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More Research Shows That Enceladus Has A Stable Ocean That Could Host Life
Is Saturn's moon Enceladus habitable? There's ample evidence that the moon holds a warm ocean underneath its frozen surface, and that the building blocks of life are present in that ocean. But for life to arise and persist, the ocean needs to sustain itself for a long time, and new research shows that's exactly what's happening.
If The Supernova Standard Candle Is Wrong, It Could Solve The Hubble Tension
New evidence suggests the standard model of cosmology is wrong, but the results could resolve the long-standing Hubble Tension problem in modern cosmology.
The Rust That Could Reveal Alien Life
Iron rusts. On Earth, this common chemical reaction often signals the presence of something far more interesting than just corroding metal for example, living microorganisms that make their living by manipulating iron atoms. Now researchers argue these microbial rust makers could provide some of the most promising biosignatures for detecting life on Mars and the icy moons of the outer Solar System.
The Search for Worlds in the Making
Astronomers have deployed a survey with the most memorable and tasty acronym in astrophysics - SPAM, The Search for Protoplanets with Aperture Masking - to catch planets in the act of being born. Using Keck Observatory's most powerful instruments, researchers have just captured the closest ever view of a protoplanetary disk 400 light years away, revealing a telltale gap and clumpy structures that hint at a world coalescing from interstellar dust.
The Universe is Decelerating and Standard Candles Aren't So Standard According to a New Study
A new study argues that the Universe is decelerating, based on a correlation between the brightness of Type-Ia supernovae and the age of their host galaxies.
It's Time to Give the Moon Its Own Time
Tracking time is one of those things that seems easy, until you really start to get into the details of what time actually is. We define a second as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium atom. However, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, mass slows down these oscillations, making time appear to move more slowly for objects in large gravity wells. This distinction becomes critical as we start considering how to keep track of time between two separate gravity wells of varying strengths, such as on the Earth and the Moon. A new paper by Pascale Defraigne at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and her co-authors discusses some potential frameworks for solving that problem and settles on using the new Lunar Coordinate Time (TCL) suggested by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Ancient silver goblet preserves oldest known image of cosmic creation
Analysing Hitler's DNA for a TV gimmick tells us nothing useful
Sequencing Hitler's genome teaches us nothing useful about his crimes
Why aren't young people having sex any more?
Fossil fuel emissions rise again – but China's are levelling off
Fossil fuel emissions rise again – but China's are levelling off
CIA Kryptos Puzzle Creator Releases Final Clues
“Kryptos has not been solved,” said artist Jim Sanborn after releasing his parting clues to the “K4” section of his sculpture puzzle
Euclid's First Data Release Sheds Light on Galaxy Evolution
ESA’s Euclid space telescope is revealing the patterns of galaxy evolution of millions of galaxies across cosmic time. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) are using this data to trace how galaxies grow, merge, and transform.
Double Solar Eruptions Spark Widespread Aurora — With More to Come Tonight!
Last night's aurora painted the sky in reds, greens and even oranges. It's expected to return tonight!
The post Double Solar Eruptions Spark Widespread Aurora — With More to Come Tonight! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Meet Jacklyn, The Barge That Changed Blue Origin's Plans
After spending four years converting a massive cargo ferry into a rocket catching ship, Blue Origin scrapped the entire vessel and started from scratch. The story of Jacklyn, named after Jeff Bezos's mother, reveals how even a company founded by one of the world's richest people had to learn hard lessons about what actually works when trying to catch 57 metre rocket boosters descending from space at hypersonic speeds. The barge that ultimately took its name represents a dramatic shift in strategy, from elegant complexity to purpose built simplicity.
The Intruder That Knocked Our Planets Askew
Billions of years ago, a rogue planet eight times more massive than Jupiter tore through our Solar System, passing closer to the Sun than Mars orbits today. That single violent encounter may explain why our giant planets don't orbit in perfect circles like formation theories predict and new simulations suggest there was roughly a one in 9,000 chance it happened at all. The discovery reveals that near misses with interstellar wanderers might be more important in shaping planetary systems than anyone realised.
Heat Waves Will Be Less Extreme because of Paris Climate Agreement
Ten years after the Paris climate agreement, the limited progress we’ve made in reducing global warming means that there will be less extreme heat in the future than there would be without the accord
When Space Junk Comes Home
When a chunk of SpaceX rocket debris crashed into a Polish warehouse this year, it exposed a troubling reality, that the international laws governing space accidents were written for a world where only governments launched rockets. Now, as private companies deploy thousands of satellites and debris rains down with increasing frequency, victims have no direct legal recourse and must rely on their governments to pursue claims on their behalf, that’s if those governments choose to act at all. A new analysis reveals how a Cold War era treaty struggles to protect ordinary people in the age of commercial spaceflight, and why some nations are now taking matters into their own hands.
The Epstein-Barr Virus May Cause Lupus
Early findings indicate that Epstein-Barr Virus may also cause the autoimmune disease lupus