Space and astronomy news
Do we have a planetary bias when it comes to understanding where life can perpetuate? It’s only natural that we do. After all, we’re on one.
However, planets may not be necessary for life, and a pair of scientists from Scotland and the USA are inviting us to reconsider the notion.
Continue reading “Does Life Really Need Planets? Maybe Not”
As a species, we’ve come to the awareness that we’re a minuscule part of a vast Universe defined by galaxy superclusters and the large-scale structure of the Universe. Driven by a healthy intellectual curiosity, we’re examining our surroundings and facing the question posed by Nature: how did everything get this way?
We only have incremental answers to that huge, almost infinitely-faceted question. And the incremental answers are unearthed by our better instruments, including space telescopes, which get better and more capable as time passes.
Enter the James Webb Space Telescope.
Continue reading “Webb Sees a Supercluster of Galaxies Coming Together”
The term quasar comes from quasi-stellar objects, a name that reflected our uncertainty about their nature. The first quasars were discovered solely because of their radio emissions, with no corresponding visual objects. This is surprising since quasars blaze with the light of trillions of stars.
In recent observations, the Hubble examined a historical quasar named 3C 273, the first quasar to be linked with a visual object.
Continue reading “Hubble Gets its Best Look At the First Quasar”
Sometimes in science you have to step back and take another look at underlying assumptions. Sometimes its necessary when progress stalls. One of the foundational questions of our day concerns the Fermi Paradox, the contradiction between what seems to be a high probability of extraterrestrial life and the total lack of evidence that it exists.
What assumptions underlie the paradox?
Continue reading “Advanced Civilizations Could be Indistinguishable from Nature”
When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more will visit in the future. There are obviously more of these objects out there, and the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to discover many more.
It’s possible that the Sun could capture an ISO or a rogue planet in the same way that some of the planets have captured moons.
It all comes down to phase space.
Continue reading “Here’s How Interstellar Objects and Rogue Planets Can be Trapped in the Solar System”
Are Primordial Black Holes real? They could’ve formed in the unusual physics that dominated the Universe shortly after the Big Bang. The idea dates back to the 1960s, but so far, the lack of evidence makes them purely hypothetical.
If they do exist, a new paper suggests they may be hiding in places so unlikely that nobody ever thought to look there.
Continue reading “Could Primordial Black Holes Be Hiding in Plain Sight?”
Our satellites are dispassionate observers of Earth’s climate change. From their vantage point they watch as pack ice slowly loses its hold on polar oceans, ice shelfs break apart, and previously frozen parts of the planet turn green with vegetation.
Now, scientists have compiled 35 years of satellite data showing that Antarctica is slowly, yet perceptibly, becoming greener.
Continue reading “Antarctica Has Gotten 10 Times Greener in 35 Years”
NASA has given SpaceX the contract to launch the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. A Falcon Heavy will send the rotorcraft and its lander on their way to Titan in 2028, if all goes according to plan, and the mission will arrive at Titan in 2034. Dragonfly is an astrobiology mission designed to measure the presence of different chemicals on the frigid moon.
Dragonfly will be the second craft to visit Titan, along with the Huygens probe and its short visit back in 2005.
Continue reading “Dragonfly is Going to Titan on a Falcon Heavy”
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have created the largest astrophysical simulation of the Universe ever. They used what was until recently the world’s most powerful supercomputer to simulate the Universe at an unprecedented scale. The simulation’s size corresponds to the largest surveys conducted by powerful telescopes and observatories.
Continue reading “A Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet”
There’s a new contender for your holiday fireplace video. This one comes from NASA, and features rocket engines and boosters to light up your days with Space Launch System holiday cheer.
Continue reading “The Holiday Fireplace Video We Needed”