Study Shows Ancient Mars Had The Right Conditions For Underground Life
A new study shows evidence that ancient Mars probably had an ample supply of chemical energy for microbes to thrive underground. “We showed, based on…
Astronomy
Hubble Image of the Week – Warped and Distorted
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image contains a veritable mix of different galaxies, some of which belong to the same larger structure: At the middle…
Hayabusa2 Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu
A pair of robot rovers have landed on an asteroid and begun a survey, Japan’s space agency said Saturday, as it conducts a mission aiming…
Study Shows Sun-Like Stars Rotate Differentially
Like our sun, distant stars are rotating spheres of hot gas. Stars, however, do not rotate like solid spheres: regions at different latitudes rotate at…
Astronomers Measure Precise Rotation Pattern of Sun-Like Stars
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi reveal that sun-like stars rotate up to two and a half times faster at the equator than at higher latitudes,…
Gaia Mission Helps Improve Classification Scheme for Exoplanet Sizes
There are about 4433 exoplanets in the latest catalogs. Their radii have generally been measured by knowing the radius of their host star and then…
XMM-Newton Observes Matter Falling Into a Black Hole
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in…
Gaia Satellite Detects a Shake in the Milky Way
A team led by researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB, UB-IEEC) and the University of Groningen has discovered,…
Revealing First Light Data from Parker Solar Probe
Just over a month into its mission, Parker Solar Probe has returned first-light data from each of its four instrument suites. These early observations –…
Researchers Measure Wave Particle Energy Transfer in Collisionless Space Plasma
The Earth’s magnetosphere contains plasma, an ionized gas composed of positive ions and negative electrons. The motion of these charged plasma particles is controlled by…
Looking Back in Time to Watch Massive Black Hole Formation
Black holes form when stars die, allowing the matter in them to collapse into an extremely dense object from which not even light can escape….
Hubble Detects Never-Before-Seen Features Around a Neutron Star
An unusual infrared light emission from a nearby neutron star detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could indicate new features never before seen. One possibility…
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds May Have Had a Third Companion
Astronomers believe two of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way—the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds—may have had a third companion. Research published today describes…
First Tess Images in Hunt to Find Planets Beyond Our Solar System
NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is now providing valuable data to help scientists discover and study exciting new exoplanets, or…
Hubble Image of the Week – The Impressive Coma Cluster
In the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair) lies the impressive Coma Cluster — a structure of over a thousand galaxies bound together by gravity….
Chandra Detects Diskless Young Stars in Serpens South Cluster
Stars frequently form in crowded environments. By combining the resources of multi-wavelength missions like Chandra in the X-ray and Spitzer in the infrared, astronomers are…
Astronomers Reveal Some of the Earliest Galaxies in the Universe
Astronomers from Durham University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found evidence that the faintest satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way galaxy…
ELFIN CubeSats to Study How Electrons Escape the Van Allen Belts
Three hundred and ten miles above our planet’s surface, near-Earth space is abuzz with action. Here begin the Van Allen Belts, a pair of concentric…