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Mars Helicopter Completes More Test Flights. It’s Almost Ready to go to Mars We’ve known for some time that NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars. The vehicle, called the Mars Helicopter, is undergoing flight testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The little helicopter will make its eventual way to Mars as part of the Mars 2020 Rover mission. The Mars Helicopter is pretty small, less … Continue reading “Mars Helicopter Completes More Test Flights. It’s Almost Ready to go to Mars” The post Mars Helicopter Completes More Test Flights. It’s Almost Ready to go to Mars appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

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Starhopper Tests Have Gotten Delayed Because of “Ice Formation in the Cryogenic Propellant Prevalves” A technical issue has led to the “hop test” of the miniature version of the SpaceX Starship to be delayed once more. However, the company is still on track with their overall development of the system. The post Starhopper Tests Have Gotten Delayed Because of “Ice Formation in the Cryogenic Propellant Prevalves” appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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ESO will be Announcing the First Black Hole Picture on April 10 The rumours you’ve heard are true. And if you haven’t heard the rumours, you should check your internet connection. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has set an important press conference for April 10th, involving the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). They haven’t come right out and said it, but the Media Advisory from the ESO says … Continue reading “ESO will be Announcing the First Black Hole Picture on April 10” The post ESO will be Announcing the First Black Hole Picture on April 10 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

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See the Moon Photobomb Saturn in an Amazing Capture It’s always awe-inspiring to see the clockwork motion of the heavens, transpire in real time. In a slow motion Universe, occultations give us the chance to see the cosmos pull off a celestial hat trick. This happen in a blink of an eye type event such as when the Moon, a planet or an asteroid winks out a distant star, or transpire as a leisurely affair as the Moon covers, then uncovers the disk of a planet. The post See the Moon Photobomb Saturn in an Amazing Capture appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today GoRead More →

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Giant molecular outflow detected from the quasar PDS 456 Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, astronomers have detected a galaxy-wide molecular outflow from the quasar PDS 456. The findings are presented in a paper published March 25 on arXiv.org, in which the authors investigate the properties of this outflow. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Researchers pinpoint origin of photons in mysterious gamma-ray bursts Scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and collaborators have used simulations to show that the photons emitted by long gamma-ray bursts, among the most energetic events to take place in the universe, originate in the photosphere—the visible portion of the “relativistic jet” that is emitted by exploding stars. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Ground-Based Telescope Directly Observes the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet, and Sees Swirling Clouds of Iron and Silicates We’ve finally got our first optical look at an exoplanet and its atmosphere, and boy is it a strange place. The planet is called HR8799e, and its atmosphere is a complex one. HR8799e is in the grips of a global storm, dominated by swirling clouds of iron and silicates. Thanks to the Kepler spacecraft, we’ve … Continue reading “Ground-Based Telescope Directly Observes the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet, and Sees Swirling Clouds of Iron and Silicates” The post Ground-Based Telescope Directly Observes the Atmosphere of an ExtrasolarRead More →

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Satellites Watched a Huge Fireball Explode Above the Bering Sea Late Last Year NASA’s Terra satellites recently spotted a fiery meteorite in Earth’s atmosphere, which exploded above the Bering Sea. The post Satellites Watched a Huge Fireball Explode Above the Bering Sea Late Last Year appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Ten years before the detection of gravitational waves, two KITP postdocs at UC Santa Barbara had a novel idea The history of science is filled with stories of enthusiastic researchers slowly winning over skeptical colleagues to their point of view. Astrophysicist Scott Hughes can relate to these tales. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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VLA makes first direct image of key feature of powerful radio galaxies Astronomers used the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to make the first direct image of a dusty, doughnut-shaped feature surrounding the supermassive black hole at the core of one of the most powerful radio galaxies in the Universe—a feature first postulated by theorists nearly four decades ago as an essential part of such objects. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Subaru telescope helps determine that dark matter is not made up of tiny primordial black holes An international team of researchers has put a theory speculated by the late Stephen Hawking to its most rigorous test to date, and their results based on the observations using the Subaru Telescope have ruled out the possibility that primordial black holes smaller than a tenth of a millimeter make up most of dark matter. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Rivers on Mars Flowed for More Than a Billion Years The ancient climate of Mars is a mystery to scientists. Even with all we’ve learned about Mars, it’s still difficult to explain how lakes and rivers existed. A new study shows that Martian rivers were swollen with runoff and that they flowed far later into the planet’s history than previously thought. The question is, how … Continue reading “Rivers on Mars Flowed for More Than a Billion Years” The post Rivers on Mars Flowed for More Than a Billion Years appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Ep. 524: Judging Age & Origins, part 3 – Beyond Our System We learned how to figure out the ages of objects in the Solar System, now we push out into the deeper Universe. What about stars, galaxies, and even the Universe itself? How old is it? This episode is part 3 of a series. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EST / … Continue reading “Ep. 524: Judging Age & Origins, part 3 – Beyond Our System” The post Ep. 524: Judging Age & Origins, part 3 – Beyond Our System appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

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Astronomers take a closer look at a nearby dwarf active galactic nucleus An international team of astronomers has conducted optical and spectroscopic observations of the dwarf galaxy NGC 4395 that contains an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The observations, described in a paper published March 19 on arXiv.org, allowed the researchers to take a closer look at this dwarf AGN, what could provide essential insights into the nature of this object. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Star formation in galactic centers Stars form from the gas and dust in molecular clouds via a series of complex processes that are currently only partly understood, and the evolution of these clouds drives the evolution of the stellar populations in the universe. Astronomers studying the formation of stars have, over the past decades, concentrated on a few select regions of active star formation: the solar neighborhood, the disc of the Milky Way, and the neighboring Magellanic Cloud galaxies. This range of environments is limited, however, and not representative of the conditions under which most stars in the Universe formed. For instance, the densities, pressures,Read More →

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Hubble spots flock of cosmic ducks This star-studded image shows us a portion of Messier 11, an open star cluster in the southern constellation of Scutum (the Shield). Messier 11 is also known as the Wild Duck Cluster, as its brightest stars form a “V” shape that somewhat resembles a flock of ducks in flight. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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La Silla Observatory turns 50! Since its inauguration in 1969, ESO’s La Silla Observatory has been at the forefront of astronomy. Its suite of state-of-the-art instruments has allowed astronomers to make ground-breaking discoveries and paved the way for future generations of telescopes. Even after 50 years of observations, ESO’s telescopes at La Silla continue to push the boundaries of astronomy, discovering alien worlds and unveiling the cosmos in breathtaking detail. ESO News Feed Go to SourceRead More →