Space and astronomy news
In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! You’ll only be visible in the southern hemisphere after today’s topic: the Magellanic Clouds!
Continue reading “Astronomy Jargon 101: Magellanic Clouds”
Why is there so much antimatter in the Universe? Ordinary matter is far more plentiful than antimatter, but scientists keep detecting more and more antimatter in the form of positrons. More positrons reach Earth than standard models predict. Where do they come from?
Scientists think pulsars are one source, and a new study strengthens that idea.
Continue reading “A Pulsar is Blasting out Jets of Matter and Antimatter”
Oh, hello there new neighbor! In February, the Gaia spacecraft took a picture of its new closest companion in space at the second Lagrangian point, the James Webb Space Telescope.
Gaia is an optical telescope that is mapping out our galaxy by surveying the motions of more than a thousand million stars. Astronomers for the mission realized that once JWST reached L2, it would be in Gaia’s field of view. It spied JWST when the two spacecraft were a million km apart.
Continue reading “ESA’s Gaia Just Took a Picture of L2 Neighbor JWST”
In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! You’ll feel a little dense after reading about today’s topic: neutron stars!
Continue reading “Astronomy Jargon 101: Neutron Star”
Engineers and scientists for the James Webb Space Telescope have completed two more steps in the telescope’s primary mirror alignment process, and in a briefing today, officials said JWST’s optical performance appears to be better than even the most optimistic predictions.
The team released a new engineering image, showing the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277 in crisp clarity. This image demonstrates that all 18 mirror segments have been precisely aligned to act as one giant, high-precision 6.5-meter (21.3-foot) primary telescope mirror.
Continue reading “Webb has Now Taken the Sharpest Image the Laws of Physics Allow”
Nothing can escape a black hole. General relativity is very clear on this point. Cross a black hole’s event horizon, and you are forever lost to the universe. Except that’s not entirely true. It’s true according to Einstein’s theory, but general relativity is a classical model. It doesn’t take into account the quantum aspects of nature. For that, you’d need a quantum theory of gravity, which we don’t have. But we do have some ideas about some of the effects of quantum gravity, and one of the most interesting is Hawking radiation.
Continue reading “A new way to Confirm Hawking's Idea That Black Holes Give off Radiation”
Nothing says springtime on Mars like defrosting dunes.
Continue reading “It’s Springtime on Mars, and the Dunes are Defrosting”
As Russia wages its terrible war against its neighbour Ukraine, the deteriorating situation inside Russia is leading many Russians to flee the collapsing economy. According to Russian journalist Kamil Galeev, Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin is prohibiting Roscosmos employees from leaving the increasingly isolated nation.
Continue reading “Russian Space Agency Employees are now Forbidden to Travel Outside Russia (Because They Might not Come Back)”
In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! You’ll feel like a brand new person after today’s topic: nova!
Continue reading “Astronomy Jargon 101: Nova”
If humanity is ever going to find life on another planet in the solar system, it’s probably best to know where to look. Plenty of scientists have spent many, many hours pondering precisely that question, and plenty have come up with justifications for backing a particular place in the solar system as the most likely to hold the potential for harboring life as we know it. Thanks to a team led by Dimitra Atri of NYU Abu Dhabi, we now have a methodology by which to rank them.
Continue reading “Here are the 7 Best Places to Search for Life in the Solar System”