Watch the stars and from them learn. To the Master's honor all must turn, Each in its track, without a sound, Forever tracing Newton's ground

— Albert Einstein

Astronomy

SpaceX launches Crew-11 astronauts to the ISS for NASA on milestone Crew Dragon flight (video)

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 12:00pm
SpaceX launched the Crew-11 on Aug. 1, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station on the record-breaking sixth flight of its Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
Categories: Astronomy

DNA analysis reveals what really killed Napoleon's army in 1812

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 12:00pm
At least 300,000 men died during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia - now the latest genetic techniques have identified two pathogens that may have contributed to some of the deaths
Categories: Astronomy

DNA analysis reveals what really killed Napoleon's army in 1812

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 12:00pm
At least 300,000 men died during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia - now the latest genetic techniques have identified two pathogens that may have contributed to some of the deaths
Categories: Astronomy

New discovery at CERN could hint at why our universe is made up of matter and not antimatter

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 12:00pm
A new finding at CERN on the French-Swiss border brings us closer to answering why matter dominates over its opposite, antimatter.
Categories: Astronomy

Wildfire Smoke from Canada Reduces Air Quality in U.S. Midwest

Scientific American.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 11:37am

Winds from the northwest are blowing cool, dry air—but also wildfire smoke—into the U.S. Midwest from Canada

Categories: Astronomy

Exotic 'blazar' is part of most extreme double black hole system ever found, crooked jet suggests

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 11:00am
A beam of particles speeding away from a monstrous black hole is severely kinked, suggesting that the black hole is actually part of the most extreme binary system known.
Categories: Astronomy

Big lake in Quebec suddenly disappears, satellite finds | Space photo of the day for August 1, 2025

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 10:00am
The lake was completely drained in the spring of 2025.
Categories: Astronomy

Astronaut savors the moment and shares a stunning aurora shot | On the International Space Station July 28-Aug. 1, 2025

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 10:00am
The four Expedition 73 members on SpaceX's Crew-10 mission prepared to come home, while also got the International Space Station ready for its next residents.
Categories: Astronomy

Week in images: 28 July - 1 August 2025

ESO Top News - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 9:10am

Week in images: 28 July - 1 August 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Categories: Astronomy

Stunning 'sun dogs' could sparkle in alien skies, James Webb Space Telescope suggests

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 9:00am
High-speed winds on exoplanet WASP-17b may align quartz crystals in its atmosphere and create dazzling light effects like "sun dogs."
Categories: Astronomy

U.S. Science Has Weathered Attacks Before and Won

Scientific American.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 8:00am

Federal officials seized 3,000 copies of Scientific American in 1950 in a “red scare” era of attacks on science. The move backfired and offers lessons for today

Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX fires up Starship spacecraft ahead of 10th test flight (video, photos)

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 8:00am
SpaceX performed a single-engine "static fire" trial with its newest Starship spacecraft on Thursday (July 31), to help prep the vehicle for an upcoming test flight.
Categories: Astronomy

A New Lunar Far Side Radio Telescope Is Ready For Testing

Universe Today - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 7:09am

We’ve been talking about sending a radio telescope to the far side of the Moon for awhile now. Now that reality is one step closer with the completion of the design and construction phase of the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) radio telescope project. This milestone marks a major step in the development of the system, which is planned to launch on a lunar lander in 2026.

Categories: Astronomy

JWST Reveals Four Distinct CO₂ Types on Saturn’s Moons

Universe Today - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 7:09am

What can carbon dioxide (CO₂) on Saturn’s moons teach scientists about their formation and evolution? This is what a recent study submitted to The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the different types of CO₂ that exist on several of Saturn’s mid-sized moons. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the existence of CO₂ on planetary bodies and what this could mean for their formation and evolution, and potentially whether they could possess life as we know it.

Categories: Astronomy

Primordial Black Holes Could Act As Seeds For Quasars

Universe Today - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 7:09am

Plenty of groups have been theorizing about Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) recently. That is in part because of their candidacy as a potential source of dark matter. But, if they existed, they also had other roles to play in the early universe. According to a recent draft paper released on arXiv by Jeremy Mould and Adam Batten of Swinburne University, one of those roles could be as the seeds that eventually form both quasars and radio galaxies.

Categories: Astronomy

Cameras that work like our eyes could give boost to astronomers

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 7:00am
Neuromorphic cameras, which only record data when a pixel's brightness changes, may be advantageous for capturing extremely bright and dim objects in the same image and tracking fast-moving objects
Categories: Astronomy

Cameras that work like our eyes could give boost to astronomers

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 7:00am
Neuromorphic cameras, which only record data when a pixel's brightness changes, may be advantageous for capturing extremely bright and dim objects in the same image and tracking fast-moving objects
Categories: Astronomy

Why Do Black Holes Spin?

Scientific American.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 6:45am

Scientists are uncovering how spinning black holes launch jets, warp spacetime and shape the cosmos

Categories: Astronomy

Anthropic’s Claude 4 Chatbot Suggests It Might Be Conscious

Scientific American.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 6:00am

A conversation with Anthropic’s chatbot raises questions about how AI talks about awareness.

Categories: Astronomy

Did 'primordial' black holes born right after the Big Bang help our universe's 1st stars form?

Space.com - Fri, 08/01/2025 - 6:00am
New research suggests that primordial black holes could have played an important role in the formation of the universe's first stars, but did they help or hinder?
Categories: Astronomy