Universe Today (Page 146)

Trump Signs an Executive Order Allowing Mining the Moon and Asteroids

By Matthew Williams - April 11, 2020 08:31 PM UTC | Space Policy

The Trump administration just signed an executive order that has given the green light to asteroid and lunar mining and other commercial ventures in space.

NASA's Plans For a Lunar Base Camp

By Matthew Williams - April 09, 2020 05:24 PM UTC | Space Exploration

In a recent report submitted to the National Space Council, NASA has detailed its plans for building a lunar base camp on the Moon that will allow for long-term stays there.

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half

By Evan Gough - April 09, 2020 04:53 PM UTC | Planetary Science

How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water?

By Matthew Williams - April 09, 2020 03:36 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A new study by an international team of astronomers raises questions about the existence of debris belts around red dwarf stars and how water could have been distributed within them.

New observations show that the Universe might not be expanding at the same rate in all directions

By Brian Koberlein - April 09, 2020 02:20 PM UTC | Cosmology

Seriously, Life Really Does Get Around. It was Found in Rocks Deep Beneath the Seafloor

By Evan Gough - April 08, 2020 04:18 PM UTC | Astrobiology

Study Finds Bizarre Exoplanet Orbits for Binary Stars

By David Dickinson - April 08, 2020 10:40 AM UTC | Exoplanets

There's an iconic scene in the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker looks out over the desert landscape of Tatooine at the amazing spectacle of a double sunset. Now, a new study out of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) suggests that such far-flung exoplanet worlds orbiting multiple stars may exist in misaligned orbits, far out of the primary orbital plane.

WFIRST Will Use Relativity to Find More Exoplanets!

By Matthew Williams - April 07, 2020 07:28 PM UTC | Exoplanets

When it deploys in 2025, NASA's WFIRST mission will rely on the gravitational microlensing technique to locate exoplanets near the center of our galaxy.

Astronomers Watched a Star System Die

By Evan Gough - April 07, 2020 04:21 PM UTC | Stars

How the World's Biggest Radio Telescope Could be Used to Search for Aliens

By Matthew Williams - April 07, 2020 02:15 PM UTC | Astrobiology

In the coming years, China's FAST radio telescope could join in the hunt for extraterrestrials thanks to a partnership with Breakthrough Listen.

Decaying Dark Matter Should be Visible Here in the Milky Way as a Halo Around the Galaxy

By Paul Sutter - April 07, 2020 01:16 PM UTC | Milky Way

Weekly Space Hangout: April 8, 2020 - Colonel Mike Mullane, Astronaut

By susie - April 07, 2020 12:39 PM UTC | Space Exploration

SpaceX Will be Flying Cargo to the Moon

By Matthew Williams - April 06, 2020 06:04 PM UTC | Space Exploration

SpaceX was recently awarded a contract through NASA's Gateway Logistics Services program to provide services to the Lunar Gateway

Astronomers are hoping to see the very first stars and galaxies in the Universe

By Paul Sutter - April 04, 2020 08:37 AM UTC | Cosmology

SpaceX's Third Starship Prototype Collapsed Last Night

By Matthew Williams - April 03, 2020 07:19 PM UTC | Space Exploration

SpaceX suffered another setback with its development of the Starship last night when a third prototype (SN3) suffered a structural failure during testing and collapsed.

Because of Coronavirus Lockdowns, Europe is Having the Same Drop in Pollution that we Saw in China

By Evan Gough - April 03, 2020 05:46 PM UTC | Site News

Want to Buy Flights on Starship? Here's the New SpaceX Payload User's Guide, no Prices, Unfortunately

By Matthew Williams - April 03, 2020 04:33 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Carnival of Space #657

By susie - April 03, 2020 03:18 PM UTC | Site News

Stratolaunch Shows Off its New Hypersonic Testing Vehicle

By Nancy Atkinson - April 03, 2020 12:38 PM UTC | Space Exploration

New Find Shows Uranus Loses Atmosphere to its Magnetic Field

By David Dickinson - April 03, 2020 10:00 AM UTC | Planetary Science

NASA's researchers at the Goddard Space Flight Center recently did just that, looking at Voyager 2's lone encounter with the planet Uranus to uncover an amazing find, as the planet seems to be losing its atmosphere to it's lop-sided magnetic field at a high rate.

Mapping Out the Water on the Moon

By Matthew Williams - April 02, 2020 05:37 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Using LRO data, the ESA recently created a map of water ice on the Moon, which will aid in future exploration and resource prospecting

Astronomers Define the "Really Habitable Zone". Planets Capable of Producing Gin and Tonic

By Evan Gough - April 02, 2020 03:50 PM UTC | Exoplanets

Five Snapshots of how the Earth Looked at Key Points in its History Could Help us Find Habitable Exoplanets

By Matthew Williams - April 01, 2020 06:19 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A study by Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute provides models of how Earth looked like over time, which could help us find habitable exoplanets

This Galaxy Has Only One Spiral Arm

By Evan Gough - April 01, 2020 04:58 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Astronaut Pee Will Help Build Bases on the Moon

By Matthew Williams - March 31, 2020 10:49 PM UTC | Space Exploration

In a strange development, a new ESA-supported study has shown that urine could actually help astronauts build bases on the Moon

SpaceX Almost Ready to Start Testing its Third Starship Prototype. Let's Hope it Doesn't Explode

By Matthew Williams - March 31, 2020 04:44 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Musk recently posted photos of the latest Starship prototype, which were recently assembled and shipped to Boca Chica to begin testing.

This Galaxy is the Very Definition of "Flocculent"

By Evan Gough - March 31, 2020 01:34 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Weekly Space Hangout: April 1, 2020 - Dr. Robert B. Hayes and Radiation Shielding in Space

By susie - March 31, 2020 09:19 AM UTC | Space Exploration

How were Supermassive Black Holes Already Forming and Releasing Powerful Jets Shortly After the Big Bang?

By Matthew Williams - March 30, 2020 03:45 PM UTC | Black Holes

A series of studies has shown that the seeds of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets existed much sooner than expected

Are the Gaps in These Disks Caused by Planets?

By Evan Gough - March 27, 2020 05:24 PM UTC | Exoplanets

How Will Clouds Obscure the View of Exoplanet Surfaces?

By Matthew Williams - March 27, 2020 04:52 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A new study shows how the presence of a cloud layer could make it harder for the James Webb Space Telescope to detect water on exoplanets.

The heliosphere looks a lot weirder than we originally thought

By Paul Sutter - March 27, 2020 01:50 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Highest Resolution Mosaic Image of the Surface of Bennu

By Nancy Atkinson - March 26, 2020 12:40 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Even More Repeating Fast Radio Bursts Discovered

By Matthew Williams - March 25, 2020 04:03 PM UTC | Extragalactic

The CHIME radio telescope array has detected nine new fast radio bursts on repeat, which are revealing things about this strange phenomenon

This Powerful Ion Engine Will Be Flying on NASA's DART Mission to Try and Redirect an Asteroid

By Evan Gough - March 25, 2020 03:06 PM UTC | Missions

Following Comet Y1 ATLAS: the 'Lost Comet' of Spring

By David Dickinson - March 25, 2020 11:10 AM UTC | Planetary Science

Got clear skies? If you're like us, you've been putting the recent pandemic-induced exile to productive use, and got out under the nighttime sky. And though 2020 has yet to offer up a good bright 'Comet of the Century' to keep us entertained, there have been a steady stream of good binocular comets for northern hemisphere viewers, including C/2017 T2 PanSTARRS and C/2019 Y4 ATLAS. This week, I'd like to turn your attention to another good binocular comet that is currently at its peak: the 'other' comet ATLAS, C/2019 Y1 ATLAS.

Weekly Space Hangout: March 25, 2020 - Amy Shira Teitel's Fighting for Space

By susie - March 24, 2020 11:03 PM UTC | Space Policy

Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden has Passed Away

By Matthew Williams - March 24, 2020 10:56 PM UTC | Space Exploration

The world recently lost another luminary, NASA astronaut Al Worden, who was part of the Apollo program and piloted the Endeavor around the Moon

How Researchers Produce Sharp Images of a Black Hole

By Matthew Williams - March 24, 2020 04:47 PM UTC | Black Holes

A new study by members of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has shown how new images of black holes can be used to identify the substructure of these mysterious objects

The three-body problem shows us why we can't accurately calculate the past

By Brian Koberlein - March 24, 2020 04:07 PM UTC | Physics

NASA Chooses 4 New Astronomy Space Missions for Additional Study

By Matthew Williams - March 23, 2020 08:18 PM UTC | Missions

NASA recently selected four new missions for development that will study gravitational waves, supernovae, relativistic jets, and exoplanet habitability.

Another Incredible Picture of Mars, This Time From a Region Just Outside Valles Marineris

By Matthew Williams - March 23, 2020 03:32 PM UTC | Planetary Science

An image taken by the MROs HiRISE camera showcases the types of terrain around part of Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system.

This is Foam, Made in Space

By Evan Gough - March 23, 2020 03:25 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Elon Musk says that SpaceX Has no Plans to Spin Off Starlink

By Matthew Williams - March 20, 2020 05:52 PM UTC | Space Policy

At the recent Satellite 2020 Conference & Exhibition, Elon Musk declared that Starlink will not become its own company in the foreseeable future.

Blazar Found Blazing When the Universe was Only a Billion Years Old

By Matthew Williams - March 19, 2020 07:56 PM UTC | Extragalactic

A team of European scientists have observed the most distant "blazar" to date, an active galaxy that was around when the Universe was less than 1 billion years old.

The Lunar Gateway is No Longer a Required Part of the Artemis Mission to Return to the Moon by 2024

By Matthew Williams - March 18, 2020 08:49 PM UTC | Space Exploration

As anticipated, NASA has announced that the Lunar Gateway will no longer be part of their "return to the Moon" with Project Artemis.

Weekly Space Hangout: March 18, 2020 - Dr. Meng Jin and Modeling Coronal Mass Ejections

By susie - March 17, 2020 06:54 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Dawn Patrol: Following this Month's 'March of the Planets'

By David Dickinson - March 17, 2020 12:10 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Are you hanging out at home this week, and looking to observe some naked eye planets? As we mentioned last week, while Venus is shining bright in the dusk sky, all of the other four naked eye planets of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury are skulking in the early dawn sky.

New Study Shows the Earth and Moon are not so Similar After All

By Matthew Williams - March 16, 2020 07:19 PM UTC | Planetary Science

A new study shows that Earth and the Moon are not as similar as we thought, which helps resolve a major issue with the predominant theory of how the Moon formed.

The Intense Heat from the Sun Helps Ice Form on Mercury. Wait... What?

By Nancy Atkinson - March 16, 2020 06:44 PM UTC | Planetary Science