There are many worlds and many systems of Universes existing all at the same time, all of them perishable.

— Anaximander 546 BC

Astronomy

Five Years after the COVID Pandemic Began, Fatigue and Frustration Remain

Scientific American.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 8:30am

The “quarantine fatigue” of 2020 became an ongoing “pandemic fatigue,” a complex set of emotions that continues to affect the nation

Categories: Astronomy

Sex may have evolved as a way to pool resources during tough times

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 8:00am
How sexual reproduction came about has long been a mystery, but an evolutionary model suggests it could have started with cells fusing to increase their food reserves
Categories: Astronomy

Sex may have evolved as a way to pool resources during tough times

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 8:00am
How sexual reproduction came about has long been a mystery, but an evolutionary model suggests it could have started with cells fusing to increase their food reserves
Categories: Astronomy

How to Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse on March 13

Scientific American.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 7:45am

The March 13–14 lunar eclipse will be an all-night affair you won’t want to miss

Categories: Astronomy

Our best binoculars under $300 are now even better value with this $90 price cut

Space.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 7:43am
Get the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 for their best price in over a year — a fantastic pair of binoculars for skywatching on the go.
Categories: Astronomy

John Green on His New Nonfiction Book Everything Is Tuberculosis

Scientific American.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 7:00am

Novelist John Green talks about his new nonfiction book, Everything is Tuberculosis, and the inequities in treatment for the highly infectious disease.

Categories: Astronomy

Water mining on the moon may be easier than expected, India's Chandrayaan-3 lander finds

Space.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 7:00am
Higher latitudes on the moon with slopes facing the poles "are not only scientifically interesting but also pose less technical challenges for exploration in comparison with regions closer to the poles of the moon."
Categories: Astronomy

Blackbird deaths point to looming West Nile virus threat in the UK

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 6:00am
Mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus could become a growing concern in the UK and other northern European nations as the climate warms, with a virus affecting blackbirds showing how these pathogens can take hold
Categories: Astronomy

Blackbird deaths point to looming West Nile virus threat in the UK

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 6:00am
Mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus could become a growing concern in the UK and other northern European nations as the climate warms, with a virus affecting blackbirds showing how these pathogens can take hold
Categories: Astronomy

ESA and GSMA Foundry empower industry to achieve seamless global connectivity

ESO Top News - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 6:00am

At MWC25 Barcelona, the European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled a funding initiative, promoted in partnership with GSMA Foundry, to support projects aimed at integrating satellite and terrestrial networks for seamless connectivity.

Categories: Astronomy

What's the difference between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse?

Space.com - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 6:00am
We explore the celestial geometry that explains different kinds of eclipses of the sun and the moon.
Categories: Astronomy

Earth from Space: Tirana, Albania

ESO Top News - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 5:00am
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Albania’s capital Tirana and its surroundings.
Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX's Starship Flight Test Falls Short for the Second Time in a Row

Universe Today - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 3:50am

For the second time in a row, SpaceX lost the second stage of its Starship launch system during a flight test, while recovering the first-stage Super Heavy booster.

Categories: Astronomy

There's a Smashed Planet at the Heart of the Helix Nebula

Universe Today - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 3:18am

An X-ray signal has been detected at the very centre of the Helix Nebula, at the site of its central white dwarf star. It’s a burned out stellar remnant that doesn’t usually emit flashes of X-ray radiation but a new study has been analysing the outburst. The team of researchers think that the stellar corpse smashed into one of its surviving planets and that the X-rays are coming from the planetary debris as it falls onto the surface of the white dwarf.

Categories: Astronomy

Today’s Forecast: Partially Cloudy Skies on an “Ultra-Hot Neptune”

Universe Today - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 2:55am

An ultra-hot Neptune exoplanet has been observed by JWST and the image reveals dramatically different hemispheres. The planet orbits so close to its host start that it is tidally locked so one hemisphere remains facing the star. On this permanent daytime side, temperatures reach 2,000°C but the temperatures plummet on the daytime side. The observations show that the daytime side has bright reflective clouds on its cooler western hemisphere but not on its eastern side!

Categories: Astronomy

Taking A Planet's Pulse

Universe Today - Fri, 03/07/2025 - 1:13am

The Gaia Hypothesis theorizes that all of Earth's systems are tied together, making one large, living organism. While there's still some disagreement about whether or not that hypothesis is true, it is undeniable that many of Earth's systems are intertwined and that changes in one can affect another. As our technology advances, we are becoming more and more capable of detecting changes in those systems and how those changes affect other systems as well. A new proposal from a robotics expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) takes that exploration one step further by trying to develop a system that takes the "pulse" of a planet.

Categories: Astronomy

Watch fiery SpaceX Starship Flight 8 debris rain down over The Bahamas (video)

Space.com - Thu, 03/06/2025 - 9:33pm
The upper stage of SpaceX's huge Starship rocket exploded over the Atlantic Ocean this evening (March 6), creating a dramatic sky show for people in The Bahamas, Florida and elsewhere.
Categories: Astronomy

Dark Matter Doesn't Decay, Whatever It Is

Universe Today - Thu, 03/06/2025 - 9:09pm

The mystery of Dark Matter endures. Despite sixty years of observation and research, scientists still haven't isolated the particle that accounts for roughly 85% of the Universe's mass. However, ongoing experiments and studies have provided insight into how this mysterious mass works. For instance, a research team led by a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan University relied on a new technique that has set new limits on the lifetime of Dark Matter (DM), bringing scientists a step closer to resolving this cosmological mystery.

Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX loses Starship rocket stage again, but catches giant Super Heavy booster during Flight 8 launch (video)

Space.com - Thu, 03/06/2025 - 8:11pm
SpaceX managed to catch the Super Heavy booster on Starship's eighth test flight today (March 6), but the vehicle's upper stage was lost about nine minutes after liftoff.
Categories: Astronomy

Astronauts Could Replace Their Own Mitochrondria To Treat Radiation Sickness

Universe Today - Thu, 03/06/2025 - 7:07pm

Skeptics love to bring up one particular topic regarding long-term human space exploration - radiation. So far, all of the research completed on it has been relatively limited and has shown nothing but harmful effects. Long-term exposure has been linked to an increase in cancer, cataracts, or even, in some extreme cases, acute radiation poisoning, an immediate life-threatening condition. NASA is aware of the problem and recently supported a new post-doc from MIT named Robert Hinshaw via the Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Dr. HHinshaw'sjob over the next year will be to study the effectiveness of an extreme type of mitochondria replacement therapy to treat the long- and short-term risks of radiation exposure in space.

Categories: Astronomy