News (Page 8)

Mars-Like Worlds Near M-Dwarfs May Lose Air in Millions of Years The criteria for finding an Earth-like planet unofficially comes down to two things: water and the habitable zone. But a phenomenon known as atmospheric escape often “escapes” the minds of many astronomy fans, and it turns out that atmospheric escape is one of the key characteristics for finding an Earth-like world. Although extensive research has been conducted on how the planet Mars might have lost its atmosphere, and potentially the ability to sustain life, how would the atmosphere enveloping a Mars-like exoplanet respond to stars different from our own? Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Signal From Before the Stars On 12 November 2025, LIGO picked up a gravitational wave signal that stopped astronomers in their tracks. The object that produced it was too small to be any known type of black hole, smaller in fact, than our own Sun. If confirmed, it would be something that has never been directly detected before, a primordial black hole forged in the violent chaos of the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. Now two astrophysicists believe they can explain exactly what LIGO found and why it could crack open one of the deepest mysteries in cosmology. Universe TodayRead More →

Hunting Moon Water With Neutrons Water is the difference between a temporary visit and a permanent home. If humanity is serious about building a lasting presence on the Moon, finding usable ice near the lunar south pole isn’t just a scientific curiosity, it’s a practical necessity. Now NASA is sending a clever instrument that hunts for water without digging a single hole, using the behaviour of subatomic particles to sniff out hidden ice deposits up to three feet underground. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Hera Aces A Massive Engine Burn On Its Way To Didymos In September 2022, humanity crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid – on purpose. The objective of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was to see if we could intentionally modify the orbit of Dimorphos, the small moonlet orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. According to all accounts, the mission worked spectacularly, but it was a one-way trip, so our ability to see what happened to the binary asteroid system has so far been limited to ground-based telescopes. That wasn’t good enough for the planetary defense community, so they planned a follow up mission called Hera,Read More →

Uncovering the Effects of Microgravity on Liver Metabolism A team led by Professor Mian Long from the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, investigated the effects of space microgravity on cultured liver cells aboard the China Space Station. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Jupiter’s Lightning Could Be Almost Unbelievably Powerful Juno observations show that Jupiter’s lightning, already known to be powerful, is far more energetic than thought. Lightning triggered by a stealth superstorm in 2021-22 could be up to one million times more powerful than terrestrial lightning. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Looking For Nearby ‘Project Hail Mary’ Worlds It’s out. The top sci-fi draw of the year Project Hail Mary is now showing in a theater near you. The movie tells the tale of middle school teacher Ryland Grace, who is sent on a one way, last ditch mission to save humanity. The story is a refreshing take on first contact and just how different life out there could be… but are there real ‘Adrians’ or ‘Erids’ out there? A new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society identifies 45 rocky worlds with a potential for life, out of the currently 6,281Read More →

Ripples in Spacetime and the Universe’s Most Controversial Number Douglas Adams famously told us the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. Astronomers have been wrestling with their own version of that answer for years, except their number is the Hubble constant, a measure of how fast the universe is expanding, and nobody can agree what it is. Now a new study using ripples in spacetime as a measuring tools has produced a fresh value that might just help resolve one of the biggest arguments in modern cosmology. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Star That Kept Its Secret for 50 Years Look up on a clear night and you can spot the distinctive ‘W’ shape of Cassiopeia with the naked eye. The middle star of that W, which has the catchy name of Gamma Cas, has been puzzling astronomers since 1866, and for the last fifty years it’s been blazing with peculiar high energy X-rays that simply shouldn’t be there. Now, thanks to a next generation space telescope with extraordinary precision, the mystery has finally been solved. The culprit is a hungry invisible companion, quietly feeding in the dark. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

How Did Venus Become a Hellscape? 234,000 Simulations Reveal Four Possible Paths Venus is increasingly becoming a touch point for our studies of the exoplanets, as missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) begin to characterize rocky exoplanets around other stars. Understanding the difference between the evolutions of Venus and Earth, which ended up with such different results, is a key to understanding whether we might be looking at an Earth-analogue or a hellish landscape like Venus. A new paper by Rodolfo Garcia of the University of Washington and his colleagues, which is available in pre-print form onRead More →

The Future of Space Stations – Part II: Commercial Space With the ISS set to retire in 2030, several plans are in place to replace it. These include existing space stations, proposals by rising national space agencies, and commercial space stations. In terms of the commercial space sector, the plans are diverse and numerous. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Direct Confirmation Of Two Baby Planets Forming Around A Young Sun-like Star Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disc around a young star named WISPIT 2. Having previously detected one planet, the team have now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes to confirm the presence of another. These observations, and the unique structure of the disc around the star, indicate that the WISPIT 2 system could resemble our young Solar System. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Webb and Hubble Telescopes Look at Saturn in a Different Light NASA is serving up a double scoop of delicious Saturn imagery in two flavors — near-infrared from the James Webb Space Telescope, and visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Moon That Tipped a Planet Neptune has always been something of a puzzle. The distant ice giant sits tilted at an awkward angle, although not as extreme as Uranus, that astronomers have long struggled to explain. Now new research suggests the answer may have been lurking in its own backyard all along and the culprit is Triton, Neptune’s strange, rebellious moon. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Russia’s Return to the Launchpad Russia has returned to orbit from the very launch pad that failed it just months ago. Following an embarrassing structural collapse at Baikonur Cosmodrome last November, repairs have been completed and a fresh cargo mission has blasted skyward. But with a space programme that was once the envy of the world now struggling to recapture its former glory, questions remain about whether Russia can truly rebuild its place among the stars. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →