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Water Vapor Was Just Found on Europa, More Evidence There’s Liquid Water Beneath All that Ice What’s been long-suspected has now been confirmed: Jupiter’s moon Europa has water. As we’ve learned more about the outer Solar System in recent years, Europa has become a high-priority target in the search for life. With this discovery, NASA has just painted a big red bulls-eye on Jupiter’s smallest Galilean moon. “While scientists have not … Continue reading “Water Vapor Was Just Found on Europa, More Evidence There’s Liquid Water Beneath All that Ice” The post Water Vapor Was Just Found on Europa, More Evidence There’s Liquid Water BeneathRead More →

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The Impact Site of China’s Longjiang-2 Spacecraft has Been Found on the Moon Thanks to an amateur tracker, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team found the lunar impact site of China’s Longjiang-2 satellite. The post The Impact Site of China’s Longjiang-2 Spacecraft has Been Found on the Moon appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Carnival of Space #638 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #638 And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #638” The post Carnival of Space #638 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Could Find More of Earth’s Transient Moons A team of astronomers estimates that the LSST (which will be operational in 2020) will allow us to learn more about Earths’ “transient moons”. The post The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Could Find More of Earth’s Transient Moons appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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If Astronauts Hibernated on Long Journeys, They’d Need Smaller Spacecraft There’s a disturbing lack of hibernation in our space-faring plans. In movies and books, astronauts pop in and out of hibernation—or stasis, or cryogenic sleep, or suspended animation, or something like it—on a regular basis. If we ever figure out some kind of hibernation, can we take advantage of it to get by with smaller … Continue reading “If Astronauts Hibernated on Long Journeys, They’d Need Smaller Spacecraft” The post If Astronauts Hibernated on Long Journeys, They’d Need Smaller Spacecraft appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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NASA scientists confirm water vapor on Europa Forty years ago, a Voyager spacecraft snapped the first closeup images of Europa, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. These revealed brownish cracks slicing the moon’s icy surface, which give Europa the look of a veiny eyeball. Missions to the outer solar system in the decades since have amassed enough additional information about Europa to make it a high-priority target of investigation in NASA’s search for life. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Scientists Construct a Global Map of Titan’s Geology Titan’s methane-based hydrologic cycle makes it one of the Solar System’s most geologically diverse bodies. There are lakes of methane, methane rainfall, and even “snow” made of complex organic molecules. But all of that detail is hidden under the moon’s dense, hazy atmosphere. Now a team of scientists have used data from the Cassini mission … Continue reading “Scientists Construct a Global Map of Titan’s Geology” The post Scientists Construct a Global Map of Titan’s Geology appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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The measurements of the expansion of the universe don’t add up Physicists use two types of measurements to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, but their results do not coincide, which may make it necessary to update the cosmological model. “It’s like trying to thread a cosmic needle,” explains researcher Licia Verde of the University of Barcelona, co-author of an article on the implications of this problem. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Zeroing in on baby exoplanets could reveal how they form Twenty-four years ago, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system—a milestone recognised by this year’s Nobel prize in physics. Today we know of thousands more ‘exoplanets,” and researchers are now trying to understand when and how they form. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Study sheds more light on the nature of the transient X-ray pulsar MAXI J1409-619 Turkish astronomers have analyzed the observational data of the transient X-ray pulsar MAXI J1409-619 to probe the properties of this source. The study provided a comprehensive timing and X-ray spectral analysis of the pulsar, shedding more light on the nature of this object. Results of the research were published November 7 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Image: Orion A in infrared Stars form within giant clouds of gas and dust that pervade galaxies like our own Milky Way. This image depicts one such cloud, known as Orion A, as seen by ESA’s Herschel and Planck space observatories. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Two of Neptune’s Moons Dance Around Each Other as they Orbit Like a long-married couple accustomed to each other’s kitchen habits, two of Neptune’s moons are masters at sharing space without colliding. And though both situations may appear odd to an observer, there’s a certain dance-like quality to them both. We’re talking about Thalassa and Naiad, two Neptunian moons discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989. The … Continue reading “Two of Neptune’s Moons Dance Around Each Other as they Orbit” The post Two of Neptune’s Moons Dance Around Each Other as they Orbit appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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New Horizon’s Flyby Target 2014 MU69 Gets its Official Name: Arrokoth The KBO formerly known as Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) has officially been named “Arrokoth”, the traditional Powhatan-Algonquin language. The post New Horizon’s Flyby Target 2014 MU69 Gets its Official Name: Arrokoth appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Tatooines everywhere? Many of the Exoplanets Already Discovered are in Multi-Star Systems Right now, we know of about 4,000 confirmed exoplanets, mostly thanks to the Kepler mission. TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, will likely raise that 4000 by a lot. But what about the stars that all of these planets orbit? A new study from the Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory of the University of Jena … Continue reading “Tatooines everywhere? Many of the Exoplanets Already Discovered are in Multi-Star Systems” The post Tatooines everywhere? Many of the Exoplanets Already Discovered are in Multi-Star Systems appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

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Nearly extreme black holes which attempt to regrow hair become bald again Black holes ‘have no hair’: no attributes that can be used to tell them apart. Extreme black holes (spinning at maximally allowed rate) can have an additional property, permanent hair that is made of a massless scalar field. Nearly extreme black holes (like Gargantua, the black hole featured in the movie “Interstellar”) have hair that is a transient phenomenon: nearly extreme black holes that attempt to regrow hair will lose it and become bald again. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →