Universe Today

November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 by David Dickinson

How Scientists Repurposed a Camera on ESA’s Mars Express Mission

A camera aboard the Mars Express orbiter finds a new lease on life.

Sometimes, limitations can lead to innovation. A recent paper highlights how researchers are utilizing the VMC (Visual Monitoring Camera) aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) venerable Mars Express orbiter.

The work is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA), the IAA-CSIC Institute of Astrophysics in Andalusia Spain, and the University of the Basque Country.

November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

SpIRIT CubeSat Demonstrates a Operational Gamma and X-Ray Detector

CubeSats are becoming more and more capable, and it seems like every month, another CubeSat is launched doing something new and novel. So far, technology demonstration has been one of the primary goals of those missions, though the industry is moving into playing an active role in scientific discovery. However, there are still some hurdles to jump before CubeSats have as many scientific tools at their disposal as larger satellites. That is where the Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) CubeSat, the first from the Univeristy of Melbourne’s Space Lab, hopes to make an impact. Late in 2023, it launched with a few novel systems to operate new scientific equipment, and its leaders published a paper a few months ago detailing the progress of its mission so far.

November 20, 2024November 14, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

Sun-Like Stars Around Black Holes: What Gives?

Illustration of star remnants after it is shredded by a supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA

Buried in the treasure trove of the Gaia catalog were two strange black hole systems. These were black holes orbiting sun-like stars, a situation that astronomers long thought impossible. Recently a team has proposed a mechanism for creating these kinds of oddballs.

November 19, 2024November 20, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Starship’s Booster (and Donald Trump) Make a Splash With Sixth Flight Test

SpaceX's Starship lifts off from its Texas pad for the launch system's sixth flight test. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX’s Starship launch system went through its sixth flight test today, and although the Super Heavy booster missed out on being caught back at its launch pad, the mission checked off a key test objective with President-elect Donald Trump in the audience.

Trump attended the launch at SpaceX’s Starbase complex in the company of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been serving as a close adviser to the once and future president over the past few months. In a pre-launch posting to his Truth Social media platform, Trump wished good luck to “Elon Musk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project.”

November 19, 2024November 19, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Strange Pulsar at the Center of the Crab Nebula

Hubble image of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant captured with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (ASU)

Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we all have a vivid image of the Crab Nebula emblazoned in our mind’s eyes. It’s the remnant of a supernova explosion Chinese astronomers recorded in 1056. However, the Crab Nebula is more than just a nebula; it’s also a pulsar.

The Crab Pulsar pulsates in an unusual ‘zebra’ pattern, and an astrophysicist at the University of Kansas thinks he’s figured out why.

November 19, 2024November 14, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

The Biggest Black Holes May Start From The Tiniest Seeds

An artist's conception of jets protruding from a quasar. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

The existence of gigantic black holes in the very early universe challenges our assumptions of how black holes form and grow. New research suggests that these monsters may have found their origins in the earliest epochs of the Big Bang.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Matt Williams

China’s Proposed Cargo Shuttle, the Haolong, Has Entered Development

The model of a Haolong spacecraft is on display at the exhibition hall of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China at the Airshow China 2024 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province from November 12 to 17, 2024. Credit: Liu Xuanzun/GT

The 2024 China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition was held in Zhuhai last week – from November 12th to 17th, 2024. Since 1996, and with support from the Chinese aerospace industry, this biennial festival features actual products, trade talks, technological exchanges, and an air show. This year’s big highlight was China’s newly announced reusable space cargo shuttle, the Haolong (Chinese for “dragon”). According to chief designer Fang Yuanpeng, the spacecraft has entered the engineering phase and will be ready for space in the near future.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

Up to a Third of Stars Ate Some of their Planets

Ultra-short period planets can be engulfed by their stars. They may be responsible for differences in metallicity between sibling stars. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Schaller

In recent years, astronomers have developed techniques to measure the metal content of stars with extreme accuracy. With that capability, astronomers have examined sibling stars to see how their metallicity differs. Some of these co-natal stars have pronounced differences in their metallicity.

New research shows that stars engulfing rocky planets are responsible.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

The Large Magellanic Cloud Survived its Closest Approach to the Milky Way

Illustration of the Large Magellanic Cloud passing through the halo of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a small galaxy, just a tenth of the Milky Way’s mass. It is about 160,000 light years away, which is remarkably close in cosmic terms. In the southern hemisphere it spans the width of 20 Moons in the night sky. While the galaxy seems timeless and unchanging to our short human lives, it is, in fact, a dynamic system undergoing a near collision with our galaxy. Now astronomers are beginning to observe that process.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

The New Mars Landing Approach: How We’ll Land Large Payloads on the Red Planet

Back in 2007, I talked with Rob Manning, engineer extraordinaire at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he told me something shocking. Even though he had successfully led the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) teams for three Mars rover missions, he said the prospect of landing a human mission on the Red Planet might be impossible.

But now, after nearly 20 years of work and research — as well as more successful Mars rover landings — Manning says the outlook has vastly improved.

“We’ve made huge progress since 2007,” Manning told me when we chatted a few weeks ago in 2024. “It’s interesting how its evolved, but the fundamental challenges we had in 2007 haven’t gone away, they’ve just morphed.”