A 2018 Outburst From the December Andromedids? A relatively obscure meteor shower may put on a surprise performance in early December 2018. Chances are, you’ve never heard of the Andromedids, though it’s worth keeping an eye out for these swift-moving meteors over the next week. The post A 2018 Outburst From the December Andromedids? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Now that TESS is Operational, Astronomers Estimate it’ll Find 14,000 Planets. 10 Could Be Earthlike Worlds in a Sunlike Star’s Habitable Zone How many exoplanets are there? Not that long ago, we didn’t know if there were any. Then we detected a few around pulsars. Then the Kepler spacecraft was launched and it discovered a couple thousand more. Now NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) is operational, and a new study predicts its findings. The Kepler findings … Continue reading “Now that TESS is Operational, Astronomers Estimate it’ll Find 14,000 Planets. 10 Could Be Earthlike Worlds in a Sunlike Star’s Habitable Zone” The post NowRead More →
There Could be Hundreds of Interstellar Asteroids and Comets in the Solar System Right Now That we Could Study According to a new study, there could be hundreds of identifiable objects in our Solar System like ‘Oumuamua, some of which we could study in just a few years! The post There Could be Hundreds of Interstellar Asteroids and Comets in the Solar System Right Now That we Could Study appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Scientists measure all of the starlight ever produced by the observable universe From their laboratories on a rocky planet dwarfed by the vastness of space, Clemson University scientists have managed to measure all of the starlight ever produced throughout the history of the observable universe. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Hubble uncovers thousands of globular star clusters scattered among galaxies Gazing across 300 million light-years into a monstrous city of galaxies, astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to do a comprehensive census of some of its most diminutive members: a whopping 22,426 globular star clusters found to date. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Gas clouds whirling around black hole form heart of extremely distant luminous astronomical object In 1963, astronomer Maarten Schmidt identified the first quasi-stellar object or “quasar,” an extremely bright but distant object. He found the single quasar, the active nucleus of a far-away galaxy known to astronomers as 3C 273, to be 100 times more luminous than all the stars in our Milky Way combined. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
We May Soon Be Able To See the First, Supergiant Stars in the Universe We need to talk about the dark ages. No, not those dark ages after the fall of the western Roman Empire. The cosmological dark ages. The time in our universe, billions of years ago, before the formation of the first stars. And we need to talk about the cosmic dawn: the birth of those first stars, … Continue reading “We May Soon Be Able To See the First, Supergiant Stars in the Universe” The post We May Soon Be Able To See the First, Supergiant Stars in the Universe appeared first onRead More →
We Have the Technology. Airplanes Could Spray Particles into the Atmosphere to Battle Climate Change. But Should We? If climate change models are correct, humanity is working itself—and dragging the rest of life on Earth with it—into a corner. Scientific pleas to control emissions and battle climate change are starting to have some effect, but not enough. So now we have some tough decisions looming. If you haven’t heard the terms “solar geoengineering” … Continue reading “We Have the Technology. Airplanes Could Spray Particles into the Atmosphere to Battle Climate Change. But Should We?” The post We Have the Technology. Airplanes Could Spray Particles intoRead More →
One of the Most Exciting Parts of InSight is Actually the Tiny Cubesats Tagging Along for the Ride and Their Role in the Mission A very important, but perhaps overlooked, aspect of the InSight mission was the first-ever deployment of CubeSats (MarCO) to deep space. The post One of the Most Exciting Parts of InSight is Actually the Tiny Cubesats Tagging Along for the Ride and Their Role in the Mission appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 28, 2018: David Eicher’s “Mission Moon 3-D” Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org) This week we are joined by David Eicher, co-author with Dr. Brian May of Mission Moon 3-D: A New Perspective on the Space Race. During David’s appearance, … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 28, 2018: David Eicher’s “Mission Moon 3-D”” The post Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 28, 2018: David Eicher’s “Mission Moon 3-D” appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
The quest for galactic relics from the primordial universe A new study reports characteristics of massive, ultracompact galaxies. It was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and was carried out by an international team led by Fernando Buitrago of Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA2) and Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL). phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Behind the scenes of recovering NASA’s Hubble In the early morning of October 27, the Hubble Space Telescope targeted a field of galaxies not far from the Great Square in the constellation Pegasus. Contained in the field were star-forming galaxies up to 11 billion light-years away. With the target in its sights, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 recorded an image. It was the first picture captured by the telescope since it closed its eyes on the universe three weeks earlier, and it was the result of an entire team of engineers and experts working tirelessly to get the telescope exploring the cosmos once again. phys.orgRead More →
Astronomy Cast Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive Ion engines are a mainstay of science fiction, featured in both Star Trek and Wars. But this is a very real technology, successfully used on several missions out there in the Solar System right now. How do they work and what are the limits? We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EST … Continue reading “Astronomy Cast Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive” The post Astronomy Cast Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Hubble’s First Picture After Returning to Service. The Telescope is Fully Operational Again with Three Working Gyros The Hubble Space Telescope is a hero in the astronomy world. And when it suffered a malfunctioning gyro on October 5th, it took a heroic effort on the part of the Hubble team to get it working again. Now we have Hubble’s first picture after its return to service. Hubble’s first picture after its troubles … Continue reading “Hubble’s First Picture After Returning to Service. The Telescope is Fully Operational Again with Three Working Gyros” The post Hubble’s First Picture After Returning to Service. The Telescope is FullyRead More →
InSight Deploys its Solar Cells, Prepared for Surface Operations on Mars! The InSight Lander, which had touched down on the Martian surface just hours before, has deployed its solar cells and is ready to begin science operations! The post InSight Deploys its Solar Cells, Prepared for Surface Operations on Mars! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Some of the Stars in this Cluster are Almost as Old as the Universe Itself While Others Formed in a Second Generation. It Looks Young and Old at the Same Time Star clusters are not rare. They’re one of the most common arrangements of stars in the Universe. But star cluster NGC 1866, as seen in this image from Hubble, is different than its brethren. Most clusters are populated by stars the same age, BUT NGC 1866 is like an all-ages club. There are two kinds … Continue reading “Some of the Stars in this Cluster are Almost as Old as the Universe Itself WhileRead More →
How scientists are working together to solve one of the universe’s mysteries One of the most baffling puzzles of modern astrophysics is the nature of Fast Radio Bursts, which were discovered in 2007. These are seemingly rare, extremely bright flashes of light with radio wavelengths. They last only milliseconds; originate outside our galaxy, the Milky Way; come from regions with enormously strong magnetic fields; and pass through a significant amount of gas or dust before reaching Earth. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
New ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar discovered Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, a team of astronomers from Germany has detected a new ultra-luminous pulsar in the galaxy NGC 300. The finding of this pulsar, which received designation NGC 300 ULX1, is detailed in a paper published November 9 on the arXiv pre-print repository. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Enormous dwarf satellite galaxy of Milky Way discovered Using data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, astronomers have discovered a new Milky Way satellite in the constellation Antlia. The newly found dwarf galaxy, named Antlia 2, is several times larger when compared to other systems of similar luminosity. The finding is detailed in a paper published November 9 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
New evidence reveals how heavy elements were created after the Big Bang The Big Bang theory and the question of how life on Earth began has fascinated scientists for decades, but now new research from The University of Western Australia suggests the conditions that resulted from the Big Bang are different to what we thought. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
