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Astronomy & Space news
Is an 'off-year' Leonid outburst in the cards for November?
It's still one of the coolest things I ever saw. I was in the U.S. Air Force in the 90s, and November 1998 saw me deployed to the dark skies of Kuwait. That trip provided an unexpected treat, as the Leonid meteors hit dramatic ...
Astronomy
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Astronomers investigate long-term variability of blazar AO 0235+164
Astronomers have performed a comprehensive multiwavelength study of an extremely variable blazar known as AO 0235+164. Results of the new study, published Nov. 3 on the preprint server arXiv, shed more light on the long-term ...
Team proposes new solar composition ratios that could reconcile longstanding questions
A Southwest Research Institute-led team combined compositional data of primitive bodies like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets with new solar data sets to develop a revised solar composition that potentially reconciles ...
Astronomy
4 hours ago
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New research challenges dark matter theory in galaxy formation
The standard model for how galaxies formed in the early universe predicted that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would see dim signals from small, primitive galaxies. But data are not confirming the popular hypothesis ...
Astronomy
7 hours ago
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Philae's extraordinary comet landing relived
On 12 November 2014, after a 10-year journey through the solar system and over 500 million kilometers from home, Rosetta's lander Philae made space exploration history by touching down on a comet for the first time. On the ...
Planetary Sciences
4 hours ago
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A mission to Triton and Neptune could unlock their mysteries
A town in the Austrian Alps might not seem like the most conducive place to come up with daring space missions. But, for the last 40 years, students and professors have been gathering to do just that in Alpbach, just north ...
Planetary Sciences
5 hours ago
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How did supermassive black holes get so big, so early? They might have had a head start
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can have billions of solar masses, and observational evidence suggests that all large galaxies have one at their centers. However, the JWST has revealed a foundational cosmic mystery.
Astronomy
5 hours ago
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Right now, the sun is far more active than predicted—and small satellites are paying the price
Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University's Binar Space Program burned up in Earth's atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means "fireball" in the Noongar language of the First ...
Planetary Sciences
5 hours ago
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Happy New Year on Mars
12 November 2024 marks the start of a new year on Mars. At exactly 10:32 CET/09:32 UTC on Earth, the Red Planet begins a new orbit around our sun.
Planetary Sciences
7 hours ago
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Ariane 6 upper stage visits ESA's temple of boom
The upper stage for Europe's newest rocket Ariane 6 passed its final tests at ESA's facilities in the Netherlands last week, qualifying the upper stage for a launch on the most powerful, four-booster, variant of the Ariane ...
Space Exploration
7 hours ago
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Theory vs. data: Team tests Einstein's predictions by calculating the distortion of time and space
Why is the expansion of our universe accelerating? Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Solving it involves testing the fundamental laws of physics, including ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Launching mass from the moon helped by lunar gravity anomalies
Placing a mass driver on the moon has long been a dream of space exploration enthusiasts. It would open up so many possibilities for the exploration of our solar system and the possibility of actually living in space.
Space Exploration
Nov 11, 2024
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Quasi-periodic eruptions from eRO-QPE2 are remarkably stable, study finds
An international team of astronomers has inspected long-term evolution of quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) from a QPE source designated eRO-QPE2. The study found that QPEs from this source are remarkably stable over the investigated ...
Mining old data from NASA's Voyager 2 solves several Uranus mysteries
When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists' first—and, so far, only—close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 11, 2024
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Swirling polar vortices likely exist on the sun, new research finds
Like the Earth, the sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). But unlike on Earth, the formation and ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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AI-enhanced model could improve space weather forecasting
"Killer electrons" that travel at nearly light speed inside Earth's Van Allen belts—the zone that surrounds the planet and traps energetic charged particles—pose a major threat to equipment in space by causing malfunctions ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 11, 2024
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Team reveals how current sheets in turbulent plasma form in Earth's magnetosheath
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process in plasmas, through which the magnetic energy is converted into plasma kinetic energy and thermal energy rapidly. Current sheets in turbulent plasma are the key trigger ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 11, 2024
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Jupiter-mass binary objects hidden in Orion Nebula: Study explores new theory on their formation
Deep within the Orion Nebula, researchers are one step closer to understanding how Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) form—a longstanding mystery in astrophysics
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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A distant planet seems to have a sulfur-rich atmosphere, hinting at alien volcanoes
Today, we know of more than 5,000 exoplanets: planets outside our solar system that orbit other stars. While the effort to discover new worlds goes on, we're steadily learning more about the exoplanets we've already detected: ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 11, 2024
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Astronomers observe an unlucky star's repeated tidal disruptions
When a star moves around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a close elliptical orbit, it gets partially tidally disrupted every time it reaches the pericenter, emitting a series of luminous flares, known as a partial tidal ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Hera burns towards Mars
After two scrubs, SpaceX knocks out Cape Canaveral launch
Chinese rover finds evidence of ancient Martian ocean
Proba-3 will constantly measure Sun's energy output
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Bioengineered yeast mass produces herbal medicine
Synthetic cells successfully emulate natural cellular communication
World's first wooden satellite launched into space
