Universe Today (Page 381)

Barred Spiral NGC 3895 Captured by Hubble NGC 3895 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation. It’s about 145 million light years away from our home, the Milky Way, and its diameter is about 45,000 light years. William Herschel discovered it way back in 1790. Now the Hubble Space Telescope has given us another gorgeous image of it. Thanks … Continue reading “Barred Spiral NGC 3895 Captured by Hubble” The post Barred Spiral NGC 3895 Captured by Hubble appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

New Simulations Show How Black Holes Grow, Through Mergers and Accretion One of the most pressing questions in astronomy concerns black holes. We know that massive stars that explode as supernovae can leave stellar mass black holes as remnants. And astrophysicists understand that process. But what about the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) like Sagittarius A-star (Sgr A*,) at the heart of the Milky Way? SMBHs can … Continue reading “New Simulations Show How Black Holes Grow, Through Mergers and Accretion” The post New Simulations Show How Black Holes Grow, Through Mergers and Accretion appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Want to Mine Ice on the Moon? Scientists Create a Map for Where to Start The first lunar maps consisted of simply the best images of the Moon from Earth-based telescopes, which were converted to provide necessary information for the Apollo astronauts. But whenever the next lunar explorers arrive, they’ll have incredibly detailed topographic maps of the Moon’s surface, thanks to the high-resolution cameras and instruments on board satellites like … Continue reading “Want to Mine Ice on the Moon? Scientists Create a Map for Where to Start” The post Want to Mine Ice on the Moon? Scientists Create a Map for Where to StartRead More →

The Meteor Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs Created a Vast Underground Hydrothermal System The Chicxulub impact event was an enormous catastrophe that left a huge imprint on the Earth’s surface. Not only did it cause the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, it left a crater 180 km (112 miles) in diameter, and deposited a worldwide layer of concentrated iridium in the Earth’s crust. But a new study shows … Continue reading “The Meteor Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs Created a Vast Underground Hydrothermal System” The post The Meteor Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs Created a Vast Underground Hydrothermal System appeared first onRead More →

How to See This Friday’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Eclipse season resumes on June 5th, with a fine penumbral lunar eclipse. The post How to See This Friday’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Black Hole Seen Blasting Out Jets at Close to the Speed of Light The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has spotted a distant black hole shooting out jets of material, at close to the speed of light. No worries, this beast is about 10,000 light years away from us. It’s more of a spectacle than a danger. But it’s a spectacle laden with scientific insights. I know what you might … Continue reading “Black Hole Seen Blasting Out Jets at Close to the Speed of Light” The post Black Hole Seen Blasting Out Jets at Close to the Speed of Light appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Huge Stars Can Destroy Nearby Planetary Disks Westerlund 2 is a star cluster about 20,000 light years away. It’s young—only about one or two million years old—and its core contains some of the brightest and hottest stars we know of. Also some of the most massive ones. There’s something unusual going on around the massive hot stars at the heart of Westerlund … Continue reading “Huge Stars Can Destroy Nearby Planetary Disks” The post Huge Stars Can Destroy Nearby Planetary Disks appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Rare “Ring Galaxy” Seen in the Early Universe Astronomers have discovered a collisional ring galaxy that existed when the Universe was just 3 billion years old, a find which could have implications for our theories on galactic evolution. The post Rare “Ring Galaxy” Seen in the Early Universe appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA and SpaceX Make History with Successful Crew Dragon Launch! NASA and SpaceX made history today with the launch of second demonstration flight of the Crew Dragon (Demo-2), which signalled the restoration of the US’ domestic launch capability! The post NASA and SpaceX Make History with Successful Crew Dragon Launch! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All Oh Planet Nine, when will you stop toying with us? Whether you call it Planet Nine, Planet X, the Perturber, Jehoshaphat, “Phattie,” or any of the other proposed names—either serious or flippant—this scientific back and forth over its existence is getting exhausting. Is this what it was like when they were arguing whether Earth is … Continue reading “Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All” The post Maybe the Elusive Planet 9 Doesn’t Exist After All appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

SN4, We Hardly Knew You. Another Starship Prototype Lost! SpaceX suffered yet another setback when their SN4 prototype exploded into a fireball during a static fire test of its single Raptor engine. The post SN4, We Hardly Knew You. Another Starship Prototype Lost! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Due to Weather Delay, NASA & SpaceX Push Historic Launch to Saturday This Saturday, NASA and SpaceX will make their second attempt to send astronauts to the ISS from US soil for the first time since 2011! The post Due to Weather Delay, NASA & SpaceX Push Historic Launch to Saturday appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map Even though Earthling scientists are studying Mars intently, it’s still a mysterious place. One of the striking things about Mars is all of the evidence, clearly visible on its surface, that it harbored liquid water. Now, all that water is gone, and in fact, liquid water couldn’t survive on the surface of the Red Planet. … Continue reading “Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map” The post Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients For the child inside all of us space-enthusiasts, there might be nothing better than discovering a new type of explosion. (Except maybe bigger rockets.) And it looks like that’s what’s happened. Three objects discovered separately—one in 2016 and two in 2018—add up to a new type of supernova that astronomers are calling Fast Blue Optical … Continue reading “A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients” The post A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

How to Make the Food and Water Mars-Bound Astronauts Will Need for Their Mission New technologies are being developed that will ensure astronauts have plenty of drinking water and food wherever resupply missions are not readily available The post How to Make the Food and Water Mars-Bound Astronauts Will Need for Their Mission appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Powerful Telescope Confirms There’s an Earth-Sized World Orbiting Proxima Centauri There is an Earth-sized planet only four light years from Earth. Whether it has life is yet to be known. The post Powerful Telescope Confirms There’s an Earth-Sized World Orbiting Proxima Centauri appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

On Mars, mud flows like lava One of the most striking features on Earth are the curious flows of lava as it cools, forming undulating ropes of rock known by the Hawaiian word pahoehoe. New research simulating conditions on Mars now reveals that the red planet has its own kind of pahoehoe…but made of mud. By and large, Mars is cold … Continue reading “On Mars, mud flows like lava” The post On Mars, mud flows like lava appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts This week, European engineers hot-fire tested a fully 3D-printed thrust chamber that could one day power the upper stages for rockets. The chamber has just three parts, and was constructed using additive layer manufacturing, another name for 3D printing.   This hot-fire test lasted 30 seconds and was carried out on May 26, 2020 at … Continue reading “This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts” The post This Rocket Engine’s Thrust Chamber was 3D-printed and Only has Three Parts appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

At cosmic distances, even the speed of light is really slow The speed of light is the absolute fastest thing in the universe, clocking in at a whopping 299,792,458 meters per second. At that speed, a beam of light could travel around the Earth’s entire equator in a mere 0.13 seconds. That’s…fast. And yet, when it comes to cosmic distances, it’s incredibly, frustratingly, boringly slow. The post At cosmic distances, even the speed of light is really slow appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium Rain Thanks to the success of the Kepler mission, we know that there are multitudes of exoplanets of a type called “Hot Jupiters.” These are gas giants that orbit so close to their stars that they reach extremely high temperatures. They also have exotic atmospheres, and those atmospheres contain a lot of strangeness, like clouds made … Continue reading “Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium Rain” The post Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium RainRead More →