All's not as it appears, this tale has many twists -
but if I wasn't here documenting the story
would that mean that the plot did not exist?

— Peter Hammill

Astronomy

Cutting-Edge Physics and Chemistry Now Unfold One Attosecond at a Time

Scientific American.com - Tue, 07/08/2025 - 8:00am

An attosecond—or 0.000000000000000001 second—is no time at all for a person. That is not so for electrons, atoms and molecules, and laser-wielding scientists are revealing the action

Categories: Astronomy

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers works on experiment in microgravity | Space photo of the day for July 8, 2025

Space.com - Tue, 07/08/2025 - 8:00am
Aboard the International Space Station, Ayers pulls out physics research hardware inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox
Categories: Astronomy

Best Amazon Prime Day 2025 drone deals

Space.com - Tue, 07/08/2025 - 6:43am
We've rounded up the best Amazon Prime Day drone deals as the retailer's annual sales event kicks off on July 8 and runs through to July 11.
Categories: Astronomy

Anti-Prime Day camera deal from Walmart — be ready to capture the crescent moon crossing the Pleiades on July 20

Space.com - Tue, 07/08/2025 - 6:31am
The Sony A7 III is $1380 from Walmart on this anti-Prime deal and is a huge $118 cheaper than Amazon!
Categories: Astronomy

Can Canada get to orbit? Companies NordSpace and ProtoSpace hope to launch country's 1st space mission (exclusive)

Space.com - Tue, 07/08/2025 - 6:00am
Canadian company NordSpace hopes to be the first in the country's history to launch an orbital rocket from Canadian soil. They've got the support of ProtoSpace, a specialized aerospace manufacturing provider hoping to support Canada's budding space industry.
Categories: Astronomy

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APOD - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 8:00pm

What do you see when you look into this sky?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

High-Speed Gas Clouds Fuel Star Formation in Depleted Galaxies

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

How do galaxies like ours continue producing stars long after they should have used up their star-forming gas. Somehow, an external gas source must find its way into the galaxy. New research has found evidence of gas clouds that found their way into a spiral galaxy, likely fueling continued star formation.

Categories: Astronomy

A Star Detonated as a Supernova... Twice

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

The beautiful supernova remnant looks a little different from other examples of stars that detonated in the past. And it should, because according to astronomers, the star that met its end exploded twice. It was a white dwarf in its former life, pulling material from a binary companion, creating the perfect conditions for a Type 1a supernova. It accumulated a blanket of helium, which exploded first, triggering a second detonation at the core of the star.

Categories: Astronomy

Peering Into a Starburst Galaxy With the JWST

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

Astronomers used the JWST to examine M82, a nearby starburst galaxy. M82 is forming stars at a prodigious rate due to its interactions with its neighbour, M81. It produces thousands of solar masses of stars per year, much more than the Milky Way.

Categories: Astronomy

Tianwen-2 Looks Back at the Earth

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

China's asteroid probe turned its cameras back towards the Earth and Moon, capturing an image of our home planet on May 30, 2025. The image was taken when the spacecraft was about 590,000 km away, speeding towards asteroid 2016HO3, where it will retrieve a sample and bring it back to Earth before carrying on to main-belt comet 311P. The spacecraft has been in flight for 33 days and is now over 12 million kilometers from Earth.

Categories: Astronomy

In the Search for Earth-like Worlds, We Should Probably Focus on Red Dwarfs

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

According to the latest studies led by Heidelberg University astronomers, low-mass stars quite often host Earth-like planets. Data collected as part of the CARMENES project were the basis of this finding. By analyzing the data, an international research team succeeded in identifying four new exoplanets and determining their properties.

Categories: Astronomy

Inbound: Astronomers Discover Third Interstellar Object

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

A newly discovered object may give astronomers an opportunity to study an interstellar visitor like never before. The object (A11pl3Z) is currently at +18th magnitude, moving slowly along the border of the constellations Serpens Cauda and Sagittarius, right near the galactic plane. The object was captured on July 2nd by the Deep Random Survey remote telescope in Chile. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) based in Rio Hurtado made the discovery on July 1st. Sam Deen soon backed this up with pre-discovery images from worldwide ATLAS sites in Chile, Hawaii and South Africa from June 25-29.

Categories: Astronomy

Weather Satellites Can Even Study the Weather Over on Venus

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

A pair of Japanese weather satellites took a break from monitoring Earth weather to sneak a peek at Planet Venus. Despite the fact that it's relatively tiny, and millions of kilometers away, they were able to detect changes in Venus' cloud-top temperatures and see patterns and structure in its upper atmosphere. There are long-term trends on Venus that these long-lasting satellites will be able to study, beyond the timeframe of a shorter mission.

Categories: Astronomy

Mercury Joins the 4th of July Fireworks Show

Universe Today - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:49pm

For folks in the United States, July evenings mean 4th of July fireworks. While you’re waiting for the show, be sure to watch for the most elusive of the planets as twilight falls, as Mercury shines at its very best for 2025. If you’ve never seen the innermost world before, now is a good time to try. This is because Mercury reaches greatest elongation, or its greatest point from the Sun as seen from our Earthly vantage point later this week.

Categories: Astronomy

US Air Force cancels plans to build Starship landing pads on island bird sanctuary

Space.com - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 5:00pm
The U.S. military is suspending its efforts to secure a small Pacific island as the test landing site for a new program using rockets to rapidly deliver cargo anywhere on Earth.
Categories: Astronomy

Why Texas ‘Flash Flood Alley’ Is So Deadly, Explained by Geology

Scientific American.com - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 4:40pm

A hydrologist explains why Texas Hill Country is known as Flash Flood Alley and how its geography and geology can lead to heavy downpours and sudden, destructive floods

Categories: Astronomy

Best Amazon Prime Day star projector deals 2025

Space.com - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 4:30pm
We've shone a light on the best Amazon Prime Day star projector deals now that the annual Summer sales event has begun and will run until July 11.
Categories: Astronomy

Forests' vanishing snow is also bad news for carbon storage

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 4:00pm
The loss of snow cover in temperate forests is set to slow their growth and reduce their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere, an overlooked consequence of climate change
Categories: Astronomy

Forests' vanishing snow is also bad news for carbon storage

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Mon, 07/07/2025 - 4:00pm
The loss of snow cover in temperate forests is set to slow their growth and reduce their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere, an overlooked consequence of climate change
Categories: Astronomy