Universe Today (Page 410)

Strange Grooves on Phobos Were Caused by Boulders Rolling Around on its Surface Back in the 1970s, NASA’s Mariner and Viking Missions were sent out to explore other planets in our Solar System. All three of them (there were two Viking missions) captured images of Mars’ moon Phobos during their travels. They were our first images of the tiny, potato-shaped moon, and the images held a mystery: strange … Continue reading “Strange Grooves on Phobos Were Caused by Boulders Rolling Around on its Surface” The post Strange Grooves on Phobos Were Caused by Boulders Rolling Around on its Surface appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

The Power of the Wobble: Finding Exoplanets in the Shifting of Starlight They say there’s more than one way to skin an interstellar cat, and in astronomy there’s more than one way to find alien exoplanets orbiting a distant star. With the recent shut-down of NASA’s prolific Kepler mission and its windfall of discoveries, it’s time to look towards the future, and towards alternatives. Dancing with the … Continue reading “The Power of the Wobble: Finding Exoplanets in the Shifting of Starlight” The post The Power of the Wobble: Finding Exoplanets in the Shifting of Starlight appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

Astronomers Finally Spot the Type of Star That Leads to Type 1C Supernovae Thanks to a recently-observed supernova in a distant galaxy, astronomers have been able to find what type of star leads to a Type Ic supernova. The post Astronomers Finally Spot the Type of Star That Leads to Type 1C Supernovae appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Carnival of Space #587 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #587 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 #587” The post Carnival of Space #587 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Chinese Fusion Experiment Reaches 100 Million Degrees Scientists at China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor set a new temperature record by super-heating plasma to six times the heat of the Sun! The post Chinese Fusion Experiment Reaches 100 Million Degrees appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Huge Asteroid Impact Crater Found Just Under the Ice in Greenland An international team of scientists have discovered what lay hidden under Arctic ice for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Using data primarily from NASA’s Operation IceBridge, they discovered one of the 25 largest impact craters anywhere on Earth. And its discovery may re-ignite an old climate debate. This impact crater is buried … Continue reading “Huge Asteroid Impact Crater Found Just Under the Ice in Greenland” The post Huge Asteroid Impact Crater Found Just Under the Ice in Greenland appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Super Earth Planet Found Around One of the Closest Stars to us. But it’s Probably a Terrible Place to Live The Red Dots and CARMENES projects recently announced the discovery of a super-Earth around Barnard’s Star, making it the second-closest exoplanet to Earth. The post Super Earth Planet Found Around One of the Closest Stars to us. But it’s Probably a Terrible Place to Live appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Lunar Outpost Shows off their New Rover that will Crawl the Moon, Searching for Resources Space technology company Lunar Outpost has unveiled their new Lunar Prospector rover that will explore the surface of the Moon to search for and map resources. The Lunar Prospector is designed to drill for and analyze sub-surface samples. The first of the smallish robots was recently demonstrated on simulated Lunar regolith at the Colorado School … Continue reading “Lunar Outpost Shows off their New Rover that will Crawl the Moon, Searching for Resources” The post Lunar Outpost Shows off their New Rover that will Crawl the Moon, Searching for ResourcesRead More →

New Comet V1 Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto Takes Observers by Surprise You just never know when it comes to comets. Here it is, mid-November, and we’d thought we had finished up writing about bright comets for 2018. That was, until this past weekend, when a flurry of messages flashed across the Yahoo! Comets mailing list hinting that a new, possibly bright comet had been discovered. Come Monday morning November 12th, long period Comet C/2018 V1 Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto was formally added to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet list. The post New Comet V1 Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto Takes Observers by Surprise appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

SpaceX Gives More Details on how their Starlink Internet Service Will Work. Less Satellites, Lower Orbit, Shorter Transmission times, Shorter Lifespans Professor Mark Handley of University College London has created a simulation that demonstrates how SpaceX’s space-based internet (Starlink) will work. The post SpaceX Gives More Details on how their Starlink Internet Service Will Work. Less Satellites, Lower Orbit, Shorter Transmission times, Shorter Lifespans appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

So Cool! Japanese Space Research Center will be Suspended Over a Moonlike Crater The architectural design behind Japan’s new space research center is mind-boggling. The futuristic building will incorporate elements of spacecraft design, which emphasize light weight and high functionality. The whole thing will be suspended over a man-made, Moon-like crater. The building will be a robotics research center that’s part of the Avatar X space research campus … Continue reading “So Cool! Japanese Space Research Center will be Suspended Over a Moonlike Crater” The post So Cool! Japanese Space Research Center will be Suspended Over a Moonlike Crater appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Going 1 Million Miles per Hour With Advanced Propulsion Advanced propulsion breakthroughs are near. Spacecraft have been stuck at slow chemical rocket speeds for years and weak ion drive for decades. However, speeds over one million miles per hour before 2050 are possible. There are surprising new innovations with technically feasible projects. NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is funding two high potential concepts. … Continue reading “Going 1 Million Miles per Hour With Advanced Propulsion” The post Going 1 Million Miles per Hour With Advanced Propulsion appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Honey, Where’s the Space Sperm? It’s in Low-Earth Orbit, Dear It’s always wise to be prepared for a disaster, but space sperm is taking it a little too far. Having things like food, water, and medicines on hand constitutes a reasonable level of preparation. But now one company wants to freeze your eggs and sperm in space. A new start-up called SpaceLife Origin has concocted … Continue reading “Honey, Where’s the Space Sperm? It’s in Low-Earth Orbit, Dear” The post Honey, Where’s the Space Sperm? It’s in Low-Earth Orbit, Dear appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Scientists are using artificial intelligence to see inside stars using sound waves How in the world could you possibly look inside a star? You could break out the scalpels and other tools of the surgical trade, but good luck getting within a few million kilometers of the surface before your skin melts off. The stars of our universe hide their secrets very well, but astronomers can outmatch … Continue reading “Scientists are using artificial intelligence to see inside stars using sound waves” The post Scientists are using artificial intelligence to see inside stars using sound waves appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

ARCHIMEDES: Digging into the ice on Europa with lasers To explore Europa for signs of life, NASA in investing in a number of technologies, which includes a laser-mining concept known as ARCHIMEDES The post ARCHIMEDES: Digging into the ice on Europa with lasers appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Gaia Spots an Enormous Ghost Galaxy Right Next Door that’s Being Dismantled by the Milky Way Astronomers combing through data from the ESA’s Gaia spacecraft have discovered what they’re calling a ghost galaxy. The galaxy, named Antlia 2 (Ant 2) is an extremely low-density dwarf galaxy that was formed in the early days of the universe. And it is being stripped of its mass by the tidal forces of the Milky … Continue reading “Gaia Spots an Enormous Ghost Galaxy Right Next Door that’s Being Dismantled by the Milky Way” The post Gaia Spots an Enormous Ghost Galaxy Right Next Door that’s Being Dismantled byRead More →

An Extremely Rare Gamma Ray Emitting Neutron Star Binary Has Been Found The VERITAS collaboration recently discovered a binary system with a very high-energy gamma-ray neutron star, the rarest and most extreme known object in the Universe. The post An Extremely Rare Gamma Ray Emitting Neutron Star Binary Has Been Found appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Catching Asteroid 3 Juno at Its Best Not all oppositions are created equal. This week’s target offers a good case in point, as asteroid 3 Juno reaches its most favorable viewing position for the decade. The post Catching Asteroid 3 Juno at Its Best appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Direct Observations of a Planet Orbiting a Star 63 Light-Years Away Using the Very Large Telescope, a team of ESO astronomers directly observed Beta Pictoris b over the course of four years and created a time-lapse video of its orbit. The post Direct Observations of a Planet Orbiting a Star 63 Light-Years Away appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 14, 2018: Paul Sutter’s “Your Place in The Universe” Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org) Dr. Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist and science educator – and now AUTHOR – is no stranger to the regular viewers of the WSH – but in case … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 14, 2018: Paul Sutter’s “Your Place in The Universe”” The post Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 14, 2018: Paul Sutter’s “Your Place in The Universe” appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →