Categories

Astronomers discover 19 new pulsars by analyzing FAST archival data

Astronomers from Nanjing University in China have analyzed the archival data from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), searching for new pulsars. As a result, they detected 19 such objects that were missed by previous studies. The findings were presented January 5 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Go to Source

Siwarha’s wake gives it away at Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is the star that everybody can’t wait to see blow up, preferably sooner rather than later. That’s because it’s a red supergiant on the verge of becoming a supernova and there hasn’t been one explode this close in recorded human history. It’s been changing its brightness and showing strange surface behavior, which is why […]

Can philanthropy fast-track a flagship telescope?

New Space is a term now commonly used around the rocketry and satellite industries to indicate a new, speed focused model of development that takes its cue from the Silicon Valley mindset of “move fast and (hopefully don’t) break things.” Given that several of the founders of rocketry and satellite companies have a Silicon Valley […]

The orbiting factories of the future

Imagine a fully automated 3D printer suspended in midair, churning out crucial components for use at home and abroad.

Go to Source

Enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET—scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found

For 21 years, between 1999 and 2020, millions of people worldwide loaned UC Berkeley scientists their computers to search for signs of advanced civilizations in our galaxy.

Go to Source

Hubble nets menagerie of young stellar objects

A disparate collection of young stellar objects bejewels a cosmic panorama in the star-forming region NGC 1333 in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. To the left, an actively forming star called a protostar casts its glow on the surrounding gas and dust, creating a reflection nebula.

Go to Source

[…]

Phages and bacteria accumulate distinctive mutations aboard the International Space Station

In a new study, terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless “microgravity” conditions aboard the International Space Station, but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth. Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues present the findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. […]

Massive impact could be the cause of our lopsided moon

Our nearest neighbor, the moon, is still something of a mystery to us. For decades, scientists have wondered why it appears so lopsided, with dark volcanic plains on the near side (the side we see) and rugged, cratered mountains and a thicker crust on the far side. Now we might be closer to knowing why. […]

A quarter-century in orbit: Science shaping life on Earth and beyond

For more than 25 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, conducting research that is transforming life on Earth and shaping the future of exploration. From growing food and sequencing DNA to studying disease and simulating Mars missions, every experiment aboard the orbiting laboratory expands our understanding of how humans […]

Solar physicists discover long-hidden source of gamma rays unleashed by flares

Solar physicists say they have found a key source of intense gamma rays unleashed when Earth’s nearest star produces its most violent eruptions.

Go to Source

Plasma rings around M dwarf stars offer new clues to planetary habitability

How does a star affect the makeup of its planets? And what does this mean for the habitability of distant worlds? Carnegie’s Luke Bouma is exploring a new way to probe this critical question—using naturally occurring space weather stations that orbit at least 10% of M dwarf stars during their early lives. He is presenting […]

Lunar spacecraft exhaust could obscure clues to origins of life

Over half of the exhaust methane from lunar spacecraft could end up contaminating areas of the moon that might otherwise yield clues about the origins of Earthly life, according to a recent study. The pollution could unfold rapidly regardless of a spacecraft’s touchdown site; even for a landing at the South Pole, methane molecules may […]

Vera C. Rubin Observatory spots record-breaking asteroid in pre-survey observations

Astronomers analyzing data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered the fastest-ever spinning asteroid with a diameter over half a kilometer—a feat uniquely enabled by Rubin. The study provides crucial information about asteroid composition and evolution, and demonstrates how Rubin is pushing the boundaries of what we can discover within our own solar system.

Go […]

Sandblasting on Mars: Camera reveals how prevailing winds shape elongated landforms in volcanic zone

Martian winds can have quite an impact. ESA’s Mars Express has spotted them whipping up sand grains and acting as a cosmic sandblaster, carving out intriguing grooves near Mars’s equator.

Go to Source

Stars that die off the beaten path

Astronomers have created a detailed forecast of where they expect to observe future stellar explosions in a nearby galaxy, opening a new window into how exploding stars shape the cosmos. Focusing on M33, a spiral galaxy about 2.7 million light‑years away, this research combined new maps of cold atomic hydrogen gas from the U.S. National […]