We know black hole mergers occur because we can detect the resulting gravitational waves. But when trying to piece together the history of black holes mergers in the Milky Way, astronomers need another tactic. They need to perform some forensic astronomy.
Space News & Blog Articles
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A Statistical Analysis of Exoplanet Habitability Turns Up One Great Candidate - And Significant Observational Bias
The search for life beyond our planet continues, and one of the most underappreciated tools in an astrobiologists toolkit is statistics. While it might not be as glamorous as directly imaging a planet’s atmosphere or finding a system with seven planets in it, statistics is absolutely critical if we want to be sure that what we’re seeing is real and not just an artifact of the data, or of our observational techniques themselves. A new paper by Caleb Traxler and their co-authors at the Department of Information and Computer Science at UC Irvine takes on that challenge head-on by statistically analyzing a set of about 10% of the total number of exoplanets found and judging their habitability.
Growing Building on Mars with Lichen and Bacteria
For generations, scientists and science fiction writers have contemplated how humans could someday live on Mars. While the idea once seemed like a far-off possibility, the many robotic missions that have travelled to Mars and successfully landed on its surface have given new life to the idea. This presents many challenges, which include the time it takes to reach Mars (6 to 9 months using conventional propulsion) and the dangers of long-term exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity. But building long-term habitats and facilities on the Martian surface is also challenging.
Astronomers discover baby planets taking their 1st steps in nearby stellar nursery (images)
Astronomers have discovered the first step in planet birth, finding hitherto unseen structures in 78 planetary disks in the star-forming region of Ophiuchus.
Rocket Lab launches 'Get the Hawk Outta Here' mission from New Zealand (video)
Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket from New Zealand on June 26. The rocket carried a trio of radio frequency geolocation satellites and one experimental payload into a polar orbit.
Famous Comets
Here are some of the most famous comets in history, known for their brightness, long tails, or dramatic appearances near Earth:
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3: Release date, cast & how to watch Paramount+'s summer sci-fi series
Captain Pike and the Enterprise crew are back and on the hunt for The Gorn. Here’s everything we know about 'Strange New Worlds' Season 3 after 2023’s cliffhanger finale.
Human remains lost after memorial spaceflight capsule crashes into the sea
The remains of 166 people part of a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight are presumed lost after The Exploration Company's "Mission Possible" capsule presumably crashes into Pacific Ocean.
See a vivid green fireball light up the northeastern US (video)
The fireball was visible from several states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Northern lights may be visible in these 10 US States tonight
Auroras may be visible from Alaska to Washington as a giant hole in the sun's atmosphere fuels geomagnetic storms with a high-speed solar wind.
A star exploded in the Lupus constellation. Here's how to see the nova in the night sky this month
V462 Lupi will soon vanish from the night sky, but before it does, the dark skies around the new moon present a perfect time to head away from city lights to hunt down the light from this ancient nova.
Ax-4 joins the International Space Station
Video: 00:02:36
On 26 June 2025 ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and his crewmates arrived to the International Space Station on the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4).
The Polish project astronaut is the second of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space.
Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission will include an ambitious technological and scientific programme with several experiments led by ESA and proposed by the Polish space industry.
Alien life could survive deadly stellar radiation, Earth's desert lichen reveal
A walk in the desert and a curious discovery could have revealed that the secrets of alien life grow in the harshest conditions on Earth in the form of lichen.
Rubin Observatory takes its 1st look at the night skies | Space photo of the day for June 26, 2025
The telescope, working with the world's largest digital camera, scans the night sky in search of dark matter.
New ESA gravity mission to detect weakening ocean conveyor
At the Living Planet Symposium, attendees have been hearing how ESA’s Next Generation Gravity Mission could provide the first opportunity to directly track a vital ocean circulation system that warms our planet – but is now weakening, risking a possible collapse with far-reaching consequences.
Cosmic images from the world's largest digital camera are so big they require a 'data butler'
The amount of data generated by the Rubin Observatory is going to blow all previous cosmic datasets out of the water, but handling that much information poses a severe challenge.
Webb Directly Images A Saturn-Sized Star In A Nearby System
One of Webb’s strong points is its ability to directly image planets around another solar system. The telescope has been in operation for long enough now that a flood of those images are starting, as more and more systems come under the telescope’s gaze. One of those is described in a recent paper and press release from NASA. According to the paper, the planet in a nearby system is about the size of Saturn, which would make it the smallest planet ever found by direct observation.
Watch MTG-S1 and Sentinel-4 launch live
The second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites and the first instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission are ready for liftoff at Cape Canaveral in Florida, US. Live coverage of this launch will be shown on ESA WebTV, not earlier than Tuesday, 1 July.
NASA's been pulling out of major astronomy meetings — and scientists are feeling the effects
NASA and the National Science Foundation cancelled their major events at a major astronomy conference this summer. Scientists who attended were left disappointed.
Earth tones on Mars
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express has captured a swirl of colour on the Red Planet, with yellows and rust-oranges meeting deep reds and browns. Lurking within this martian palette are not one but four dust devils, each snaking their way across the surface.
Satellite records expose fire driving Gran Chaco transformation
At ESA’s Living Planet Symposium, scientists have unveiled how the combination of different long-term, high-resolution satellite datasets from ESA’s Climate Change Initiative is shedding new light on the South American Gran Chaco – one of the world’s most endangered dry forest ecosystems. These data reveal, in remarkable clarity, that fire is the primary driver of widespread, accelerating deforestation across the region.
