Universe Today
Surprise! Japan's SLIM Moon Lander Wakes Up After a Freezing Night
Titan Probably Doesn't Have the Amino Acids Needed for Life to Emerge
What Kinds of Astronomy Could Be Done With a Telescope on the Moon?
The Kuiper Belt is Much Bigger Than We Thought
A Planetary Disk in the Orion Nebula is Destroying and Replenishing Oceans of Water Every Month
Brrr. JWST Looks at the Coldest Brown Dwarf
Cosmic Dust Could Have Helped Get Life Going on Earth
The early Earth didn't have many chemicals needed for life on its surface, but they were present in asteroids and comets. Astronomers think they were delivered by countless objects crashing into the planet early in its history. But there's also a constant rain of organic-rich cosmic dust entering the Earth's atmosphere, and some can even pile up into sedimentary deposits left behind by glaciers. Did cosmic dust help fertilize prebiotic chemistry?
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Odysseus Moon Lander Is Tipped Over But Still Sending Data
Finally! Webb Finds a Neutron Star from Supernova 1987A
A Capsule With Antiviral Drugs Grown in Space Returns to Earth
The Sun Gets Feisty, Throwing Off Three X-Class Flares Within 24 Hours
A Star Passed Through the Oort Cloud Less Than 500,000 Years Ago. It Wasn't the Only One.
A New Space Telescope will Map the Universe and Help Protect the Earth from Asteroids
Finally! Blue Origin's New Glenn Goes Vertical on the Launch Pad
Solar Physics: Why study it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth?
If Hycean Worlds Really Exist, What are Their Oceans Like?
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus Lander Sends Faint Signal From the Moon
Anti-Satellite Weapons Will Threaten Everyone's Access to Space
Powerful Jets From a Black Hole are Spawning Star Clusters
We Could Snoop on Extraterrestrial Communications Networks
SETI researchers have directed their search toward interesting star systems where extraterrestrial civilizations could send signals toward Earth. According to a new paper, sufficiently advanced civilizations will communicate across the galaxy, sending signals between stars, rogue planets, and interstellar objects. They'll probably be using pulsars as a navigation system to coordinate their activities at a vast scale. To confirm their existence, we just have to listen in.
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Astroscale's Satellite is Now Chasing Down a Real Piece of Space Debris
Can We Survive in Space? It Might Depend on How Our Gut Microbiome Adapts
A New, More Accurate Measurement for the Clumpiness of the Universe
Scientists Track How a Giant Wave Moved Through Our Galactic Backyard
JWST Sees a Milky Way-Like Galaxy Coming Together in the Early Universe
The Brightest Object Ever Seen in the Universe
Japan's New H3 Rocket Successfully Blasts Off
Gravastars are an Alternative Theory to Black Holes. Here's What They'd Look Like
Astronomers continue to find more and more evidence of black holes, but there's an alternative theory that could explain the observations: gravastars. First proposed in 2001, these objects are one possible solution to Einstein's field equations, having the same impact on the Universe. But they won't have an event horizon or singularity. Instead, they'd contain thin shells of matter surrounding an exotic dark energy that pushes back against the star's gravitational force.
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European Satellite ERS-2 to Reenter Earth's Atmosphere This Week
One of the largest reentries in recent years, ESA's ERS-2 satellite is coming down this week.
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Look at How Much the Sun Has Changed in Just Two Years
What are the Differences Between Quasars and Microquasars?
Odysseus Moon Lander Sends Back Selfies With Earth in the Picture
Solar Eclipses Provide a Rare Way to Study Cloud Formation
Even Eris and Makemake Could Have Geothermal Activity
Astronomers have found evidence of geothermal activity across the Solar System, from planets like Mars, icy moons like Europa and Enceladus, and even dwarf planets like Pluto. They've used JWST to find evidence of geothermal activity in Kupiter Belt Objects Eris and Makemake. It was thought that these tiny worlds were long dead and cold, but they found evidence of elements on the surface that indicate geothermal activity, like geysers or cryovolcanoes.
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There's One Last Place Planet 9 Could Be Hiding
China's Chang'e-8 Mission Will Try to Make Bricks on the Moon
Can the Gaia Hypothesis Be Tested in the Lab?
New NASA Report Suggests We Could See Space-Based Power After 2050
NASA is Done Setting Fires Inside its Doomed Cargo Spacecraft
Euclid Begins its 6-Year Survey of the Dark Universe
ESA's Euclid mission was launched in July 2023 and has already sent home test images showing that its instruments are ready to go. Now, the space telescope begins mapping huge swaths of the sky, focusing on an area for 70 minutes at a time. Throughout its 6-year mission, it will complete 40,000 of these "pointings", eventually observing 1.5 billion galaxies in the sky. Astronomers will use this map to measure how dark matter and dark energy have changed over time.
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OSIRIS-REx's Final Haul: 121.6 Grams from Asteroid Bennu
Even Stars Like the Sun Can Unleash Savage Flares in Their Youth
Ground-Based Lasers Could Accelerate Spacecraft to Other Stars
Even if We Can't See the First Stars, We Could Detect Their Impact on the First Galaxies
Another Clue Into the True Nature of Fast Radio Bursts
Astronomers have used two X-ray telescopes to study a neutron star and have discovered a link between it and mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs). In October 2022, NASA's NICER and NuSTAR missions watched a type of neutron star called a magnetar for hours and detected the release of energy from its surface as it glitched, suddenly spinning faster. At the same time, radio telescopes detected an FRB from the star. These two events are connected.
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NASA is Trying to Fix a Problem With one of Perseverance's Instruments
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus Lander Begins Its Moon Odyssey
Engineers Design Habitats for the Moon Inspired by Terminite Mounds
Radio Telescope Confirms Free-Floating Binary Planets in the Orion Nebula
Passing Stars Changed the Orbits of Planets in the Solar System
We're light-years away from the closest stars, but in the billions of years of history in the Milky Way, our Sun has come much closer to other stars. For example, a star passes within 0.8 light-years every millions years and 0.16 light-years every 20 million years. These close passes have had a collective effect on the planets, shifting their orbits and helping to explain some of the eccentricities of the planets. Some of these might even have affected Earth's climate.
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