X-ray
Measuring How Much Dust Spacecraft Kick Up When they Land
The arrival of spacecraft on alien worlds uses a number of different techniques from giant air bags to parachutes and…
NASA Announces a New Class of Space Missions: Probe Explorers
NASA has sent a whole host of spacecraft across the Solar System and even beyond. They range from crewed ships…
X-Ray Telescopes Could Study Exoplanets Too
Exoplanets are often discovered using the transit method (over three quarters of those discovered have been found this way.) The…
Update your Desktop Wallpaper with 25 New Images from Chandra
It’s not always possible to observe the night sky from the surface of the Earth. The blocking effects of the…
After Swirling Around a Black Hole, Matter Just Falls Straight In
The physics surrounding black holes is just plain weird. A gravitational well so strong that not even light can escape…
First Light from Einstein Probe: A Supernova Remnant
On 9 January 2024, the Einstein probe was launched, its mission to study the night sky in X-rays. The first…
It Takes a Supercomputer to Properly Simulate a Neutron Star’s Surface
Neutron stars, the remains of massive stars that have imploded and gone supernova at the end of their life, can…
NASA is Planning to Shut Down One of the Great Observatories to Save Money
The US Government budget announcement in March left NASA with two billion dollars less than it asked for. The weeks…
Chinese Rocket Lofts the Einstein Probe and its “Lobster Eyes”
Any astronomical instrument dubbed “Lobster Eyes” is bound to grab attention. It’s actually unlike scientists to give anything creative names,…
The Milky Way's Black Hole is Spinning as Fast as it Can
Is the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way (SagA*) spinning? And how fast? It's tricky to…