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Astronomy & Space news
Infrared eyes on Enceladus: Hints of fresh ice in northern hemisphere
Scientists used data gathered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during 13 years of exploring the Saturn system to make detailed images of the icy moon—and to reveal geologic activity.
Astronomy
22 hours ago
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VLBA makes first direct distance measurement to magnetar
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have made the first direct geometric measurement of the distance to a magnetar within our Milky Way Galaxy—a measurement that could help ...
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2020
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The four most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system
The Earth's biosphere contains all the known ingredients necessary for life as we know it. Broadly speaking these are: liquid water, at least one source of energy, and an inventory of biologically useful elements and molecules.
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2020
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Solar storm forecasts for Earth improved with help from the public
Solar storm analysis carried out by an army of citizen scientists has helped researchers devise a new and more accurate way of forecasting when Earth will be hit by harmful space weather.Scientists at the University of Reading ...
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2020
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How planetary nebulae get their shapes
About 7.5 billion years from now, our sun will have converted most of its hydrogen fuel into helium through fusion, and then burned most of that helium into carbon and oxygen. It will have swollen to a size large enough to ...
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2020
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The detection of phosphine in Venus' clouds is a big deal, and here's how we can find out if it really is life
On Sept. 14, 2020, a new planet was added to the list of potentially habitable worlds in the Solar System: Venus.
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2020
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Image: Mesh reflector for shaped radio beams
This prototype 2.6-m diameter metal-mesh antenna reflector represents a big step forward for the European space sector: versions can be manufactured to reproduce any surface pattern that antenna designers wish, something ...
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2020
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Venus' ancient layered, folded rocks point to volcanic origin
An international team of researchers has found that some of the oldest terrain on Venus, known as tesserae, have layering that seems consistent with volcanic activity. The finding could provide insights into the enigmatic ...
Space Exploration
Sep 17, 2020
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Astronomers capture stellar winds in unprecedented detail
Astronomers have presented an explanation for the shapes of planetary nebulae. The discovery is based on a set of observations of stellar winds around aging stars. Contrary to common consensus, the team found that stellar ...
Astronomy
Sep 17, 2020
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Hubble captures crisp new portrait of Jupiter's storms
This latest image of Jupiter, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 25, 2020, was captured when the planet was 406 million miles from Earth. Hubble's sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on ...
Astronomy
Sep 17, 2020
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Climate change impacts astronomical observations
Climate changes associated with global warming can affect astronomical observations. That is the result of a study involving scientists from the University of Cologne. The international research team investigated a range ...
Astronomy
Sep 17, 2020
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Meteorite study calls into doubt a popular theory about the early solar system
It is generally accepted that the inner region of the early solar system was subject to an intense period of meteoric bombardment referred to as the late heavy bombardment. However, researchers have found evidence that suggests ...
Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2020
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Can life survive a star's death? Webb telescope can reveal the answer
When stars like our sun die, all that remains is an exposed core—a white dwarf. A planet orbiting a white dwarf presents a promising opportunity to determine if life can survive the death of its star, according to Cornell ...
Astrobiology
Sep 16, 2020
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Scientist searches for stellar phosphorus to find potentially habitable exoplanets
A Southwest Research Institute scientist has identified stellar phosphorus as a probable marker in narrowing the search for life in the cosmos. She has developed techniques to identify stars likely to host exoplanets, based ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2020
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Dynetics completes building full-scale human landing system test article for evaluation by NASA for Artemis program
Dynetics has announced on its website that it has completed building a human landing system (HLS) for evaluation by NASA. It is now on display at a facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The HLS by Dynetics is one of three HLS ...
Five new giant radio galaxies discovered
With the help of citizen scientists, astronomers have detected five new giant radio galaxies (GRGs). The new GRGs have sizes ranging from 2.3 to 2.6 million light years, and have been identified at redshift between 0.28 and ...
Research reveals an enormous planet quickly orbiting a tiny, dying star
Thanks to a bevy of telescopes in space and on Earth—and even a pair of amateur astronomers in Arizona—a University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomer and his colleagues have discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting at ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2020
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How scientists around the world track the solar cycle
Every morning, astronomer Steve Padilla takes a short walk from his home to the base of a tower that soars 150 feet above the ground. Tucked in the San Gabriel Mountains, about an hour's drive north from Los Angeles, the ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2020
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Unraveling a spiral stream of dusty embers from a massive binary stellar forge
With almost two decades of mid-infrared (IR) imaging from the largest observatories around the world including the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers was able to capture the spiral motion of newly formed dust streaming ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2020
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Astronomers discover a 2-km asteroid orbiting closer to the sun than Venus
Astronomers have painstakingly built models of the asteroid population, and those models predict that there will be ~1 km-sized asteroids that orbit closer to the sun than Venus does. The problem is, nobody's been able to ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2020
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More news
Solar cycle 25 has begun
Image: Making waves in space
Solar cycle 25 is here. NASA, NOAA scientists explain what that means
Study shows difficulty in finding evidence of life on Mars
SpaceX SN8 to launch and fly to 60,000 feet next week
A warm Jupiter orbiting a cool star
Uranian moons in new light
China says Mars probe stable; no word on reusable spacecraft
Other news
The observation of Bloch ferromagnetism in composite fermions
Anti-resonant hollow-core optical fiber reduces 'noise'
New design principles for spin-based quantum materials
Removal of a gene could render lethal poxviruses harmless
Biologists create new genetic systems to neutralize gene drives
Engineers produce a fisheye lens that's completely flat
Mapping the 1.6 billion people who live near forests
Lighting the way to infrared detection
Newly-described fossils reveal an ancient origin for New Zealand penguins
China is building a floating spaceport for rocket launches
Jupiter's moons could be warming each other
Gather Moon rocks for us, NASA urges private companies
Giant particle accelerator in the sky
Human footprints dating back 120,000 years found in Saudi Arabia
Sea ice triggered the Little Ice Age, finds a new study
