One of the first verified predictions of general relativity is the gravitational deflection of starlight. The effect was [first observed in 1919 during a total solar eclipse.](https://briankoberlein.com/post/einstein-and-eddington/) Since stars appear as points of light, the effect is seen as an apparent shift in the position of stars near the eclipse. But the effect happens more generally. If a distant galaxy is obscured by a closer one, some of the distant light is gravitationally lensed around the closer galaxy, giving us a warped and distorted view of the faraway stars. This effect can also magnify the distant galaxy, making its light appear brighter, and we have used this effect to observe some of the most distant stars in the Universe.

In-situ resource utilization will likely play a major role in any future long-term settlement of the Moon. However, designing such a system in advance with our current level of knowledge will prove difficult, mainly because there's so much uncertainty around both the availability of those resources and the efficacy of the processes used to extract them. Luckily, researchers have tools that can try to deal with both of those uncertainties - statistical modeling. A team from Imperial College London, the University of Munich, and the Luxembourg Institue of Science and Technology recently released a pre-print paper on arXiv that uses a well-known statistical modeling method known as Monte Carlo simulation to try to assess what type of ISRU plan would be best for use on the Moon.

Even though Jupiter's moon Io is considered the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, Venus actually has more volcanoes and volcanic features on its surface. For a long time, scientists thought that most of these features and volcanoes were ancient remnants of the planet's geological past. However, newer research shows that Venus is still volcanically active.

What kinds of scientific instruments can be used to sample the plumes of Enceladus with the goal of identifying the ingredients for life as we know it? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how the novel High Ice Flux Instrument (HIFI) could be the next-generation instrument used to sample the plumes of Enceladus while building off the groundbreaking findings from the NASA Cassini spacecraft's Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). This study has the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new and efficient methodologies for finding life on Enceladus and throughout the solar system.

How can scientists and engineers build off the success of NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter to better explore the Red Planet? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as an aerospace executive with more than two decades of research and engineering experience investigated how a next-generation Mars helicopter could conduct groundbreaking science while delivering peak efficiency and performance. This study has the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new methods for exploring Mars with cost-effective and efficient methods.

What can cryovolcanism on the dwarf planet Ceres teach us about potential cryovolcanism on Uranus' five largest moons, which include Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, Titania, and Miranda? This is what two studies recently presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address, as a team of researchers investigated using Ceres as an analog for the potential ocean moons, Umbriel and Oberon, and the likelihood of an impact crater on Umbriel showing evidence of cryovolcanism. These studies have the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of ocean worlds in the outer solar system and whether they could potentially have life as we know it.

When it comes to the planets produced in protoplanetary disks, size matters, but not the way you might think. That's the conclusion a group of astronomers found when they aimed the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile at hundreds of these disks around young stars in the southern constellation Lupus. They used the observatory in 2023 and 2024 to focus on the disks and supplemented that with archival data.

Efforts are underway to develop advanced propulsion systems that can reduce transit times to Mars and other locations in the Solar System. These include nuclear propulsion concepts, which NASA began researching again in 2016 for its proposed "Moon to Mars" mission architecture. In a recent paper, two aerospace innovators reviewed some key nuclear-electric propulsion concepts, their respective advantages, and challenges. In the end, they conclude that nuclear propulsion has the potential to revolutionize space exploration and make humanity "multiplanetary."

Deciding how to power a CubeSat is one of the greatest challenges when designing a modular spacecraft. Tradeoffs in solar panel size, battery size, and power consumption levels are all key considerations when selecting parts and mission architecture. To help with those design choices, a paper from researchers in Ethiopia and Korea describes a new machine-learning algorithm that helps CubeSat designers optimize their power consumption, ensuring these little satellites have a better chance of fulfilling their purpose.

The hazards facing lunar astronauts are many. There's the radiation, the temperature extremes, the psychological challenges associated with isolation, and the risk of important equipment breaking down. But there's also the dust, which constitutes an ever-present background hazard.

No matter where on Earth you stand, if you have a view of the night sky, and if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way. The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe. And yet, our view of the Milky Way is limited by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more from other galaxies than from our own. But when the Gaia spacecraft launched in 2013, all of that changed.

In this age of exoplanet discovery, the flaring of red dwarf stars (M-dwarfs) has taken on new importance. M-dwarfs are known to host many terrestrial planets in their putative habitable zones. The problem is the flaring could make their habitable zones uninhabitable.

There are a number of ways that exoplanets have been discovered over recent years but a team of astronomers have been exploring other ways. One particular exciting method is to hunt for them by finding their magnetospheres! Earth and Jupiter are a great example of planets that are surrounded by strong magnetospheres that interact with solar activity and when they do, they release radio emissions. The team of researchers have been demonstrating just how they could detect Jupiter's radio emissions using simulated data. Not only would they be able to detect it, but they could also measure its rotation and even detect interactions with its moons!

When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021, one of its primary purposes was to see the first galaxies in the Universe forming just a few million years after the Big Bang. In true JWST style though, it has surpassed all expectations and now, a team of astronomers think they have gone even further back, seeing one galaxy clearing the early fog that obscured the Universe! The image represents a point in time 330 million years after the Big Bang and reveals a bright hydrogen emission from the fog surrounding a galaxy. It was somewhat unexpected though as current models predict it would have been blown away long ago!

The outer planets remain somewhat of a mystery and Neptune is no exception. Voyager 2 has been the only probe that has visited the outermost planet but thankfully the James Webb Space Telescope is powerful enough to reveal it in all its glory. With its cameras regularly fixed on Neptune it has even picked up auroral activity in some of its latest images. The data was gathered back in 2023 using Webb's Near-Infrared spectrograph which detected the tell tale sign of auroral activity, an emission line of trihydrogen cation. The element appears on other giant planets too when aurora are present.

Can the cosmic rays bombarding the lunar surface be used to identify subsurface water ice deposits? This is what a recent study and iposter presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a team of researchers developed a novel method called the Cosmic Ray Lunar Sounder (CoRaLS) capable of detecting subsurface lunar water ice deposits that are elusive to current radar systems. This study has the potential to help expand the human presence on the Moon since water ice deposits are currently being focused on the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon for the upcoming Artemis missions.

What can Venus-like exoplanets, also known as exoVenuses, teach us about our own solar system and potentially finding life beyond Earth, and how can the planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) provide these insights? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a team of scientists discussed the difficulties of studying exoVenuses and how HWO can help alleviate these challenges by directly imaging them. This study has the potential to help astronomers develop advanced methods for better identifying and understanding potentially life-harboring exoplanets throughout the cosmos.

Way back in 2006, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) took an infrared look at a strange object called Herbig-Haro 49/50. It's a jet flowing away from a hot young star. The Spitzer image showed a fuzzy blob at the end of the jet. Was it part of the jet, or something more distant? Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) focused its infrared eye on the same object and sent home a fantastic snapshot of this cosmic tornado. It also answered the question about the blob: it turns out to be a distant galaxy, itself bursting with hot young stars.

Mars is cold and dry, but long ago, it was warmer and wetter. Today, its geology is driven by wind and sand, but it was also shaped by water and maybe even glaciers. Glacial activity on Mars was long assumed to be dry, with glaciers frozen right to their beds, scouring the landscape of the Red Planet. But now, researchers think they've found evidence of subglacial melting, where a layer of water forms under the glacier, helping to form various features on Mars.

Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics. We don't know what it is or how exactly it fits into the Standard Cosmological Model. We only know that its unseen mass is a critical part of the Universe.

The search for evidence of life on Mars just got a little more interesting with the discovery of large organic molecules in a rock sample. The Mars Curiosity Rover, which is digging in the Martian rock beds as it goes along, tested pieces of its haul and found interesting organic compounds inside them.

Suppose humanity was faced with an extinction-level event. Not just high odds, but certain-sure. A nearby supernova will explode and irradiate all life, a black hole will engulf the Earth, a Mars-sized interstellar asteroid with our name on it. A cataclysm that will end all life on Earth. We could accept our fate and face our ultimate extinction together. We could gather the archives from libraries across the world and launch them into space in the hopes that another civilization will find them. Or we could build a fleet of arks containing life from Earth. Not people, but bacteria, fungi and other simple organisms. Seed the Universe with our genetic heritage. Of all of these, the last option has the greatest chance of continuing our story. It's an idea known as directed panspermia, and we will soon have the ability to undertake it. But should we?

What drives us to send probes throughout the Solar System and rovers and landers to Mars? It's not cheap, and it's not easy. It's because we live inside a big, natural puzzle, and we want to understand it. That's one reason. But the main reason for space exploration is to search for life beyond Earth. That our planet could be the only planet to host life is a disquieting thought.

It's been almost 10 years since Breakthrough Starshot began funding research into interstellar missions. Back then, state of the art meant a tiny lightsail just 0.25mm across, skip forward to today and, following their funded research, a new prototype has been revealed measuring 60mm x 60mm and just 200 nanometres thick! We are not quite able to use it to hop to Proxima Centauri but the technology keeps advancing until that day arrives.

Got clear skies this weekend? If clouds cooperate, observers in the North Atlantic and surrounding regions may witness a rare spectacle: a partial solar eclipse. This is the second eclipse of 2025, and bookends the first eclipse season of the year. The season started with March 14th total lunar eclipse. Depending where you are observing from, this is a shallow to a deep partial, 'almost' total solar eclipse.

The focus is all on the Moon at the moment as we strive to establish a permanent lunar base. At the south polar region there are permanently shadowed craters protecting pockets of water ice. Korea's Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) has been capturing images of these craters using its ShadowCam instrument. Now, using that data, planetary scientists are using a machine learning algorithm to identify over a billion impact craters in the region, deep inside the shadowed craters and each is at least 16 metres in diameter.

What happens when you mix clouds of gas and dust, strong outflows, and energetic shock waves at the core of the Milky Way Galaxy? Space tornadoes. At least, that's how researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile to study the galaxy's heart described what they found.

There's a well-established paradigm in planetary body exploration. It begins with a flyby, then later an orbiter, and then, if possible, a lander. Previous spacecraft have performed single flybys of Europa, and the Europa Clipper orbiter is on its way to Jupiter's moon Europa for a more detailed orbital study of the frozen moon. Hopefully, a lander will follow. A presentation at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference showed how the Europa Clipper can help find the best landing sites on the icy ocean moon for a future Europa lander.

The James Webb Space Telescope has given us a view of the earliest moments of galaxy formation in the Universe. It's also revealed a few surprises. One of these is the appearance of small, highly redshifted objects nicknamed "little red dots (LRDs)." We aren't entirely sure what they are, but a new study points to an answer.

Compared to the other terrestrial planets, Mercury has always been a bit of a mysterious one. It's internal structure is very different from its planetary siblings with its core accounting for 70% of its overall mass and an unusually thin mantle composed of silicates. One theory suggests a head-on collision between a larger proto-Mercury and a smaller object while another suggests Mercury sideswiped an Earth-mass object. It may be something completely different and a new paper suggests that a grazing collision between two similarly sized bodies led to the formation of the planet we see today.

Shrouded in thick clouds, our erstwhile sister planet Venus is rife with mysteries. Among the Solar System's rocky planets, Venus is the one begging for more exploration. While potential habitability always catches people's attention, scientists crave more fundamental knowledge about Venus: its geology.

The Moon is a common sight in our night time (and sometimes daytime) skies but it hasn't always been there. The widely accepted theory of lunar formation involves a Mars-sized planet crashing into the Earth, creating a cloud of debris that eventually that eventually coalesced to form the Moon. Estimates of this cataclysmic event that gave us the Moon range from between 4.52 to 4.35 billion years ago however a new presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference have pushed that timeline back even further!

When it comes to safe places for life, supermassive black holes are probably the last place you'd consider safe for nearby planets, let alone life-bearing ones. There are good reasons for this: those monsters at the hearts of galaxies suck down everything that comes into contact with them. When they do that, they blast out killer radiation. Neither activity is necessarily good for life. Or is it? As it turns out, radiation from these active galactic nuclei (AGN) can nurture life under the right circumstances.

Scientists have detected a fascinating spiral galaxy located about one billion light-years away. At the heart of this cosmic goliath, powerful radio jets are blasting out of its centre, stretching six million light years into space. A team of researchers have suggested that a smaller dwarf galaxy plunged into its centre, passing close to its supermassive black hole triggering immense flares, intense radiation and driving the colossal radio jets. Surprisingly however, despite the tremendous amounts of energy, the galaxy has kept its spiral structure.

China's Chang'e-6 mission has been exploring the largest crater on the Moon. It's known as Aitken Basin and is found at the South Pole of the Moon where craters are permanently shadowed. The crater is a whopping 2,500 km across and measures 10km deep and Chang'e-6 data has revealed that a giant asteroid smashed into the Moon about 4.25 billion years ago.

We've learned that Interstellar Objects (ISOs) are not strangers to our Solar System. Many have visited, and many more will in the future. The Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to find hundreds each year. Scientists are keen to learn more about them, and a swarm of spacecraft on standby might be the way to do it.

Telescope optics can be made of mirrors or lenses, but in both cases, they're bulky and need to follow a strict mathematical curve to focus light. Researchers have shown that it's possible to make a completely flat lens that focuses light. Traditionally, this has been done with Fresnel lenses, but they distort colors. Their new technique carves tiny concentric rings into a substrate that matches the wavelengths of different colors, allowing a full-color, in-focus image.

One of the surprising discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is that galaxies formed very early in the Universe. JWST has discovered about two dozen galaxies at a redshift of around z = 14, meaning that we see them at a time when the cosmos was just 300-500 million years old. The most distant galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, is seen at an age of less than 300 million years. All of these galaxies are rich with stars and have a basic structure similar to what we see in more modern galaxies. This discovery challenged our understanding of galactic evolution. Now a new discovery challenges it even further.

What's on and in a star? What happens at an active galactic nucleus? Answering those question is the goal of a proposed giant interferometer on the Moon. It's called Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI) and would deploy a series of 15-30 optical/ultraviolet-sensitive telescopes in a 1-km elliptical array across the lunar surface.

In the years since Miguel Alcubierre came up with a warp drive solution in 1994, you would occasionally see news headlines saying that warp drives can work. And then a few months later you'll see that they've been ruled out. And then after that you'll see that warp drives kind of work, but only in limited cases. It seems to constantly go around and around without a clear answer. What gives?

There is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. There is also a lot of other stuff there as well. Young stars, gas, dust, and stellar-mass black holes. It's a happening place. It is also surrounded by a veil of interstellar gas and dust, which means we can't observe the region in visible light. We can observe stars in the region through infrared and radio, and some of the gas there emits radio light, but the stellar-mass black holes remain mostly a mystery.

Welcome back to our five-part examination of Webb's Cycle 4 General Observations program. In the first and second installments, we examined how some of Webb's 8,500 hours of prime observing time this cycle will be dedicated to exoplanet characterization, the study of galaxies at "Cosmic Dawn," the period known as "Cosmic Noon," and the study of star formation and evolution. In our final installment, we'll examine programs that leverage Webb's unique abilities to study objects in our cosmic backyard—the Solar System!

In 1994 Miguel Alcubierre was able to construct a valid solution to the equations of general relativity that enable a warp drive. But now we need to tackle the rest of relativity: How do we arrange matter and energy to make that particular configuration of spacetime possible?

There are three known types of black holes: supermassive black holes that lurk in the hearts of galaxies, stellar mass black holes formed from stars that die as supernovae, and intermediate mass black holes with masses between the two extremes. It's generally thought that the intermediate ones form from the mergers of stellar mass black holes. If that is true, there should be a forbidden range between stellar and intermediate masses. A range where the mass is too large to have formed from a star but too small to be the sum of mergers. But a new study of data from LIGO suggests that there are black holes in that forbidden range.

To make a warp drive you have to arrange spacetime so that you never locally travel faster than light but still arrive at your destination…faster than light. And in 1994 Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre figured out how.

The European Space Agency is considering a mission to a metal-rich asteroid. The target is Kleopatra, an M-type asteroid with two moons. These asteroids are relatively common, but they're difficult to observe because they're in the middle and outer regions of the main asteroid belt.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 has completed its brief lunar mission. The lander spent two weeks conducting operations on the surface of the Moon before witnessing its final sunset as the Sun dipped below the horizon. This sunset marked the end of the mission, as Blue Ghost lacks the capability to maintain warmth during the freezing cold lunar night. Despite its short operational period, the lander accomplished its objectives, successfully testing all ten NASA payloads, gathering valuable data, and transmitting the findings back to Earth.

It's ok, Darth Vader hasn't got our humble planet in his sights! No this Death Star is a binary system where both stars are locked into an orbit which will lead to their collision, unleashing a powerful gamma-ray burst when they do. The object, WR104 is otherwise known as the 'Pinwheel Star' due to the presence of a spiral of dust engulfing the system. Recent observations have accurately measured the orientation of the stars and thankfully they're not pointed at the Earth. When they do eventually collide, it'll be someone else's problem.

It's looking more and more as if dark energy, the mysterious factor that scientists say is behind the accelerating expansion of the universe, isn't as constant as they once thought. The latest findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, don't quite yet come up to the level of a confirmed discovery, but they're leading scientists to rethink their views on the evolution of the universe — and how it might end.