Universe Today
ESA is Building its Own Lunar Lander
SETI Researchers Double-Checked 1 Million Objects for Signs of Alien Signals
White Dwarfs Pause Their Cooling, Giving Planets a Second Chance for Habitability
When a star like the Sun dies, it puffs away its outer layers, leaving behind its glowing core. Without fusion to keep it heated, the white dwarf slowly cools down over billions of years. Astronomers have discovered that 6% of massive white dwarfs pause their cooling for up to 10 billion years, providing a stable habitable zone for any planets nearby. This gives life a long time to develop under extremely stable conditions.
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High-Resolution Imaging of Dyson Sphere Candidate Reveals no Radio Signals
Measuring Lightsail Performance in the Lab
Japanese Lander Looks Back at Earth as it Heads to the Moon
Star Formation Might Depend on Galactic Magnetic Fields
A Super-Earth to Test the Limits of Habitability
Evidence of Recent Geological Activity on the Moon
An Asteroid Has a 1% Chance of Impacting Earth in 2032
Astronomers have announced the discovery of a new asteroid with a non-zero chance of striking the Earth on December 22, 2032. Designated 2024 YR4, the space rock measures between 40 m and 100 m across, which would create regional damage if it struck the Earth. Initial observations estimate it has a 99% chance of passing the Earth safely but a 1% chance of hitting, which gives it a Level 3 designation on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale.
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How Hydrogen Kept Early Mars Warm
A Balloon Mission That Could Explore Venus Indefinitely
The Building Blocks for Life Found in Asteroid Bennu Samples
These Bizarre Features on Mars are Caused by Carbon Dioxide Geysers
Science Points Out Paths to Interplanetary Adventures
Communicating with Gravitational Waves
Machine Learning Could Have Predicted the Powerful Solar Storms in 2024
Requiem for a Comet: Amazing Reader Views of G3 ATLAS
Fusion-Enabled Comprehensive Exploration of the Heliosphere
Book Review: The Impossible Man
Massive Gas Giant Planets Locked in a Gravitational Struggle
How Can Titan Maintain its Atmosphere?
Astronauts are Going to Check if There are Microbes on the Outside of the Station
It's Time to Start Classifying Exoplanetary Systems
How Well Could Earth Life Survive on Exoplanets
Watching the Changing M87 Black Hole Event Horizon
Space Shipyards Could Build Missions in Orbit
Planet Formation Favors the Metal-Rich Inner Milky Way
Exoplanets Seen Falling Apart
Dynamically Stable Large Space Structures via Architected Metamaterials
Why The First Stars Couldn't Grow Forever
Black Hole Mergers Will Tell Us if the Universe Obeys Symmetry
At the largest scales, the Universe is expected to be isotropic and homogeneous. No matter where you go, things will look roughly the same, with no preference for rotation direction. Researchers have proposed a way to test this "mirror symmetry" hypothesis using the mergers of black holes. When black holes collide, they release gravitational waves that can be polarized, either right- or left-handed. After studying 47 mergers, they found that symmetry is preserved.
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Ingenuity Measured Windspeeds on Mars During its Flights
Fast Radio Bursts Appear to Be Caused by Young Neutron Stars
Researchers Practice Searching for Life on Enceladus, in the Arctic Ocean
Who Will Build an Outpost on the Moon First?
There's More Than Just Gravity at Work in the Solar System
There are Places on Earth Which Could Have Life, but Don't. What Can We Learn?
A New Space Telescope is Giving Us New Insights Into Gamma Ray Bursts
The Einstein Probe is a collaboration between Europa and China and was designed to detect flashes of low-energy X-rays, so-called "soft X-rays." Recently, the Probe automatically detected a 17-minute-long flash in brightness, known as a fast X-ray transient. Other astronomers made follow-on observations and confirmed that it was a blast of radiation that happened when the Universe was just over a billion years old: a gamma-ray burst near the dawn of time.
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A Marsquake Reveals Why Mars has Two Very Different Hemispheres
Vera Rubin Completes its Comprehensive System Tests
Could Ocean Worlds Support Life?
Even More Planets Were Hiding in Kepler's Fields
NASA is Testing Shape Memory Alloy Wheels
Astronomers Release a Huge Survey of Exocomet Belts
Life Would Struggle to Survive Near Wolf 359
Several Double Planetary Disks Found
Getting To Mars Quickly With Nuclear Electric Propulsion
A Fast Radio Burst Came From an Old, Dead Galaxy
Astronomers still aren't sure about the source of fast radio bursts, but they appear to come from newly formed neutron stars, with powerful magnetic fields that interact with their surroundings. Researchers were surprised to find a burst that came from the last place you'd expect to see a young neutron star: an ancient elliptical galaxy, which ran out of most of its star-forming gas and dust long ago. So, maybe fast radio bursts have something to do with older stars?
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Tracing the Big Ideas that Led to Webb
