Astronomy

D-Wave's claim that its quantum computers can solve problems that would take hundreds of years on classical machines have been undermined by two separate research groups showing that even an ordinary laptop can perform similar calculations

D-Wave's claim that its quantum computers can solve problems that would take hundreds of years on classical machines have been undermined by two separate research groups showing that even an ordinary laptop can perform similar calculations

The moon, the Milky Way, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter Mars, Neptune, Uranus and comet C/2024 G3 are all visible at once in breathtaking new photos from the European Southern Observatory.

Our local star, the Sun has been under the watchful gaze of ESA’s Solar Orbiter since its launch in 2020. It’s been slowly getting closer and grabbing images using its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) which citizen scientists have been stitching together into wonderful time-lapse videos. A recent video covers just 15 minutes of real time but within, you can see an M-Class flare that was unleashed by the Sun. The flares can produce brief radio blackouts here on Earth.

Here's how to watch all the total lunar eclipse action unfold live and online so you don't miss a second of the dramatic "Blood Moon" on March 13.

Video: 00:03:21

Meet Hera, our very own asteroid detective. Together with two CubeSats – Milani the rock decoder and Juventas the radar visionary – Hera is off on an adventure to explore Didymos, a double asteroid system that is typical of the thousands that pose an impact risk to planet Earth.

In September 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft tested if it was possible to divert an asteroid by giving it a shove – and found out that it was! Important knowledge, should we wish to avoid going the same way as the dinosaurs. Astronomers can observe from afar how the smaller asteroid’s orbit has shifted since DART’s impact, but there is still a missing piece of the puzzle if we want to fully understand how ‘kinetic impacting’ works in practice. Suitable for kids and adults alike, this episode of ‘The Incredible Adventures of Hera’ explains what ESA’s asteroid detective and its CubeSat assistants are doing on their cosmic roadtrip through space towards the asteroid, and why it involves skimming close to Mars.

Watch the other episodes of The Incredible Adventures of the Hera Mission

The European Space Agency has unveiled the ESA Space HPC, a new resource for space in Europe. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher was joined by ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun and ASI president Teodoro Valente to cut the ribbon at ESA’s establishment in Italy, ESRIN.  

SpaceX plans to launch the Crew-10 mission to relieve the current astronauts aboard the ISS on Friday (March 14), and you can watch the action live.

No new human cases of avian influenza have been reported, and poultry infections are low so far in March. But infections in cats are continuing, and new research is raising concerns about the virus

SpaceX's Crew-10 mission will send two NASA astronauts, a Japanese spaceflyer and a cosmonaut to the International Space Station.

Palaeontologists have discovered 66 three-toed dinosaur footprints in a slab of rock that has been on display for 20 years at a school in Queensland

Palaeontologists have discovered 66 three-toed dinosaur footprints in a slab of rock that has been on display for 20 years at a school in Queensland

On COVID’s fifth anniversary, the U.S. is facing an outbreak of tuberculosis in Kansas that makes strong public health systems as important as ever.

Astronomers have traced a starnge blast of radiowaves that repeats every 2 hours back to a dead star white dwarf magnetically slamming its stellar companion.

Astronomers have discovered the smallest dwarf galaxy ever seen. It is a mystery how the satellite galaxy of Andromeda survived the blistering conditions of the early universe.

The duo launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 11 at 11:10 p.m. EST (0209 March 12 GMT).

Beautiful island universe

On the right, dressed in blue, is the

Of all the moons in the Solar System, Europa is perhaps one of the most fascinating. With a thick ice shell surrounding a subsurface ocean, astrobiologists hope maybe there is life down there! Finding a way through the ice to explore what’s below is one of the biggest challenges. It’s possible however that the vital chemicals from life could find their way to the surface and through out into space. A new paper proposes an ultraviolet laser could be used to cause amino acids to fluoresce giving away their presence.