Space and astronomy news
Panspermia is an innately attractive idea that’s gained prominence in recent decades. Yet, among working scientists, it gets little attention. There are good reasons for their relative indifference, but certain events spark renewed interest in panspermia, even among scientists.
The appearance of Oumuamua in our Solar System in 2017 was one of them.
Continue reading “How Oumuamua Changes Our Perspective on Galactic Panspermia”
The most widely recognized explanation for planet formation is the accretion theory. It states that small particles in a protoplanetary disk accumulate gravitationally and, over time, form larger and larger bodies called planetesimals. Eventually, many planetesimals collide and combine to form even larger bodies. For gas giants, these become the cores that then attract massive amounts of gas over millions of years.
But the accretion theory struggles to explain gas giants that form far from their stars, or the existence of ice giants like Uranus and Neptune.
Continue reading “A New Model Explains How Gas and Ice Giant Planets Can Form Rapidly”
In October 2022, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detected an extraordinarily powerful Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). It still stands as the Brightest Of All Time (BOAT), and astronomers have been curious about it ever since.
New research has uncovered more details in the burst. What do they tell us about these forceful explosions?
Continue reading “Astronomers Uncover New Details in the Brightest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Detected”
It’s time to take a thorough, more serious look at using geoengineering to protect the planet’s icesheets, according to a group of scientists who have released a new report examining the issue. Glacial geoengineering is an emerging field of study that holds some hope for Earth’s diminishing glaciers and ice sheets.
Continue reading “Can Geoengineering Protect Earth’s Icesheets?”
One of the hazards astronauts must contend with is muscle loss. The more time they spend in a microgravity environment, the more muscle loss they suffer. Astronauts use exercise to counter the effects of muscle atrophy, but it’s not a perfect solution. Researchers want to develop drugs to help, and understanding the muscle-loss process in space is a critical first step.
Continue reading “Astronauts’ Muscle Loss Mimics Age-Related Muscle Loss”
Check any container of over-the-counter medicine, and you’ll see its expiration date. Prescription medicines have similar lifetimes, and we’re told to discard old medications rather than hold on to them. Most of them lose their effectiveness over time, and some can even become toxic. We’re discouraged from disposing of them in our wastewater because they can find their way into other organisms, sometimes with deleterious effects.
We can replace them relatively easily on Earth, but not on a space mission beyond Low Earth Orbit.
Continue reading “The Shelf Life of Many Medications Is Shorter Than A Round Trip To Mars”
There’s a burgeoning arms race between Artificial Intelligence (AI) deepfake images and the methods used to detect them. The latest advancement on the detection side comes from astronomy. The intricate methods used to dissect and understand light in astronomical images can be brought to bear on deepfakes.
Continue reading “Astronomers Have Tools That Can Help Detect Deepfake Images”
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn generated so much data that giving it a definitive value is impossible. It’s sufficient to say that the amount is vast and that multiple scientific instruments generated it. One of those instruments was a radar designed to see through Titan’s thick atmosphere and catch a scientific glimpse of the moon’s extraordinary surface.
Scientists are still making new discoveries with all this data.
Continue reading “Experimental Radar Technique Reveals the Composition of Titan’s Seas”
Astronauts sometimes struggle to consume enough nutritious food on the ISS because it tastes bland. But astronaut food is of high quality and designed to be palatable and to meet nutrition needs. What’s the problem?
Continue reading “Astronauts Struggle To Eat Their Space Food and Scientists Want to Know Why”
In the beginning, the Universe was all primordial gas. Somehow, some of it was swept up into supermassive black holes (SMBHs), the gargantuan singularities that reside at the heart of galaxies. The details of how that happened and how SMBHs accumulate mass are some of astrophysics’ biggest questions.
Continue reading “Black Holes Dominate Large Regions of Space, But They’re Mysterious”