Space and astronomy news
Mercury is the speed champion in our Solar System. It orbits the Sun every 88 days, and its average speed is 47 km/s. Its average distance from the Sun is 58 million km (36 million mi), and it’s so fast it’s named after Mercury, the wing-footed God. But what if instead of Mercury, Jupiter was …
Continue reading “Astronomers Find a Planet That Orbits its Star in Just 16 HOURS!”
A lack of effective radiation shielding is one of the biggest challenges still to be overcome if humans are to embark on long-term voyages into deep space. On Earth, the planet’s powerful magnetosphere protects us from the deadliest forms of radiation – those produced by solar flares, and galactic cosmic rays arriving from afar – …
A new study shows how next-generation observatories could directly observe oceans on exoplanets, which could narrow the search for extraterrestrial life.
We’d love to find another planet like Earth. Not exactly like Earth; that’s kind of ridiculous and probably a little more science fiction than science. But what if we could find one similar enough to Earth to make us wonder? How could we find it? We progress from one planet-finding mission to the next, compiling …
According to a new study by Harvard Professor Loeb and Amir Siraj, it would around 3000 years to hear a reply from an extraterrestrial civilization.
In the past decade, the discovery of extrasolar planets has accelerated immensely. To date, 4,424 exoplanets have been confirmed in 3,280 star systems, with another 7,453 awaiting confirmation. So far, most of these planets have been gas giants, with about 66% being similar to Jupiter or Neptune, while another 30% have been giant rocky planets …
Continue reading “There are Probably Many More Earth-Sized Worlds Than Previously Believed”
The Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS) has released a special edition of papers dedicated to educating the public about Starshade and what it can do to narrow the search for Earth-like exoplanets.
Is there an alien civilization next door? It’s…possible(ish). In late 2020, we discovered a signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri (not necessarily from Proxima Centauri), our closest neighbour star. Named BLC- 1 by project Break Through Listen, the signal is still being analyzed to ensure it isn’t simply an echo of our own civilization …
Continue reading “What Would It Take To See Artificial Lights at Proxima Centauri B?”
On the 60th anniversary of the famous Drake Equation, a new study considers whether or not it is still of value to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)
According to the immortal words of Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) “Life..uh…finds a way”. Back in 2005, an article in Nature used the famous quote from Jurassic Park to describe the possibility of life surviving on Mars. It encapsulates the hope that life’s adaptability, which it has proved itself so many times over on Earth, could …
Continue reading “Mars has the Right Conditions for Life Just Under the Surface”