Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right Now The International Space Station’s usual complement of six astronauts grew by 50% recently, making things a little crowded up there. The nine astronauts come from four separate space agencies, and for the first time, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is onboard the ISS. The ISS is a multicultural place. Astronauts from around … Continue reading “Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right Now” The post Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right NowRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space Society Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Alessandra “Sondy” Springmann (@sondy) Pamela Hoffman (http://everydayspacer.com/ / @EverydaySpacer) Veranika “Nika” Klimovich Emmy Award-winning television host and producer Geoff Notkin starred in three seasons of the cult television adventure series Meteorite Men for Science Channel and two seasons of the educational series STEM Journals for Cox Media. He … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space Society” The post Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space SocietyRead More →

New organic compounds found in Enceladus ice grains New kinds of organic compounds, the ingredients of amino acids, have been detected in the plumes bursting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The findings are the result of the ongoing deep dive into data from NASA’s Cassini mission. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Neutrino produced in a cosmic collider far away The neutrino event IceCube 170922A, detected at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, appears to originate from the distant active galaxy TXS 0506+056, at a light travel distance of 3.8 billion light years. TXS 0506+056 is one of many active galaxies and it remained a mystery why and how only this particular galaxy generated neutrinos so far. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

New study provides insights on the mysterious low-mass X-ray binary RX1804 European astronomers have conducted a comprehensive study of a low-mass X-ray binary known as RX1804 (or 1RXS J180408.9–342058). The research allowed the scientists to unveil important insights into the nature of this mysterious object. The findings are detailed in a paper published September 23 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere This image of the lunar highlands is from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You’d need superhuman eyesight to spot it, but India’s crashed Vikram lander is in there somewhere. The lander attempted to land on the Moon on September 6th, but when it was only 2.1 km above the surface, within reach of its objective, ISRO … Continue reading “India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere” The post India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars? In 2017, Elon Musk laid out his grand sweeping plans for the future of SpaceX, the company that would take humanity to Mars. Over decades, tens of thousands of Starship flights would carry a million human beings to the surface of the Red Planet, the minimum Musk expects it’ll take to create a self-sustaining civilization. … Continue reading “What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars?” The post What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. So Massive it Shouldn’t Exist, and Yet, There It Is Thanks to the Kepler mission and other efforts to find exoplanets, we’ve learned a lot about the exoplanet population. We know that we’re likely to find super-Earths and Neptune-mass exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars, while larger planets are found around more massive stars. This lines up well with the core accretion theory of planetary formation. But … Continue reading “A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. So Massive it Shouldn’t Exist, and Yet, There It Is” The post A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. SoRead More →

Carnival of Space #631 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #631. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #631” The post Carnival of Space #631 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers identify four globular cluster planetary nebulae candidates Astronomers from Chile and Argentina report the detection of four new planetary nebulae (PN) candidates residing in galactic globular clusters (GCs). If confirmed, the discovery would double the number of known PNe in galactic GCs. The finding is presented in a paper published September 19 on the arXiv pre-print server. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Spitzer spots a starry region bursting with bubbles This infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows a cloud of gas and dust full of bubbles, which are inflated by wind and radiation from young, massive stars. Each bubble is filled with hundreds to thousands of stars, which form from dense clouds of gas and dust. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

#88 – October 2019 Part 1 The Discussion: A look back at our 50th anniversary of the moon landings-themed dark sky star party, AstroCamp, and some wonderful suggestions as an alternative name for a ‘pair instability supernova’. The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: Discovery of an exoplanet stripped of its atmosphere Understanding more about the features you can observe in Jupiter’s storms Gaia tells us more about the evolution of open clusters Chandra probes black hole clusters Planet 9 (groan…) could be a tiny black hole (it couldn’t) Amateur astronomer discovery of an interstellar comet Understanding the evolution of globularRead More →

Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion Years Ago, Really are Fossils. The Oldest Evidence of Life Found So Far The title of Earth’s Earliest Life has been returned to the fossils in the Pilbara region of Australia. The Pilbara fossils had held that title since the 1980s, until researchers studying ancient rocks in Greenland found evidence of ancient life there. But subsequent research questioned the biological nature of the Greenland evidence, which put the … Continue reading “Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion Years Ago, Really are Fossils. The Oldest Evidence of Life Found So Far” The post Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion YearsRead More →

Tracking Twilight: ‘Purple Sunset Effect’ Seen Worldwide Has twilight looked at little… mauve to you as of late? The effect is subtle, but noticeable on a clear evening. Sunsets are always colorful events, as the Sun’s rays shine through a thicker layer of the atmosphere at an oblique angle, scattering out at longer, redder wavelengths. The post Tracking Twilight: ‘Purple Sunset Effect’ Seen Worldwide appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Data from Chinese satellite shedding light on cosmic rays An international team of researchers studying data from China’s Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) has measured cosmic ray protons up to the energy of 100 TeV with high precision for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes the research they have been conducting on data received from the satellite and what they have learned thus far. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Planet Nine could be a primordial black hole, new research suggests The hypothetical Planet Nine, assumed to be lurking somewhere in the outskirts of our solar system, may not be a planet at all. A new study, published September 24 on the arXiv pre-print server, suggests that the mysterious and still undiscovered object might be a primordial black hole. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →