Universe Today (Page 389)

During A Lunar Eclipse, It’s A Chance To See Earth As An Exoplanet There are several ways to look for alien life on distant worlds. One is to listen for radio signals these aliens might send, such as SETI and others are doing, but another is to study the atmospheres of exoplanets to find bio-signatures of life. But what might these signatures be? And what would they appear … Continue reading “During A Lunar Eclipse, It’s A Chance To See Earth As An Exoplanet” The post During A Lunar Eclipse, It’s A Chance To See Earth As An Exoplanet appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Phew, Earth-Watching DSCOVR is Operational Again Rejoice! If you’ve missed your daily fix of seeing views of our rotating Earth from space, NOAA announced that its Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is now back in action. The deep space satellite, which produces incredible full-disk images of our Blue Marble, has been offline since June 27, 2019 because of a problem with … Continue reading “Phew, Earth-Watching DSCOVR is Operational Again” The post Phew, Earth-Watching DSCOVR is Operational Again appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Carnival of Space #653 Welcome to the 653rd 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: Betelgeuse Is Brightening AgainAfter a Challenging First Year … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #653” The post Carnival of Space #653 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA is Planning to Build a Lunar Rover With a 1-Meter Drill to Search for Water Ice Meet VIPER, NASA’s new lunar rover, equipped with a drill to probe the Moon’s surface and look for water ice. VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will carry a one-meter drill and will use it to map out water resources at the Moon’s south pole. It’s scheduled to be on the lunar surface by … Continue reading “NASA is Planning to Build a Lunar Rover With a 1-Meter Drill to Search for Water Ice” The post NASA is Planning to Build a Lunar Rover With a 1-MeterRead More →

Magnetic Fields Around Mars InSight are 10x Stronger than Scientists Expected Data from the first year of the InSight mission has just been released, and its revealing some unexpected things about Mars’ magnetic fields. The post Magnetic Fields Around Mars InSight are 10x Stronger than Scientists Expected appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

3 Billion Years Ago, the World Might Have Been a Waterworld, With No Continents At All Evidence from an ancient section of the Earth’s crust suggest that Earth was once a water-world, some three billion years ago. If true, it’ll mean scientists need to reconsider some thinking around exoplanets and habitability. They’ll also need to reconsider their understanding of how life began on our planet. A new paper presents these results … Continue reading “3 Billion Years Ago, the World Might Have Been a Waterworld, With No Continents At All” The post 3 Billion Years Ago, the World Might Have Been a Waterworld, With NoRead More →

Introducing Analog Sky’s 3D-Printed Giant Binoculars Update: we’re happy to announce that Analog Sky is making a special offer just for Universe Today readers for its new giant binoculars. A unique, crowd-sourced, 3D-printed telescope is poised to revolutionize how we look at the sky. Late last year, we announced Oregon-based innovator and amateur astronomer Robert Asumendi’s plans to release the Analog … Continue reading “Introducing Analog Sky’s 3D-Printed Giant Binoculars” The post Introducing Analog Sky’s 3D-Printed Giant Binoculars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Even Though it Was Observing an Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx Accidentally Spotted a Black Hole While the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was orbiting asteroid Bennu, one of the instruments on board happened to catch a glimpse of a black hole ‘out of the corner of its eye,’ so to speak. While intently focusing on the asteroid, the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) happened to catch the X-rays from a newly flaring stellar … Continue reading “Even Though it Was Observing an Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx Accidentally Spotted a Black Hole” The post Even Though it Was Observing an Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx Accidentally Spotted a Black Hole appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Astronomers Have Recorded the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe Hundreds of millions of light years away, a supermassive black hole sits in the center of a galaxy cluster named Ophiuchus. Though black holes are renowned for sucking in surrounding material, they sometimes expel material in jets. This black hole is the site of an almost unimaginably powerful explosion, created when an enormous amount of … Continue reading “Astronomers Have Recorded the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe” The post Astronomers Have Recorded the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Another Reminder that Spaceflight is Difficult. Starship Prototype Explodes and Falls Over SpaceX suffered another setback when its Starship prototype SN1 exploded during a loading test – similar to what happened to the last prototype. The post Another Reminder that Spaceflight is Difficult. Starship Prototype Explodes and Falls Over appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Here’s a New Planetary Nebula for Your Collection: CVMP 1 Some stars die a beautiful death, ejecting their outer layers of gas into space, then lighting it all up with their waning energy. When that happens, we get a nebula. Astronomers working with the Gemini Observatory just shared a new image of one of these spectacular objects. It’s called CVMP 1 and it’s a planetary … Continue reading “Here’s a New Planetary Nebula for Your Collection: CVMP 1” The post Here’s a New Planetary Nebula for Your Collection: CVMP 1 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

What is the Steady State Hypothesis? When it comes to cosmological theories, the Big Bang theory has historically had only one big contender – the Steady State Hypothesis The post What is the Steady State Hypothesis? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

What is a Generation Ship? The concept of a Generation Ship is a time-honored one, but is it the best way to send an interstellar mission to colonize a distant planet? The post What is a Generation Ship? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Picture of Earth’s New Temporary Moon With the excitement and interest in the newly discovered ‘mini-moon’ found orbiting Earth, astronomers quickly set their sights on trying to get more details, to determine what this object actually is. Using the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, a group of astronomers captured a clearer view of this so-called Temporarily Captured Object (TCO), named 2020 CD3. … Continue reading “A Picture of Earth’s New Temporary Moon” The post A Picture of Earth’s New Temporary Moon appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Riding the Wave of a Supernova to Go Interstellar A new paper by two Harvard professors explores the idea of using supernova as a means of high-speed interstellar travel – something advanced alien species could be doing right now! The post Riding the Wave of a Supernova to Go Interstellar appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Commercial Satellite Just Docked with Another for the First Time, Opening Up a New Era in Orbital Maintenance SpaceLogistics LLC has achieved a first: it’s docked it’s maintenance satellite, called MEV-1, with another satellite in order to extend the life of the satellite. The docked pair will perform some check-ups, and if all goes well, MEV-1 will boost the client satellite to a higher orbit, extending its operational life-span by about five years. … Continue reading “A Commercial Satellite Just Docked with Another for the First Time, Opening Up a New Era in Orbital Maintenance” The post A Commercial Satellite Just Docked with AnotherRead More →

Astronomers Discover a Tiny New Temporary Moon for the Earth. Welcome to the Family 2020 CD3 Astronomers are increasingly interested in Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs. There are ongoing efforts to find them all and catalog them all, and to find out which ones might pose a collision threat. Now some astronomers with the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey have found a new, tiny, temporary moon for Earth. On February 15th, astronomers Teddy … Continue reading “Astronomers Discover a Tiny New Temporary Moon for the Earth. Welcome to the Family 2020 CD3” The post Astronomers Discover a Tiny New Temporary Moon for the Earth. Welcome to theRead More →

Look down into a pit on Mars. The caved-in roof of a lava tube could be a good place to explore on the Red Planet Want to look inside a deep, dark pit on Mars? The scientists and engineers from the NASA’s HiRISE Camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have done just that. From its orbit about 260 km (160 miles) above the surface, HiRISE can this camera can spot something as small as a dinner table, about a … Continue reading “Look down into a pit on Mars. The caved-in roof of a lava tube could be a good place to explore onRead More →

Future Astronauts Could Enjoy Fresh Vegetables From an Autonomous Orbital Greenhouse A team from a Russian polytechnic university is working on an autonomous space module where fresh vegetables could be grown for astronauts. The post Future Astronauts Could Enjoy Fresh Vegetables From an Autonomous Orbital Greenhouse appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

The Life of Katherine Johnson Shows that ‘Hidden Figures’ Are Important to History NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson did more than just calculate rocket trajectories for early space missions. Her story, when it was finally told, completely changed people’s perceptions about who has been – and who can be — important in history. Margot Lee Shetterly, who wrote about Johnson’s life in the book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream … Continue reading “The Life of Katherine Johnson Shows that ‘Hidden Figures’ Are Important to History” The post The Life of Katherine Johnson Shows that ‘Hidden Figures’ Are Important to History appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →