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100-year-old assumption about the universe may soon be overturned
100-year-old assumption about the universe may soon be overturned
Scientists Find Peculiar Differences in Two Uranian Rings
The planet Uranus is a weird place. Not only does it roll around the Sun on its side once every 84.3 Earth years, it also sports a spindly set of rings corralled in some places by strange little moons. Two of those rings, the μ (mu) and ν (nu) rings are incredibly faint, which makes them challenging to study.
Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration
Members of the National Science Board, which the U.S. Congress founded in 1950, were given no explanation for their termination
The Universe is Bending Light, and Astronomers Need Your Help to Find it
Einstein told us that massive objects bend light and he was of course, right. Across the universe, giant galaxies are acting as natural telescopes, warping and distorting the light of objects behind them into spectacular arcs and rings. Now the Euclid space telescope wants your help to find them and the scale of the hunt is unlike anything attempted before.
Mining the Solar System to Build a New World
If humans are ever going to live permanently on Mars, someone is going to have to work out where all the raw materials, the food, they oxygen or the material for the structures to name just a few. A new study has tackled that unglamorous but absolutely critical question and the answer involves robots, asteroids, and one of the most complex supply chains ever designed.
The Planet Haul That Changes Everything.
NASA's planet hunting telescope has been busy. A new study has just sifted through the light of over 83 million stars and emerged with more than 11,000 potential worlds, including a confirmed giant planet orbiting a distant star. The results don't just add to our catalogue of planets. They fundamentally change where we look for them.
Another Instrument Shut Down on Voyager 1 to Extend its Interstellar Mission
On April 17th, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP. The nuclear-powered spacecraft is running low on power, and turning off the LECP is considered the best way to keep humanity's first interstellar explorer going.
Small Antarctic Telescope Makes An Outsized Impact On Exoplanetary Science
ASTEP, the Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets, a small visible telescope operating at Concordia station, continues making a real impact in characterizing odd new exoplanetary systems.
‘Staggering’ number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk, and more
Survey results suggest a rise in questioning of scientific evidence
Webb Finds Water-Ice Clouds on Nearby Super-Jupiter
The giant planets in our solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—have challenged our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. Specifically, their atmospheric formations and compositions have provided awe-inspiring images from spacecraft and given scientists key insights into the interior mechanisms of these massive worlds. But what about exoplanets? What can their atmospheres teach scientists about their formation, evolution, composition, and interior mechanisms? And how do longstanding exoplanet models stack up against the real thing?
‘Bat feast’ animal videos at African cave offer clues to how deadly viruses spread
Researchers filmed 10 species eating or scavenging bats at a known Marburg-virus hotspot—and caught hundreds of humans visiting
Can electric air taxis carry passengers? Vertical Aerospace’s VX4 just cleared a key test
A British start-up recently pulled off a key maneuver for electric vertical flight—but certification, infrastructure and demand will decide whether air taxis fill our skies
Mollusk shells could pave the way to greener materials
Nacre-inspired ceramics could be the basis for the next generation of energy-efficient technology
TOI-201 Planets Are Wobbling Out of Our Line of Sight
It turns out that even after studying our solar system in depth and discovering more than 6,100 exoplanets across more than 4,500 exoplanetary systems, not all solar systems are created equal. The longstanding notion is that planets orbit almost entirely in the same orbital path, also called an orbital plane. But what if an exoplanetary system was found to have exoplanets that not only orbit in different planes, but also exhibits changing behavior regarding when they pass in front of their star?
JWST Hunts for an 'Earth-Moon' Twin in a Habitable Zone, But the Star Has Other Plans
The Moon has played a huge role in the development of Earth. It stabilizes the planet, tempered dramatic climate swings, and possibly even provided the tidal heating that might have led to the first life forms. So it’s natural we would want to find a similar Earth/Luna system somewhere else in the cosmos. But astronomers have been searching for one for years at this point to no avail. And a new paper from Emily Pass and her colleagues at MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago describes using the James Webb Space Telescope to track some of the most promising exomoon candidates - only to be foiled by the star they were orbiting.
One scientist’s 10-year quest to calculate the strength of gravity
Earth’s gravitational force, g, has been known for centuries. But the exact value of G, the universal gravitational constant, is elusive