Categories

Where did cosmic rays come from? Astrophysicists are closer to finding out

New research published by Michigan State University astrophysicists could help scientists answer a century-old question: Where did galactic cosmic rays come from?

Go to Source

Starlink satellites fall to Earth faster during increased solar activity, study finds

A trio of heliophysicists and satellite trackers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute at the University of Maryland has found evidence showing that Starlink satellites reenter Earth’s atmosphere faster during heightened solar activity. For their paper posted on the arXiv preprint server, Denny Oliveira, Eftyhia Zesta and Katherine Garcia-Sage […]

Advanced simulations explain exoplanetary systems with compact orbits

Star and planet formation has largely been considered separate, sequential processes. But in a new study, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have modeled a different scenario where planets start developing early—during the final stages of stellar formation—rather than after this phase ends, as previously assumed. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. […]

Likely site of new planet in formation discovered

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Galway has discovered the likely site of a new planet in formation, most likely a gas giant planet up to a few times the mass of Jupiter.

Go to Source

Webb detects familiar ice-covered dust in a galaxy 5 billion light-years away

When astronomers look at distant objects—far away in both space and time—all too often, dust gets in their eyes. Well, not eyes, exactly—in their telescopes’ line of vision. It’s hard to take a close look at a galaxy formed, say, some five billion years ago, because there’s a lot of particulate matter floating in the […]

Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the red planet

Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and unreachable world. And yet, before the invention of the rocket, astronomers who wanted to explore Mars beyond what […]

NASA provides hardware for space station DNA repair experiment

When it comes to helping NASA scientists better understand the effects of space travel on the human body, fruit flies are the heavyweights of experiments in weightlessness. Because humans and fruit flies share a lot of similar genetic code, they squeeze a lot of scientific value into a conveniently small, light package.

Go to Source

[…]

Video: Ignis mission ready for lift-off

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski is heading to the International Space Station on his first mission as part of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). He is the second ESA project astronaut from a new generation of Europeans to fly on a commercial human spaceflight mission with Axiom Space.

Go to Source

Relativistic jet detected in active galaxy Markarian 110

Astronomers have conducted very long baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of an active galaxy known as Markarian 110. As a result, they detected a relativistic jet in this galaxy. The finding was reported in a research paper published June 4 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Go to Source

Searching for axions by analyzing X-ray observations of entire galaxies

The ongoing search for dark matter, the elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb or reflect light and is estimated to account for most of the universe’s mass, has not yet yielded conclusive results. Axions, hypothetical elementary particles that were first theorized about in the 1970s, are among the most promising candidates for […]

NASA’s ready-to-use dataset details land motion across North America

NASA is collaborating with the Alaska Satellite Facility in Fairbanks to create a powerful, web-based tool that will show the movement of land across North America down to less than an inch. The online portal and its underlying dataset unlock a trove of satellite radar measurements that can help anyone identify where and by how […]

Core components for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope pass major shake test

The core portion of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully completed vibration testing, ensuring it will withstand the extreme shaking experienced during launch. Passing this key milestone brings Roman one step closer to helping answer essential questions about the role of dark energy and other cosmic mysteries.

Go to Source

[…]

Axiom Space’s record-setter to lead astronauts from three nations on private mission

Peggy Whitson has spent nearly two years of her life in space as an Axiom Space employee and former NASA astronaut.

Go to Source

Astronomers thought the Milky Way was doomed to crash into Andromeda. Now they’re not so sure

For years, astronomers have predicted a dramatic fate for our galaxy: a head-on collision with Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor. This merger—expected in about 5 billion years—has become a staple of astronomy documentaries, textbooks and popular science writing.

Go to Source

Milky Way’s chance of colliding with galaxy billions of years from now? New study puts odds at 50-50

It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all.

Go to Source