, and astrophysicists have wondered what causes their extended brightness. New research points to binary stars, where one star expels material right before the explosion that creates a cocoon of circumstellar medium. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Warm Jupiter exoplanet transiting a sun-like star discovered An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The newfound alien world, designated NGTS-39 b, is a Jupiter-sized planet with an equilibrium temperature of about 519 K. The discovery was detailed in a paper published July 2 on the preprint server arXiv. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers reveal how clouds shape the hidden interiors of the galaxy’s most common planets Sub-Neptunes are the most common type of planet in our galaxy. Bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, these worlds remain deeply mysterious because scientists still do not know what they are made of. What astronomers really want to figure out is their interior composition. They could be rocky planets wrapped in hydrogen-rich atmospheres, or they could be volatile-rich worlds loaded with water or carbon-bearing molecules. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Capturing the cosmic ‘drift’ before a star is born Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of star formation, advanced radio telescopes have given researchers new insights into the inner workings of infant stars. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
How ‘Star City’ Reimagined the Space Race With Soviets as the Stars How do you capture the mood of the 1960s space race in a fictional universe where the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon? The production team for Apple TV’s “Star City” series rose to the challenge. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Observing oscillations, flares and tornados on the sun For six and a half days in July 2024, the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III kept its gaze fixed on the sun. The stratospheric flight, which stretched from the northernmost tip of Sweden to Canada’s Northwest Territories, yielded a treasure trove of data exceeding 200 terabytes. These observations are unique. They provide insights—unprecedented in detail—into a layer of the sun approximately 2,000 kilometers thick and can continuously track its immense dynamics over several hours. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
To Ancient Astronomers, Theta Eridani Was Brighter For A Thousand Years. Now We Know Why Ptolemy and al-Sufi were keen ancient astronomers, one in Greece and one in Persia, whose observations were separated by almost a thousand years. They both noted that the star Theta Eridani was far brighter than it is today. Now we know why. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Ultra-Black Coating Could Mitigate Light Pollution Caused by Satellites Astrophysicists working tirelessly to tackle the growing impact of satellite constellations have pioneered a new ultra-black coating as one possible way to mitigate the problem. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Could Permanent Magnets Protect Astronauts from Solar Storms? Shielding astronauts from the killer radiation they face is a central challenge facing any designer of a deep-space crewed mission. Even relatively low levels of exposure for long periods of time can lead to everything from central nervous system damage to cancer. But current solutions, such as passive water shells or active superconducting magnets, have their own limitations. To get around those, a new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv by Valerio Parisi and a team of researchers from Italy and Germany, looks at the feasibility of using a permanent magnet (and its associated permanent magnetic field)Read More →
