Whatever dark matter is, cosmologists are busy trying to understand the role it plays in the structure of the Universe. Our standard cosmological model, also called Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM), makes a number of predictions about how galaxies form and evolve, largely focused on dark matter haloes. DM haloes are fundamental building blocks for the cosmological structure. Scientists often describe them as the scaffolding on which the Universe is built.
China is preparing to make history with its upcoming Mars Sample Return mission, Tianwen-3, scheduled to launch in 2028. This ambitious project aims to collect Martian soil and rock samples and bring them back to Earth for detailed analysis, potentially answering one of humanity's most profound questions; has life ever existed on Mars?
When millions of people turn off their lights for Earth Hour each year, something remarkable happens in the night sky above cities. A new piece of research from Hong Kong shows that just a small number of decorative buildings and advertising boards can dramatically brighten the entire urban night sky and when they go dark, the sky becomes up to 50% darker. The scientists studied 14 years of Earth Hour data from 2011 to 2024 in Hong Kong, using specialised light sensors to measure exactly how much the night sky changed when the city participated in the global lights out event.
Tens of thousands of pieces of space debris are hurtling around Earth right now. These defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, collision fragments and even a toolbox threaten active spacecraft and could trigger cascading disasters that make space unusable for generations. Since removing just a single piece of debris can cost tens of millions of dollars, the critical question becomes which ones should we prioritise?
The Hubble Space Telescope continues to observe the cosmos and deliver some of the most breathtaking views of astronomical objects ever taken. The telescope recently imaged Abell 209, a galaxy cluster located 2.8 billion light years away in the constellation Cetus. The picture was selected as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, as it beautifully illustrates the galaxies that constitute it and the lensing effect it has surrounding space. The galaxies appear as brightly shining points in the image, emitting light that appears to take an oval shape, crowded around a particularly massive one.
Gravitational waves are tiny distortions in spacetime itself, created when massive objects like black holes or neutron stars collide. These waves stretch and compress space as they pass through, but the effect is incredibly subtle, far smaller than the width of a proton. When Einstein predicted gravitational waves over a century ago, he likely never imagined that magnets could one day detect these gravitational ripples. Yet new research led by Valerie Domcke from CERN reveals that magnetic systems can function as exceptionally sensitive gravitational wave detectors, offering a fresh approach to studying some of the universe's most violent events.
One of the main objectives of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was to measure the size and age of the Universe, as well as the rate at which it is expanding (aka. the Hubble Constant). This was enabled for the first time with the Hubble Deep Fields, which visualized the farthest galaxies that are observable in visible light (~13 billion light years from Earth). However, when astronomers measured the distance to these galaxies, they noted a problem: they were inconsistent with measurements of the local Universe. This became known as the "Hubble Tension," which remains one of the biggest cosmological mysteries to this day.
From one perspective, the Sun is a benevolent orb of plasma and its warmth makes Earth habitable and has kept if habitable for billions of years, allowing complex things like human beings to evolve. From another perspective, it's a malevolent orb that sends deadly UV radiation our way, and sometimes erupts and hurls massive blobs of plasma toward Earth. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to flesh out that truth.
In the vast expanse between Uranus and Neptune, a team of researchers have uncovered something really quite extraordinary, a minor planet that has been locked in precise gravitational manouevres with Uranus for at least a million years. This discovery sheds new light on the complex dynamics that govern our Solar System's outer reaches.
In November 2022, Lauren Berger loaded a rental truck with GPS equipment, a drone, notebooks, sample bags, and a flat spatula affectionately called a "scoopula." Her destination was California's Algodones Dunes, a sandy region bordering California, Arizona, and Mexico. Her mission was to unlock the secrets of Mars by studying Earth's desert patterns.
Astrobiology can be split into two very distinct fields. There’s the field that astronomers are likely more familiar with, involving large telescopes, exoplanets, and spectroscopic signals that are pored over to debate whether they show signs of life. But there is another camp, collective known as the Origins researchers that focus on developing a scientific understanding of how life originally developed on Earth. A new paper from Cole Mathis at Arizona State and Harrison B. Smith at the Institute of Science in Tokyo suggests a new path forward to tackling those challenges - set them up as competitions and let a hefty prize motivate scientific teams and individuals to pursue them.
Stars don’t form out of nothing, but tracking the gas and dust that do eventually form stars is hard. They float around the galaxy at almost absolute zero, emitting essentially no light, and generally making life difficult for astronomers. But, part of how they make life difficult is actually the key to studying them - they have “absorption lines” that detail what kind of material the light is passing through on its way to Earth. A new paper from Harvey Liszt of America’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Maryvonne Gerin of the Sorbonne details how tracking those absorption lines via radio astronomy can trace the “dark neutral medium” of interstellar gas throughout the galaxy.
Looking at the prospects for seeing the latest interstellar visitor to our solar system for yourself.
There's very little scientific debate about the existence of surface water on Mars in its past. The evidence at this point is overwhelming. Orbiter images clearly show river channels and deltas, and rovers have found ample minerals that only form in the presence of water. Now the scientific debate has moved on. Scientists are trying to learn the extent of Martian surface water, both on the planet's surface and through time.
Though our Solar System and the movement of its planets appears relatively sedate, there are many things that could upset it. Anything with enough mass that got close enough could disrupt planetary orbits. This includes primordial black holes (PBH).
There was a total solar eclipse in the UK back in 1999. I travelled down to Cornwall, a loooooong 8 hour car drive and quite typically for UK, it was cloud. For me, I either need to wait until 2090 when I will be the ripe old age of 117 or travel abroad. Even if I had seen it, I would have been able to enjoy the spectacle for just over 2 minutes! Imagine though, experiencing a total solar eclipse that lasts 48 minutes instead of the usual four minutes or so that we see on Earth. A UK led space mission plans to make this possible by creating artificial solar eclipses in space, revolutionising how we study our nearest star and potentially saving decades of waiting for natural eclipses.
Protoplanetary disks made of gas and dust form around young stars, and this is where planets from. These disks don't last forever. Eventually, the star's energetic output dissipates the disk through photoevaporation, the material gets taken up in planets, and the planet-forming process ceases.
For decades, astronomers have yearned for the day when they could observe the period known as "Cosmic Dawn." This period, which took place roughly 50 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, is when the first galaxies in the Universe formed. Observing these galaxies is crucial to understanding cosmic evolution and the forces that govern the Universe (e.g., Dark Matter, Dark Energy, etc.) Thanks to next-generation observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are starting to get their first look behind the veil.
On July 11, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope finished its commissioning and commenced science operations. In the three years since, the powerful infrared space telescope has delivered on its promise. It's looked back in time and surprised us with the galaxies it found. It's directly-imaged exoplanets and studied the atmospheres of others. Among this and all of its other science, it's delivered a stream of stunning images.
When it is deployed in 2027, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide new insights into the cosmos. As the successor to the venerable Hubble mission, it will rely on a 2.4 m (7.9 ft) wide primary mirror and a field of view 100 times greater than its predecessor. This next-generation observatory will join the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), using its high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments to view objects too faint, cool, or distant for other telescopes to observe. The mission is currently in the System Assembly, Integration and Test, and Launch phase of development at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
A remarkable 2.35 billion year old meteorite found in Africa in 2023 has opened a new window into the Moon's volcanic history, filling a gap in our understanding of how Earth's closest neighbour evolved over billions of years.
All Rights Reserved. 2025. SpaceZE.com
