Universe Today (Page 388)

Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, to the WSH. As an astrophysicist, Andrew’s research interests include high energy time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical instrumentation and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). He is also the Principal Investigator for the Breakthrough Listen program. Andrew received his … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center” The post Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of BerkeleyRead More →

This Weekend’s Challenging Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Rounds Out the Summer Season The July 4th Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Ends a Rare Triple Eclipse Season The post This Weekend’s Challenging Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Rounds Out the Summer Season appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Complete and Total Mayhem in a Distant Galaxy Collision A cluster of galaxies is nothing trivial. The shocks, the turbulence, the energy, as all of that matter and energy merges and interacts. And we can watch all the chaos and mayhem as it happens. A team of astronomers are looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2255 with the European Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope, … Continue reading “Complete and Total Mayhem in a Distant Galaxy Collision” The post Complete and Total Mayhem in a Distant Galaxy Collision appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Here’s How Perseverance’s Helicopter Sidekick Will Deploy on Mars When NASA’s new Perseverance Martian rover launches in a little over a month it will have a small robotic stow-away on board.  Ingenuity is a small helicopter, with a fuselage about the size of a softball and two extending rotors that measure about 4 feet across.  It was attached to the bottom of the rover’s … Continue reading “Here’s How Perseverance’s Helicopter Sidekick Will Deploy on Mars” The post Here’s How Perseverance’s Helicopter Sidekick Will Deploy on Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

It might just be possible to see a light flash too when black holes merge Black hole merger events are some of the most energetic, fearsomely energetic events in all the cosmos. When black holes merge, they’re entirely invisible, the only evidence of the cataclysm some faint whisper of gravitational waves. Until now. LIGO, the gravitational-wave detector extraordinaire, has been spitting black hole mergers since 2015, racking up a few … Continue reading “It might just be possible to see a light flash too when black holes merge” The post It might just be possible to see a light flash too when black holes mergeRead More →

Rovers Will be Starting to Make Their Own Decisions About Where to Search for Life We all know how exploration by rover works. The rover is directed to a location and told to take a sample. Then it subjects that sample to analysis and sends home the results. It’s been remarkably effective. But it’s expensive and time-consuming to send all this data home. Will this way of doing things still … Continue reading “Rovers Will be Starting to Make Their Own Decisions About Where to Search for Life” The post Rovers Will be Starting to Make Their Own Decisions About Where to Search for LifeRead More →

Comet F3 NEOWISE May Perform in July Watch for comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE at dusk in late July… if it survives perihelion. The post Comet F3 NEOWISE May Perform in July appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A brand new magnetar found, it’s only 240 years old Magnetars are some of the most ridiculous objects in the universe. Composed of the densest material possible spinning faster than your kitchen blender, they generate the absolute most powerful magnetic fields the cosmos has ever seen – and astronomers have recently spotted a newborn. Neutron stars are made of the leftover cores of massive stars. … Continue reading “A brand new magnetar found, it’s only 240 years old” The post A brand new magnetar found, it’s only 240 years old appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Do Hot Jupiters Form Close in, or Do They Migrate? A Newly-Discovered Planet Might Help Answer This The recent discovery of a very young gas giant could offer clues about how “Hot Jupiters” form and whether or not they migrate over time. The post Do Hot Jupiters Form Close in, or Do They Migrate? A Newly-Discovered Planet Might Help Answer This appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Deep Down in Ocean Worlds, it’s Difficult to Tell Where the Oceans End and the Rock Begins We all know what water is. And what rock is. The difference is crystal clear. Well, here on Earth it is. But on other worlds? The difference might not be so clear. Among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way are who-knows-how-many exoplanets. Some number of them will be ocean worlds, completely … Continue reading “Deep Down in Ocean Worlds, it’s Difficult to Tell Where the Oceans End and the Rock Begins” The post Deep Down in Ocean Worlds, it’s Difficult to Tell Where theRead More →

More Evidence that Europa’s Oceans Could be Habitable At first glance, Jupiter’s moon Europa doesn’t seem much like Earth. It’s a moon, not a planet, and it’s covered in ice. But it does have one important thing in common with Earth: a warm, salty ocean. Now there’s even more evidence that Europa’s sub-surface ocean is habitable. Scientists at NASA have developed a new … Continue reading “More Evidence that Europa’s Oceans Could be Habitable” The post More Evidence that Europa’s Oceans Could be Habitable appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronaut Drops a Mirror During a Spacewalk. Now There’s Another Piece of Space Junk Oops. Dropping a mirror on Earth is only minor cause for concern, perhaps about the potential of some upcoming bad luck. Dropping a mirror while on a spacewalk means creating a potentially dangerous new piece of space junk, all while thousands of people watch it happen, streaming live.   A small mirror came loose from … Continue reading “Astronaut Drops a Mirror During a Spacewalk. Now There’s Another Piece of Space Junk” The post Astronaut Drops a Mirror During a Spacewalk. Now There’s Another Piece of Space Junk appeared first onRead More →

The Bare Minimum Number of Martian Settlers? 110 So you want to colonize Mars, huh? Well Mars is a long ways away, and in order for a colony to function that far from Earthly support, things have to be thought out very carefully. Including how many people are needed to make it work. A new study pegs the minimum number of settlers at … Continue reading “The Bare Minimum Number of Martian Settlers? 110” The post The Bare Minimum Number of Martian Settlers? 110 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Canada is Going to be Building Canadarm3 for the Artemis Missions When you need a robotic arm in space, you call in the experts. Over the past several decades, the Canadian Space Agency has expertly provided robotic arms for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. And now it will build the next-generation of robotic systems for going to the Moon, called Canadarm3. The CSA says … Continue reading “Canada is Going to be Building Canadarm3 for the Artemis Missions” The post Canada is Going to be Building Canadarm3 for the Artemis Missions appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Simulation of Sunsets on Other Worlds: From Venus to Titan A new tool from NASA Goddard allows us to witness what a sunset would look like on other bodies in the Solar System, from Venus to Uranus. The post A Simulation of Sunsets on Other Worlds: From Venus to Titan appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Learning to Live Sustainably on the Red Planet: Habitat Mars As the only Mars analog environment in the Southern hemisphere, Habitat Marte is conducting research that will allow humans to live on Mars someday The post Learning to Live Sustainably on the Red Planet: Habitat Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Do We Now Understand Why the Moon’s Near and Far Sides Look So Dramatically Different? The Moon is easily the most well-studied object in the Solar System, (other than Earth, of course.) But it still holds some puzzles for scientists. Why, for instance, is one side of the Moon so different from the other? The Moon is tidally-locked to Earth, so prior to space-flight, we only knew the one side. … Continue reading “Do We Now Understand Why the Moon’s Near and Far Sides Look So Dramatically Different?” The post Do We Now Understand Why the Moon’s Near and Far Sides Look So Dramatically Different?Read More →

Weekly Space Hangout: June 24, 2020 — Elizabeth Howell & Nicholas Booth, The Search for Life on Mars This week we are airing Fraser’s pre-recorded interview with Elizabeth Howell and Nicholas Booth, co-authors of the new book The Search for Life on Mars: The Greatest Scientific Detective Story of All Time. Their book documents our quest to find life on the Red Planet. Long-time viewers of the WSH will remember Elizabeth as one … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: June 24, 2020 — Elizabeth Howell & Nicholas Booth, The Search for Life on Mars” The post Weekly Space Hangout: June 24, 2020 — Elizabeth HowellRead More →

NASA Changes its Mind. It Will be Using Previously Flown Crew Dragons and Falcon 9 NASA has announced that starting next year, SpaceX will be able to reuse its Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 boosters to send astronauts to the ISS. The post NASA Changes its Mind. It Will be Using Previously Flown Crew Dragons and Falcon 9 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Another Collection of Newly Forming Planetary Systems. This Time from the Gemini Planet Imager Over the next decade, several very powerful telescopes will come online. Observing time on these ‘scopes will be in high demand, and their range of targets will span a whole host of topics in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosomology. One of the topics near the top of the list is exoplanets. But how will astronomers know … Continue reading “Another Collection of Newly Forming Planetary Systems. This Time from the Gemini Planet Imager” The post Another Collection of Newly Forming Planetary Systems. This Time from the Gemini Planet Imager appeared first onRead More →