Scientists discover radiation from massive stars shapes planetary systems

How do planetary systems such as the solar system form? To find out, CNRS scientists taking part in an international research team studied a stellar nursery, the Orion Nebula, using the James Webb Space Telescope. By observing a protoplanetary disk named d203-506, they have discovered the key role played by massive stars in the formation of such nascent planetary systems.

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Could fiber optic cable help scientists probe the deep layers of the moon?

An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth—but how would this technology fare on the moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers of our nearest neighbor in space?

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How 'the strong force' influences the gravitational wave background

Gravitationally speaking, the universe is a noisy place. A hodgepodge of gravitational waves from unknown sources streams unpredictably around space, including possibly from the early universe.

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Private US moon lander still working after breaking leg and falling, but not for long

The first private U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon broke a leg at touchdown before falling over, according to company officials who said Wednesday it was on the verge of losing power.

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Russian space officials say air leak at International Space Station poses no danger to its crew

Russian space officials on Wednesday acknowledged a continuing air leak from the Russian segment of the International Space Station, but said it poses no danger to its crew.

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A new space mission: Astrobotic eyes an expansion of its North Side headquarters

Astrobotic Technology's latest space-related venture won't take it far from home.

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Some intelligent civilizations could be trapped on their worlds

Evolution has produced a wondrously diverse variety of lifeforms here on Earth. It just so happens that talking primates with opposable thumbs rose to the top and are building a spacefaring civilization. And we're land-dwellers. But what about other planets? If the dominant species on an ocean world builds a technological civilization of some sort, would they be able to escape their ocean home and explore space?

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Who owns the moon?

The first successful moon landing of a private lander, Odysseus, last week came a month after Japan and six months after India touched down on Earth's natural satellite.

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Artemis II crew, recovery teams train for final phase of moon mission

NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover is assisted by U.S. Navy personnel as he exits a mockup of the Orion spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean during training Feb. 25, while his crewmates look on.

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Using AI to enhance satellite imagery to monitor the planet

A new method to assess different satellite designs using a powerful AI technique to more cheaply monitor our planet from space has been published in the journal Remote Sensing Letters.

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Korean researchers create an electrostatic environment that simulates the moon's surface

Continuous research is being conducted globally on using the moon as an advanced base for deep space exploration, and Korea is no exception in these efforts. The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) successfully implemented an electrostatic environment that simulates the moon's surface conditions, not in space but on Earth. The researchers also assessed its performance and effectiveness.

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Dust growth model finds planets may form more easily than previously thought

The building blocks of new planets could form more easily than previously thought, according to calculations by a team led by a RIKEN astrophysicist.

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Study offers improved look at Earth's ionosphere

New measuring techniques will enable improved measurements of the Earth's ionosphere, a key to studying and reducing the impact of space weather.

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New measurement captures clearer picture of our galaxy and beyond

With unique capabilities to track microwave energy fluctuations, a small observatory in the Andes mountains of northern Chile produced maps of 75% of the sky as part of an effort to measure the universe's origin and evolution more accurately.

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Cosmic dust could have helped get life going on Earth

Life on our planet appeared early in Earth's history. Surprisingly early, since in its early youth our planet didn't have much of the chemical ingredients necessary for life to evolve. Since prebiotic chemicals such as sugars and amino acids are known to appear in asteroids and comets, one idea is that Earth was seeded with the building blocks of life by early cometary and asteroid impacts. While this likely played a role, a new study published in Nature Astronomy shows that cosmic dust also seeded young Earth, and it may have made all the difference.

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Hubble spots a galaxy shrouded by stars

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a densely packed field of stars laid upon a background of dust, gas, and light from more distant celestial objects. There are so many stars in this image's field of view that it may be a little tricky to discern that you are, in fact, looking at a galaxy.

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Did the Galileo mission find life on Earth?

In the fall of 1989, the Galileo spacecraft was launched into space, bound for Jupiter and its family of moons. Given the great distance to the king of planets, Galileo had to take a roundabout tour through the inner solar system, making a flyby of Venus in 1990 and Earth in 1990 and 1992 just to gain enough speed to reach Jupiter. During the flybys of Earth Galileo took several images of our planet, which astronomers have used to discover life on Earth.

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Chinese astronomers find radio pulsar in a supernova remnant

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), astronomers from the Nanjing University in China and elsewhere, have detected a radio pulsar in a supernova remnant known as CTB 87. The finding is reported in a paper published February 1 on the arXiv pre-print server.

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Simulations provide potential explanation for mysterious gap in size distribution of super-Earths

Ordinarily, planets in evolved planetary systems, such as the solar system, follow stable orbits around their central star. However, many indications suggest that some planets might depart from their birthplaces during their early evolution by migrating inward or outward.

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NASA's new experimental antenna tracks deep space laser

An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA's Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space. This shows it's possible for the giant dish antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which communicate with spacecraft via radio waves, to be retrofitted for optical or laser communications.

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A black hole has cleared out its neighborhood

We can't see them directly, but we know they're there. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) likely dwell at the center of every large galaxy. Their overwhelming gravity draws material toward them, where it collects in an accretion disk, waiting its turn to cross the event horizon into oblivion.

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Cosmic dark matter web detected in Coma cluster

The Subaru Telescope has spotted the terminal ends of dark matter filaments in the Coma cluster stretching across millions of light years. This is the first time that strands of the cosmic web spanning the entire universe have been directly detected. This provides new evidence to test theories about the evolution of the universe.

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Astronomers discover new supernova remnant

Astronomers from Curtin University in Australia and elsewhere report the detection of a new supernova remnant (SNR) located some 3,300 light years away. The newfound SNR, designated G321.3-3.9, has an elliptical shape and is estimated to be a few thousand years old. The finding was detailed in a paper published Jan. 30 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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NASA climate satellite blasts off to survey oceans and atmosphere of a warming Earth

NASA's newest climate satellite rocketed into orbit Thursday to survey the world's oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.

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For your processing pleasure: The sharpest pictures of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in a generation

NASA's Juno spacecraft has just made the closest flybys of Jupiter's moon Io that any spacecraft has carried out in more than 20 years. An instrument on this spacecraft called "JunoCam" has returned spectacular, high-resolution images—and raw data are now available for you to process, enhance, and investigate.

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ALMA gets a new hydrogen maser

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has just received a "heart transplant," high in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. ALMA, the most complex astronomical observatory ever built on Earth, installed a new hydrogen maser. This upgrade marks an essential investment, setting a new standard in reliability for observations.

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Testing shows some bacteria could survive under Mars conditions

An international team of radiation specialists, biologists and infectious disease experts has found four types of bacteria that are capable of surviving exposure to the hostile Mars environment. In their study, published in the journal Astrobiology, the group exposed four human-infectious bacteria to Mars-like conditions.

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Astrophysicists crack the case of 'disappearing' sulfur in planetary nebulae

Two astrophysicists from the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have finally solved a 20-year-old astrophysical puzzle concerning the lower-than-expected amounts of the element sulfur found in planetary nebulae (PNe) in comparison to expectations and measurements of other elements and other types of astrophysical objects.

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Newly discovered carbon monoxide-runaway gap can help identify habitable exoplanets

The search for habitable exoplanets involves looking for planets with similar conditions to the Earth, such as liquid water, a suitable temperature range and atmospheric conditions. One crucial factor is the planet's position in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could potentially exist on the planet's surface.

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Heritage ERS-2 satellite to reenter Earth's atmosphere

Throughout its 16-year working life, the second European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2, returned a wealth of information that revolutionized our perspective of our planet and understanding of climate change. As well as leaving a remarkable legacy of data that still continue to advance science, this outstanding mission set the stage for many of today's satellites and ESA's position at the forefront of Earth observation.

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BINGO radio telescope will be able to detect and locate the brightest bursts of energy, says study

A 40 meter-wide radio telescope being built in northeastern Brazil will be able to detect and locate mysterious flashing blasts of energy that are brighter than whole galaxies, according to a new study from the University of Portsmouth published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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Overnight SpaceX launch set for NASA Earth science probe

A NASA satellite that will look at the tiniest parts of the air and ocean is set for an overnight launch from the Space Coast after a years-long path to the launch pad that staved off repeated attempts by the Trump administration to cancel the mission.

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New method spots cosmic threats by extracting 3D direction of plasma ejections from sun's 2D ultraviolet images

A team of scientists has unveiled a novel method for the early estimation of coronal mass ejection (CME) direction in 3D space. The groundbreaking technique, named DIRECD—"Dimming InfeRred Estimate of CME Direction"—will provide crucial data to mitigate potential adverse impacts on various industries and technological systems both in space and on Earth.

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Why now is the time to address humanity's impact on the moon

Humans have always looked at the sky, using the stars as navigation guides or for spiritual storytelling. Every human civilization has looked to the stars and used celestial movements to measure time and find meaning.

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New research finds that young planets are flattened structures rather than spherical

Astrophysicists from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) have found that planets have flattened shapes like smarties just after they form rather than being spherical as previously thought.

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Why you shouldn't look at a solar eclipse without eye protection

When a total solar eclipse comes to the Dallas-Fort Worth area on April 8, and the moon starts to cover the sun in the sky, it may feel safe to sneak a peek without eclipse glasses. But experts say that staring at the sun for as little as five seconds can damage your eyes. Look longer, and that damage could become permanent.

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Astronomers inspect a peculiar pulsating variable white dwarf

Astronomers have conducted spectroscopic and photometric observations of a peculiar pulsating variable white dwarf known as TMTS J17184064+2524314. Results of the observational campaign, published January 26 on the preprint server arXiv, provide essential information regarding the properties and behavior of this object.

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A Russian cosmonaut sets a new record for the most time in space

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has broken the world record for the most cumulative time spent in space, Russia's space agency Roscosmos reported Sunday.

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Orbital resonance: The striking gravitational dance done by planets with aligning orbits

Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances—in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a region the size of a football field. The time that planets take to orbit their suns have no specific relationship to each other.

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Ice and fire: Antarctic volcano may hold clues to life on Mars

On Deception Island in Antarctica, steam rises from the beaches, and glaciers dot the black slopes of what is actually an active volcano—a rare clash of ice and fire that provides clues to scientists about what life could look like on Mars.

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Neptune-like exoplanets can be cloudy or clear: New findings suggest the reason why

The study of "exoplanets," the sci-fi-sounding name for all planets in the cosmos beyond our own solar system, is a fairly new field. Mainly, exoplanet researchers like those in the ExoLab at the University of Kansas use data from space-borne telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope. Whenever news headlines offer findings of "Earth-like" planets or planets with the potential to support humanity, they're talking about exoplanets within our own Milky Way.

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A new kink in proton spectrum to enhance our knowledge of cosmic ray origin

The GRAPES-3 experiment in Ooty, India, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has discovered a new feature in the cosmic-ray proton spectrum at about 166 tera-electron-volt (TeV) energy while measuring the spectrum spanning from 50 TeV to a little over 1 peta-electron-volt (PeV). The observed feature suggests a potential re-evaluation of our understanding of cosmic-ray sources, acceleration mechanisms, and their propagation within our galaxy.

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Shake, rattle and launch: Dream Chaser spaceplane passes vibration test

Sierra Space's shuttle-like Dream Chaser has been put through its paces at a powerful NASA vibration facility that mimics conditions during launch and atmospheric reentry, officials said Thursday ahead of its planned first flight to the ISS this year.

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Hubble captures a suspected galaxy encounter

UGC 3912 is classified as a spiral galaxy, but you wouldn't know it from this detailed NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. UGC 3912's distorted shape is typically indicative of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy. When galaxies interact—either brush up against each other's gravitational fields or even collide—their stars, dust, and gas can be pulled into new paths. UGC 3912 might have once been an organized-looking spiral, but it looks like it's been smudged out of shape by a giant thumb.

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Even early galaxies grew hand-in-hand with their supermassive black holes

Within almost every galaxy there is a supermassive black hole. This by itself implies some kind of formative connection between the two. We have also observed how gas and dust within a galaxy can drive the growth of galactic black holes, and how the dynamics of black holes can both drive star formation or hinder it depending on how active a black hole is.

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Space Coast's new general spearheads more cooperation with private space companies

Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen wants commercial companies to solve Space Force problems, but if the U.S. Space Force can help them, that's OK with her, too.

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Lunar night puts Japan's lander back to sleep

After a brief awakening, Japan's moon lander is out of action again but will resume its mission if it survives the two-week lunar night, the space agency said Thursday.

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