Universe Today (Page 202)

A Cubesat Will Test out Water as a Propulsion System Novel propulsion systems for CubeSats have been on an innovative tear of late.  UT has reported on propulsion systems that use everything from solid iodine to the Earth’s own magnetic field as a way of moving a small spacecraft.  Now there is a potential solution using a much more mundane material for a propellant – … Continue reading “A Cubesat Will Test out Water as a Propulsion System” The post A Cubesat Will Test out Water as a Propulsion System appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Away From the Light Pollution of the Inner Solar System, New Horizons was Able to see how Dark the Universe Really is Just how dark is the universe, anyway? It’s a pretty hard thing to measure when we’re sitting this close to the sun. But NASA’s New Horizons probe is so far away that the images it takes of the distant universe are able to deliver the most accurate measurement ever of the universe’s diffuse background light. … Continue reading “Away From the Light Pollution of the Inner Solar System, New Horizons was Able to see how Dark the Universe Really is” The post AwayRead More →

Astronomers Hoped to see Evidence of Dark Matter Particles Inside Betelgeuse. No Luck Axions are a hypothetical particle that might explain the existence of dark matter. But it might occasionally interact with normal matter, especially in the cores of stars. A team of physicists have searched for evidence of axions in Betelgeuse and come up with nothing. It doesn’t mean that the axion doesn’t exist, but it does … Continue reading “Astronomers Hoped to see Evidence of Dark Matter Particles Inside Betelgeuse. No Luck” The post Astronomers Hoped to see Evidence of Dark Matter Particles Inside Betelgeuse. No Luck appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Tree Rings Reveal 1,000 Years of Solar Activity The Sun has a lot of rhythm and goes through different cycles of activity. The most well-known cycle might be the Schwabe cycle, which has an 11-year cadence. But what about cycles with much longer time scales? How can scientists understand them? As it turns out, the Sun has left some hidden clues in tree … Continue reading “Tree Rings Reveal 1,000 Years of Solar Activity” The post Tree Rings Reveal 1,000 Years of Solar Activity appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Why do Planetary Nebulae Look the Way They Do? Planetary nebulae are the most beautiful objects in the night sky. Their gossamer shells of gas are otherworldly and evocative. They captivate the eye, and viewers need no scientific knowledge to get drawn in. How are they created, and why do they look so beautiful? First of all, if you don’t know already, planetary nebulae … Continue reading “Why do Planetary Nebulae Look the Way They Do?” The post Why do Planetary Nebulae Look the Way They Do? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

There are Seven Rocky Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System and They’re Surprisingly Similar The TRAPPIST-1 system has long be studied by exoplanet hunters due to its unique quantity of planets that happen to also be Earth sized. In a recent paper, a team of scientists led by Erik Agol at the University of Washington, dove into more detail on the density of the seven known planets in the … Continue reading “There are Seven Rocky Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System and They’re Surprisingly Similar” The post There are Seven Rocky Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System and They’re Surprisingly Similar appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Lightweight Iodine Thruster Could Help Solve Space Junk Problem Rocket fuel is one of the most important components of any maneuverable spacecraft.  That is also true for ion thrusters – while they don’t use traditional chemical fuel, they do still need a feed source for their ion engines.  Now, a team from ThrustMe, a spinoff of the École Polytechnique and CNRS, has designed a … Continue reading “Lightweight Iodine Thruster Could Help Solve Space Junk Problem” The post Lightweight Iodine Thruster Could Help Solve Space Junk Problem appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

An Active Galaxy That Erupts Predictably Every 114 Days Or So Computers are known for their ability to spot patterns.  It’s what they are good at, and over the last 50+ years they have continued to improve.  But they only know how to spot patterns if they know where to look for them in data.  So sometimes, it falls to a human to truly see a … Continue reading “An Active Galaxy That Erupts Predictably Every 114 Days Or So” The post An Active Galaxy That Erupts Predictably Every 114 Days Or So appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A New Idea to Harness Energy From Black Holes A new study by an international team shows how the physics of a black hole’s event horizon could allow us to harness limitless energy from them someday. The post A New Idea to Harness Energy From Black Holes appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Starships Will be Launching From These Oil Drilling Platforms Bought by SpaceX SpaceX has just acquired two former oil drilling rigs off the coast of Texas, which it is converting into launch facilities called Phobos and Deimos The post Starships Will be Launching From These Oil Drilling Platforms Bought by SpaceX appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

3-D Printing on the Moon. From Regolith to Paste to Useful Objects and Structures In the academic literature, review papers are widespread, and can help ground discussion on a specific topic by bringing new researchers up to speed as well as allowing experienced hands to catch up on some topics they might have otherwise missed.  Anytime a new one on a topic of space exploration is published, it helps … Continue reading “3-D Printing on the Moon. From Regolith to Paste to Useful Objects and Structures” The post 3-D Printing on the Moon. From Regolith to Paste to Useful Objects and Structures appeared first onRead More →

Massive Binary Stars Huddle Up Surprisingly Quickly Dancing is a favorite pastime of many couples.  Swinging around a dance floor, using the laws of physics to twirl at just the right moment, and hopefully not step on any toes, is an art unto itself.  The same laws of physics that govern couples on a dance floor also govern (to some extent) the … Continue reading “Massive Binary Stars Huddle Up Surprisingly Quickly” The post Massive Binary Stars Huddle Up Surprisingly Quickly appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Largest Sea On Titan Could Be Over 300 Meters Deep The Earth’s oceans are notoriously unexplored, and stand as a monument to the difficult of exploring underwater.  But they aren’t the only unexplored seas in the solar system.  Titan’s vast collection of liquid methane lakes are another challenge facing future solar system explorers.  A submarine mission to Saturn’s largest moon has long been under discussion.  … Continue reading “The Largest Sea On Titan Could Be Over 300 Meters Deep” The post The Largest Sea On Titan Could Be Over 300 Meters Deep appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

You Can Actually See the Milky Way’s Wave When You Map Its Stars Spiral galaxies are one of the most commonly known types of galaxy.  Most people think of them as large round disks, and know that our Milky Way is counted among their number.  What most people don’t realize is that many spiral galaxies have a type of warping effect that, when you look at them edge … Continue reading “You Can Actually See the Milky Way’s Wave When You Map Its Stars” The post You Can Actually See the Milky Way’s Wave When You Map Its Stars appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

In Theory, Supermassive Black Holes Could get Even More Supermassive A new study proposes that the upper mass limit for black holes could be a million times larger than we thought. The post In Theory, Supermassive Black Holes Could get Even More Supermassive appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Universe in Formation. Hubble Sees 6 Examples of Merging Galaxies Audio narration by the author is available above 10 billion years ago, galaxies of the Universe were ablaze with the light of newly forming stars. This epic phase of history is known as  “Cosmic Noon” – the height of all star creation. Galaxies like our Milky Way aren’t creating stars at nearly the rates they … Continue reading “The Universe in Formation. Hubble Sees 6 Examples of Merging Galaxies” The post The Universe in Formation. Hubble Sees 6 Examples of Merging Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Virgin Orbit Successfully Launches a Batch of Satellites From an Airplane Virgin Orbit has successfully tested its new air-launch system (LauncherOne) that will deliver small satellites to orbit in the near future. The post Virgin Orbit Successfully Launches a Batch of Satellites From an Airplane appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The “Happy Face Crater” on Mars Has Been Changing Right Before Our Eyes Who has an even bigger grin than ten years ago? This goofy-looking crater on Mars. These two images were taken by the HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and shows how Mars’ surface is changing over time – in this case, due to thermal erosion. The first of … Continue reading “The “Happy Face Crater” on Mars Has Been Changing Right Before Our Eyes” The post The “Happy Face Crater” on Mars Has Been Changing Right Before Our Eyes appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Only 31 Magnetars Have Ever Been Discovered. This one is Extra Strange. It’s Also a Pulsar Some of the most stunningly powerful objects in the sky aren’t necessarily the prettiest to look at.  But their secrets can allow humanity to glimpse some of the more intricate details of the universe that are exposed in their extreme environs.  Any time we find one of these unique objects it’s a cause for celebration, … Continue reading “Only 31 Magnetars Have Ever Been Discovered. This one is Extra Strange. It’s Also a Pulsar” The post Only 31 Magnetars Have Ever Been Discovered. This one is Extra Strange. It’sRead More →

The One Place on the Space Station Astronauts Aren’t Supposed to Clean While most of us are now more fastidious about keeping our homes and workplaces clean, on board the International Space Station, cleanliness is imperative. Of high importance is anti-bacterial measures, since bacteria tends to build up in the constantly-recycled air inside the ISS. Every Saturday in space is “cleaning day” where surfaces are wiped down, … Continue reading “The One Place on the Space Station Astronauts Aren’t Supposed to Clean” The post The One Place on the Space Station Astronauts Aren’t Supposed to Clean appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →