Search results for Matt Williams, Universe Today

Planetary Sciences Mar 3, 2025

Space capsule entering Earth's atmosphere detected with distributed acoustic sensing

On December 3, 2018, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) successfully rendezvoused with the near-earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu. Over the next two ...

Space Exploration Feb 20, 2025

Should astronauts be worried about Mars dust?

Every Martian year (which last 686.98 Earth days), the red planet experiences regional dust storms that coincide with summer in the southern hemisphere. Every three Martian years (five and a half Earth years), these storms ...

Astronomy Feb 3, 2025

High-resolution imaging of Dyson sphere candidate reveals no radio signals

In the more than 60 years in which scientists have engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), several potential examples of technological activity ("technosignatures") have been considered.

Astronomy Jan 27, 2025

Fast radio bursts appear to be caused by young neutron stars

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the greater mysteries facing astronomers today, rivaled only by gravitational waves (GWs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Originally discovered in 2007 by American astronomer Duncan Lorimer ...

Astronomy Jan 13, 2025

Planets can form in even the harshest conditions

According to the most widely held astronomical model (the nebular hypothesis), new stars are born from massive clouds of dust and gas (aka a nebula) that experience gravitational collapse. The remaining dust and gas form ...

Space Exploration Dec 23, 2024

NASA is developing solutions for lunar housekeeping's biggest problem: Dust

Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the moon since the Apollo Era before 2030. They will be joined by multiple space agencies, such as the ESA and China, who plan to send astronauts (and "taikonauts") ...

Astrobiology Dec 12, 2024

Could the ESA's PLATO mission find Earth 2.0?

Currently, 5,788 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,326 star systems, while thousands more candidates await confirmation. So far, the vast majority of these planets have been gas giants (3,826) or Super-Earths (1,735), while ...

Astronomy Dec 6, 2024

MAUVE: An ultraviolet astrophysics probe mission concept

For the past 30 years, NASA's Great Observatories—the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes—have revealed some amazing things about the universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the universe provided ...

Astrobiology Dec 5, 2024

China plans to retrieve Mars samples by 2031

China's growing presence in space has been undeniable since the turn of the century. Between sending the first "taikonaut" to space in 2003 (Yang Liwei), launching the first Chinese robotic mission to the moon (Chang'e-1) ...

Astrobiology Nov 14, 2024

New study examines how extraterrestrial civilizations could become 'stellivores'

One of the most challenging aspects of astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is anticipating what life and extraterrestrial civilizations will look like. Invariably, we have only one example ...

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