Universe Today (Page 387)

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll Apollo 13 was supposed to be the third mission to land humans on the Moon. But on the night of April 13th, 1970, an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s Service Module exploded. And so began the most perilous but eventually triumphant situation ever encountered in human spaceflight. The explosion crippled the Apollo 13 Command Module … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth Comet breakups are a timely topic right now. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov just broke into at least two pieces. And though that comet is speeding out of the Solar System, never to be seen again, most of them don’t leave the Solar System. Most of them orbit the Sun, and return to the inner Solar … Continue reading “When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth” The post When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth appeared first onRead More →

Carnival of Space #658-659 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #658-659. 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 #658-659” The post Carnival of Space #658-659 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars The ESA has entered into a lucrative collaboration to help NASA get its Martian rock samples back to Earth. The post This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids The Trump administration just signed an executive order that has given the green light to asteroid and lunar mining and other commercial ventures in space. The post Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Plans For a Lunar Base Camp In a recent report submitted to the National Space Council, NASA has detailed its plans for building a lunar base camp on the Moon that will allow for long-term stays there. The post NASA’s Plans For a Lunar Base Camp appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half In 2019, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered a comet, which now bears his name. There’s a long history of amateur astronomers discovering comets, as they approach our inner Solar System on their elongated orbits. But this one was different: it was moving much too fast to be gravitationally bound to the Sun. It was an … Continue reading “Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half” The post Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water? A new study by an international team of astronomers raises questions about the existence of debris belts around red dwarf stars and how water could have been distributed within them. The post How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

New observations show that the Universe might not be expanding at the same rate in all directions When we look at the world around us, we see patterns. The Sun rises and sets. The seasons cycle through the year. The constellations drift across the night sky. As we’ve studied these patterns, we’ve developed scientific laws and theories that help us understand the cosmos. While our theories are powerful, they are still rooted … Continue reading “New observations show that the Universe might not be expanding at the same rate in all directions” The post New observations show that the Universe might not be expanding atRead More →

Seriously, Life Really Does Get Around. It was Found in Rocks Deep Beneath the Seafloor After a lot of hard work spanning many years, a team of scientists have discovered something surprising. They’ve found abundant bacterial life in tiny cracks in undersea volcanic rock in the Earth’s crust. The bacteria are thriving in clay deposits inside these tiny cracks. This discovery is generating new excitement around the hope of finding … Continue reading “Seriously, Life Really Does Get Around. It was Found in Rocks Deep Beneath the Seafloor” The post Seriously, Life Really Does Get Around. It was Found in Rocks Deep Beneath the SeafloorRead More →

Study Finds Bizarre Exoplanet Orbits Around Binary Stars There’s an iconic scene in the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker looks out over the desert landscape of Tatooine at the amazing spectacle of a double sunset. Now, a new study out of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) suggests that such far-flung exoplanet worlds orbiting multiple stars may exist in misaligned orbits, far out of the primary orbital plane. The post Study Finds Bizarre Exoplanet Orbits Around Binary Stars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

WFIRST Will Use Relativity to Find More Exoplanets! When it deploys in 2025, NASA’s WFIRST mission will rely on the gravitational microlensing technique to locate exoplanets near the center of our galaxy. The post WFIRST Will Use Relativity to Find More Exoplanets! appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Watched a Star System Die About 570 light years from Earth lies WD 1145+017, a white dwarf star. In many respects it’s a typical white dwarf star. Its mass is about 0.6 solar masses, and its temperature is about 15,900 Kelvin. But five years ago, a team of astronomers wrote a paper on the white dwarf, showing that something unusual … Continue reading “Astronomers Watched a Star System Die” The post Astronomers Watched a Star System Die appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

How the World’s Biggest Radio Telescope Could be Used to Search for Aliens In the coming years, China’s FAST radio telescope could join in the hunt for extraterrestrials thanks to a partnership with Breakthrough Listen. The post How the World’s Biggest Radio Telescope Could be Used to Search for Aliens appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Decaying dark matter should be visible here in the Milky Way as a halo around the galaxy Astronomers are very sure that dark matter exists, but they’re not sure at all what it’s made of. The problem is that it isn’t just dark, it’s invisible. As far as we know, dark matter doesn’t emit light, absorb light, reflect light, refract light, scatter light, diffract light, or really have anything to do with … Continue reading “Decaying dark matter should be visible here in the Milky Way as a halo around the galaxy” The post Decaying dark matter should be visible here in the Milky WayRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: April 8, 2020 – Colonel Mike Mullane, Astronaut Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dave Dickinson (www.astroguyz.com / @astroguyz) Beth Johnson (@planetarypan) Veranika Klimovich ( @VeranikaSpace) This week we are excited to welcome Colonel Mike Mullane to the Weekly Space Hangout. Mike was selected as a Mission Specialist in 1978 in the first group of Space Shuttle Astronauts. He completed three space missions aboard the Shuttles … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: April 8, 2020 – Colonel Mike Mullane, Astronaut” The post Weekly Space Hangout: April 8, 2020 – Colonel Mike Mullane, Astronaut appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

SpaceX Will be Flying Cargo to the Moon SpaceX was recently awarded a contract through NASA’s Gateway Logistics Services program to provide services to the Lunar Gateway The post SpaceX Will be Flying Cargo to the Moon appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers are hoping to see the very first stars and galaxies in the Universe Sometimes it’s easy being an astronomer. When your celestial target is something simple and bright, the game can be pretty straightforward: point your telescope at the thing and just wait for all the juicy photons to pour on in. But sometimes being an astronomer is tough, like when you’re trying to study the first stars … Continue reading “Astronomers are hoping to see the very first stars and galaxies in the Universe” The post Astronomers are hoping to see the very first stars and galaxies in the Universe appeared first onRead More →

SpaceX’s Third Starship Prototype Collapsed Last Night SpaceX suffered another setback with its development of the Starship last night when a third prototype (SN3) suffered a structural failure during testing and collapsed. The post SpaceX’s Third Starship Prototype Collapsed Last Night appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Because of Coronavirus Lockdowns, Europe is Having the Same Drop in Pollution that we Saw in China The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is creating all kinds of chaos for human society. But for the dear old Earth, and the humans and creatures that breathe its air, it’s a bit of a reprieve. Mirroring what happened in China during lock-down, Europe is now seeing the same drop in air pollution. This … Continue reading “Because of Coronavirus Lockdowns, Europe is Having the Same Drop in Pollution that we Saw in China” The post Because of Coronavirus Lockdowns, Europe is Having the Same Drop inRead More →