A new method helps to measure cosmological distances more accurately

After a complex statistical analysis of some one million galaxies, a team of researchers at several Chinese universities, and the University of Cordoba was able to publish the results of the study in the journal Nature Astronomy. For over two years, they had been working on the project, which will make possible the determination of cosmological distances with a new and greater degree of precision.

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How old is the universe exactly? A new theory suggests that it's been around for twice as long as believed

Early universe observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cannot be explained by current cosmological models. These models estimate the universe to be 13.8 billion years in age, based on the big-bang expanding universe concept.

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JWST observations explore the structure of the Ring Nebula

An international team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the planetary nebula NGC 6720, better known as the Ring Nebula. The observational campaign, described in a paper on the pre-print server arXiv, has revealed a wealth of structural detail in this nebula.

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Rare blue supermoon brightens the night sky this week in the closest full moon of the year

Stargazers are in for a double treat this week: a rare blue supermoon with Saturn peeking from behind.

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After Moon landing, India eyes the Sun

Days after becoming the first nation to land a craft near the Moon's largely unexplored south pole, India's space agency said on Monday it will launch a satellite to survey the Sun.

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Astronomers reveal eclipsing absorber in active galaxy NGC 6814

A research team led by Prof. Wang Junxian and Ph.D. students Kang Jialai from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) has revealed a marvelous, composite eclipsing absorber (see the 3D animated diagram below) responsible for a highly distinct X-ray eclipse event in active galaxy NGC 6814. The paper, titled "What can be learnt from a highly informative X-ray occultation event in NGC 6814? A marvelous absorber" was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on August 23.

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New supernova remnant detected with ASKAP

Using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), an international team of astronomers has serendipitously detected a new Galactic supernova remnant (SNR), which received designation SNR G288.8–6.3. The finding was reported in a paper published August 17 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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Japan postpones 'Moon Sniper' liftoff for third time

Japan's space agency on Monday postponed for the third time the launch of its "Moon Sniper" lunar mission due to poor weather.

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India first to land near moon south pole after Russia fails

India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole after Russia's attempt at a lunar touch down in the same area ended in failure following an engine malfunction.

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Launch of 4 astronauts to space station bumped to Saturday

NASA and SpaceX halted the countdown late Thursday for the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

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Indian rover begins exploring moon's south pole

India began exploring the moon's surface with a rover on Thursday, a day after it became the first nation to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole.

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Simulations suggest only 22 people are required to start a colony on Mars

A team of computational social scientists at George Mason University has found via simulations that 22 people is the minimum number needed to start a human colony on Mars. The group has posted a paper describing their simulation on the arXiv preprint server.

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Astronomers discover eight ultraluminous X-ray sources in NGC 1559

Astronomers from Taiwan have performed X-ray observations of the galaxy NGC 1559 using NASA's Chandra spacecraft. They detected eight new ultraluminous X-ray sources in this galaxy. The finding is reported in a paper published August 10 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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Floating seismometers could help peer into the core of Venus

Seismology has been ubiquitous on Earth for decades, and missions such as InSight have recently provided the same data for the inside of Mars. Understanding a planet's inner workings is key to understanding its geology and climate.

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Spanish astronomer discovers new active galaxy

By analyzing the images of the Sombrero Galaxy obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Elio Quiroga Rodriguez of the Mid Atlantic University in Spain, has identified a peculiar object, which turned out to be a galaxy hosting an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The finding was reported in a paper published August 11 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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One giant step: Moon race heats up

The crash landing on the Moon of Russia's Luna-25 probe is the latest twist in an international push to return to the Earth's natural satellite that has drawn in the world's top powers and new players.

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Russia's Luna-25 probe crashes on the Moon

The Luna-25 probe, Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Moon after an incident during pre-landing maneuvers, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.

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Emergency detected in pre-moon landing maneuver by Russia's Luna-25 probe

An "emergency" was detected on Saturday during a maneuver by Russia's Luna-25 probe prior to its Moon landing, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

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NASA's Psyche mission to a metal world may reveal the mysteries of Earth's interior

French novelist Jules Verne delighted 19th-century readers with the tantalizing notion that a journey to the center of the Earth was actually plausible.

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Indian lunar lander splits from propulsion module in key step

India's latest space mission completed a key step in the country's second attempt at a lunar landing, with its Moon module separating from its propulsion section on Thursday.

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Russia's Luna-25 probe enters Moon orbit

Moscow's Luna-25 lander was successfully placed in the Moon's orbit Wednesday, the first such Russian mission in almost 50 years, space agency Roscosmos announced.

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Helium escapes from the atmosphere of a nearby exoplanet, observations find

Astronomers from the University of Chicago and elsewhere report the detection of an outflowing helium from the atmosphere of a nearby mini-Neptune exoplanet known as TOI-2134 b. The finding was detailed in a research paper published August 3 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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An improved radioisotope thermoelectric generator could dramatically reduce the weight of interplanetary missions

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are the power plants of the interplanetary spacecraft. Or at least they have been for going on 50 years now. But they have significant drawbacks, the primary one being that they're heavy. Even modern-day RTG designs run into the hundreds of kilograms, making them useful for large-scale missions like Perseverance but prohibitively large for any small-scale mission that wants to get to the outer planets. Solar sails aren't much better, with a combined solar sail and battery system, like the one on Juno, coming in at more than twice the weight of a similarly powered RTG.

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Simulations reveal 'unprecedented details' of a star's evolutionary phase

Scientists have conducted the first ever 3D simulation of a star's entire evolutionary phase thanks to new simulation technologies.

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Mars once had wet-dry climate conducive to supporting life: Study

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered the first evidence that Mars once had a climate which alternated between wet and dry seasons similar to Earth, a study said on Wednesday, suggesting the red planet may have once had the right conditions to support life.

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New massive brown dwarf discovered

Astronomers report the discovery of a new massive brown dwarf using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). The newly detected object is about 80 times more massive than Jupiter and orbits a low-mass star. The finding was detailed in a paper published July 28 on the preprint server arXiv.

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A rocket with a lunar landing craft blasts off on Russia's first moon mission in nearly 50 years

A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off Friday on Russia's first moon mission in nearly 50 years, racing to land on Earth's satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft.

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Virgin Galactic takes off with its first tourists on flight to the edge of space

Virgin Galactic is taking its first space tourists on a long-delayed rocket ship ride, including a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.

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Astronomers detect an eclipsing double white dwarf binary

An international team of astronomers has observed a distant white dwarf known as WDJ 022558.21−692025.38. It turns out that the observed object is an eclipsing double white dwarf binary system. The finding is reported in a paper published July 31 on the preprint server arXiv.

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Smoking-gun evidence for modified gravity at low acceleration from Gaia observations of wide binary stars

A new study reports conclusive evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity in the low acceleration limit from a verifiable analysis of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars, usually referred to as wide binaries in astronomy and astrophysics.

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A banner year for the Perseid meteor shower

The Perseid meteor shower, a celestial event eagerly awaited by millions of skywatchers around the world, is about to make its annual return to the night sky. The shower is predicted to reach its peak before dawn on Sunday, August 13, but viewers should plan to start looking for meteors already at nightfall on Saturday, August 12. In a dark site away from light pollution, at the peak of the shower, observers might see one meteor per minute.

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Research investigates eclipsing binary CSS J003106.8+313347

Using a private observatory, astronomers have performed the first photometric study of a peculiar W UMa-type binary known as CSS J003106.8+313347. Results of the study, published July 27 on the preprint server arXiv, shed more light on the properties of this system.

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Do technological civilizations depend on atmospheric oxygen?

Nearly 2 million years ago a species of upright apes known as Homo erectus began to use fire. It was a gradual process, from opportunistic users of natural fires to masters able to craft flames from flint and tender. We are their descendants. We are creatures of forge and kiln, hearth and home. Fire has become so central to us that instead of homo sapiens, we could call ourselves homo ignus, the fire-wielding ape. Fire is central to the rise of our civilization. It cooks our food, keeps us warm, and illuminates our night. This raises an interesting question. Could we have built a civilization without fire?

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First test images from Euclid space telescope unveiled

The Euclid space telescope, launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on elusive dark matter and dark energy, has reached its destination orbit and on Monday its European operators revealed its first test images.

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XRISM mission ready to explore universe's hottest locales

Japan's XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced "crism") observatory, expected to launch Aug. 25 (Aug. 26 Japan local time), will provide an unprecedented view into some of the hottest places in the universe. And it will do so using an instrument that's actually colder than the frostiest cosmic location now known.

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Variable stars can tell us where and when to search for extraterrestrials

The European Space Agency's Gaia Observatory has been operating steadily at the Earth-sun L2 Lagrange Point for almost a decade. As an astrometry mission, Gaia aims to gather data on the positions, proper motion, and velocity of stars, exoplanets, and objects in the Milky Way and tens of thousands of neighboring galaxies. By the end of its primary mission (scheduled to end in 2025), Gaia will have observed an estimated 1 billion astronomical objects, leading to the creation of the most precise 3D space catalog ever made.

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Photos: The first supermoon in August rises around the world

The first of two supermoons in August graced the skies on Tuesday.

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NASA hears signal from Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistakenly cutting contact

After days of silence, NASA has heard from Voyager 2 in interstellar space billions of miles away.

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Two intermediate polars investigated by astronomers

By analyzing the long-term, high-cadence continuous photometry from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have investigated UU Columbae and Swift J0939.7-3224—two intermediate polars. Results of the study, presented July 24 on the preprint server arXiv, yield important insights into the properties of these two systems.

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Chinese scientists complete a concept study for a 6-meter space telescope to find habitable exoplanets

We have discovered more than 5,400 planets in the universe. These worlds range from hot jovians that closely orbit their star to warm ocean worlds to cold gas giants. While we know they are there, we don't know much about them. Characteristics such as mass and size are fairly straightforward to measure, but other properties such as temperature and atmospheric composition are more difficult. So the next generation of telescopes will try to capture that information, including one proposed telescope from the Chinese National Space Administration.

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