Space and astronomy news
Does another undetected planet languish in our Solar System’s distant reaches? Does it follow a distant orbit around the Sun in the murky realm of comets and other icy objects? For some researchers, the answer is “almost certainly.”
Continue reading “New Evidence for Our Solar System’s Ghost: Planet Nine”
It’s that time again. NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) has announced six concepts that will receive funding and proceed to the second phase of development. This is always an interesting look at the technologies and missions that could come to fruition in the future.
Continue reading “NASA Takes Six Advanced Tech Concepts to Phase II”
Earth is the only life-supporting planet we know of, so it’s tempting to use it as a standard in the search for life elsewhere. But the modern Earth can’t serve as a basis for evaluating exoplanets and their potential to support life. Earth’s atmosphere has changed radically over its 4.5 billion years.
A better way is to determine what biomarkers were present in Earth’s atmosphere at different stages in its evolution and judge other planets on that basis.
Continue reading “What Can Early Earth Teach Us About the Search for Life?”
The JWST is astronomers’ best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect the light passing through a distant world’s atmosphere and determine its chemical components. Scientists are interested in everything the JWST finds, but when it finds something indicating the possibility of life it seizes everyone’s attention.
That’s what happened in September 2023, when the JWST found dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b.
Continue reading “Did You Hear Webb Found Life on an Exoplanet? Not so Fast…”
First light for the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is quickly approaching and the telescope is reaching milestone after milestone. A few weeks ago, the observatory announced that its digital camera, the largest one ever made, is complete.
Now the observatory has announced that its unique primary/tertiary mirror has its first reflective coating.
Continue reading “Vera Rubin’s Primary Mirror Gets its First Reflective Coating”
The JWST keeps one-upping itself. In the telescope’s latest act of outdoing itself, it examined a distant exoplanet to map its weather. The forecast?
An unending, blistering inferno driven by ceaseless supersonic winds.
Continue reading “Is the JWST Now an Interplanetary Meteorologist?”
The Search for Life in our Solar System leads seekers to strange places. From our Earthbound viewpoint, an ice-covered moon orbiting a gas giant far from the Sun can seem like a strange place to search for life. But underneath all that ice sits a vast ocean. Despite the huge distance between the moon and the Sun and despite the thick ice cap, the water is warm.
Of course, we’re talking about Enceladus, and its warm, salty ocean—so similar to Earth’s in some respects—takes some of the strangeness away.
Continue reading “Enceladus’s Fault Lines are Responsible for its Plumes”
Few things in life are certain. But it seems highly probable that people will explore the lunar surface over the next decade or so, staying there for weeks, perhaps months, at a time. That fact bumps up against something we are certain about. When human beings spend time in low-gravity environments, it takes a toll on their bodies.
What can be done?
Continue reading “Lunar Explorers Could Run to Create Artificial Gravity for Themselves”
Few space images are as iconic as those of the Horsehead Nebula. Its shape makes it instantly recognizable. Over the decades, a number of telescopes have captured its image, turning it into a sort of test case for a telescope’s power.
The JWST has them all beat.
Continue reading “Insanely Detailed Webb Image of the Horsehead Nebula”
It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have the same metallicity. That fact underpins some avenues of astronomical research, like the search for the Sun’s siblings. But for some binary stars, it’s not always true. Their composition can be different despite forming from the same reservoir of material, and the difference extends to their planetary systems.
New research shows that the differences can be traced back to their earliest stages of formation.
Continue reading “Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.”