At least once, you’ve looked up at the night sky and asked the same longstanding question we’ve all asked at least once, “Are we alone?” With all those points of light out there, we can’t be the only intelligent beings in the universe, right? There must be at least one technological civilization aside from us …
The Hakuto-R lander developed by the Japanese company ispace is enclosed inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX A commercial moon lander developed by the Japanese company ispace is awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral before dawn Wednesday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will send it …
Japanese commercial moon lander, UAE rover ready for launch on SpaceX rocket Read More »
Not all stars are members of galaxies. Some stars exist in the space between galaxies, though they didn’t form there. They’re called intra-group stars, and astronomers study them by observing their light, called intra-group light (IGL.) They’re challenging to observe because their light is extremely faint and overpowered by the light of nearby galaxies. Astronomers …
Astronomers Detect the Faint Glow of Stars in Between Galaxies Read More »
According to the most widely-accepted theory, planetary systems form from large clouds of dust and gas that form disks around young stars. Over time, these disks accrete to create planets of varying size, composition, and distance from their parent star. In the past few decades, observations in the mid- and far-infrared wavelengths have led to …
Astronomers Directly Image a Jupiter-Sized Planet Orbiting a Sunlike Star Read More »
New technologies bring new astronomical insights, which is especially satisfying when they help answer debates that have been ongoing for decades. One of those debates is why exactly the plasma emitted from pulsars “collimates” or is brought together in a narrow beam. While it doesn’t provide a definitive answer to that question, a new paper …
A team of astronomers has caught glimpses of gas giants forming around a very young star. The nascent giants are having a chilling effect on their potential siblings. Planet formation takes place inside an almost impenetrable veil of dust. As our telescopes and instruments become more capable, we’re getting better looks at the process. Much …
Researchers from Ohio State University have come up with a novel method to detect dark matter, based on existing meteor-detecting technology. By using ground-based radar to search for ionization trails, similar to those produced by meteors as they streak through the air, they hope to use the Earth’s atmosphere as a super-sized particle detector. The …
There’s a little galaxy in the Milky Way’s cosmic neighborhood called Leo 1. It’s a dwarf spheroidal that lies less than a million light-years away from us. Surprisingly, it has a supermassive black hole about the same mass as Sagittarius A* in our galaxy. That’s unusual in several ways, and astronomers want to know more …
The Second-Closest Supermassive Black Hole Might be in a Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Read More »
A camera on one of the Orion spacecraft’s solar array wings captured this view of the crew module Monday, Nov. 28, with the Earth and the moon in the background. Credit: NASA At the halfway point in NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, the unpiloted Orion moonship is chalking up a near-flawless flight, mission managers said Monday, …
Orion sails through halfway point of Artemis 1 moon mission Read More »
Chinese astronauts Deng Qingming, Fei Junlong, and Zhang Lu (left to right) undergo training before launch on the Shenzhou 15 mission. Credit: China Manned Space Agency Three Chinese astronauts will strap into a Shenzhou spacecraft and rocket into orbit Tuesday in pursuit of China’s Tiangong space station on a six-month mission to transition the space …
Three Chinese astronauts ready for flight to Tiangong space station Read More »
