Universe Today (Page 386)

An ocean floor bacteria has been found with a totally bizarre metabolism Bacteria come in two basic forms: the kinds that use a lot of hydrogen, and the kinds that don’t. And recently researchers think they’ve found a new bacteria that appear to do both at the same time, allowing it to live in a variety of extreme environments, like the ocean floor. Its name is Acetobacterium … Continue reading “An ocean floor bacteria has been found with a totally bizarre metabolism” The post An ocean floor bacteria has been found with a totally bizarre metabolism appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

Rocket Lab was Able to Catch Falling Inert Rocket Stage With a Helicopter, Continuing Their Path to Reusability Just prior to the isolation order, commercial launch provider Rocket Lab conducted a successful mid-air recovery of a test stage, paving the way for reusable rockets. The post Rocket Lab was Able to Catch Falling Inert Rocket Stage With a Helicopter, Continuing Their Path to Reusability appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Catching the Peak of the 2020 April Lyrids Stuck at home with clear skies? We’re all in a similar situation, as the ongoing pandemic sees most of the worldwide amateur astronomy community observing from home or from their backyard. One astronomical sure-fire event coming up this week requires no special equipment: just a set of working Mk-1 eyeballs and a clear sky: the April Lyrids. The post Catching the Peak of the 2020 April Lyrids appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Might Have Imaged a Second Planet Around Nearby Proxima Centauri – and it Might Have a Huge Set of Rings A new study by a team using data from the Very Large Telescope’s SPHERE instrument, may have caught a direct image of Proxima c (which could have a system of rings) The post Astronomers Might Have Imaged a Second Planet Around Nearby Proxima Centauri – and it Might Have a Huge Set of Rings appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Betelgeuse Is Bright Again Everyone’s favorite red supergiant star is bright again. The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) has been tracking Betelgeuse as it has gradually returned to its more normal brilliance. As of this writing, it is about 95% of its typical visual brightness. Supernova fans will have to wait a bit longer. Betelgeuse created quite … Continue reading “Betelgeuse Is Bright Again” The post Betelgeuse Is Bright Again appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Anak Krakatau Erupted a Few Days Ago. Here’s What it Looked Like From Space In between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra lies the Sunda Strait. And in the Sunda Strait lies the much smaller island of Anak Krakatau, one of Earth’s active volcanoes. It’s erupted more than 50 times in the past 2,000 years, and now it’s doing it again. The volcano has been erupting off and … Continue reading “Anak Krakatau Erupted a Few Days Ago. Here’s What it Looked Like From Space” The post Anak Krakatau Erupted a Few Days Ago. Here’s What it Looked Like From Space appeared first onRead More →

Why was there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Neutrinos might give us the answer The universe is filled with matter, and we don’t know why. We know how matter was created, and can even create matter in the lab, but there’s a catch. Every time we create matter in particle accelerators, we get an equal amount of antimatter. This is perfectly fine for the lab, but if the big … Continue reading “Why was there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Neutrinos might give us the answer” The post Why was there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Neutrinos might giveRead More →

Gravity is tested down to a scale smaller than the thickness of a human hair Gravity was the first force of nature to be realized, and in the centuries since we first cracked the code of that all-pervasive pulling power, scientists have continually come up with clever ways to test our understanding. And it’s no surprise why: the discovery of a new wrinkle in the gravitational force could open up … Continue reading “Gravity is tested down to a scale smaller than the thickness of a human hair” The post Gravity is tested down to a scale smaller than the thickness of a human hairRead More →

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence 50 years ago today, on April 17, 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 came home. Safely. Successfully. The world breathed a collective sigh of relief as they watched NASA turn a disaster into one of the most dramatic and happy endings ever. The flight of Apollo 13 was unlike any other Apollo mission, and the … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

An Earth-Sized World Orbiting in its Star’s Habitable Zone Was Found in Older Kepler Data Searching through archival Kepler data has revealed another exoplanet around Kepler-1649, the most Earth-like exoplanet discovered to date The post An Earth-Sized World Orbiting in its Star’s Habitable Zone Was Found in Older Kepler Data appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it Formed ‘Oumuamua caused quite a stir when it visited our Solar System in 2017. It didn’t stay long, however, and when it was spotted with the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii on October 19th, it was already leaving. But its appearance in our part of the Universe spawned a lot of conjecture on its nature and its … Continue reading “Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it Formed” The post Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it FormedRead More →

Light Behaves Really Strangely Around a Black Hole A new study led by Caltech researchers show that light can be reflected off of a black hole’s disk by its powerful gravity. The post Light Behaves Really Strangely Around a Black Hole appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time. Spoiler: Insanely Fast In some ways, brown dwarfs are nature’s stellar oddballs. A lot of stars exhibit strange behaviour at different times in their evolution. But brown dwarfs aren’t even certain that they’re stars at all. But that doesn’t mean astronomers don’t want to study and understand them. Brown dwarfs occupy a niche in the Universe. They’re more … Continue reading “Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time. Spoiler: Insanely Fast” The post Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time.Read More →

Wheels and Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover The Perseverance rover was recently integrated with its wheels and Mars Helicopter, as part of its final preparations before launch this summer. The post Wheels and Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries Following the explosion of an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s Service Module on April 13, 1970, approximately 56 hours into the mission, the situation was bleak. With the Command Module (CM) without any power, the Lunar Module (LM) was activated as a life boat to sustain the crew. The task ahead – to save the … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year The Coronavirus shutdown has given us an unprecedented opportunity to look at our civilization a little differently. We all have our own ground-level view of life during this pandemic, but our satellites are giving us another look at this Earthly pause on a grand scale. The latest view comes from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus … Continue reading “Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year” The post Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Comet Y4 ATLAS Breaks Up…Enter Comet F8 SWAN When it comes to comets, the only thing that is certain is the orbit. Though the cosmos has yet to send us a really bright comet for 2020 to keep us occupied during the ongoing worldwide pandemic and lock down, it has sent us a steady stream of descent binocular comets, including C/2017 T2 PanSTARRS, C/2019 Y1 ATLAS, and C/2019 Y4 ATLAS. And though Y4 ATLAS won’t be match the “Comet of the Century” hype, another interesting binocular comet has just made its presence known over the past weekend: C/2020 F8 SWAN. The post Comet Y4 ATLASRead More →

Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell As the COVID-19 disease continues to wreak its viral havoc on the human population of Earth, governments around the world have closed their schools, shut down non-essential businesses, and told their citizens to stay at home as much as possible. In other words, there’s a lot less human activity on our planet, and it’s led … Continue reading “Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell” The post Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today 200 million years ago, a mass extinction event wiped out about 76% of all species on Earth—both terrestrial and marine. That event was called the end-Triassic extinction, or the Jurassic-Triassic (J-T) extinction event. At that time, the world experienced many of the same things as Earth is facing now, including a warming climate and the … Continue reading “During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today” The post During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same AmountRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age Millennials with Laura Forczyk Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Brian Koberlein (BrianKoberlein.com / @BrianKoberlein) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Chris Carr (@therealCCarr) This week we are please to welcome Laura Forczyk to the Weekly Space Hangout. Laura is the owner of space consulting firm Astralytical specializing in space science, industry, and policy, and offering space career coaching services. … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age Millennials with Laura Forczyk” The post Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age MillennialsRead More →