Space News & Blog Articles

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Shortly Before They Collided, two Black Holes Tangled Spacetime up Into Knots

In February 2016, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first-ever detection of gravitational waves (GWs). Originally predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, these waves are ripples in spacetime that occur whenever massive objects (like black holes and neutron stars) merge. Since then, countless GW events have been detected by observatories across the globe – to the point where they have become an almost daily occurrence. This has allowed astronomers to gain insight into some of the most extreme objects in the Universe.

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Arecibo Won’t Be Rebuilt

The National Science Foundation announced last week that it won’t rebuild or replace the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which collapsed in 2020. Instead, the NSF says they have solicited calls for proposals to build a multidisciplinary educational center at the site.

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NASA is Hoping They can Break the Sound Barrier… Quietly

Seventy-five years is a long time for a technology to mature. In the case of supersonic flight, the technology has matured dramatically since Chuck Yaeger first broke the sound barrier on October 14th, 1947. However, you might notice that currently, you can’t hop on a commercial supersonic jet. The reason is simple, close to seventy-five years after the technology was first developed, NASA thinks it might have a solution for its biggest hurdle.

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Uncontrolled Rocket Reentries are a Bigger Problem Than you Think

Over 60% of the launches in 2020 resulted in one or more rocket parts making an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere. While thankfully no one was hurt by that debris, with the expected rise in rocket launches over the coming decade the chances of a casualty are increasing. A new study paints the picture of how current methods of assessing risk are inadequate and new steps need to be taken.

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Astronomers Have Found More Than 30,000 Near-Earth Asteroids… so far

Asteroid hunters have become increasingly good at their job. The discipline, which took a back seat in the early days of astronomy, has really come into its own as of late. Once the general public, probably spurred on by popular 1990s movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon, realized the potentially existential threat they posed, support for finding all asteroids that could be planet killers skyrocketed. At this point, astronomers think that most planet-killing asteroids have been found and have worked their way down to much smaller but still devastating impactors. And now they’ve reached a new milestone with over 30,000 Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) officially discovered.

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TESS has Resumed Normal Operations

In April 2018, NASA launched the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the successor to the Kepler Space Telescope that revolutionized the exoplanet studies field. Like its predecessor, TESS has been scanning almost the entire sky for five years for extrasolar planets using the Transit Method. This consists of monitoring thousands of stars for periodic dips in brightness, which may indicate a planet passing in front of the star relative to the observer. To date, TESS has made 243 confirmed discoveries, with another 4562 candidates – or TESS Objects of Interest (TOI) – awaiting confirmation.

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Webb Sees Organic Molecules in the Hearts of Galaxies, Surprisingly Close to Active Supermassive Black Holes

When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched, one of its jobs was studying galactic formation and evolution. When we look around the Universe, today’s galaxies take the shape of grand spirals like the Whirlpool galaxy and giant ellipticals like M60. But galaxies didn’t always look like this.

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A Black Hole Burps out Material, Years After Feasting on a Star

Originally predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, black holes are the most extreme object in the known Universe. These objects form when stars reach the end of their life cycle, blow off their outer layers, and are so gravitationally powerful that nothing (not even light) can escape their surfaces. They are also of interest because they allow astronomers to observe the laws of physics under the most extreme conditions. Periodically, these gravitational behemoths will devoir stars and other objects in their vicinity, releasing tremendous amounts of light and radiation.

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A new Launch Date for Artemis 1: November 14th … at Night

If the next launch attempt of the Artemis I mission goes as planned, it should be a spectacular sight.

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Mars Express Watched Deimos Pass in Front of Jupiter and its Moons

That’s no moon … wait … yes, it is, and more!

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SpaceIL’s Beresheet 2 Lander Will try Growing Various Plants on the Moon

Where better to grow plants that on the Moon? Well, lots of places, to be honest, including almost everywhere on planet Earth. But that’s not going to stop people from trying to do so – especially as plants grown in space are going to be critical to any long-term space exploration program, and the Moon seems as good a place as any to do that. So the idea of a team of scientists from Australia, Israel, South Africa, and the US to grow some plants on the Moon by 2025 might not be as far-fetched as it seems.

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New Views of Ganymede and Europa From Earth’s Most Powerful Telescope

Scouting mission locations in the outer solar system is complicated. It is difficult to know what you find before you get there with a probe, and once you’re already there, changing trajectories to look at the most exciting parts of the system is difficult. A much better option would be to map out the system in detail before the probe arrives. That is precisely what a team at the University of Leicester is doing in the expectation of the arrival of the JUICE and Europa Clipper probes to the Jupiter system.

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If Earth Were an Exoplanet, it Would Still be Tricky to Figure Out if There’s Life Here

How would Earth appear to alien astronomers? What would their observations tell them about Earth if they were searching the heavens for signs of habitability like we are? It’s a fun thought experiment.

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If we Detect This gas on Other Planets, it’s a Good Sign There’s Life There

Here is an idea that likely never crossed the mind of most space enthusiasts – a gas emitted from broccoli (and other plants) is one of the most indicative signs of the existence of life on a planet. At least according to a new study from researchers at the University of California Riverside.

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Huge DART Success, JWST Sees Weird Rings, Moon’s True Origin

DART’s results are in and they exceed all expectations. The Moon might just be a big chunk of the Earth that formed in just hours. Webb sees bizarre rings around a star, and SLS gets a new launch date… at night.

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Astronomers Think They Have a Warning Sign for When Massive Stars are About to Explode as Supernovae

Red supergiant stars are explosions waiting to happen. They are in the last stage of their life, red and swollen as they fuse heavier elements in a last effort to keep from collapsing. But eventually, gravity will win and the red supergiant core will collapse, triggering a supernova. We know it will happen, but until recently, we didn’t know when.

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Success! DART Impact Shortened Asteroid’s Orbit Time by 32 Minutes

NASA says its DART spacecraft caused a larger-than-expected change in the path of its target asteroid when they collided two weeks ago — marking a significant milestone in the effort to protect our planet from killer space rocks.

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NASA has Built a Collection of Instruments That Will Search for Life Inside Europa and Enceladus

One of the most exciting aspects of space exploration today is how the field of astrobiology – the search for life in our Universe – has become so prominent. In the coming years, many robotic and even crewed missions will be bound for Mars that will aid in the ongoing search for life there. Beyond Mars, missions are planned for the outer Solar System that will explore satellites and bodies with icy exteriors and interior oceans – otherwise known as “Ocean Worlds.” These include the Jovian satellites Europa and Ganymede and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus.

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Two Stars Orbiting Each Other Every 51 Minutes. This Can’t End Well

We don’t have to worry too much about our Sun. It can burn our skin, and it can emit potent doses of charged material—called Solar storms—that can damage electrical systems. But the Sun is alone up there, making things simpler and more predictable.

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A Migrating Moon Might Have Turned Uranus Over on its Side

There are plenty of interesting things about Uranus. Its season lasts as long as its day, it’s the second least-dense planet, and it has a collection of 27 moons. But maybe the most puzzling fact about Uranus is that it is the only planet that lines on its side – relative to its orbital plane, at least. The most common suggestion for why the planet is tilted 98 degrees on its axis is that it was struck by a series of large impacts early in the solar system’s formation. However, new studies from a team at the Sorbonne point to a potential alternative explanation – Uranus used to have another, larger moon that pulled it onto its side and then impacted the planet itself.

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China Launches First Solar Observatory ASO-S

China launches ASO-S, its first mission to explore the Sun.

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