Universe Today (Page 388)

SpaceIL Scraps its Plans to go Back to the Moon. Instead, it’s Got a New Secret “Significant Objective” for Beresheet 2 Mystery. Secrecy. A Need-To-Know Basis. These are the hallmarks of science. Wait a minute: no they’re not. So what’s with all the mysterious secret objective talk from SpaceIL about Beresheet2? The Beresheet moon lander, you’ll recall, was a privately-funded spacecraft that was spawned by the Google Lunar XPRIZE. It was one of the finalists for … Continue reading “SpaceIL Scraps its Plans to go Back to the Moon. Instead, it’s Got a New Secret “Significant Objective” for Beresheet 2” The post SpaceIL Scraps itsRead More →

Lakes on Titan Might Have Exotic Crystals Encrusted Around Their Shores Titan is a mysterious, strange place for human eyes. It’s a frigid world, with seas of liquid hydrocarbons, and a structure made up of layers of water, different kinds of ice, and a core of hydrous silicates. It may even have cryovolcanoes. Adding to the odd nature of Saturn’s largest moon is the presence of … Continue reading “Lakes on Titan Might Have Exotic Crystals Encrusted Around Their Shores” The post Lakes on Titan Might Have Exotic Crystals Encrusted Around Their Shores appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Hubble Finds Buckyballs in Space Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope have found a very complex molecule out there in space. Called Buckyballs, after renowned thinker Buckminster Fuller, they are a molecular arrangement of 60 carbon atoms (C60) in the rough shape of a soccer ball. Though it’s not the first time these exotic molecules have been spotted in … Continue reading “Hubble Finds Buckyballs in Space” The post Hubble Finds Buckyballs in Space appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Of Course Mars 2020 is Going to Get a New Name. NASA is Looking for Judges for an Upcoming Naming Contest NASA and its partner organizations are launching the “Name that Rover” competition, which gives students from all over the US a chance to name the Mars 2020 rover. The post Of Course Mars 2020 is Going to Get a New Name. NASA is Looking for Judges for an Upcoming Naming Contest appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Curiosity Sniffs a Spike in Methane. Could it be a Sign of Life? The Curiosity rover has detected another methane plume on Mars, once again raising the issue of whether or not there could be life somewhere beneath the surface. The post Curiosity Sniffs a Spike in Methane. Could it be a Sign of Life? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Third Falcon Heavy Launch Blasts 24 Payloads Into Orbit Including a Solar Sail. Doesn’t Quite Stick the Landing In what Elon Musk is calling their “most difficult” mission so far, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy rocket for the third time. The launch took place at 2:30 am ET Tuesday from a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was called STP-2, and Universe Today sent a photographer to capture all … Continue reading “Third Falcon Heavy Launch Blasts 24 Payloads Into Orbit Including a Solar Sail. Doesn’t Quite Stick the Landing” The post Third Falcon Heavy Launch Blasts 24 Payloads Into OrbitRead More →

Carnival of Space #617 Welcome to the 617th Carnival of Space! The Carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. We have a fantastic roundup today so now, on to this week’s worth of stories! Universe Today: Martian Clouds Might Start with Meteor Trails Through … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #617” The post Carnival of Space #617 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Hubble is the Ultimate Multitasker: Discovering Asteroids While it’s Doing Other Observations It looks like a poster of the famous Hubble Deep Field, marked with white streaks by a child, or put away carelessly and scratched in the process. But it’s not. The white streaks aren’t accidents; they’re the paths of asteroids. A couple years ago, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was observing very distant galaxies, some … Continue reading “Hubble is the Ultimate Multitasker: Discovering Asteroids While it’s Doing Other Observations” The post Hubble is the Ultimate Multitasker: Discovering Asteroids While it’s Doing Other Observations appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

Uranus’ Rings are Surprisingly Bright in Thermal Emissions New observations by ALMA and the VLT provide the most-detailed look yet at Uranus’ system of rings, revealing things about their temperature and particle distribution The post Uranus’ Rings are Surprisingly Bright in Thermal Emissions appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Messier 88 – the NGC 4501 Spiral Galaxy Located in the Coma Berenices constellation, about 50 to 60 million light-years from Earth, is the spiral galaxy known as Messier 88 The post Messier 88 – the NGC 4501 Spiral Galaxy appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Model Shows Greenland’s Ice Sheet Will Disappear Over the Next 1000 Years, Raising Sea Levels by 7 Meters Great news! Humankind’s greatest-ever engineering project is nearing completion. Soon we will have warmed the Earth enough to get rid of all those pesky ice sheets and other frozen areas. The finish line is in sight. If we all work together for the next thousand years, we’ll finally reach our goal! NASA has been tracking … Continue reading “NASA Model Shows Greenland’s Ice Sheet Will Disappear Over the Next 1000 Years, Raising Sea Levels by 7 Meters” The post NASA Model Shows Greenland’s Ice Sheet WillRead More →

Deep Space Atomic Clocks Will Help Spacecraft Answer, with Incredible Precision, if They’re There Yet How do spacecraft know where they are? There’s no GPS out there. Right now, it involves sending a signal to the spacecraft which the spacecraft then sends right back to Earth. The elapsed time reveals the distance. But on June 24th, that method could be replaced by something much more autonomous. The method of relaying … Continue reading “Deep Space Atomic Clocks Will Help Spacecraft Answer, with Incredible Precision, if They’re There Yet” The post Deep Space Atomic Clocks Will Help Spacecraft Answer, with Incredible Precision, if They’re There YetRead More →

Enceladus is Filled with Tasty Food for Bacteria As soon as the Cassini-Huygens mission arrived the Saturn system in 2004, it began to send back a number of startling discoveries. One of the biggest was the discovery of plume activity around the southern polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus’, which appears to be the result of geothermal activity and an ocean in the … Continue reading “Enceladus is Filled with Tasty Food for Bacteria” The post Enceladus is Filled with Tasty Food for Bacteria appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Want to Find Aliens? The Largest Dataset in the History of SETI has Been Released to the Public Breakthrough Listen has just released their latest analysis of the past three years of their SETI research, as well as all the info they collected in that time The post Want to Find Aliens? The Largest Dataset in the History of SETI has Been Released to the Public appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Stunning Image Shows How Saturn’s Tiny Moon Sculpts the Planet’s Rings The Cassini mission to Saturn ended a year and a half ago, but scientific results are still coming from all of the data it collected. When Cassini moved in closer to Saturn in its final months, it took a very detailed look at the gas giant’s rings, travelling between them and the planet itself. That … Continue reading “Stunning Image Shows How Saturn’s Tiny Moon Sculpts the Planet’s Rings” The post Stunning Image Shows How Saturn’s Tiny Moon Sculpts the Planet’s Rings appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Two Earthlike Worlds Found Orbiting a Red Dwarf Only 12.5 Light-Years Away The CARMENES project has detected two more Earth-like planets that orbit a red dwarf star just 12.5 light years away The post Two Earthlike Worlds Found Orbiting a Red Dwarf Only 12.5 Light-Years Away appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Competition Will Let You Name an Exoplanet When it comes to naming all those exoplanets that astronomers keep finding, it’s up to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to do the job. In an effort to reach out to the global community, they’re running a new contest. In honour of their 100 year anniversary, the IAU has organized the 100IAU NameExoWorlds event. “The … Continue reading “Competition Will Let You Name an Exoplanet” The post Competition Will Let You Name an Exoplanet appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies Ever Found Galaxy mergers are not particularly rare, but they are important events. Not only for the galaxies involved, but for scientists trying to piece together how galaxies evolve. Now, astronomers using ALMA have found the earliest example yet of merging galaxies. The pair of merging galaxies in question is called B14-65666, an unwieldy name, but scientifically … Continue reading “The Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies Ever Found” The post The Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies Ever Found appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This is the Closest OSIRIS-REx has Gotten to Bennu. Just 680 Meters Above the Asteroid NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been at asteroid Bennu since Dec. 3rd, 2018. On that day, it went from travelling to the asteroid to travelling around it. Since then it’s been surveying and mapping Bennu. Now OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) has reached a new milestone. On June 12th, the spacecraft executed … Continue reading “This is the Closest OSIRIS-REx has Gotten to Bennu. Just 680 Meters Above the Asteroid” The post This is the Closest OSIRIS-REx has Gotten to Bennu. Just 680 Meters Above the AsteroidRead More →

New Ideas to Reduce Muscle Loss During Spaceflight One of the obstacles to long space missions is the muscle loss that astronauts suffer from. It’s called atrophy, and NASA says that astronauts can lose up to 20% muscle mass during missions of only 5 to 11 days. This muscle loss affects what are called “anti-gravity muscles,” including calf muscles, the quadriceps and the … Continue reading “New Ideas to Reduce Muscle Loss During Spaceflight” The post New Ideas to Reduce Muscle Loss During Spaceflight appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →