Artemis Missions Should Bring Ice Home From the Moon Too In a recent white paper, a team of scientists proposed that NASA’s Artemis astronauts should also bring back samples of lunar ice to determine where the Moon’s water comes from The post Artemis Missions Should Bring Ice Home From the Moon Too appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Infrared eyes on Enceladus: Hints of fresh ice in northern hemisphere Scientists used data gathered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during 13 years of exploring the Saturn system to make detailed images of the icy moon—and to reveal geologic activity. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Design for a Space Habitat With Artificial Gravity That Could Be Grown Larger Over Time to Fit More People There are two main approaches that humanity can take to living in space. The one more commonly portrayed is of us colonizing other celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars. That approach comes with some major disadvantages, including dealing with toxic soils, clingy dust, and gravity wells. The alternative is to build our own … Continue reading “Design for a Space Habitat With Artificial Gravity That Could Be Grown Larger Over Time to Fit More People” The post Design for a Space Habitat With ArtificialRead More →
Searching for Phosphorus in Other Stars The Search for Life can be a lot messier than it sounds. The three words make a nice, tidy title, but what it entails is extraordinarily difficult. How, in this vast galaxy, can we find life and the planets or moons that might host it? We’re barely at the point of either discovering or ruling … Continue reading “Searching for Phosphorus in Other Stars” The post Searching for Phosphorus in Other Stars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
The Space Court Foundation is Now in Session! The Space Court Foundation hopes to play a pivotal role in the evolving domain of space law, which is going to become very important in the coming years! The post The Space Court Foundation is Now in Session! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
VLBA makes first direct distance measurement to magnetar Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have made the first direct geometric measurement of the distance to a magnetar within our Milky Way Galaxy—a measurement that could help determine if magnetars are the sources of the long-mysterious Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
How planetary nebulae get their shapes About 7.5 billion years from now, our sun will have converted most of its hydrogen fuel into helium through fusion, and then burned most of that helium into carbon and oxygen. It will have swollen to a size large enough to fill the solar system nearly to the current orbit of Mars, and lost almost half of its mass in winds. At this stage the very hot remnant star will ionize the ejected material, lighting it up and causing it to glow as a planetary nebula (so-called not because it is a planet but because it surrounds its star).Read More →
James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars Can the galaxy’s dead stars help us in our search for life? A group of researchers from Cornell University thinks so. They say that watching exoplanets transit in front of white dwarfs can tell us a lot about those planets. It might even reveal signs of life. A new study presents this idea in The … Continue reading “James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars” The post James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →
Weekly Space Hangout: September 16, 2020 – Dr. Merav Opher Discusses the Shape of the Sun’s Heliosphere This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Merav Opher, Professor from the Astronomy Department of Boston University and the Director of the SHIELD (Solar wind with Hydrogen Ion charge Exchange and Large-Scale Dynamics) DRIVE Science Center. Using data from NASA’s planetary science missions, SHIELD scientists use data/computer modeling to predict the characteristics of our … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: September 16, 2020 – Dr. Merav Opher Discusses the Shape of the Sun’s Heliosphere” The post Weekly Space Hangout: September 16, 2020 – Dr. Merav Opher DiscussesRead More →
Astronomers Measure a 1-billion Tesla Magnetic Field on the Surface of a Neutron Star Astronomers Measure a 1-billion Tesla Magnetic Field on the Surface of a Neutron Star We recently observed the strongest magnetic field ever recorded in the Universe. The record-breaking field was discovered at the surface of a neutron star called GRO J1008-57 with a magnetic field strength of approximately 1 BILLION Tesla. For comparison, the Earth’s … Continue reading “Astronomers Measure a 1-billion Tesla Magnetic Field on the Surface of a Neutron Star” The post Astronomers Measure a 1-billion Tesla Magnetic Field on the Surface of a Neutron Star appeared first onRead More →
Colliding Neutron Stars Don’t Make Enough Gold to Explain What We See in the Universe Much of the gold we find on Earth was created by colliding neutron stars, but astronomers now know gold must also be formed elsewhere. The post Colliding Neutron Stars Don’t Make Enough Gold to Explain What We See in the Universe appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Hubble captures crisp new portrait of Jupiter’s storms This latest image of Jupiter, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 25, 2020, was captured when the planet was 406 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet’s turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the famous Great Red Spot region gearing up to change color—again. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers capture stellar winds in unprecedented detail Astronomers have presented an explanation for the shapes of planetary nebulae. The discovery is based on a set of observations of stellar winds around aging stars. Contrary to common consensus, the team found that stellar winds are not spherical, but have a shape similar to that of planetary nebulae. The team concludes that interaction with an accompanying star or exoplanet shapes both the stellar winds and planetary nebulae. The findings were published in Science. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Check Out How Big the Planets and the Moon Will be in Our Sky Over the Next Two Years Everything in space is moving. Galaxies collide and merge, massive clouds of gas migrate, and asteroids, comets, and rogue planets zip around and between it all. And in our own Solar System, the planets follow their ancient orbits. Now a new data visualization shows us just how much our view from Earth changes in two … Continue reading “Check Out How Big the Planets and the Moon Will be in Our Sky Over the Next Two Years” The post Check Out How Big the Planets andRead More →
Thousands Saw a UFO in New Jersey. It was the Goodyear Blimp It was like the opening scene from a movie: cars pulled over on a busy freeway, with everyone gawking in disbelief at what they were seeing. Drivers in New Jersey this week thought a flying saucer was hovering above them. But in reality, it was just another day in 2020 and the UFO was an … Continue reading “Thousands Saw a UFO in New Jersey. It was the Goodyear Blimp” The post Thousands Saw a UFO in New Jersey. It was the Goodyear Blimp appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →
Climate change impacts astronomical observations Climate changes associated with global warming can affect astronomical observations. That is the result of a study involving scientists from the University of Cologne. The international research team investigated a range of climate parameters at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal in the Atacama Desert in Chile, where the European Southern Observatory (ESO) operates its telescopes. Among other things, the team evaluated the data for temperature, wind speed and wind direction, and the water vapor content in the atmosphere over a period of several decades. This revealed an increase in temperatures above the world average and also increasingRead More →
Missions Are Already Being Planned to Figure Out What’s Creating the Biosignature on Venus The discovery of phosphine in the upper clouds in Venus’ atmosphere has generated a lot of excitement. On Earth, phosphine is produced biologically, so it’s a sign of life. If it’s not produced by life, it takes an enormous amount of energy to be created abiologically. On other planets like Jupiter, there’s enough energy to … Continue reading “Missions Are Already Being Planned to Figure Out What’s Creating the Biosignature on Venus” The post Missions Are Already Being Planned to Figure Out What’s Creating the Biosignature on Venus appeared first onRead More →
Uranus’ Moons are Surprisingly Similar to Dwarf Planets in the Kuiper Belt Astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus—and two of its moons—230 years ago. Now a group of astronomers working with data from the telescope that bears his name, the Herschel Space Observatory, have made an unexpected discovery. It looks like Uranus’ moons bear a striking similarity to icy dwarf planets. The Herschel Space Observatory has been retired … Continue reading “Uranus’ Moons are Surprisingly Similar to Dwarf Planets in the Kuiper Belt” The post Uranus’ Moons are Surprisingly Similar to Dwarf Planets in the Kuiper Belt appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →
Sunrises Across the Solar System Scientists have learned a lot about the atmospheres on various worlds in our Solar System simply from planetary sunrises or sunsets. Sunlight streaming through the haze of an atmosphere can be separated into its component colors to create spectra, just as prisms do with sunlight. From the spectra, astronomers can interpret the measurements of light … Continue reading “Sunrises Across the Solar System” The post Sunrises Across the Solar System appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Research reveals an enormous planet quickly orbiting a tiny, dying star Thanks to a bevy of telescopes in space and on Earth—and even a pair of amateur astronomers in Arizona—a University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomer and his colleagues have discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting at breakneck speed around a distant white dwarf star. The system, about 80 light years away, violates all common conventions about stars and planets. The white dwarf is the remnant of a sun-like star, greatly shrunken down to roughly the size of Earth, yet it retains half the sun’s mass. The massive planet looms over its tiny star, which it circles everyRead More →
