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Apollo 12 Launched 50 Years Ago Today The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 was a huge celebration, and Apollo 13 may be an equally big commotion. Apollo 12 is tough sell in the middle. Even the Virginia Air & Space Center, which houses the Apollo 12 capsule, uses photographs of Apollo 11 to advertise. Ouch.  This unique mission and its important contribution … Continue reading “Apollo 12 Launched 50 Years Ago Today” The post Apollo 12 Launched 50 Years Ago Today appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life? An atmospheric drama has been playing out on Mars lately. Up until now, the main actor has been methane, and its unusual, spiking behaviour. But now Oxygen is taking the stage, and performing some theatrics of its own. NASA’s Curiosity rover is busy examining Mars to see if it could have supported microbial life in … Continue reading “Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life?” The post Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life? appeared first onRead More →

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IPTF14hls may be a variable hyper-wind from a very massive star, study suggests A source known as iPTF14hls, assumed to be a Type IIP supernova, may be a long-term outflow similar to stellar winds, according to a new study published November 5 on arXiv.org. The new research proposes that iPTF14hls is most likely a so-called “hyper-wind”—an extreme mass outflow from a massive star. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Two cosmic peacocks show violent history of the magellanic clouds Two peacock-shaped gaseous clouds were revealed in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). A team of astronomers found several massive baby stars in the complex filamentary clouds, which agrees well with computer simulations of giant collisions of gaseous clouds. The researchers interpret this to mean that the filaments and young stars are telltale evidence of violent interactions between the LMC and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) 200 million years ago. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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What’s the Best Way to Sail From World to World? Electric Sails or Solar Sails? A new study compares two potential means of interstellar exploration, which could have implications for both space exploration and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. The post What’s the Best Way to Sail From World to World? Electric Sails or Solar Sails? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Mysteries behind interstellar buckyballs finally answered Scientists have long been puzzled by the existence of so-called “buckyballs”—complex carbon molecules with a soccer-ball-like structure—throughout interstellar space. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Arizona has proposed a mechanism for their formation in a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Mars 2020 Rover is Going to a Place on Mars That’s Perfect for Preserving Fossils Back in November 2018, NASA announced that the Mars 2020 rover would land in the Jezero Crater. Jezero Crater is a geologically diverse area, with an alluvial fan of sediment deposited by an incoming river. That sediment may contain preserved ancient organic molecules, and the deposit is clearly visible in satellite images of the Crater. … Continue reading “Mars 2020 Rover is Going to a Place on Mars That’s Perfect for Preserving Fossils” The post Mars 2020 Rover is Going to a Place on Mars That’s Perfect for Preserving FossilsRead More →

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New study proposes light signature for detecting black hole mergers Gravitational wave detectors are finding black hole mergers in the universe at the rate of one per week. If these mergers occur in empty space, researchers cannot see associated light that is needed to determine where they happened. However, a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and the City University of New York (CUNY), suggests that researchers might finally be able to see light from black hole mergers if the collisions happen in the presence of gas. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Weekly Space Hangout: November 13, 2019 – Dr. Rory Barnes talks VPLanet Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Sondy Springmann (@sondy) Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter) Veranika Klimovich ( @VeronikaSpace) This week we welcome Dr. Rory Barnes to the Weekly Space Hangout. Rory is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington. He is also a member of … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: November 13, 2019 – Dr. Rory Barnes talks VPLanet” The post Weekly Space Hangout: November 13, 2019 – Dr. Rory Barnes talks VPLanet appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

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Shape of the universe: study could force us to rethink everything we know about the cosmos No matter how elegant your theory is, experimental data will have the last word. Observations of the retrograde motion of the planets were fundamental to the Copernican revolution, in which the sun replaced Earth at the centre of the solar system. And the unusual orbit of Mercury provided a spectacular confirmation of the theory of general relativity. In fact, our entire understanding of the universe is built on observed, unexpected anomalies. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Astrophysicist discovers numerous multiple star systems with exoplanets Is Earth the only habitable planet in the universe or are there more worlds somewhere out there that are capable of supporting life? And if there are, what might they look like? In a bid to answer these fundamental questions, scientists are searching space for exoplanets: distant worlds that orbit other stars outside our solar system. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Astronomers conduct one of the most detailed studies of a stellar halo An international team of astronomers has used the Subaru Telescope to probe the stellar halo of the nearby Messier 81 (M81) galaxy. The observations resulted in one of the most detailed studies of a stellar halo conducted to date. The study is detailed in a paper published October 31 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Video: Proba-2 watches Mercury transit ESA’s Proba-2 had a ring-side seat for the transit of Mercury on 11 November 2019. Proba-2 monitors the sun from Earth orbit and was able to spot Mercury’s transit as a small black disc—seen here moving from left to right across the face of the sun. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has At Least One Planet Do you wonder how astronomers find all those exoplanets orbiting stars in distant solar systems? Mostly they use the transit method. When a planet travels in between its star and an observer, the light from the star dims. That’s called a transit. If astronomers watch a planet transit its star a few times, they can … Continue reading “Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has At Least One Planet” The post Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has AtRead More →

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Carnival of Space #637 Welcome to the 637th Carnival of Space! The Carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. We have a fantastic roundup today so now, on to this week’s worth of stories! Universe Today: Our Guide to the November 11th, 2019 Transit … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #637” The post Carnival of Space #637 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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November Meteors: Taurids, Leonids and a Surprise Monocerotids Outburst For the northern hemisphere observers, November is fireball season. This month, keep an eye out for two sure-fire annual meteor showers, and—just maybe—a wild card outburst from the obscure Alpha Monocerotids worth watching out for. The post November Meteors: Taurids, Leonids and a Surprise Monocerotids Outburst appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

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Runaway star – out of the galactic heart of darkness like a bat out of hell The discovery of the star, known as S5-HVS1, was made by Sergey Koposov from Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5). Located in the constellation of Grus—the Crane—S5-HVS1 was found to be moving ten times faster than most stars in the Milky Way. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites In May of 2019, Elon Musk began delivering on his promise to create a constellation of satellites (named Starlink) that would offer broadband internet access. It all started with the launch of the first sixty Starlink satellites and was followed by Musk sending the inaugural tweet using the service this past October. Earlier today, another … Continue reading “SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites” The post SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →