The JWST is taking a break from studying the distant Universe and has trained its infrared eye on the heart of the Milky Way. The world’s most powerful space telescope has uncovered some surprises and generated some stunning images of the Milky Way’s galactic center (GC.) It’s focused on an enormous star-forming region called Sagittarius C (Sgr C).
Continue reading “Webb’s Infrared Eye Reveals the Heart of the Milky Way”If You’re Trying to Prevent an Asteroid Impact, the Technical and Political Challenges are Staggering
While preparing for the threat of an asteroid strike might seem like a hypothetical exercise, it’s really not. The Solar System has calmed down a lot from earlier times when impacts were more frequent. But it is only a matter of time before an asteroid heads straight for Earth. The probability of an impact is not zero.
Equally as difficult as determining when one will come for us is the task of getting humanity to cooperate and prepare for it.
Continue reading “If You’re Trying to Prevent an Asteroid Impact, the Technical and Political Challenges are Staggering”A Galaxy Only 350 Million Years Old Had Surprising Amounts of Metal
Astrophysicists working with the JWST have found a surprising amount of metal in a galaxy only 350 million years after the Big Bang. How does that fit in with our understanding of the Universe?
Continue reading “A Galaxy Only 350 Million Years Old Had Surprising Amounts of Metal”A Robotic Chemist Could Whip up the Perfect Batch of Oxygen on Mars
Humans on Mars will need oxygen, and Mars’ atmosphere is pretty anemic when it comes to the life-sustaining element. NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully extracted oxygen from CO2 in Mars’ atmosphere, but there are other ways to acquire it. There seem to be vast amounts of water buried under the Martian surface, and oxygen in the water is just waiting to be set free from its bonds with hydrogen.
On Earth, that’s no problem. Just run an electrical current through water, and you get oxygen. But Mars won’t give up its oxygen so easily.
Continue reading “A Robotic Chemist Could Whip up the Perfect Batch of Oxygen on Mars”ALMA Takes Next-Level Images of a Protoplanetary Disk
The ESO’s Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is perched high in the Chilean Andes. ALMA is made of 66 high-precision antennae that all work together to observe light just between radio and infrared. Its specialty is cold objects, and in recent years, it has taken some stunning and scientifically illuminating images of protoplanetary disks and the planets forming in them.
But its newest image supersedes them all.
Continue reading “ALMA Takes Next-Level Images of a Protoplanetary Disk”We’re Entering a New Age When Spacecraft Communicate With Lasers
In October 2023, NASA launched its long-awaited on-again, off-again Psyche mission. The spacecraft is on its way to study the metal-rich asteroid 16-Psyche, an M-type asteroid that could be the remnant core of a planetesimal that suffered a collision long ago. But understanding the giant, metal-rich asteroid isn’t the Psyche mission’s only goal.
It’s also testing a new laser communication technology.
Continue reading “We’re Entering a New Age When Spacecraft Communicate With Lasers”Can a Dead Star Keep Exploding?
In September 2022, an automated sky survey detected what seemed to be a supernova explosion about one billion light-years away. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) spotted it and gave it the name AT2022tsd. But something was different about this supernova. Supernovae explode and shine brightly for months, while AT2022tsd exploded brightly and then faded within days.
Continue reading “Can a Dead Star Keep Exploding?”Hubble Succeeds Where TESS Couldn’t: It Measured the Nearest Transiting Earth-Sized Planet
Twenty-two light-years away, a rocky world orbits a red dwarf. It’s called LTT 1445Ac, and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) found it in 2022. However, TESS was unable to gauge the small planet’s size.
That’s okay. The venerable Hubble took care of it.
Continue reading “Hubble Succeeds Where TESS Couldn’t: It Measured the Nearest Transiting Earth-Sized Planet”Take a Plunge Into the Ice Giants
Our Solar System’s ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, have been largely left out of the planetary probe game. While all of the other planets—including even the demoted Pluto—have been the subjects of dedicated missions, the ice giants have not. In fact, the only spacecraft to ever even fly by Uranus and Neptune was Voyager 2 in the late 1980s.
Continue reading “Take a Plunge Into the Ice Giants”JWST Follows Neon Signs Toward New Thinking on Planet Formation
Everyone knows that the James Webb Space Telescope is a ground-breaking infrared space telescope that’s helping us better understand the cosmos. The JWST’s discerning infrared eyes are deepening our understanding of everything from exoplanets to primitive galaxies to the birth of stars.
But it’s not the first ground-breaking infrared space telescope we’ve launched. There was IRAS, then ISO, then the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer is the JWST’s most recent infrared predecessor, and the JWST is observing one of the same targets that the Spitzer did, taking note of some puzzling changes.
Continue reading “JWST Follows Neon Signs Toward New Thinking on Planet Formation”