What do you do when the observation you need comes around once a year? Well, preparation is key, but this is the awkward truth about finding another Earth. When a planet crosses the face of its star, a sliver of starlight ...
Astronomy
Aug 13, 2026
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126
For decades, astronomers lumped brown dwarfs into a single category defined by mass alone—too big to be classified as planets but too small to become stars. However, this definition ignores the two very different mechanisms ...
Detecting water where none remains today: Neutron and X-ray tomography make it possible. In an international study conducted with the participation of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, researchers have brought to light macroscopic ...
Astrobiology
Aug 13, 2026
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20
A popular myth about black holes is that they act like giant cosmic vacuum cleaners, sucking in everything around them. But Wladimir Lyra's research found a new mechanism around supermassive black holes that is more like ...
Astronomy
Aug 13, 2026
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55
The building blocks of rocky planets may have begun forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang—long before the first galaxies even existed—according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 12, 2026
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29
To date, close to 30,000 satellites have been launched into Earth's orbit, leading to mounting concerns over the debris created when they collide. In a new analysis posted to the preprint server arXiv, Hugh Lewis of the University ...
There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event ...
Astronomy
Aug 12, 2026
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118
Most people underestimate how much light a pair of sunglasses blocks out. A typical dark pair removes around 80% to 90% of the visible light reaching the eye.
Space Exploration
Aug 12, 2026
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16
The surface of the moon is a bleak and forbidding place that could be hiding a lot of water ice within its dusty landscape. However, most possible ice deposits don't just stand out in an image. Scientists need specialized ...
Space Exploration
Aug 12, 2026
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11
The habitable zone concept is useful for understanding which worlds might, possibly, maybe, be habitable. It highlights exoplanets at the right distances from their stars for liquid water to potentially exist on their surfaces. ...
Astrobiology
Aug 11, 2026
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