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Just outside Jupiter, one region may have forged six meteorite parent bodies

When the solar system formed, a disk of gas and dust orbited the young sun. Over the course of millions of years, the dust gradually clumped together to form kilometer-sized chunks known as planetesimals. Some grew into planets, while the rest are considered to be the precursors of today’s asteroids. Researchers assume that this development […]

SpaceX to retry Starship test launch Friday

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will attempt another launch of its mammoth Starship rocket Friday, after the previous evening’s try was called off over technical issues.

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Using pulsars as ultra-precise gravitational probes to ‘weigh’ neighboring galaxies

Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, have identified a promising new method for measuring the mass of galaxies orbiting the Milky Way by using pulsars, some of the universe’s most precise natural clocks, to detect tiny gravitational effects across our galaxy.

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Astronomers discover a super-Earth orbiting a nearby red dwarf

Astronomers from Italy and Brazil have investigated a nearby red dwarf star known as Ross 318 and have discovered an exoplanet orbiting this star, which is at least six times more massive than Earth. The discovery is reported in a research paper published May 11 on the arXiv preprint server.

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Earth’s outer core beneath Pacific reversed direction in 2010, satellite data reveal

The liquid iron in Earth’s outer core doesn’t always behave as expected. When it changed direction in an unexplained way, ESA satellites provided data on the direction of flow, helping scientists gain better insight into the dynamics at the center of our planet.

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Hubble captures galaxy cluster MACS J1141.6-1905

Look closely at this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and you’ll see galaxies of various shapes and sizes clustered together toward the center-left of the image. A few foreground stars shine brightly and are easily distinguished by the spikes that appear to extend outward from each star. These spikes, called diffraction spikes, are the […]

Countdown glitch delays world’s biggest rocket as SpaceX targets Friday retry

Elon Musk’s SpaceX postponed the highly anticipated launch of its upgraded Starship megarocket, calling off Thursday’s test after multiple countdown stops-and-starts.

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NASA’s AWE instrument completes mission to study Earth’s effect on space weather

On May 21, ground controllers powered down NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) instrument, bringing the data collection phase of the mission to a successful and scheduled end, surpassing its planned two-year mission.

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Gaze into the Crystal Ball Nebula and see the light emitted by a dying star 1,500 years ago

The 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai’i, has captured NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, in awe-inspiring detail. This nebula, with its mesmerizing glow of gas, harbors hints of a past stellar death, and its asymmetrical shell is now being shaped by the pair of binary stars that […]

Extreme Lunar conditions need an extreme test rig

When people eventually head to the moon for long-term exploration and habitation, they’ll need equipment and spacesuits made of well-tested materials. That’s where NASA’s Lunar Environment Test Rig (LESTR) comes in handy. It simulates extreme cold lunar night conditions right here on Earth in a NASA Glenn lab, testing lunar-bound materials in temperatures ranging from […]

Musk’s SpaceX bonus comes with unique condition: Colonize Mars

SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO filing included some out-of-this-world details, including a provision that founder Elon Musk’s massive bonus only kicks in if one million humans settle on Mars.

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Astronomers de-fog exoplanet atmospheres with new cloud-detecting method

Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), research published in the journal Science is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter […]

Resolving the Kardashev’s conundrum using a Bitcoin-inspired metric

In his 1964 paper, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” famed astrophysicist and radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev addressed the types of transmissions (and at what energies) astronomers should search for in their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As part of his analysis, Kardashev proposed a universal scale for classifying the technological advancement of civilizations based […]

Extraterrestrial life may be slipping past space missions, astrobiologists warn

Suppose there are signs of extraterrestrial life and we have not yet been able to detect them. What does that mean? In Nature Astronomy, researchers discuss the consequences of these so-called false-negative results. “We are currently investing a great deal of money in missions that might need to be designed differently.”

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Saturn-sized exoplanet with Earth-like temperature reveals methane-rich atmosphere

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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