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Spaceflight accelerates human stem cell aging, researchers find

Researchers from the University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute have discovered that spaceflight accelerates the aging of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are vital for blood and immune system health.

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Second MTG-Imager satellite passes thermal vacuum test

The second of the Meteosat Third Generation Imagers, MTG-I2, has passed some important milestones in the cleanroom facilities at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, southern France.

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Astronomers discover one of the most massive binary stars in the galaxy

A research team has used both archival Hubble Space Telescope data and new observations to precisely measure the binary star system NGC3603-A1. One star weighs about 93 times the mass of our sun, while its companion tips the scales at roughly 70 solar masses. Together, they represent one of the most massive binary systems ever […]

Webb captures dusty wisps round a planet-forming disk

For this new Picture of the Month feature, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disk located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary disks […]

Is there life on Saturn’s moon? Where there’s water, there’s a chance

At first glance, Saturn’s moon Enceladus seems rather unremarkable: it is much smaller than the Earth’s moon and is far away and completely covered in ice.

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International collaboration doubles detection of cosmic collisions

An international team of researchers has announced a significant advancement in gravitational-wave astronomy, with the detection of 128 new cosmic collisions involving black holes and neutron stars.

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Unusual CO₂-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models

A study led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University has revealed a planet-forming disk with a strikingly unusual chemical composition: an unexpectedly high abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in regions where Earth-like planets may one day form.

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Earth-size stars and alien oceans: An astronomer explains the case for life around white dwarfs

The sun will someday die. This will happen when it runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core and can no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion as it does now. The death of the sun is often thought of as the end of the solar system. But in reality, it may be the beginning […]

Sun dogs, rainbows and glories are celestial wonders, and they may appear in alien skies too

Every once in a while, you may look up toward the sun and see strange bright lights on either side of it. Or perhaps you’ll be sitting in an aircraft, looking out the window at its shadow, and see a circle of light, like a halo below (known as glories). Or, if you’re really adventurous, […]

Scientists confirm presence of standing shocks in black hole accretion flows

A team led by Prof. Mao Jirong from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with international researchers, has recently published a study in The Astrophysical Journal confirming the presence of a standing shock in low-angular-momentum black hole accretion modes.

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Izaña-2 joins the laser game to track space debris

In Tenerife, Spain, stands a unique duo: ESA’s Izaña-1 and Izaña-2 laser-ranging stations. Together, they form an optical technology testbed of the European Space Agency that takes the monitoring of space debris and satellites to a new level while maturing new technologies for commercialization.

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Perseverance exploration update: Over Soroya Ridge and onward

Perseverance has continued exploring beyond the rim of Jezero crater, spending time last week at Parnasset conducting a mini-campaign on aeolian bedforms. After wrapping up that work, three separate drives brought Perseverance further southeast to an outcrop named Soroya.

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A new theory of the universe’s origins without inflation

How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after the birth of the universe.

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CHORD will be a huge leap forward for Canadian radio astronomy

Construction is underway of CHORD, the most ambitious radio telescope project ever built on Canadian soil. Short for the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector, CHORD will give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to explore some of the most exciting and mysterious questions in astrophysics and cosmology, from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and dark energy to […]

Observations track rapid heating and evolution of the Spirograph Nebula

By analyzing the available optical spectroscopic data, astronomers have investigated a nearby planetary nebula designated IC 418, also known as the Spirograph Nebula. Results of the study, published August 20 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, shed more light on the evolution of this nebula.

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