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Mixing Regolith With Polymer Saves Mass For 3D Printing
3D printing is going to be a critical technology in space exploration, both for its ability to create almost any object, but also because it can utilize in-situ resources, at least in part. However, the more of those space resources are used in a print, the more the mechanical properties change from that on Earth, leading to problems with tensile or compressive strength. But a new paper from researchers at Concordia University hit a new milestone of how much lunar regolith can be used in a mixed feedstock for additive manufacturing, making it possible to use even more locally sourced material, and saving more launch cost, than ever before.
Hubble Captures Stunning View of Third Interstellar Visitor
A mysterious visitor from another star system is putting on a spectacular show as it streaks through our Solar System, shedding tons of ancient dust and revealing secrets from the depths of interstellar space. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers have captured unprecedented details of 3I/ATLAS—only the third confirmed object from beyond our Solar System as it awakens under our Sun's warmth, offering a rare glimpse into alien worlds billions of kilometres away.
A 36 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole Detected Thanks To Gravitational Lensing
Astronomers from Brazil and the UK have detected what could be the most massive black hole ever found. It's about 36 billion solar masses, which is a stunning 10,000 times more massive than Sagittarius A*, the monstrous supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. This behemoth is about 5 billion light-years away.
This White Dwarf Merged With Another Star To Form An Ultra-Massive White Dwarf
White dwarfs are the stellar remnants left behind by stars after they run out of hydrogen and cease fusion. Only a small number of them are "high-mass white dwarfs" more massive than the Sun. New research indicates that these massive white dwarfs are the result of mergers.
See the August Perseids Battle the Waning Moon
It’s that time of year once again. August sees warm nights, with late summer campers out awaiting that ‘Old Faithful’ of annual meteor showers: the August Perseids. While 2025 also sees the shower peaking right around Full Moon, don’t despair; with a little bit of planning and patience, you can still catch this shower at its best.
Is Mining Asteroids That Impacted The Moon Moon Easier Than Mining Asteroids Themselves?
The resources tucked away in asteroids promise to provide the building blocks of humanity’s expansion into space. However, accessing those resources can prove tricky. There’s the engineering challenge of landing a spacecraft on one of the low-gravity targets and essentially dismantling it while still remaining attached to it. But there’s also a challenge in finding ones that make economic sense to do that to, both in terms of the amount of material they contain as well as the ease of getting to them from Earth. A much easier solution might be right under our noses, according to a new paper from Jayanth Chennamangalam and his co-authors - mine the remnants of asteroids that hit the Moon.
The Martian Landscape Reveals Climate Secrets
Deep cracks stretching hundreds of kilometers across the Martian surface might look like simple scars from ancient impacts, but they're actually windows into a surprisingly dynamic planetary history. New images from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft reveal how these valleys, filled with slow moving rivers of ice and rock, have preserved evidence of climate swings far more extreme than anything Earth has experienced. The story written in these Martian fractures challenges our view of the red planet.
Perseverance Takes a new Panoramic Image of Mars on a Clear Day
‘Float rocks,’ sand ripples, and vast distances are among the sights to see in the latest high-resolution panorama by NASA's Perseverance rover, taken on a particularly clear day.
The JWST Found Evidence Of An Exo-Gas Giant Around Alpha Centauri, Our Closest Sun-Like Neighbour
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.
The Universe's First Stars Unveiled in Turbulent Simulations
What was the Universe like before the first stars formed? Dark, obviously. But there must have been some level of activity in the gas clouds that preceded the first stars. New research shows that these primordial clouds were turbulent, clumpy, and supersonic.
Mars Life Explorer Should Include An Agnostic Life Finder
Searching for life on Mars has been an explicit goal of the astrobiological community for decades. However, they have not really had the resources to effectively do so, and they might be running out of time. Crewed missions to Mars are planned for as little as 15 years from now (though those timelines might be changing…again), and by the time that happens it may be too late to separate Martian life from unintentionally transplanted Earth-life. According to a group of researchers from the Agnostic Life Finding Association, there is one final chance to detect Martian life before it is irreversibly contaminated - the Mars Life Explorer (MLE). But to do its job properly, it’s going to need an upgrade.
Scientists Crack Earth's Magnetic Field Puzzle
Scientists have finally solved a billion year old mystery that explains how life on Earth survived its earliest and most vulnerable stages. Using powerful computer simulations, researchers have proved that our planet's completely liquid core could generate the magnetic field that acts as an invisible shield against deadly cosmic radiation. This groundbreaking discovery reveals that Earth has been protecting life far longer than previously thought, creating a safe haven where the first complex molecules could form and evolve without being destroyed by high energy particles from space.
JWST Traces Details of Complex Planetary Nebula
The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest look at a planetary nebula, NGC 6072, provides new insights into the lifecycle of stars. This could help astronomers predict what will happen to our Sun during its final days as well.