Scott Alan Johnston
Two Giant Structures Have Been Found Billions of Light-Years Away
The early universe, according to the Standard Model of Cosmology, ought to be a fairly homogenous place, with little structure…
Young Stars in the Outskirts of Galaxies Finally Have an Explanation
Star formation is well understood when it happens in the populous centers of galaxies. From our vantage point on Earth,…
Iron Snow Could Explain the Magnetic Fields at Worlds Like Ganymede
Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, features a surprisingly strong magnetic field for its size. Tidal effects from Jupiter continually stretch and…
Ouch. Canadarm2 Took a Direct Hit From a Micrometeorite
Living in space comes with risks. For astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), those risks occasionally make themselves intrusively…
Weather in the Solar System Can Teach Us About Weather on Exoplanets
The way astronomers study planets in our own solar system is surprisingly similar to the way they study exoplanets, despite…
OSIRIS-REx Failed to Deploy its Drogue Chute Properly. Now NASA has Figured out Why
On September 24, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned a precious sample of rocky material from asteroid Bennu to Earth. The…
Dimorphos is Probably a Piece of Didymos
Last September, NASA purposefully smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a 160m-wide space rock orbiting a larger asteroid named Didymos. The…
Earth's Smallest Flowering Plant Can Handle 20X Earth's Gravity
Astronauts need to eat, and they need to breathe. That means, for long-duration missions, they are going to need to…
M87's Jet is Triggering Novae
Everyone loves a good mystery, and astronomers have just uncovered a new one in a nearby supermassive galaxy called M87.…
Can JWST Tell the Difference Between an Exo-Earth and an Exo-Venus?
As of this month, astronomers have discovered 5,506 exoplanets orbiting other stars. That number is growing daily, and astronomers are…