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How warp drives don’t break relativity

Somehow, we all know how a warp drive works. You’re in your spaceship and you need to get to another star. So you press a button or flip a switch or pull a lever and your ship just goes fast. Like really fast. Faster than the speed of light. Fast enough that you can get […]

A simulated universe works better when dark energy changes over time

Dark energy is a mystery so daunting that it stretches and strains our most robust theories. The universe is expanding, driven by the unknown force that we’ve named Dark Energy. Dark Energy is also accelerating the rate of expansion. If scientists could figure out why, it would open up a whole new avenue of understanding. […]

Extremely Large Telescope could sense hints of life at Proxima Centauri in just 10 hours, simulations suggest

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in northern Chile, will give us a better view of the Milky Way than any ground-based telescope before it. It’s difficult to overstate how transformative it will be.

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A NASA spacecraft will make another close pass of the sun

A NASA spacecraft will make another close brush with the sun, the second of three planned encounters through the sizzling solar atmosphere.

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The health challenges astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams face after 9 months in space

On June 5, 2024, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams embarked on a brief mission to the International Space Station. But equipment failures turned what was supposed to be an eight-day trip into a grueling 9-month spaceflight.

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Concept for interstellar object encounters developed, then simulated using a spacecraft swarm

Interstellar objects are among the last unexplored classes of solar system objects, holding tantalizing information about primitive materials from exoplanetary star systems. They pass through our solar system only once in their lifetime at speeds of tens of kilometers per second, making them elusive.

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Astronomers discover 2,674 dwarf galaxies using Euclid telescope

ESA’s Euclid space telescope has been providing valuable data from the depths of space for almost two years. With its help, the largest and most accurate 3D map of the universe to date is to be created, with billions of stars and galaxies. The data from Euclid is analyzed by the international Euclid consortium, which […]

Hubble sees a spiral and a star in the constellation Virgo

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart. The star, marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. […]

A Dyson swarm made of solar panels would make Earth uninhabitable, suggests study

As civilizations become more and more advanced, their power needs also increase. It’s likely that an advanced civilization might need so much power that they enclose their host star in solar energy-collecting satellites. These Dyson swarms will trap heat so any planets within the sphere are likely to experience a temperature increase. A new paper […]

Would we know if a supernova was about to hit the Earth?

We know that regular supernovas pose no existential threat to life on Earth in the near-term. But there are other varieties of supernova that are a little bit harder to predict, and a little bit harder to spot.

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Image: Biomass satellite arrives in French Guiana

Following its arrival at Pariacabo harbor in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA’s Biomass satellite has been rolled out of its shipment container, which kept it protected throughout its two-week voyage from France across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.

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Radioisotope generators—inside the ‘nuclear batteries’ that power faraway spacecraft

Powering spacecraft with solar energy may not seem like a challenge, given how intense the sun’s light can feel on Earth. Spacecraft near the Earth use large solar panels to harness the sun for the electricity needed to run their communications systems and science instruments.

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New analysis confirms severe damage from industrial complex planned near Paranal Observatory

An in-depth technical analysis by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has evaluated the impact of the INNA megaproject on the facilities at the Paranal Observatory, Chile—and the results are alarming. The analysis reveals that INNA would increase light pollution above the Very Large Telescope (VLT) by at least 35% and by more than 50% above […]

Unveiling the cosmic choreography that shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes

A combination of cosmic processes shapes the formation of one of the most common types of planets outside of our solar system, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. The research team used data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to study young sub-Neptunes—planets bigger than Earth but smaller than […]

A ‘surprisingly large’ disk galaxy discovered in the early universe

An international team has discovered a giant spiral disk galaxy in the early cosmos which is three times larger than similar galaxies of the same epoch.

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