New sunspots potentially herald increased solar activity On May 29, 2020, a family of sunspots—dark spots that freckle the face of the sun, representing areas of complex magnetic fields—sported the biggest solar flare since October 2017. Although the sunspots are not yet visible (they will soon rotate into view over the left limb of the sun), NASA spacecraft spotted the flares high above them. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

A new theorem predicts that stationary black holes must have at least one light ring Black holes, regions in space with such an intense gravitational field that no matter or radiation can escape from them, are among the most mysterious and fascinating cosmological phenomena. Over the past five years or so, astrophysicists collected the first observations of the strong gravitational forces around black holes. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA and SpaceX Make History with Successful Crew Dragon Launch! NASA and SpaceX made history today with the launch of second demonstration flight of the Crew Dragon (Demo-2), which signalled the restoration of the US’ domestic launch capability! The post NASA and SpaceX Make History with Successful Crew Dragon Launch! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All Oh Planet Nine, when will you stop toying with us? Whether you call it Planet Nine, Planet X, the Perturber, Jehoshaphat, “Phattie,” or any of the other proposed names—either serious or flippant—this scientific back and forth over its existence is getting exhausting. Is this what it was like when they were arguing whether Earth is … Continue reading “Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All” The post Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Due to Weather Delay, NASA & SpaceX Push Historic Launch to Saturday This Saturday, NASA and SpaceX will make their second attempt to send astronauts to the ISS from US soil for the first time since 2011! The post Due to Weather Delay, NASA & SpaceX Push Historic Launch to Saturday appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map Even though Earthling scientists are studying Mars intently, it’s still a mysterious place. One of the striking things about Mars is all of the evidence, clearly visible on its surface, that it harbored liquid water. Now, all that water is gone, and in fact, liquid water couldn’t survive on the surface of the Red Planet. … Continue reading “Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map” The post Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Mergers between galaxies trigger activity in their core Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) play a major role in galaxy evolution. Astronomers from SRON and RuG have now used a record-setting sample of galaxies to confirm that galaxy mergers have a positive effect on igniting AGNs. They were able to compile about 10 times more pictures of merging galaxies than previous studies by using a machine-learning algorithm. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients For the child inside all of us space-enthusiasts, there might be nothing better than discovering a new type of explosion. (Except maybe bigger rockets.) And it looks like that’s what’s happened. Three objects discovered separately—one in 2016 and two in 2018—add up to a new type of supernova that astronomers are calling Fast Blue Optical … Continue reading “A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients” The post A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

How to Make the Food and Water Mars-Bound Astronauts Will Need for Their Mission New technologies are being developed that will ensure astronauts have plenty of drinking water and food wherever resupply missions are not readily available The post How to Make the Food and Water Mars-Bound Astronauts Will Need for Their Mission appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Powerful Telescope Confirms There’s an Earth-Sized World Orbiting Proxima Centauri There is an Earth-sized planet only four light years from Earth. Whether it has life is yet to be known. The post Powerful Telescope Confirms There’s an Earth-Sized World Orbiting Proxima Centauri appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

On Mars, mud flows like lava One of the most striking features on Earth are the curious flows of lava as it cools, forming undulating ropes of rock known by the Hawaiian word pahoehoe. New research simulating conditions on Mars now reveals that the red planet has its own kind of pahoehoe…but made of mud. By and large, Mars is cold … Continue reading “On Mars, mud flows like lava” The post On Mars, mud flows like lava appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts This week, European engineers hot-fire tested a fully 3D-printed thrust chamber that could one day power the upper stages for rockets. The chamber has just three parts, and was constructed using additive layer manufacturing, another name for 3D printing.   This hot-fire test lasted 30 seconds and was carried out on May 26, 2020 at … Continue reading “This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts” The post This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

At cosmic distances, even the speed of light is really slow The speed of light is the absolute fastest thing in the universe, clocking in at a whopping 299,792,458 meters per second. At that speed, a beam of light could travel around the Earth’s entire equator in a mere 0.13 seconds. That’s…fast. And yet, when it comes to cosmic distances, it’s incredibly, frustratingly, boringly slow. The post At cosmic distances, even the speed of light is really slow appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Hubble grabs a stellar latte Far away in the Ursa Major constellation is a swirling galaxy that would not look out of place on a coffee made by a starry-eyed barista. NGC 3895 is a barred spiral galaxy that was first spotted by William Herschel in 1790 and was later observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers predict bombardment from asteroids and comets in other planetary system The planetary system around star HR8799 is remarkably similar to our solar system. It has four gas giants in between two asteroid belts. A research team led by RuG and SRON used this similarity to model the delivery of materials by asteroids, comets and other minor bodies within the system. Their simulation shows that the four gas planets receive material delivered by minor bodies, just as in our solar system. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

In planet formation, it’s location, location, location Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are finding that planets have a tough time forming in the rough-and-tumble central region of the massive, crowded star cluster Westerlund 2. Located 20,000 light-years away, Westerlund 2 is a unique laboratory to study stellar evolutionary processes because it’s relatively nearby, quite young, and contains a large stellar population. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium Rain Thanks to the success of the Kepler mission, we know that there are multitudes of exoplanets of a type called “Hot Jupiters.” These are gas giants that orbit so close to their stars that they reach extremely high temperatures. They also have exotic atmospheres, and those atmospheres contain a lot of strangeness, like clouds made … Continue reading “Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium Rain” The post Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium RainRead More →

Extremely intense radio burst detected from magnetar SGR 1935+2154 Using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope, astronomers have detected a bright, millisecond-duration radio burst from a galactic magnetar known as SGR 1935+2154. The discovery of such an extremely intense event, reported in a paper published May 20, could be important for improving the understanding of the origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs). phys.org Go to SourceRead More →