In a recent paper accepted to Contemporary Physics, a physicist from Imperial College London uses past missions and recent findings to encourage the importance of searching for life in the atmosphere of the solar system’s most inhospitable planet, Venus. This comes as a 2020 announcement claimed to have discovered the presence of phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere followed by follow-up observations from NASA’s recently-retired SOFIA aircraft in late 2022 that refuted it. Despite this, Dr. David Clements, who is a Reader in Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, recently told Universe Today that “there is something odd going on in the atmosphere of Venus.”
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Rocket Lab launches 1st Electron booster from US soil in twilight liftoff
The small satellite launch company Rocket Lab aced its debut liftoff from American soil on Tuesday (Jan. 24).
Rocket Lab primed for busy year after first launch from Virginia
Nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford engines power Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher off the launch pad Tuesday night at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: Rocket Lab / Trevor Mahlmann
Rocket Lab’s first mission from a launch pad in Virginia delivered three small commercial satellites into orbit Tuesday night, starting what the company hopes will be a banner year with at least 15 flights from the new U.S. launch site and a spaceport in New Zealand.
SpaceX's 1st orbital Starship looks supercool in these fueling test photos
SpaceX fueled up a fully stacked Starship vehicle for the first time ever on Monday (Jan. 23), and dramatic photos preserve the process for posterity.
NASA's fatal Challenger launch still echoes through the agency today
While on leave in January 1986, NASA administrator James Beggs turned on the television and spotted icicles on Challenger's launch tower. A day later, seven astronauts lost their lives.
Live coverage: Rocket Lab’s first launch from Virginia set for tonight
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Electron rocket will carry three radio frequency monitoring microsatellites into orbit for HawkEye 360. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Dust is Hiding how Powerful Quasars Really are
In the 1970s, astronomers discovered that the persistent radio source at the center of our galaxy was a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Today, this gravitational behemoth is known as Sagittarius A* and has a mass roughly 4 million times that of the Sun. Since then, surveys have shown that SMBHs reside at the center of most massive galaxies and play a vital role in star formation and galactic evolution. In addition, the way these black holes consume gas and dust causes their respective galaxies to emit a tremendous amount of radiation from their Galactic Centers.
Perseverance Mars rover's samples will be curated at new NASA office in Houston
Material collected by the Perseverance rover will be handled at the Mars Sample Receiving Project office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
A New Survey of the Milky Way Reveals Billions of Objects, Helping to Map Our Surroundings in Three Dimensions
The Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey 2 (DECaPS2) is out. This is the second data release from DECaPS, and the survey contains over 3 billion objects in the Milky Way. As the leading image shows, there are so many stars it appears as if there’s no space between them.
James Webb Space Telescope discovers coldest interstellar ice ever seen
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers discover a rich catalog of frigid interstellar ice in the depths of a dark, dense molecular cloud.
JWST Sees Frozen Water, Ammonia, Methane and Other Ices in a Protostellar Nebula
Want to build a habitable planet? Then you’ll need various and sundry ingredients such as carbon, hydrogen oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. The James Webb Space Telescope has found the building blocks for these key ingredients in the colds depths of a distant protostellar nebula called the Chameleon I molecular cloud. Scientists say the discovery of these proto-ingredients allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that one day will be incorporated into future exoplanets.
Wow! Iceberg larger than London breaks off Antarctica (photos)
A giant iceberg almost the size of London has broken off the Brunt Ice Shelf in western Antarctica on Sunday (Jan. 22) after years of cracking.
Nikon Prostaff P3 8x42 binocular review
Reasonably priced and easy to use, the Nikon Prostaff P3 8x42 binocular is suitable for beginners and hobbyists alike who want bright, sharp optics in a compact device.
Holy Stone HS700E review
The Holy Stone HS700E has its pros and cons but comes in at a competitive price that could be attractive to beginners.
NASA and DARPA will build a nuclear rocket by 2027
NASA and DARPA announced a collaboration to demonstrate a working nuclear thermal rocket by 2027 with the goal of sending humans to Mars as quickly as possible.
An asteroid will pass close by Earth this week. Here's how to watch it live
Asteroid 2023 BU will pass Earth at a distance of 2,178 miles (3,506 kilometers) on Thursday (Jan. 26) — closer than satellites in geostationary orbit.
Astronomers can't wait to search for signs of life and massive black-hole mergers
From black holes to the search for life, scientific breakthroughs are on the horizon as new observatories come online.
New Galileo service set to deliver 20 cm accuracy
Galileo’s capabilities have grown with the addition of a new High Accuracy Service, freely available worldwide to anyone with a suitably equipped receiver. Delivering horizontal accuracy down to 20 cm and vertical accuracy of 40 cm, the High Accuracy Service is enabled through an additional level of real-time positioning corrections, delivered through a new data stream within the existing Galileo signal.
See Venus and Saturn together beneath the crescent moon tonight (Jan. 24)
Venus and Saturn will appear close together in the night sky on Tuesday (Jan. 24) beneath a crescent moon.
Save $1000 on the Unistellar eQuinox computerized telescope
Get a massive $1000 discount on this highly sophisticated eQuinox telescope and save a ton of money.
