Universe Today

August 12, 2021August 12, 2021 by Nancy Atkinson

Want a LEGO James Webb Space Telescope? It Even Folds Up

As we all anticipate the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) later this year (hopefully), LEGO designers are hoping for a “launch” of their own. A new LEGO design of JWST is currently gathering supporters on the LEGO Ideas website. If it gets enough support, LEGO will review it and possibly create it.

As of today (August 12, 2021), the idea has just under 1,500 supporters, with the goal of 10,000. If you want your very own JWST model, cast your vote of support!

August 12, 2021August 12, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

Rocky Planet Found With Only Half the Mass of Venus

When it comes to finding exoplanets, size matters, but so does weight. The larger and heavier the planet, the more likely they will be discovered by the current crop of telescopes. Both the techniques to find exoplanets and the telescopes using those techniques are biased toward larger, heavier planets. So when even the current crop of telescopes manages to find one that is about half the mass of Venus, it is cause for celebration. That is precisely the size of the planet a team from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope has found orbiting a star called L98-59.

August 12, 2021August 12, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

Curiosity Might Not Be In An Ancient Lake At All

Photos can’t do some places justice – nor can any level of sophisticated remote sensing. That seems to be the case for Gale Crater. Curiosity has been wandering around the crater for almost the last nine years. Scientists thought Gale crater was an old lakebed, and it was specifically chosen as a landing site to allow Curiosity to collect samples from such a lakebed. But new research from scientists at the University of Hong Kong shows that most likely, the samples Curiosity has been analyzing during its sojourn didn’t actually form in a lake.

August 11, 2021August 10, 2021 by Paul M. Sutter

Astronomy Jargon 101: Adaptive Optics

In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! Adjust your eyeglasses to read about today’s topic: adaptive optics!

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 by Matt Williams

Avoiding the Great Filter. How Long Until We’re Living Across the Solar System?

An edge-on view of a spiral galaxy. Credit: ESO

If you’re a fan of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and the Fermi Paradox, then it’s likely you’ve heard of a concept known as the Great Filter. In brief, it states that life in the Universe may be doomed to extinction, either as a result of cataclysmic events or due to circumstances of its own making (i.e., nuclear war, climate change, etc.) In recent years, it has been the subject of a lot of talk and speculation, and not just in academic circles.

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have also weighed in on the issue, claiming that humanity’s only chance at long-term survival is to become “interplanetary.” Addressing this very possibility, a research team led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently created a timeline for potential human expansion beyond Earth. According to their findings, we have the potential of going interplanetary by the end of the century and intragalactic by the end of the 24th!

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 by Brian Koberlein

Astronomers Find a Nearby Star That a Spitting Image of a Young Sun

Illustration of what the Sun may have been like 4 billion years ago. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

Our Sun is about 4.6 billion years old. We know that from models of Sun-like stars, as well as through our observations of other stars of similar mass. We know that the Sun has grown hotter over time, and we know that in about 5 billion years it will become a red giant star before ending its life as a white dwarf. But there are many things about the Sun’s history that we don’t understand. How active was it in its youth? What properties of the young Sun allowed life to form on Earth billions of years ago?

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

It Turns out There Were Supernovae Exploding all Over, we Just Couldn’t see Them

When the poet Horace said “We are but dust and shadow”, he probably didn’t think that dust itself could create a shadow. But it can, and that shadow can obscure even some of the most powerful explosions in the universe. At least that’s the finding from new research from an international team using data from the recently retired Spitzer telescope. It turns out dust in far away galaxies can obscure supernovas.

August 10, 2021August 9, 2021 by Paul M. Sutter

Astronomy Jargon 101: Astronomical Unit

This image depicts the two areas where most of the asteroids in the Solar System are found: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the trojans, two groups of asteroids moving ahead of and following Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun. The binary asteroid 288P is part of the asteroid belt.

In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! It’s easy to measure your interest in today’s topic: the astronomical unit!

August 10, 2021August 11, 2021 by Matt Williams

We’ll Have to Wait About 3,000 Years for a Reply From Intelligent Civilizations

Artist’s impression of CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The KECK, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Credit: CSIRO/Dr Andrew Howells

As a field, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence suffers from some rather significant constraints. Aside from the uncertainty involved (e.g., is there life beyond Earth we can actually communicate with?), there are the limitations imposed by technology and the very nature of space and time. For instance, scientists are forced to contend with the possibility that by the time a message is received by an intelligent species, the civilization that sent it will be long dead.

Harvard astronomers Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb tackle this very question in a new study that recently appeared online. Taking their cue from the Copernican Principle, which states that humanity and Earth are representative of the norm (and not an outlier), they calculated that if any transmissions from Earth were heard by an extraterrestrial technological civilization (ETC), it would take about 3000 years to get a reply.

August 10, 2021August 10, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

Boeing Starliner Launch Scrubbed. No Idea When it Might fly

With all the news recently about relatively young rocket companies successfully flinging their founders and some actual astronauts into space, it might be surprising that the rocket company with the most experience of all still hasn’t gotten its flagship new rocket off the ground with people yet. And after yet another delay, there is now no firm date for the launch of Boeing’s Starliner.