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Astronomy & Space news
New findings point to an Earth-like environment on ancient Mars
A research team using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA's Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in lakebed rocks within Gale Crater on Mars, which indicates that the sediments were formed in ...
Astrobiology
18 hours ago
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Horizontal running could help lunar astronauts retain physical conditioning
A small team of pathophysiologists and human locomotion specialists at the University of Milan has found that it should be possible for astronauts on the moon to prevent muscle and bone deterioration by running horizontally ...
A 'cosmic glitch' in gravity: New model may explain strange behavior on a cosmic scale
A group of researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia have discovered a potential "cosmic glitch" in the universe's gravity, explaining its strange behavior on a cosmic scale.
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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NASA/JAXA's XRISM mission captures unmatched data with just 36 pixels
At a time when phone cameras are capable of taking snapshots with millions of pixels, an instrument on the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) satellite captures revolutionary science with just 36 of ...
Astronomy
16 hours ago
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Euclid telescope: Scientist reports on his quest to understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy
On July 1, 2023, Euclid, a unique European space telescope was launched from Cape Canaveral. The launch was undoubtedly the highlight of my career as an astronomer, but witnessing the result of years of work being put on ...
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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NASA does Dragon shuffle prepping for Starliner launch
Parking is at a premium at the International Space Station, but NASA and SpaceX cleared out one spot as a cargo Dragon spacecraft completed its trip home with a splashdown off the Florida coast.
Space Exploration
21 hours ago
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NASA balloons head north of Arctic Circle for long-duration flights
NASA is set to begin launch operations mid-May for the 2024 Sweden Long-Duration Scientific Balloon Campaign. Four stadium-sized, scientific balloons carrying science missions and technology demonstrations are scheduled to ...
Planetary Sciences
15 hours ago
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Citizen scientists help discover record-breaking exoplanet in binary star system
A team of astronomers and citizen scientists has discovered a planet in the habitable zone of an unusual star system, including two stars and potentially another exoplanet.
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Astronomers significantly impact the climate by traveling to conferences, say researchers
In 2019, global travel to international academic conferences in the field of astronomy caused the equivalent of 42,500 tons of climate-damaging CO2 emissions. This equates to an average of one ton of CO2 per participant and ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Researchers explore an old galactic open cluster
Using data from ESA's Gaia satellite, astronomers from Turkey and India have investigated NGC 188—an old open cluster in the Milky Way. Results of the study, published April 19 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver important ...
New observatory in Chile—the highest in the world—aims to reveal origins of planets, galaxies and more
How do planets form? How do galaxies evolve? And ultimately, how did the universe itself begin? A unique astronomical observatory that researchers hope will unravel some of the biggest mysteries out there marks its opening ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Astronomers' simulations support dark matter theory
Computer simulations by astronomers support the idea that dark matter—matter that no one has yet directly detected but which many physicists think must be there to explain several aspects of the observable universe—exists, ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Clouds blanket the night side of the hot exoplanet WASP-43b
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers, including scientists from MPIA, constructed a global temperature map of the hot, gas giant exoplanet WASP-43b. The nearby parent star perpetually illuminates ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Novel calculations peg age of 'baby' asteroid
An asteroid dubbed "Lucy's baby" after a NASA spacecraft discovered it is orbiting another asteroid last November is,, in fact,, a solar system toddler—just 2–3 million years old, a Cornell-led research team estimates ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2024
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Enceladus spills its guts through strike–slip motion
Over the course of its elliptical orbit, the moon Enceladus is squeezed unevenly by Saturn's gravitational pull and deforms from a spherical shape into a football shape and back again. This cyclic stress causes a phenomenon ...
Astrobiology
Apr 30, 2024
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Launch date set for NASA's PREFIRE mission to study polar energy loss
NASA and Rocket Lab are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, May 22, 2024, for the first of two launches of the agency's PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission to study heat loss to space in ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 30, 2024
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NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is in trouble—but it's a vital step to sending humans to the red planet
NASA recently asked the scientific community to help come up with innovative ideas for ways to carry out its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This was in response to a report by an independent board that deemed that its ...
Space Exploration
Apr 30, 2024
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JWST uses interferometry mode to reveal two protoplanets around a young star
The JWST is flexing its muscles with its interferometry mode. Researchers used it to study a well-known extrasolar system called PDS 70. The goal? To test the interferometry mode and see how it performs when observing a complex ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 30, 2024
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Two new satellites join the Galileo constellation
The European Galileo navigation system has two more satellites in orbit following their launch in the early morning of Sunday, 28 April, at 01:34 BST/02:34 CEST. With 30 satellites now in orbit, Galileo is expanding its constellation, ...
Space Exploration
Apr 30, 2024
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Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 6 months on space station
A Chinese spacecraft returned to Earth on Tuesday with three astronauts who completed a six-month mission aboard the country's orbiting space station.
Space Exploration
Apr 30, 2024
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