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Evidence of cosmic-ray acceleration from a nearby supernova remnant

Cosmic rays seen at Earth show a wide range of particle energies, from 107 electron-volts (eV) to more than 1020 eV, the latter being about the same as the kinetic energy of a 450 gram football (soccer ball) being kicked across the pitch at about 8 meters per second. A plot of cosmic ray energies […]

A trip to the United Arab Emirates’ darkest spot reveals a rare view of the Milky Way

The gleaming skyscrapers and bright lights of the United Arab Emirates draw the eyes of all who travel there, a sign of the Arabian Peninsula nation’s rapid, oil-fueled development over the last decades into a major hub for commerce and tourism.

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Blue Origin rocket explosion is bad news for both Bezos and NASA

Space exploration is filled with setbacks, but the spectacular explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Thursday night marked a significant blow to not only the company, which was founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, but also NASA, with the two collaborating for the upcoming US moon missions.

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Blue Origin investigates rocket explosion as public is warned about possible wreckage washing ashore

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.

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Mars’s manganese ‘bathtub ring’ reveals ancient ocean timeline and its potential for life

Past research has indicated Mars’s largest northern basin, Utopia Planitia, was once the location of a large body of water, but details surrounding when this body of water may have existed have not been resolved. Researchers have now identified a ring of minerals in the region that have helped them string together a timeline of […]

Three astronauts from China return to Earth after nearly 7 months in space, a record for a Chinese crew

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after spending nearly seven months in space, setting a record for the longest on-orbit stay by a Chinese crew.

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Webb reveals black hole that formed before its galaxy

Which comes first, the galaxy or the black hole? We don’t know, but scientists have long thought it could be the galaxy: Large stars within an existing galaxy consume their fuel and collapse to form black holes, which can gobble up surrounding material and merge over time to form more massive entities.

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20,000 eyes on the universe

Think about a census. You could photograph every house in the country and produce a beautiful map, but without knocking on doors and asking questions, you’d know almost nothing about the people living in them.

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A hidden supermassive black hole may be lurking inside the Antennae galaxies

Astronomers may have uncovered a hidden supermassive black hole inside the famous Antennae galaxies NGC 4038/4039, a pair of colliding galaxies best known for their spectacular bursts of star formation. The paper outlining the findings was posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 21.

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What to know about Manhattanhenge, NYC’s sunset spectacle

New York City residents and visitors look up at the sky to experience a phenomenon twice a year known as Manhattanhenge.

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Blue Origin rocket explodes on the launch pad during an engine-firing test

A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, shaking nearby homes and briefly painting the sky orange.

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Red dwarf stars detected ‘eating’ Earth-like planets

Astronomers have found some of the strongest evidence yet that stars can swallow their own planets. A new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, supports the long-held belief that young stars are capable of “eating” nearby worlds as planetary systems form.

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Mineral clues in Gale Crater track ancient Mars climate change

While NASA imagery has shown evidence of ancient rivers and lakes on Mars that transitioned to dry dunes, uncertainty remains over the timing of the environmental changes that may have contributed to these shifts.

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Shock waves show how baby stars’ cradles get their radial shape in 3D simulations

The universe is full of fascinating structures, and some of the most striking take shape inside the giant clouds where stars are born. There, streams of gas appear to converge from all directions toward a dense central hub, like spokes meeting at the center of a wheel.

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Something just passed between us and a distant star

On the night of 18 December 2019, a star in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, briefly got brighter. Not dramatically nor explosively, just a smooth symmetrical rise and fall in brightness lasting about an hour, as though something had passed in front of it and bent its light toward us. Then it returned […]