Despite the powerful telescopes that modern astronomers have to work with, the distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious. Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects. Piecing it all together is a challenge.
There are plenty of engineering challenges facing space exploration missions, most of which are specific to their missions objectives. However, there are some that are more universal, especially regarding electronics. A new paper primarily written by a group of American students temporarily studying at Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieria in Madrid, attempts to lay out plans to tackle several of those challenges for a variety of mission architectures.
The hunt for potentially habitable rocky planets in our galaxy has been the holy grail of exoplanet studies for decades. While the discovery of over 5,900 exoplanets in over 4.400 planetary systems has been a remarkable achievement, only a small fraction (217) have been confirmed as terrestrial - aka. rocky or "Earth-like." Furthermore, obtaining accurate information on a rocky exoplanet's atmosphere is very difficult, since potentially habitable rocky planets are much smaller and tend to orbit closer to their stars.
In 2016, scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made history with the first-ever detection of Gravitational Waves (GWs). These events, originally predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, are caused by the merger of dense objects like neutron stars and black holes. Since then, the LIGO team partnered with the Virgo Gravitational Wave Interferometer (Virgo) in Italy and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan to form the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration.
Stars are born in clusters, and the early days in these clusters are messy. Stars move chaotically and haven't settled into regular routines. Inevitably, some stars are kicked out of their birth clusters through all of the gravitational interactions.
Stars and planets are naturally associated with one another. While some planets have gone rogue and are drifting through space, the vast majority are in solar systems, where they're gravitationally bound and orbit their stars in predictable ways. But some planets stray too close to their stars, with dire consequences. These exoplanets have something to teach us about the exoplanet population.
Exploding stars come in different types, and these different types of supernovae show astronomers different things about the cosmos. There's a scientific appetite to find more of them and boost our knowledge about these exotic events. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope should be able to feed that appetite.
Searching for habitable exoplanets will require decades of work, new technologies, and new ideas. A lot of that effort seems to coalescing around the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a proposed mission expected to launch in the early 2040s that would be capable of directly imaging potentially habitable worlds, and, importantly, detecting features about them that could prove whether or not they host life as we know it. A new paper by exobiology specialists in Europe and the US, led by Svetlana Berdyugina of ISROL in Locarno, Switzerland, details an observational plan with HWO that could definitely prove that life exists on another planet - if they’re able to find one where it does anyway.
The search for habitable exoplanets is a key priority and sits at the pinnacle of exoplanet science. The science community stated that clearly in the 2020 Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020). That survey identified the search for habitable worlds as a priority in their Pathways to Habitable Worlds report.
Astronomers have detected a massive, Ultra-Hot Jupiter that's getting dangerously close to its star. It's more massive than Jupiter and orbits its star more quickly than Mercury orbits the Sun. There are only three possible outcomes, and none of them are good for the planet.
Very massive stars (VMSs)have had a massive impact on the formation of our universe. However, there aren’t very many of them, with only around 20 known specimens in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud. Even observing those is difficult for the current generation of telescopes, which is where an unexpected technological champion might play a role. According to a new paper by Fabrice Martins of CNRS and a group of European and American researchers, the upcoming Habitable World Observatory (HWO) might be our most useful tool when it comes to finding these elusive giants.
As humanity sets its sights on long duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, keeping astronauts healthy will be as critical as building rockets or habitats. In the harsh environment of space, the human body faces challenges that Earth never prepared us for including isolation, microgravity, and radiation that disrupt the immune system, increasing the risk of infection, chronic inflammation, and disease. Interestingly, new research on HIV is revealing lessons that could help future explorers live sustainably, regenerate resources in closed-loop systems, and even produce custom medicine far from Earth.
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) are some of our Solar System's lesser-known objects. They number in the thousands, and they get their name from their orbits. These dwarf planets that orbit the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune does. Pluto is the group's most well-known member, having been demoted from planet to TNO in recent years.
Since Galileo first observed them through his telescope in the early 1600s, sunspots have fascinated scientists. These dark patches on the Sun's surface can persist for days or even months, but until now, researchers couldn't fully explain why they remained stable for such extended periods.
Our circumstances here on the wondrous, life-supporting Earth can give us a false understanding of what the Universe is really like. But our blue-skied, temperate planet is the extreme exception when it comes to other worlds. There's nothing remotely like Earth in our Solar System, and exoplanet studies reinforce that idea. While some exoplanets have hints of habitability, most exoplanets are extremely inhospitable.
When the first astronauts walked on the Moon as part of the Apollo Program, the concept of lunar habitats ceased being the stuff of science fiction and became a matter of scientific study. With several space agencies planning on sending crewed missions to the Moon in the coming decade, these plans have become the subject of scientific interest again. Structures that will enable a "sustained program of lunar science and development" is the long-term aim of NASA's Artemis Program. China and the ESA have similar plans with the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and the Moon Village.
Alone among known planets, Earth has vast oceans on its surface and its landmasses are marked with lakes and extensive river drainage systems. Water is the biosphere's lifeblood, and without it, Earth would be just another dead world. If Earth life is a reliable indicator, then water is necessary for life, full stop.
The race to connect the world through satellite internet has created an unexpected casualty: our view of the cosmos. A new study reveals that major satellite constellations, including Starlink, BlueBird, and OneWeb, are significantly brighter than international standards allow, potentially disrupting both professional astronomy and the simple pleasure of stargazing.
Sometimes in order to support an idea, you first have to discredit alternative, competing ideas that could take resources away from the one you care about. In the scientific community, one of the most devastating ways you can do that is by making the other methods appear to be too expensive to be feasible, or, better yep, prove they wouldn’t work at all due to some fundamental limitation. That is what a recent paper by Dr. Slava Turyshev, the world’s most prominent proponent of a Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) telescope mission, does. He examines how effective alternative telescope technologies would be at creating a 10x10 pixel map of an exoplanet about 32 light years away. Unsurprisingly, there’s only one that is able to do so without giant leaps and bounds in technology development - the SGL telescope.
A team of researchers have made progress in understanding how some of the universe's heaviest particles behave under extreme conditions similar to those that existed just after the Big Bang. A study published in Physics Reports provides new insights into the fundamental forces that shaped our universe and continues to guide its evolution today.
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