The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.

— Peter De Vries

Astronomy

An Indian astronaut is about to visit the ISS for the 1st time ever

Space.com - Tue, 06/10/2025 - 5:00am
An astronaut from India is set to launch to the International Space Station on the Ax-4 mission on June 11, marking a first for the nation.
Categories: Astronomy

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APOD - Tue, 06/10/2025 - 4:00am

Is the sky the same every night?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

A Terrifying Simulation of a Black Hole Gobbling Up a Neutron Stars

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

Across the universe, dramatic events occur when a black hole meets a neutron star. A neutron star is the ultra-dense remains of a massive star that exploded — imagine all the mass of our Sun compressed into a sphere just a few tens of kilometres wide. When a black hole and neutron star spiral toward each other, the result is one of nature's most violent spectacles.

Categories: Astronomy

Is the Hubble Tension Starting to Go Away?

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

For years, scientists have been scratching their heads over the "Hubble Tension,” the mismatch between how fast the cosmos was expanding in its youth versus how fast it's expanding today. But now, armed with the most precise data ever captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found the perceived gap is starting to narrow! In fact, the expansion rate measured by Cepheid variables versus the cosmic background has overlapping error bars again. Will the tension mystery finally be resolved?

Categories: Astronomy

Astronomers Find a Hidden Planet Partly in the Habitable Zone of its Star

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

Astronomers have found another super-Earth. It's about 10 times more massive than Earth, and orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star about 2475 light-years away. These massive Earth-like planets hold key information about how planets form and evolve.

Categories: Astronomy

Webb Watches Haze Rise and Fall in Pluto's Atmosphere

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope taken over the space of a week, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System.

Categories: Astronomy

What Life on Europa Needs

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

As the years go by, the chance of Europa hosting life seems to keep going down. But it's not out of contention yet.

Categories: Astronomy

Do the Clouds of Venus Really Host Life?

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

On the surface (you're welcome for the joke), Venus is not even close to being hospitable to life. But that's not the end of the story.

Categories: Astronomy

Reusable Chinese Rocket Soft-Lands in the Ocean in a New Test

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

Chinese rocket startup Space Epoch put on a show recently, with a demonstration test launch of their reusable Yanxinghe-1 rocket booster.

Categories: Astronomy

How Likely Is Life on Mars?

Universe Today - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 10:44pm

Mars is by far the most Earth-like planet in the solar system…but that's not saying much.

Categories: Astronomy

Why the Waymo Car Fires in Recent Los Angeles Protests Caused the Robotaxis to Burn So Completely

Scientific American.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 5:49pm

During recent protests in Los Angeles, fires triggered “thermal runaway” in several Waymo robotaxis’ lithium-ion battery packs. The phenomenon sent temperatures past 1,000 degrees Celsius, vaporized much of the cars and spewed lung-searing hydrogen fluoride

Categories: Astronomy

NASA raises the odds that an asteroid could hit the moon in 2032

Space.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 5:00pm
Asteroid 2024 YR4, once the highest impact risk ever recorded, now poses no threat to Earth but has a slightly increased chance of striking the moon in 2032.
Categories: Astronomy

How to see the 'Horse and Rider' in the Big Dipper's handle this summer

Space.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 4:00pm
Mizar, a star in the Big Dipper's handle, has a tiny companion. This star, Alcor, was known to the ancients. The pair was popularly known as the "Horse and Rider."
Categories: Astronomy

Marathon: Release date, trailers & everything we know about Bungie's extraction shooter

Space.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 3:00pm
Bungie's next game is a return to the Marathon universe, but it's not what fans of the series were expecting. Here's everything we know so far.
Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites to orbit on 70th Falcon 9 flight of the year (photos)

Space.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 2:00pm
SpaceX launched 26 Starlink satellites to orbit from California on Sunday (June 8), on the 70th mission of 2025 for the company's Falcon 9 rocket.
Categories: Astronomy

How the Mathematics of Honesty Underlies These Auctions

Scientific American.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 1:45pm

Here's the surprising math at the heart of auction theory

Categories: Astronomy

Central Brazil Cerrado

NASA Image of the Day - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 1:34pm
Amid a patchwork of fields, towns, and winding rivers and roads in central Brazil stands a monolithic oval-shaped plateau. This conspicuous feature, the Serra de Caldas (also known as the Caldas Novas dome and Caldas Ridge), is perched about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the surrounding landscape in the state of Goiás.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Starlink satellites are leaking radio signals that may ruin astronomy

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 1:00pm
Our ability to study faint radio signals from when the first stars began to form is being threatened by SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which seem to be unintentionally leaking radio signals that overpower astronomers' telescopes
Categories: Astronomy

Starlink satellites are leaking radio signals that may ruin astronomy

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 1:00pm
Our ability to study faint radio signals from when the first stars began to form is being threatened by SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which seem to be unintentionally leaking radio signals that overpower astronomers' telescopes
Categories: Astronomy

How to Protect Yourself from Recent Salmonella Outbreak in Recalled Eggs

Scientific American.com - Mon, 06/09/2025 - 12:50pm

To prevent Salmonella food poisoning, refrigerate your eggs, cook them well, never eat them raw and clean, clean, clean

Categories: Astronomy