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Hunting the elusive Eta Aquariid meteors

Early May is a good time to watch for a powerful yet often elusive meteor shower, the annual Eta Aquariids. They’re a prolific, yet often elusive for northern hemisphere observers. If skies are clear, watch for a strong annual meteor shower that’s attained an almost mythical status: the May Eta Aquariids.

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Under crushing hypergravity, fruit flies adapt—and recover

Expose an animal to extreme physical stress, and the expectation is simple: It will break down. But when UC Riverside scientists subjected fruit flies to forces many times stronger than Earth’s gravity—a condition called hypergravity—the insects did something unexpected. They survived. They even mated and reproduced. Their movements and behaviors changed dramatically and then, over […]

A better way to search for extraterrestrial intelligence

When you’re looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, it helps to know what you’re looking for and to go about it in the most efficient way. But work so far has generally not done so, writes Benjamin Zuckerman, an astrophysicist and emeritus professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of California […]

How do close binary stars form?

Our sun is a bit of an outlier in the general stellar population. We typically think of stars as being solitary wanderers throughout the galaxy. But roughly half of sun-like stars are locked in with more than one companion star. If there are two, it’s known as a “binary” system, but in many cases there […]

US–Indian space mission maps extreme subsidence in Mexico City

One of the most powerful radar systems ever launched into space has mapped the ground moving beneath one of the fastest subsiding capitals in the world: Mexico City. The findings show how quickly and reliably the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite can track real-time changes across Earth’s surface from orbit, unhindered by clouds or […]

DAMPE satellite reveals cosmic rays share spectral break near 15 teravolts

A century after their discovery, cosmic rays—particles of extreme energy originating from the far reaches of the universe—remain a mystery to scientists. The DAMPE (Dark Matter Particle Explorer) space telescope is tackling this phenomenon, particularly investigating the role that dark matter may play in their formation. This international mission, which includes the University of Geneva […]

Near-relativistic swarm could image Proxima b at 20-meter resolution and scan for biosignatures, paper says

Laser sail propulsion is an idea that won’t go away. By aiming powerful Earth-based lasers at tiny spacecraft with light sails, tiny spacecraft can be accelerated to near-relativistic speeds without carrying fuel or an energy source, and without carrying any kind of propulsion system at all. There are clear advantages to this idea, if it […]

LHAASO discovers new extreme particle accelerator in the Milky Way

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has made a breakthrough in exploring the extreme universe. For the first time, the LHAASO collaboration has detected ultra-high-energy (UHE) gamma rays—with energies exceeding 100 trillion electron-volts (TeV)—from a gamma-ray binary system, LS I +61° 303. The discovery challenges existing theories of particle acceleration in extreme astrophysical […]

Hubble reveals spiral galaxy 53 million light-years away in striking detail

In this new image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a spiral galaxy glittering with star clusters is the center of attention. NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (The Air Pump). As a nearby spiral galaxy, this target offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the cycle of stellar […]

A lost galaxy called ‘Loki’ may be hiding inside the Milky Way

The Milky Way galaxy grew into its current form with the help of smaller galaxies over time, which it has “consumed” or merged with. Astronomers are able to pick out which stars in the Milky Way came from other galaxies by identifying certain features, like the eccentricities of their galactic orbits and how many heavier […]

One overlooked mineral may have quietly powered a crucial step toward life on early Earth

Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, a finding that solves a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth’s atmosphere didn’t contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly […]

European rocket puts Amazon internet satellites in orbit

Europe’s most powerful rocket Ariane 6 successfully released 32 satellites into orbit Thursday for Amazon’s internet constellation, which is bidding to rival Elon Musk’s giant Starlink.

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GP Com observations sharpen picture of a rare ultracompact binary system

Using the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian astronomers have conducted optical photometric observations of an ultracompact binary known as GP Com. Results of the observational campaign, presented in the Proceedings of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, shed more light on the properties of this system.

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ESA’s Proba 3 is unlocking secrets of the solar wind

It has been a dream of astronomers and solar scientists for ages. A new mission gives solar researchers a powerful new tool in their arsenal: on-demand, total solar eclipses. Launched in 2024, The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission has proven the feasibility of a free-flying, space-based coronagraph. Now, the first science results from the mission […]

Trump says US has ‘a shot’ at crewed Moon landing before presidency ends

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes NASA has a good chance of returning astronauts to the moon’s surface before he leaves the White House at the start of 2029.

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