Universe Today (Page 166)

Astronomers Might Have Seen a Star Just Disappear. Turning Straight to a Black Hole Without a Supernova

By Brian Koberlein - July 03, 2020 03:07 PM UTC | Black Holes

A brilliant blue star has disappeared from view, which could mean it became a black hole in a novel way.

Behold! The Martian Menu, Courtesy of Mars City Design!

By Matthew Williams - July 02, 2020 11:04 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Every year since 2012, Mars City Design hosts the Mars Feast Gala, where talented chefs create tantalizing entrees based on what future generations could grow on Mars.

It Was Almost Certainly an Asteroid Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs. In Fact, Volcanoes Might Have Helped Life Recover

By Evan Gough - July 02, 2020 04:54 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center

By Nancy Graziano - July 02, 2020 03:26 PM UTC | Astrobiology

This Weekend's Challenging Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Rounds Out the Summer Season

By David Dickinson - July 02, 2020 10:02 AM UTC | Observing

The July 4th Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Ends a Rare Triple Eclipse Season

Complete and Total Mayhem in a Distant Galaxy Collision

By Evan Gough - July 01, 2020 06:36 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Here's How Perseverance's Helicopter Sidekick Will Deploy on Mars

By Andy Tomaswick - July 01, 2020 12:08 AM UTC | Planetary Science

It might just be possible to see a light flash too when black holes merge

By Paul Sutter - June 30, 2020 09:50 PM UTC | Black Holes

Rovers Will be Starting to Make Their Own Decisions About Where to Search for Life

By Evan Gough - June 30, 2020 05:40 PM UTC | Astrobiology

Comet F3 NEOWISE May Perform in July

By David Dickinson - June 30, 2020 02:32 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Watch for comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE at dusk in late July... if it survives perihelion.

A brand new magnetar found, it's only 240 years old

By Paul Sutter - June 29, 2020 09:21 PM UTC | Stars

Do Hot Jupiters Form Close in, or Do They Migrate? A Newly-Discovered Planet Might Help Answer This

By Matthew Williams - June 29, 2020 07:42 PM UTC | Exoplanets

The recent discovery of a very young gas giant could offer clues about how "Hot Jupiters" form and whether or not they migrate over time.

Deep Down in Ocean Worlds, it's Difficult to Tell Where the Oceans End and the Rock Begins

By Evan Gough - June 29, 2020 07:26 PM UTC | Planetary Science

More Evidence that Europa's Oceans Could be Habitable

By Evan Gough - June 29, 2020 05:09 PM UTC | Astrobiology

Astronaut Drops a Mirror During a Spacewalk. Now There's Another Piece of Space Junk

By Nancy Atkinson - June 29, 2020 03:40 PM UTC | Space Exploration

The Bare Minimum Number of Martian Settlers? 110

By Evan Gough - June 29, 2020 12:44 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Canada is Going to be Building Canadarm3 for the Artemis Missions

By Nancy Atkinson - June 29, 2020 12:31 PM UTC | Missions

A Simulation of Sunsets on Other Worlds: From Venus to Titan

By Matthew Williams - June 27, 2020 05:22 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A new tool from NASA Goddard allows us to witness what a sunset would look like on other bodies in the Solar System, from Venus to Uranus.

Learning to Live Sustainably on the Red Planet: Habitat Mars

By Matthew Williams - June 26, 2020 10:58 PM UTC | Space Exploration

As the only Mars analog environment in the Southern hemisphere, Habitat Marte is conducting research that will allow humans to live on Mars someday

Do We Now Understand Why the Moon's Near and Far Sides Look So Dramatically Different?

By Evan Gough - June 26, 2020 06:03 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Weekly Space Hangout: June 24, 2020 — Elizabeth Howell & Nicholas Booth, The Search for Life on Mars

By Nancy Graziano - June 26, 2020 03:34 PM UTC | Astrobiology

NASA Changes its Mind. It Will be Using Previously Flown Crew Dragons and Falcon 9

By Matthew Williams - June 26, 2020 03:15 PM UTC | Missions

NASA has announced that starting next year, SpaceX will be able to reuse its Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 boosters to send astronauts to the ISS.

Another Collection of Newly Forming Planetary Systems. This Time from the Gemini Planet Imager

By Evan Gough - June 26, 2020 01:46 PM UTC | Exoplanets

How an Advanced Civilization Could Exploit a Black Hole for Nearly Limitless Energy

By Evan Gough - June 25, 2020 04:49 PM UTC | Black Holes

Last Year's Total Solar Eclipse on Earth, Seen From the Moon

By Evan Gough - June 25, 2020 12:36 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Curiosity Sees Earth and Venus in the Night Skies on Mars

By Andy Tomaswick - June 25, 2020 08:00 AM UTC | Planetary Science

Calculate the Number of Alien Civilizations in the Milky Way for Yourself.

By Matthew Williams - June 24, 2020 10:48 PM UTC | Astrobiology

A new online tool created by a team of physicists allows users to calculate how many alien civilization could be out there for themselves!

Amazing View of How Dust Storms Grow on Mars

By Evan Gough - June 24, 2020 08:12 PM UTC | Planetary Science

New Hubble Photos of Planetary Nebulae

By Evan Gough - June 24, 2020 05:21 PM UTC | Stars

Astronomers Just Detected Either the Least Massive Black Hole, or a Strange and Massive Neutron Star

By Brian Koberlein - June 24, 2020 04:04 PM UTC | Black Holes

Somewhere around 2.5 solar masses is the line between black holes and neutron stars. Now we've found an object right on the edge.

Pluto and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Started Out With Water Oceans, and Have Been Slowly Freezing Solid for Billions of Years

By Evan Gough - June 23, 2020 09:10 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Another Starship Test Ends in an Explosion (Intentionally This Time)

By Matthew Williams - June 23, 2020 07:57 PM UTC | Space Exploration

At their Boca Chica test facility, SpaceX tested another Starship prototype (SN7) to the point of failure, which resulted in another explosive release of cryogenic liquid nitrogen.

There's no evidence that dark matter interacts with any other force but gravity

By Paul Sutter - June 23, 2020 07:57 PM UTC | Physics

Planets Form in Just a Few Hundred Thousand Years

By Evan Gough - June 23, 2020 04:42 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A Repeating Fast Radio Burst Has Been Found. It Flares for 4 Days and then Remains Silent for 12 Days

By Brian Koberlein - June 23, 2020 12:37 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Five hundred million light-years from Earth, there is a deeply unusual object. It is radio silent for 12 days, then erupts in bright radio bursts. We still aren't sure what the object is.

Comet U6 Lemmon Brightens in July

By David Dickinson - June 23, 2020 12:22 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Comet U6 Lemmon promises to be a fine binocular object at dusk.

If You Could See in X-rays, This is What the Universe Would Look Like

By Nancy Atkinson - June 23, 2020 12:15 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Antares is a supergiant star that would fill the Solar System beyond Mars, but its atmosphere is 12 times bigger than that

By Paul Sutter - June 22, 2020 07:26 PM UTC | Stars

A New Search for Evidence of Technological Civilizations in the Milky Way

By Matthew Williams - June 22, 2020 05:35 PM UTC | Milky Way

Scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and University of Rochester have come together (with NASA funding) to launch a new search for advanced alien life!

Quasars are the Biggest Particle Accelerators in the Universe

By Evan Gough - June 22, 2020 05:29 PM UTC | Physics

There are Features on Titan That Really Look Like Volcanic Craters

By Matthew Williams - June 21, 2020 05:35 PM UTC | Planetary Science

A new study supported by the Cassini mission shows how the northern polar region of Titan could still be experiencing volcanic activity.

Planets With Large Oceans are Probably Common in the Milky Way

By Matthew Williams - June 20, 2020 11:27 PM UTC | Exoplanets

A new study by a team of NASA scientists indicates that "ocean worlds," like those in our Solar System, could be very common in our Universe.

Astronomers Estimate There Are 6 Billion Earth-Like Planets in the Milky Way

By Evan Gough - June 19, 2020 07:31 PM UTC | Exoplanets

NASA Thinks it's Time to Return to Neptune With its Trident Mission

By Evan Gough - June 19, 2020 04:18 PM UTC | Missions

Japanese Dark Matter Detector is Seeing a "Surprising Excess of Events"

By Brian Koberlein - June 19, 2020 03:44 PM UTC | Physics

A search for dark matter has found an extra signal in their data that could point toward proof of dark matter.

Weekly Space Hangout: June 17, 2020 — Dana Backman, Director of NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors

By Nancy Graziano - June 18, 2020 05:33 PM UTC | Site News

ExoMars Sees the Martian Atmosphere Glowing Green

By Matthew Williams - June 18, 2020 04:44 PM UTC | Planetary Science

ExoMars' Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) recently spotted a green glow in Mars' atmosphere, which is similar to what Earth's atmosphere experiences.

Catch a Solstice 'Ring of Fire' Annular Solar Eclipse Over Africa and Asia This Weekend

By David Dickinson - June 18, 2020 01:09 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Ready for the first solar eclipse of the year? This weekend sees one of the top draw astronomical events for 2020, with an annular solar eclipse spanning eastern Africa and Southern Asia on Sunday, June 21st.

Searching for the End of the Universe's "Dark Age"

By Matthew Williams - June 17, 2020 07:18 PM UTC | Cosmology

Why Pulsars Are So Bright

By Evan Gough - June 17, 2020 04:22 PM UTC | Stars