Astronomy

Mummy aroma may provide insight into social class and historical period, according to a team of trained mummy sniffers

Electrolysis has been a mainstay of crewed mission designs for the outer solar system for decades. It is the most commonly used methodology to split oxygen from water, creating a necessary gas from a necessary liquid. However, electrolysis systems are bulky and power-intensive, so NASA has decided to look into alternative solutions. They supported a company called Precision Combustion, Inc (PCI) via their Institutes for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant to work on a system of thermo-photo-catalytic conversion that could dramatically outperform existing electrolysis reactors.

The moon will put on quite the show tonight; we've got everything to make sure you don't miss all the total lunar eclipse action.

High above the Arctic Circle, on the rugged terrain of Andøya, three ESA radionavigation engineers take a rare moment to unwind with a game of shuffleboard. Outside, sheep graze under the shimmering northern lights, a serene backdrop to their demanding mission: test how navigation technologies withstand interference signals. With 100TB of data collected over 5 days, their efforts promise to strengthen the reliability of satellite navigation for the benefit of us all.

The James Webb Space Telescope has found perhaps its most profound discovery to date. The uncovered preferred direction for galaxies supports the idea that the universe was born in a black hole.

European scientists are asking volunteers to lie down on a waterbed for 10 days as part of a pioneering dry immersion study to recreate some of the effects of spaceflight on the body.

NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water

NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water

Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have completed a survey of galaxies that reveals their rotation directions with unprecedented clarity. Contrary to expectations that galaxy rotations would be randomly distributed, they discovered a surprising pattern, that most galaxies appear to rotate in a similar direction! One hypothesis suggests the universe itself might have an overall rotation, researchers believe a more plausible explanation though is that Earth's motion through space creates an observational bias, making galaxies rotating in certain directions more detectable than others.

If you're a regular visitor to Universe Today, you've probably noticed that the website looks dramatically different. Simpler, cleaner, without all those pesky intrusive ads. We're in a new era, now. Here's what happened, why I decided to remove the ads from the site, and what you can expect going forward.

SpaceX scrubbed today's (March 12) planned launch of the Crew-10 astronaut mission for NASA due to a ground-system hydraulics issue.

The company says it has solved the first problem of scientific relevance with a quantum processor faster than could be done with classical computers—but others disagree

The SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts have departed NASA's checkout facility at Kennedy Space Center and are bound for the launch pad ahead of their imminent liftoff.

Critical minerals are in demand around the world for military, technological and other uses. A geoscientist shares what’s known about Ukraine’s reserves, which could help the country recover from war

Hydrocortisone and testosterone are just two of 13 drugs and supplements that could lessen the impact of genes that accelerate brain ageing

Hydrocortisone and testosterone are just two of 13 drugs and supplements that could lessen the impact of genes that accelerate brain ageing

From malevolent computers to Arcturian shore leave, here are all the callbacks and references we spotted in these short clips.