Universe Today (Page 421)

There Are Winds Blowing On Pluto, Driven by Frozen Nitrogen Earth and Pluto don’t have much in common. Earth is a vibrant, living world, whereas Pluto is cold, distant and lifeless. But one thing they do have in common is nitrogen. Earth’s atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, and Pluto’s primary atmospheric constituent is also nitrogen, although the exact percentage is unclear. On Pluto, where the … Continue reading “There Are Winds Blowing On Pluto, Driven by Frozen Nitrogen” The post There Are Winds Blowing On Pluto, Driven by Frozen Nitrogen appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Did Neutrinos Stop The Early Universe From Annihilating Itself? We can create matter from energy in the lab. Particle accelerators do this all the time. When we do, half of what is created is matter and the other half antimatter. There is a symmetry in physics that requires matter and antimatter to appear in equal amounts. But when we look around the universe, what … Continue reading “Did Neutrinos Stop The Early Universe From Annihilating Itself?” The post Did Neutrinos Stop The Early Universe From Annihilating Itself? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Meteor Smashed Into Mars in 2005, Making this Crater NASA has repeatedly imaged the Martian surface, and sometimes a feature appears that wasn’t there in prior images. That’s what happened when a meteorite survived the plunge through Mars’ thin atmosphere sometime between February and July, 2005. It created this impact crater north of Valles Marineris. This image is from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging … Continue reading “A Meteor Smashed Into Mars in 2005, Making this Crater” The post A Meteor Smashed Into Mars in 2005, Making this Crater appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Record-Setting Space Travelers Return to Earth A trio of space travelers returned to Earth this morning from the International Space Station, including NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, at 326 straight days. Also coming home was ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who has now spent a total of 367 days in space … Continue reading “Record-Setting Space Travelers Return to Earth” The post Record-Setting Space Travelers Return to Earth appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Here Comes the Next Satellite Constellation. OneWeb Launches 34 Satellites on Thursday SpaceX has been garnering all the headlines when it comes to satellite constellations. Their Starlink system will eventually have thousands of tiny satellites working together to provide internet access, though only 242 of them have been deployed so far. But now another company is getting on the action: OneWeb. On Thursday February 6th, OneWeb will … Continue reading “Here Comes the Next Satellite Constellation. OneWeb Launches 34 Satellites on Thursday” The post Here Comes the Next Satellite Constellation. OneWeb Launches 34 Satellites on Thursday appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

Anti-Solar Cells Could Generate Electricity at Night A new study proposes how thermoradiative technology could be used to make “anti-solar” cells that would work at night. Credit: SolarReserve The post Anti-Solar Cells Could Generate Electricity at Night appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This is What the World Would Look Like if the Oceans Dried Up Don’t worry. The oceans aren’t going to dry up. At least not any time soon, so no need to add it to the list of things to worry about. But, what would our planet look like if they did? Dr. James O’Donoghue from JAXA decided to find out. 12 years ago NASA made a video … Continue reading “This is What the World Would Look Like if the Oceans Dried Up” The post This is What the World Would Look Like if the Oceans Dried Up appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

14% of all the Massive Stars in the Universe are Destined to Collide as Black Holes Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity predicted that black holes would form and eventually collide. It also predicted the creation of gravitational waves from the collision. But how often does this happen, and can we calculate how many stars this will happen to? A new study from a physicist at Vanderbilt University sought to answer these … Continue reading “14% of all the Massive Stars in the Universe are Destined to Collide as Black Holes” The post 14% of all the Massive Stars in the Universe are Destined to CollideRead More →

Neutrinos Have Been Detected With Such High Energy That The Standard Model Can’t Explain Them Although neutrinos are mysterious particles, they are remarkably common. Billions of neutrinos pass through your body every second. But neutrinos rarely interact with regular matter, so detecting them is a big engineering challenge. Even when we do detect them, the results don’t always make sense. For example, we’ve recently detected neutrinos that have so much … Continue reading “Neutrinos Have Been Detected With Such High Energy That The Standard Model Can’t Explain Them” The post Neutrinos Have Been Detected With Such High Energy That The Standard Model Can’t Explain ThemRead More →

Good-bye Spitzer. We’ll Miss You But We Won’t Forget You. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has reached the end of its life. Its mission was to study objects in the infrared, and it excelled at that since it was launched in 2003. But every mission has an end, and on January 30th 2020, Spitzer shut down. “Its immense impact on science certainly will last well beyond … Continue reading “Good-bye Spitzer. We’ll Miss You But We Won’t Forget You.” The post Good-bye Spitzer. We’ll Miss You But We Won’t Forget You. appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: February 5, 2020 – “More Things in the Heavens” with Dr. Michael Werner and Dr. Peter Eisenhardt Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Brian Koberlein (BrianKoberlein.com / @BrianKoberlein) Chris Carr (@therealCCarrAnnie Wilson Tonight we welcome Dr. Michael Werner and Dr. Peter Eisenhardt, authors of the new book More Things in the Heavens which looks at how infrared astronomy is aiding the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life, and is transforming our understanding of the … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: February 5, 2020 – “More Things in the Heavens” with Dr. Michael Werner and Dr. Peter Eisenhardt” The post Weekly Space Hangout: February 5,Read More →

An Upcoming Mission is Going to Assemble and Manufacture a Communications Antenna and Beam in Space A robotic payload known as SPIDER will be going to space soon to show that constructing everything from satellites to spacecraft in orbit is possible The post An Upcoming Mission is Going to Assemble and Manufacture a Communications Antenna and Beam in Space appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir Took a Space Selfie, Capturing her Reflection in the Space Station If there’s an award for “Selfie of the Year” NASA astronaut Jessica Meir just won it. Her Twitter account tweeted two images of her spacewalk shenanigans from January 26th, 2020. In one of the photos, she used one of the solar panels to reflect her image. That one shows the Earth in the background. The … Continue reading “NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir Took a Space Selfie, Capturing her Reflection in the Space Station” The post NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir Took a Space Selfie, Capturing her Reflection in the Space StationRead More →

Carnival of Space #649 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by me at the CosmoQuest blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #649And 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 to susie@wshcrew.space, and the … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #649” The post Carnival of Space #649 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Voyager 2 Went Into Fault Protection Mode, But Engineers Brought it Back Online NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft went into fault protection mode on Tuesday January 28th. The fault protection routines automatically protect the spacecraft in harmful conditions. Both Voyagers have these routines programmed into their systems. After it happened, NASA engineers were still in communication with the spacecraft and receiving telemetry. The fault protection stems from a maneuver … Continue reading “Voyager 2 Went Into Fault Protection Mode, But Engineers Brought it Back Online” The post Voyager 2 Went Into Fault Protection Mode, But Engineers Brought it Back Online appeared first on Universe Today. UniverseRead More →

Destructive Super Solar Storms Hit Us Every 25 Years Or So Solar storms powerful enough to wreak havoc on electronic equipment strike Earth every 25 years, according to a new study. And less powerful—yet still dangerous—storms occur every three years or so. This conclusion comes from a team of scientists from the the University of Warwick and the British Antarctic Survey. These powerful storms can disrupt … Continue reading “Destructive Super Solar Storms Hit Us Every 25 Years Or So” The post Destructive Super Solar Storms Hit Us Every 25 Years Or So appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This is the Spot Where ESA’s Schiaparelli Crashed Into Mars The MRO’s HiRISE camera recently snapped fresh images of where the ESA’s Schiaparelli lander crashed on the surface of Mars in 2016. The post This is the Spot Where ESA’s Schiaparelli Crashed Into Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

CHEOPS Just Opened Its Eyes to Start Studying Known Exoplanets, We Should See the First Picture in a Few Weeks The CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) spacecraft just opened the cover on its telescope. The spacecraft was launched on December 18th 2019 and has so far performed flawlessly. In one or two weeks we could get our first images from the instrument. CHEOPS is an ESA mission in partnership with Switzerland’s University of Bern. Its mission is not … Continue reading “CHEOPS Just Opened Its Eyes to Start Studying Known Exoplanets, We Should See the First Picture in a Few Weeks” The post CHEOPS Just Opened Its EyesRead More →

Astronomers See Space Twist Around A White Dwarf 12,000 Light Years Away The theory of general relativity is packed with strange predictions about how space and time are affected by massive bodies. Everything from gravitational waves to the lensing of light by dark matter. But one of the oddest predictions is an effect known as frame-dragging. The effect is so subtle it was first measured just a … Continue reading “Astronomers See Space Twist Around A White Dwarf 12,000 Light Years Away” The post Astronomers See Space Twist Around A White Dwarf 12,000 Light Years Away appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

This is the Highest Resolution Image Ever Taken of the Surface of the Sun The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) recently took its first image, which happens to be the highest-resolution image of the surface of the Sun to date. The post This is the Highest Resolution Image Ever Taken of the Surface of the Sun appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →