Universe Today
NASA is One Step Closer to Deploying Fission Reactors on the Moon
The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn't Exist
How Could Laser-Driven Lightsails Remain Stable?
How can we send spacecraft to other star systems? One proposed by Breakthrough Foundation is the Starshot, which uses high-powered lasers to accelerate tiny spacecraft to 10% the speed of light. What keeps the sail balanced as the laser strikes it and accelerates it? A new paper suggests that the laser can be tuned so that the forces are balanced on the sail, automatically correcting if any dangerous oscillations build-up that could destroy the sail.
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Atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 System Should be Long Gone
When the TRAPPIST-1 system was discovered, astronomers were elated to find seven Earth-sized worlds, three in the star's habitable zone. JWST has made follow-up observations and failed to detect atmospheres in the first two planets. What about the rest? According to a new paper, the solar winds and powerful flares should have stripped away the atmospheres from the rest of the planets within 100 million years of formation - they're long gone.
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Astronomers are Getting Really Good at Weighing Baby Supermassive Black Holes
Half the Entire Sky, Seen in X-Rays
A Super-Earth (and Possible Earth-Sized) Exoplanet Found in the Habitable Zone
How Dangerous are Kilonovae?
Neutron stars' collisions create powerful explosions, a type of gamma-ray burst known as a kilonova. What would it be like to be too close to a kilonova? Work has been done to calculate the risk of being in the beam of a gamma-ray burst, but a new paper looks at what would happen if you were off the axis to a kilonova. Researchers calculated that X-rays would be lethal to 3 light years, gamma rays out 13 light years, and cosmic rays could kill you at 36 light-years.
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An Astronaut Controls a Robotic Dog From Orbit
Japan Moon Lander Sleeps After Sending Science — Will It Wake Up Again?
Space Junk is Going to be a Problem for Vera Rubin
Asteroid Ryugu Contained Bonus Comet Particles
Giant Star Seen 150 Days Before it Exploded as a Supernova
Dark Matter Might Help Explain How Supermassive Black Holes Can Merge
Astronomers aren't sure what dark matter is, but they carefully observe to determine which models best match the data. Astronomers have recently developed a method to measure the speed of dark matter compared to other objects in the Universe. As a cloud of dark matter moves past a galaxy, gravity pulls particles towards it in a curving trajectory. The speed of the dark matter can be measured through its effects on the galaxy and vice versa.
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The Extremely Large Telescope's Dome is on the Move
Should We Send Humans to Mars?
Six Planets Found Orbiting an Extremely Young Star
Betelgeuse. Before, During and After the Great Dimming
Even Early Galaxies Grew Hand-in-Hand With Their Supermassive Black Holes
Almost every galaxy in the local Universe seems to contain a supermassive black hole. There's a direct relationship between the two. Astronomers have wondered if this relationship existed in the Universe's earliest times, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Researchers studied images from JWST and other telescopes to identify the earliest galaxies and their supermassive black holes. Does this relationship extend to the very beginning of the Universe?
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Astrobiology: Why study it? How to study it? What are the challenges?
Webb Directly Images Two Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs
The Aftermath of a Recent Galactic Merger
Feast Your Eyes on 19 Face-On Spiral Galaxies Seen by Webb
A Magnetohydrodynamic Drive Could Lead to Fuel Stations on Mars
The Seeming Impossibility of Life
Water Vapor Found in the Atmosphere of a Small Exoplanet
The Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory LISA Gets the Green Light
Perseverance is Definitely Inside an Ancient Lake on Mars
Japan's SLIM Lander Finds Power Even Though It's Face Down
This is How Astronauts Would Escape from the Artemis II Launch Pad
Did We Find Exomoons or Not? The Question Lingers.
Atmosphere Pressure Changes Could Explain Mars Methane
Another Explanation for K2-18b? A Gas-Rich Mini-Neptune with No Habitable Surface
It's a Fine Line Between a Black Hole Energy Factory and a Black Hole Bomb
You might be surprised to learn there's a way to extract enormous energy from a rapidly spinning black hole. Known as the "Penrose Process," an advanced civilization would feed material into a black hole and extract energy as some of it is hurled into space. A new paper suggests that the process could be even more efficient, cycling the material back into the black hole for another round. Or maybe this will turn into an extremely powerful bomb.
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NASA Gives us an Update on its Long-term Plans for the Moon and Mars
There's Less Dark Matter at the Core of the Milky Way
Plants Growing in Space are at Risk from Bacterial Infections
Is the Habitable Zone Really Habitable?
NASA Wants to Put a Massive Telescope on the Moon
New Types of Hidden Stars Seen for the First Time
Astronomers performing a vast infrared variable star survey have discovered new additions to the stellar menagerie. These new types of stars are normally hidden by gas and dust, but infrared radiation can pierce the shroud, revealing them for the first time. They watched hundreds of millions of stars, noting 222 that showed the greatest changes in brightness. Some were protostars coming to life, and others were ancient stars shedding material in their old age.
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The Improbable Origins of Life on Earth
New Webb Image of a Massive Star Forming Complex
The Galactic Habitable Zone
Nancy Grace Roman Could Find the First Stars in the Universe
The first stars in the Universe were made out of the primordial hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. They were probably monsterous, with dozens or even hundreds of times the mass of the Sun. They lived short lives and then detonated as supernovae. Current telescopes will have a tough time spotting these stars, but a new paper suggests that the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Telescope might have a clever trick to spot them.
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Watch a House-Sized Space Habitat (Intentionally) Burst
The Moon is Still Shrinking, Explaining Why it Still Has Landslides
How Rare Are Total Solar Eclipses... Really?
As April's 'Great North American Eclipse' nears, here's a look at eclipses in time and space.
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Early Life Was Radically Different Than Today
Ingenuity Suffers Rotor Damage, Ending the Mission
Another Asteroid Discovered Hours Before it Impacts the Earth
