"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

— William Shakespeare
Julius Cæsar

Astronomy

World Asteroid Day 2025: Watch live views of near-Earth asteroids for free online on June 30

Space.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 9:33am
World Asteroid Day 2025: Watch live views of near-Earth asteroids for free online on June 30
Categories: Astronomy

'Apollo 13' at 30: The space movie where scientists have the right stuff too

Space.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 9:00am
Ron Howard's classic celebrates the mission control geniuses who got the astronauts home.
Categories: Astronomy

NASA exoplanet-hunting spacecraft and citizen scientists discover a cool new alien world

Space.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 9:00am
With the aid of NASA's exoplanet-hunter TESS, citizen scientists have discovered a new gas giant that is cool, literally and figuratively.
Categories: Astronomy

Cells Can ‘Hear’ Sounds—And Respond Genetically

Scientific American.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 6:45am

Audible sound can affect gene activity in mouse cells, boosting the attachment of muscle precursors to surrounding tissue and decreasing fat accumulation

Categories: Astronomy

Why Did the Company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline Sue Greenpeace?

Scientific American.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 6:00am

Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, sued the nonprofit Greenpeace over alleged conspiracy—the host of Drilled explains why

Categories: Astronomy

NASA budget cuts threaten Europe's already troubled flagship Mars rover

Space.com - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 6:00am
NASA was to supply some critical technologies for the mission, which Europe may not be able to readily replace.
Categories: Astronomy

Plato’s eyes meet brain

ESO Top News - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 4:00am
Video: 00:01:38

On 11 June, engineers at OHB’s facilities in Germany joined together the two main parts of ESA’s Plato mission

They used a special crane to lift Plato’s payload module, housing its 26 ultra-sensitive cameras, into the air and carefully line it up over the service module. The supporting service module contains everything else that the spacecraft needs to function, including subsystems for power, propulsion and communication with Earth. 

With millimetre-level precision, the engineers gently lowered the payload module into place. Once perfectly positioned, the team tested the electrical connections. 

Finally, they securely closed a panel that connects the payload module to the service module both physically and electronically (seen ‘hanging’ horizontally above the service module in this image). This panel, which opens and closes with hinges, also contains the electronics to process data from the cameras. 

Now in one piece, Plato is one step closer to beginning its hunt for Earth-like planets.  

In the coming weeks, the spacecraft will undergo tests to ensure its cameras and data processing systems still work perfectly. 

Then it will be driven from OHB’s cleanrooms to ESA’s technical heart (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. At ESTEC, engineers will complete the spacecraft by fitting it with a combined sunshield and solar panel module. 

Following a series of essential tests to confirm that Plato is fit for launch and ready to work in space, it will be shipped to Europe’s launch site in French Guiana. 

The mission is scheduled to launch on an Ariane 6 in December 2026. 

Access the related broadcast quality video footage

ESA’s Plato (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) will use 26 cameras to study terrestrial exoplanets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars.  

Plato's scientific instrumentation, consisting of the cameras and electronic units, is provided through a collaboration between ESA and the Plato Mission Consortium. This Consortium is composed of various European research centres, institutes and industries, led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The spacecraft is being built and assembled by the industrial Plato Core Team led by OHB together with Thales Alenia Space and Beyond Gravity

Categories: Astronomy

Webb spots a starburst shining in infrared

ESO Top News - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 3:59am
Image: A starburst shines in infrared (MIRI)
Categories: Astronomy

What Islands Can Teach Us About Planetary Protection

Universe Today - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 3:47am

As Charles Darwin explored the Galapagos Islands, he discovered how the different islands allowed for different species to thrive. This is very similar to our current exploration of the Solar System; individual worlds, separated by the vacuum of space. The similarities provide a new insight into predictin planetary contamination risks and improve protection methods. A new paper by Daniel J. Brener and Charlesg S. Cockell uses the spread of life to new islands as a powerful model for rethinking how we prevent Earth's microbes from contaminating other worlds, shifting focus from probability calculations to whether microbes can actually survive in alien environments.

Categories: Astronomy

If We Can't Detect the First Stars, Maybe We Can See Their First Galaxies

Universe Today - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 3:47am

Population III stars are the first generation that formed in the Universe, made from pristine hydrogen and helium, without any heavier "metals." They're difficult to find, surrounded by the early cosmic fog and lasting for only a few million years, but a new paper proposes that Webb could detect the pollution from these first stars as they're enriching the gas around them. There would be a hybrid phase when the first galaxies could contain second-generation stars and the polluted gas from the first stars.

Categories: Astronomy

Webb Could Detect if Supermassive Black Holes Formed Directly

Universe Today - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 3:47am

An unfolding mystery is how early supermassive black holes got so big, so early. Their high mass is tough to explain through a ladder of mergers; instead, astronomers suggest they could have formed directly from huge clouds of gas. In a new paper, researchers propose the signals these directly-forming supermassive black holes might emit, and how they could even be detectable by James Webb before they collapse.

Categories: Astronomy

Flyby Mission Strategies for Detecting Oceans on Uranus’ Moons

Universe Today - Mon, 06/30/2025 - 3:47am

What methods can be used to identify subsurface oceans on the five largest moons of Uranus: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon, and Miranda? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) investigated potentially using radio science on the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) concept mission, which was designated as a high priority Flagship-class mission by the 2023–2032 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

Categories: Astronomy

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APOD - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 8:00pm

How do stars form?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Altered gut microbiome linked to fertility issues in people with PCOS

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 7:01pm
People with PCOS who struggle to conceive tend to have lower levels of a gut microbe that has been linked to endometrial function
Categories: Astronomy

Altered gut microbiome linked to fertility issues in people with PCOS

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 7:01pm
People with PCOS who struggle to conceive tend to have lower levels of a gut microbe that has been linked to endometrial function
Categories: Astronomy

Planets Form Earlier Than Thought Around Baby Stars

Universe Today - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 2:38pm

The Sun and its planets formed out of the solar nebula, around 4.6 billion years ago. But what was the delay between the Sun's formation and the planets? Astronomers have surveyed 78 protoplanetary disks in the Ophiuchus star-forming region and seen examples of every step in the planetary formation process. They found that the planets start forming much earlier than previously believed, when the disk is still filled with gas and dust, growing together with their host stars.

Categories: Astronomy

Cryovolcanism and Resurfacing on Pluto’s Largest Moon, Charon

Universe Today - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 2:38pm

What processes during the formation of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, potentially led to it having cryovolcanism, and even an internal ocean? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the formation and evolution of Charon to ascertain whether it once possessed an internal ocean during its history and if this could have led to cryovolcanism based on images obtained by NASA’s New Horizons probe.

Categories: Astronomy

New Propulsion Systems Could Enable a Mission to Sedna

Universe Today - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 2:38pm

The dwarf planet Sedna will reach its closest point to the Sun in 2075, the ideal time to send a mission to study this world that takes 11,000 years to orbit the Sun. In a new paper, researchers consider two exotic propulsion systems for a mission like this: a direct fusion drive, and an enhanced solar sail. Both methods could allow a spacecraft to reach Sedna in under a decade of flight time.

Categories: Astronomy

'War of the Worlds' at 20: Steven Spielberg made three-quarters of an apocalyptic classic

Space.com - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 12:00pm
Spielberg's contemporary spin on H. G. Wells would be up there with his best if only he could have nailed the ending.
Categories: Astronomy

Blue Origin launches 6 tourists on suborbital trip from Texas, including 750th person ever to fly into space

Space.com - Sun, 06/29/2025 - 11:11am
Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its 13th crewed New Shepard rocket on a successful suborbital spaceflight on Sunday, June 29, 2025.
Categories: Astronomy