News (Page 830)

Try to Contain Your Surprise. James Webb is Getting Delayed to 2020 Once it deploys, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the most powerful and technically complex space telescope ever deployed. Using its powerful suite of infrared-optimized instruments, this telescope will be able to study the earliest stars and galaxies in the Universe, extra-solar planets around nearby stars, and the planets, moons and asteroids of our Solar System. Unfortunately, due to its complexity and the need for more testing, the launch of the JWST has been subject to multiple delays. And as of this morning, NASA announced that the launch JWST has beenRead More →

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Enjoys its 2000th Day on Mars Since it landed on Mars in 2012, the Curiosity rover has made some rather startling scientific discoveries. These include the discovery of methane and organic molecules, evidence of how it lost its ancient atmosphere, and confirming that Mars once had flowing water and lakes on its surface. In addition, the rover has passed a number of impressive milestones along the way. In fact, back in January of 2018, the rover has spent a total of 2,000 Earth days on Mars. And of March 22nd, 2018, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover hit another major milestone: its two-thousandth MartianRead More →

About 2.3 Billion Years Ago, a Firehose of Oxygen was Released Into the Atmosphere Billions of years ago, Earth’s environment was very different from the one we know today. Basically, our planet’s primordial atmosphere was toxic to life as we know it, consisting of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other gases. However, by the Paleoproterozoic Era (2.5–1.6 billion years ago), a dramatic change occurred where oxygen began to be introduced to the atmosphere – known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). Until recently, scientists were not sure if this event – which was the result of photosynthetic bacteria altering the atmosphere – occurred rapidly or not.Read More →

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Will Touch the Sun — So Can You NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will launch this summer and study both the solar wind and unanswered questions about the Sun’s sizzling corona. Credit: NASA How would you like to take an all-expenses-paid trip to the Sun? NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be placed on a microchip aboard the Parker Solar Probe mission that will launch this summer. As the spacecraft dips into the blazing hot solar corona your name will go along for the ride. To sign up, submit your name and e-mail. After a confirmingRead More →

That Interstellar Asteroid ‘Oumuamua Probably Came From a Binary Star System On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) telescope in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar asteroid – I/2017 U1 (aka. ‘Oumuamua). Since that time, no effort has been spared to study this object before it leaves our Solar System. These include listening to it for signs of communications, determining its true nature and shape, and determining where it came from. In fact, the question of this interstellar object’s origins has been mystery since it was first discovered. While astronomers are sure that it came from theRead More →

China is Working on a Rocket as Powerful as the Saturn V, Could Launch by 2030 In the past decade, China’s space program has advanced by leaps and bounds. In recent years, the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) has overseen the development of a modern rocket family (the Long March series), the deployment of a space station (Tiangong-1) and the development of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) –  otherwise known as the Chang’e Program. Looking to the future, China plans to create new classes of heavy rockets in order to conduct more ambitious missions. These include the Long March 9 rocket (aka. the ChangzhengRead More →

Volcanoes on Mars Helped Form its Early Oceans Thanks to the many missions that have been studying Mars in recent years, scientists are aware that roughly 4 billion years ago, the planet was a much different place. In addition to having a denser atmosphere, Mars was also a warmer and wetter place, with liquid water covering much of the planet’s surface. Unfortunately, as Mars lost its atmosphere over the course of hundreds of millions of years, these oceans gradually disappeared. When and where these oceans formed has been the subject of much scientific inquiry and debate. According to a new study by a team ofRead More →

70,000 Years Ago a Nearby Star Messed With the Orbits Of Comets and Asteroids in our Solar System 70,000 years ago, our keen-eyed ancestors may have noticed something in the sky: a red dwarf star that came as close as 1 light year to our Sun. They would’ve missed the red dwarf’s small, dim companion—a brown dwarf—and in any case they would’ve quickly returned to their hunting and gathering. But that star’s visit to our Solar System had an impact astronomers can still see today. The star in question is called Scholz’s star, after astronomer Ralf-Dieter Scholz, the man who discovered it in 2013. ARead More →