Created Friday 06 December 2013

See Also: Aviation, Transportation, Spacecraft, Satellites

Comets

Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff | 12/05/2013 @ 6:08PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/12/05/u-s-spy-rocket-launching-today-has-octopus-themed-nothing-is-beyond-our-reach-logo-seriously/

Brian Spegele, Kate O’Keeffe - 23 April 2019

Orbiting 22,000 miles above Earth, a fleet of American-built satellites is serving the Chinese government in ways that challenge the U.S.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-exploits-fleet-of-u-s-satellites-to-strengthen-police-and-military-power/ar-BBWdrFk

Jennings Brown, 27 December 2019

China is close to launching the last two satellites that will complete BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System—the nation’s rival to the United States’ Global Positioning System.

https://gizmodo.com/china-set-to-launch-its-gps-competitor-next-year-1840681082

Here are five things you didn’t know the navigation system could do

By Alexandra Witze 10.29.2019

You might think you’re an expert at navigating through city traffic, smartphone at your side. You might even hike with a GPS device to find your way through the backcountry. But you’d probably still be surprised at all the things that GPS — the global positioning system that underlies all of modern navigation — can do.

https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/physical-world/2019/gps-going-places

Astranis and GapSat will launch GEO smallsats in 2020 and 2021 to fill gaps in satellite coverage

By Michael Koziol - 05 Jan 2020

A typical geostationary satellite is as big as a van, as heavy as a hippopotamus, and as long-lived as a horse. These parameters shorten the list of companies and countries that can afford to build and operate the things.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/no-job-is-too-small-for-compact-geostationary-satellites

George Dvorsky - 22 January 2020

New details have emerged about the Pentagon’s ambitious plan to build seven different defense constellations, the first of which will include hundreds of surveillance satellites that are expected to attain full global coverage in just six years.

Known as the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), it’s the first major initiative from the newly hatched Space Development Agency (SDA), a part of the Department of Defense.

https://gizmodo.com/the-pentagon-s-plan-to-pepper-space-with-surveillance-s-1841156554

It has to move the satellite out of geostationary orbit, where most telecommunication satellites are, ASAP.

Mariella Moon, 22 January 2020

DirecTV has one month to remove a satellite from geostationary orbit, so it doesn't take other satellites down with it if it ends up exploding. The AT&T-owned TV service fears that its Spaceway-1 satellite (a Boeing 702HP model) might explode due to battery issues that started manifesting in December. According to SpaceNews, DirecTV explained in an FCC filing dated January 19th that an anomaly caused “significant and irreversible thermal damage” to the satellite's batteries.

https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/22/directv-satellite-at-risk-of-explosion/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday January 23, 2020 11:00PM

Iwastheone writes:

NASA reports that Curiosity has suffered a system failure that left the robot unaware of its position and attitude on the red planet. Until it recovers, Curiosity is frozen in place. Mars is far enough away that we can't directly control Curiosity in real-time – the rover gets batches of commands and then carries them out. That means it needs to have precise awareness of the state of all its joints, as well as environmental details like the location of nearby obstacles and the slope of the ground. This vital information ensures the rover doesn't bump anything with its arm or clip large rocks as it rolls along.

Curiosity stores all this attitude data in memory, but something went wrong during operations several days ago. As the rover was carrying out its orders, it suddenly lost track of its orientation. The attitude data didn't add up, so Curiosity froze in place to avoid damaging itself. While the rover is physically stuck in place, it's still in communication with the team here on Earth. Since everything else is working on the rover, NASA was able to develop a set of instructions that should get the rover moving again. When transmitted, the data will inform Curiosity of its attitude and confirm its current state. This should allow the rover to recover and keep performing its safety checks. However, NASA also hopes to gather data on what caused the issue in the first place. The hope is they can avoid another freeze-up in the future.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/01/24/003242/mars-rover-is-frozen-in-place-following-software-error

Boeing satellite has irreversible damage to batteries, creating explosion risk.

Jon Brodkin - 1/23/2020, 9:31 AM

DirecTV is scrambling to move a broken Boeing satellite out of its standard orbit in order to limit the risk of “an accidental explosion.”

As Space News reported today, DirecTV asked the Federal Communications Commission for a rules waiver so it can “conduct emergency operations to de-orbit the Spaceway-1 satellite,” which is at risk of explosion because of damage to batteries. The 15-year-old Boeing 702HP satellite is in a geostationary orbit.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/directv-races-to-decommission-broken-boeing-satellite-before-it-explodes/

Darrell Etherington / 9:53 am PST • January 28, 2020

Small satellite launch company Virgin Orbit is teaming up with Israel’s ImageSat International (ISI) to develop a launch services that would be able to deliver small satellite-based Earth observation on remarkably short notice, basically anywhere in the world. This is a service aimed specifically at national security and intelligence customers, and combines the benefits of ISI’s remote sensing expertise and capabilities, with Virgin Galactic’s ability to launch on relatively short notice from basically any allied spaceport facility using its LauncherOne system.

LauncherOne uses a two-stage rocket to deliver small satellites (those weighing up to 660 lbs) to low-Earth orbit, after being deployed by a modified aircraft that takes off like a traditional jumbo jet. The LauncherOne vehicle then deploys from a high altitude, reducing the fuel costs of launch and making it possible to deliver small payloads to space for as little as $12 million per launch.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/28/virgin-orbit-teams-with-isi-on-rapid-response-satellite-launch-services-for-intelligence-customers/

Launch will take place from same site revealed by President Trump in August.

Eric Berger - 1/28/2020, 10:41 AM

Iran is preparing for the launch of two small communications satellites, Zafar 1 and Zafar 2, from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran.

The country's communication's minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, confirmed the launch after NPR editor Geoff Brumfiel first reported on the likelihood of the upcoming mission. Iran has even created a website for the satellites, called “Zafar and me,” for people to upload messages for the spacecraft to transmit back to Earth.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/iran-preparing-for-the-launch-of-two-small-communications-satellites/

How on Earth do you patch the software on a computer orbiting the Moon? Very carefully.

Frank O’Brien - 1/30/2020, 9:30 AM

Commanded by Alan Shepard, the only original Mercury astronaut to make it to the Moon on an Apollo mission, Apollo 14 was a reflight of Apollo 13's abandoned lunar landing plan. Accompanied by Lunar Module Pilot Ed Mitchell and Command Module Pilot Stu Roosa, Shepard's target was the Fra Mauro highlands, a hilly area near the lunar equator and just south of the giant crater Copernicus. Likely created from the ejecta thrown out when Mare Imbrium was created, the Fra Mauro site was thought to potentially contain material from deep inside the Moon that could shed light on our companion satellite's origin.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/a-deep-dive-into-the-apollo-guidance-computer-and-the-hack-that-saved-apollo-14/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday February 02, 2020 06:34PM

“A Russian satellite has positioned itself uncomfortably close to an American spy satellite in orbit around Earth…” reports the Verge, adding that the Russian satellite “has been in constant view of its U.S. target for nearly two weeks now.”

An anonymous reader quotes The Drive:

Russia has a number of what it calls “space apparatus inspectors” in orbit, which the U.S. government and others warn the Kremlin could use to gather intelligence on other satellites or function as "killer satellites,“ using various means to damage, disable, or destroy those targets.

On Jan. 30, 2020, Michael Thompson, a graduate student at Purdue University focusing on astrodynamics, posted a detailed thread on Twitter… [H]ow Cosmos 2542 is orbiting now means that it now has a “consistent view” of USA 245. “As I'm typing this, that offset distance shifts between 150 and 300km depending on the location in the orbit,” according to Thompson….

One possibility is that it could be using onboard systems, such as cameras or other sensors, to gather information about the [U.S. satellite] KH-11, the capabilities of which are highly classified… It may also be possible to gather electronic or signals intelligence data that could be of additional value. Beyond that, the ability of Cosmos 2542 to get into this position at all is notable and is exactly the kind of orbital maneuvering that the U.S. government had pointed to in the past as evidence of potential ”killer satellites.“ A highly maneuverable, but small satellite could possibly get close enough to disrupt the operation of, disable, or destroy another object in space using a variety of means, ranging from electronic warfare jammers to directed energy weapons, such as a laser…

Russia is known to be interested in anti-satellite capacities and has developed or is developing a number of terrestrial anti-satellite weapons, including ground-based and air-launched interceptors, too. China is pursuing similar developments, as well.

The article points out that is all happening “as the U.S. military is very publicly working to address concerns about the increasing vulnerability of various space-based systems that it relies on heavily… The most obvious expression of this recent push is the creation of U.S. Space Force, an entirely new branch of the U.S. military to focus on American military activities in and related to space, as well as the procurement of satellites and other related systems and infrastructure.”

And then late Saturday night, Thompson posted another update on Twitter: that the Russian satellite had made yet another manuever on Friday, “and is now drifting back towards USA 245.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/02/02/2312254/a-russian-satellite-appears-to-be-shadowing-an-american-spy-satellite

Darrell Etherington / 12:20 pm PST • February 3, 2020

NASA is sending a payload that could help improve air quality forecasting to orbit aboard a Maxar 1300-class satellite whose primary mission is to provide commercial satellite communications for Intelsat customers, the agency announced today. NASA’s new air quality measurement tool is called ‘TEMPO,’ which stands for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, and it’ll provide hourly measurements of the levels of gases in the atmosphere over North America, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide and aerosols. That’ll paint a picture of the relative air quality, and that info will be available publicly so that weather monitoring agencies and others can provide more accurate and up-to-date air quality information to people as part of their forecasts.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/03/nasa-sets-2022-launch-for-air-quality-sensor-that-will-provide-hourly-updates-across-north-american/

The satellite will be used to study earthquakes and agriculture in the country.

Rachel England, 3 February 2020

Iran is set to become the latest country to launch an observation satellite, according to the country's national space agency. The satellite, named Zafar (which means victory in Farsi), began development three years ago. It will be launched by a Simorgh rocket 329 miles above the Earth, and will make 15 orbits daily, collecting imagery to help with the study of natural disasters and agriculture.

https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/03/iran-launch-observation-satellite/

Darrell Etherington / 6:48 am PST • February 4, 2020

There are more licensed private spaceports in the United States than you might guess — but depending on who you ask, there aren’t nearly enough.

Last year saw new records set regarding the size and number of investments in space tech, and a fair amount of those funds went to launch startups. There are more still coming online, including more than a few that plan to begin flight testing this year, which begs the question: Where will these spacecraft and launch vehicles take off from?

https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/04/the-growing-u-s-space-industry-needs-spaceports-but-do-we-have-to-many-or-too-few/

Paul Sawers - February 7, 2020 8:25 AM

The 21st-century space race cranked up a gear this week, with satellite launches, IPOs, investments, and moon landings all on the global agenda.

Yesterday, London-based OneWeb kicked off the first in a series of regular microsatellite launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The company actually launched its initial six satellites last February to gain what it called “first mover advantage,” but as it commits to creating a constellation of 648 satellites to deliver high-speed internet connectivity from low-Earth orbit in the coming years, it’s looking to deploy batches of satellites on a near-monthly basis.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/07/from-internet-satellites-to-moon-landings-the-space-race-is-on/

Ryan F. Mandelbaum - 7 February 2020

On Sunday, the European Space Agency hopes to launch its Solar Orbiter in order to better understand a star we know far too little about: the Sun. The launch is scheduled for 11:03 p.m. ET on February 9 (live stream from NASA TV is embedded below).

As its name suggests, the Solar Orbiter is a Sun-circling satellite, containing 10 instruments meant to take measurements otherwise hard to get from Earth-bound telescopes. The mission seeks to explain how the Sun generates the heliosphere, the region of plasma that surrounds the entire solar system, with an ultimate goal of being able to forecast the space weather that has the potential to damage many of the electronics we rely on today. This will also be the first mission to take a picture of the Sun’s poles.

https://gizmodo.com/the-solar-orbiter-will-launch-this-weekend-on-its-journ-1841518062

The Mission Shakti exhibit was a popular spot for selfies.

Eric Berger - 2/7/2020, 6:12 AM

This week, India's Ministry of Defense is holding Defexpo 2020 in the northern part of the country. The event seeks to promote India as a “defense manufacturing hub.” In other words, it is essentially an arms bazaar.

One of the main exhibits of this week's show is a large display showing off a copy of the hardware used during Mission Shakti, the successful anti-satellite test conducted by India in March, 2019. During this test the country successfully fired a missile from the ground to shoot down a satellite at an altitude of 300km.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/02/india-proudly-showcases-its-anti-satellite-weapon-at-an-arms-bazaar/

Daniel Oberhaus - 02.07.2020 08:00 AM

ESA's orbiter will work with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to unveil the mysteries of our home star and the origin of violent storms that spew plasma across space.

Just before midnight on Sunday, a spacecraft will depart from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to the sun. Known as Solar Orbiter, this spacecraft will spend the next seven years dipping in and out of the extremely inhospitable environment around the sun. In the process, it will provide us with our first glimpse of the sun’s poles, which will be critical to understanding its topsy-turvy magnetic field. It will also help uncover the origin of violent solar storms that send plasma hurtling toward Earth, where it can knock out satellites and disrupt our power grids.

https://www.wired.com/story/europes-solar-orbiter-begins-its-journey-to-the-sun/

Aliens? Or something more prosaic? We're hoping for aliens

By Katyanna Quach 12 Feb 2020 at 06:34

Astronomers have, for the first time, detected a fast radio burst that spews powerful radio signals from the distant depths of space on a regular schedule, according to fresh research.

Fast radio bursts are bizarre. They appear as bright blips of radio light that last less than a few milliseconds before disappearing, only to occasionally pop again unpredictably. Some have only been spotted once, and a few are known to flare up randomly now and again. Their erratic nature makes them difficult to study and scientists still don’t know what they are really caused by.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/12/fast_radio_burst/

Posted by msmash on Wednesday February 12, 2020 08:05AM

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order directing U.S. agencies to test the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure systems in the event of a disruption or manipulation of global positioning system services (GPS). From a report:

GPS is critical to a variety of purposes ranging from electrical power grids, weather forecasting, traffic signals, smartphone applications and vehicle navigation systems. The order said “disruption or manipulation of these services has the potential to adversely affect the national and economic security of the United States.”

https://politics.slashdot.org/story/20/02/12/160215/trump-signs-order-to-test-vulnerabilities-of-us-infrastructure-to-gps-outage

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday February 12, 2020 11:00PM

jrepin writes:

In June 2019, the International Astronomical Union expressed concern about the negative impact that the planned mega-constellations of communication satellites may have on astronomical observations and on the pristine appearance of the night sky when observed from a dark region. Now IAU presents a summary of the current understanding of the impact of these satellite constellations, and considers the consequences of satellite constellations worrisome. They will have a negative impact on the progress of ground-based astronomy, radio, optical and infrared, and will require diverting human and financial resources from basic research to studying and implementing mitigating measures.

The IAU notes that currently there are no internationally agreed rules or guidelines on the brightness of orbiting manmade objects.

Given the increasing relevancy of the topic, the IAU “will regularly present its findings at the meetings of the UN Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), bringing the attention of the world Government representatives to the threats posed by any new space initiative on astronomy and science in general.”

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/02/13/0134219/understanding-the-impact-of-satellite-constellations-on-astronomy

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday February 13, 2020 11:00PM

Meghan Bartels writes via Space.com:

One of Earth's premier instruments for studying nearby asteroids is back to work after being rattled by earthquakes, and its first new observations show that a newly discovered space rock is actually two separate asteroids. The instrument is the planetary radar system at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory was closed for most of January, after a series of earthquakes hit the island beginning on Dec. 28, 2019. The observatory reopened on Jan. 29. Meanwhile, on Jan. 27, scientists using a telescope on Mauna Loa in Hawaii spotted an asteroid that astronomers hadn't seen before. The team dubbed the newfound space rock 2020 BX12 based on a formula recognizing its discovery date.

Because of the size of 2020 BX12 and the way its orbit approaches that of Earth, it is designated a potentially hazardous asteroid. However, the space rock has already come as close to Earth as it will during this pass (2.7 million miles or 4.3 million kilometers); astronomers have calculated the asteroid's close approaches with Earth for the next century, and all will be at a greater distance than this one was. […] Based on the observations, the scientists discovered that 2020 BX12 is a binary asteroid, with a smaller rock orbiting the larger rock. About 15% of larger asteroids turn out, on closer inspection, to be binary, according to NASA. The larger rock is likely at least 540 feet (165 meters) across, and the smaller one is about 230 feet (70 m) wide, according to the observations gathered by Arecibo. When the instrument observed the two space rocks on Feb. 5, they appeared to be separated by about 1,200 feet (360 m).

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/02/14/0040245/scientists-observe-potentially-hazardous-asteroid-buzz-past-earth-with-its-own-moon

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday February 18, 2020 04:02PM

SpaceX is working with Space Adventures to launch up to four tourists into a super high orbit, possible by the end of next year. “Ticket prices are not being divulged but expected to be in the millions,” reports NBC Los Angeles. From the report:

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/02/18/2329232/spacex-wants-to-launch-4-tourists-into-super-high-orbit

Loverro was ardently trying to fulfill his 2024 Moon landing mandate.

Eric Berger - 5/20/2020, 8:31 AM

On Tuesday, NASA announced that its chief of human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, had resigned after just six months of working at the space agency. This news, coming just eight days before NASA's first launch of humans in nine years, has rocked the civil aerospace community and kicked up a flurry of rumors.

This post will attempt to assess what we know, and what we don't know, about his departure and what it means for the space agency's human spaceflight programs moving forward.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/heres-why-nasas-chief-of-human-spaceflight-resigned-and-why-it-matters/

Doug Hurley spent 20 years at NASA and found his family there. Now, he risks it all.

Eric Berger - 5/28/2020, 8:46 AM

Shortly after sunrise on the morning of February 1, 2003, Doug Hurley waited on the long runway at Kennedy Space Center for a vehicle that would never come.

Only recently graduated to becoming a full-fledged astronaut, one of Hurley's first tasks was serving as a “Cape Crusader” for the corps, meaning he watched out for the Astronaut Office's interests in Florida. On this morning, he was part of a small cadre of astronauts to greet seven returning crew members on board the space shuttle Columbia.

As he waited, Columbia broke into pieces as it passed over Texas and other southern US states along its ground track to Florida. Hurley's friends died as their spacecraft burned up and broke apart during their reentry to Earth's atmosphere. From the beginning of his career, then, Doug Hurley profoundly understood the risks of the profession he had just entered into.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/does-it-take-nerves-of-steel-to-climb-on-top-of-a-bomb-yes-it-does/

FAST will scan the skies for life in addition to its usual exploration.

Jon Fingas, 1 Jun 2020

China will soon make a significant contribution to the search for extraterrestrial life. State media outlet Science and Technology Daily (via ChinaTechCity) says the country’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, will begin looking for alien signals in September. The telescope officially went into service for general science in January, but it’s in the midst of upgrades that could reduce interference and otherwise aid the search.

FAST has a 500-meter (1,640ft) diameter, although it only ever focuses a 300m (984ft) segment on the receiver at any given moment.

Chief scientist Zhang Tongjie stressed that the search shouldn’t interrupt regular science missions. As it stands, you probably won’t want to get your hopes up in the near future. While there are some “interesting narrowband candidate ET signals,” according to Zhang, he didn’t expect any of them to come from intelligent life. Typically, distinctive radio signals come from pulsars or random fast radio bursts. Still, if there are aliens broadcasting radio signals (and they’re close enough for us to receive them), FAST’s work will increase the chances that we receive them.

https://www.engadget.com/china-fast-alien-search-starts-september-132834989.html

By Caleb Spencer BBC News - 28 June 2020

Perched on top of a remote, wind-swept hill in rural mid-Wales sits a series of structures designed to protect us against “one of the most significant risks to human civilisation”.

The Spaceguard Centre, near Knighton, in Powys, is a working observatory which tracks “near-Earth objects” - comets and asteroids which could hit Earth.

Its director, Jay Tate, established the centre in 1997 after he became concerned at a lack of co-ordination in the UK and internationally to counter the threat.

Mr Tate said technology exists to be able to “nudge” comets and asteroids away from Earth if they are detected early enough.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-53082475

With all the 2020 Mars missions enroute for the next six months, we’re taking a look at one of NASA's propulsion projects aimed at decreasing deep space transit times, potentially drastically. VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) is a helicon magnetoplasma thruster designed to provide a variable thrust profile, from low-specific-impulse / high-thrust to stupidly-high-specific-impulse / low-thrust. Specific impulse could max out at ~12,000 seconds, drastically higher than the roughly 2,000 s from current hall thrusters. VASIMR creates thrust through a multi-step process. First, it bombards a neutral gas with RF energy in helical waves to ionize the gas and create plasma (it can use multiple gases: argon, hydrogen, or even CO2). Then, it uses magnetic fields and an additional RF coupler to contain and energize the plasma to a superheated state (in the neighborhood of the temperature of the Sun’s core). Finally, a magnetic nozzle ejects the plasma at exceptionally high velocity. The most recent tests of VASIMR have run at 200 kW and expelled ions at 180,000 km/h (test fire video… or a blue party light being turned on, we’re not sure). A massively scaled up version running at 200 MW could make the one-way transit to Mars in as little as 39 days, but generation of this amount of in-space energy isn’t currently anywhere near possible and would require both an advanced onboard nuclear reactor as well as super-efficient heat radiators. Solar power is also an option, but the ISS’s solar arrays, while no longer state of the art, represent the largest space-based solar production capacity, and come in at 120 kW. We’re going to need something bigger.

https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2020-08-19-Issue-78/#magnetoplasma-to-mars-in-39-days

Written by sk - October 12, 2020

Curious to know what's happening in Space? Wondering when is a satellite or a spaceflight is going to be launched? Try Nextinspace, a command line program to print latest Space events in Terminal. Nextinspace uses Launch Library 2 API to fetch the details of upcoming Space-related events and orbital launches. All from command line! It is written in Python programming language and released under GPL-3.0 License.

https://ostechnix.com/print-latest-space-events-with-nextinspace-in-terminal/

Darrell Etherington / 12:59 PM PST•December 21, 2020

If you’ve ever heard someone refer to the idea of “working in space,” you’d be forgiven for thinking they were describing a science-fiction plot. But the number of humans actively working beyond Earth’s atmosphere — and living significant chunks of their lives there, too — is about to start growing at a potentially exponential rate. Given how small that population is now, the growth might look slow at first — but it’s happening soon, and plans are in place to help it start ramping up quickly.

The main company leading those plans in the near-term is Axiom Space, a private space station service provider, and eventual operator. Axiom is founded and led by people with International Space Station experience and expertise, and the company already operates R&D missions on behalf of private clients on the ISS with the help of NASA astronauts. It’s planning to begin shuttling entire flights of private astronauts to the station starting in 2021, and it’s also building a new, commercial space station to ultimately replace the ISS on orbit once that one is decommissioned.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/21/dedicated-commercial-human-in-space-operations-are-coming-sooner-than-you-may-realize/

The void exists between the constellations Perseus and Taurus and could be over 10 million years old.

Isaac Schultz - 22 September 2021 10:13AM

Astronomers measuring the shapes and sizes of two gas clouds in space have discovered a big gap between them, leading them to believe that the clouds are what’s left of a series of stellar explosions or a single massive one.

The cavity in space is 500 light-years across and sits between the constellations Perseus and Taurus, which both host giant gas clouds called molecular clouds. Researchers studying the empty space believe one of two things may have happened: Either a single, massive supernova blasted all the gassy material outward, or several supernovae created the two clouds, with tons of space between them.

Supernovae are expected to push gas outward from the site of their explosion, which causes all that gas to form a shell-like geometry. In this case, the two cloud structures on either side of the space became Perseus and Taurus. Together, they form the “Per-Tau Shell.” The team’s research is published today in two papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-find-massive-space-cavity-possibly-left-b-1847721947

EditorDavid - Monday November 08, 2021 12:04AM

“Another space agency, about one-tenth the size of NASA, is thinking outside of the planet-sized box in its search for Martian life,” reports CNET:

With its Martian Moons Exploration mission (or MMX), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, later this decade will touch down on a world no spacecraft has visited before: Phobos, one of Mars' mystifying moons. Scientists at JAXA, and other astronomers, hypothesize that on this curious moon they may find signs of ancient microbes that were catapulted off the surface of Mars and flung across the cosmos. The remains of these unwitting spacefaring organisms have been untouched for millions of years and, soon, could be plucked from Phobos' face and returned to Earth.

When an asteroid collides with a planet, the planet unleashes a mighty sneeze of dust and rock. The faster the asteroid smashes into the surface, the bigger the sneeze… [I]f the asteroid impact is powerful enough, the sneeze will fling dust and rock into space… Just like a human sneeze contains microbes, the material ejected by a planet may also contain microscopic life — or the remnants of it. If the asteroid death blast doesn't melt the rock and the microbes to mere atoms, there's a chance they can float into the cosmos… Mars is scarred by impacts from drifter asteroids that slammed into the surface over the planet's life. If these impacts were to hit in just the right spot, at just the right angle and just the right time, there's a chance the ejected material would make it to Phobos, Mars' curious, potato-shaped moon. Phobos has the closest orbit of any known moon to its parent body, circling the red planet at a distance of just 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles), about the same as the distance between Tokyo and Honolulu….

https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/11/08/0348229/japans-space-agency-may-retrieve-the-first-samples-from-mars---sort-of

Invasion science can help keep Earth and other planets safe from alien microbes.

Doug Johnson - 11/18/2021, 1:33 PM

The Beresheet crash landed on Earth's Moon in 2019. Part of the ill-fated Israeli lunar lander's payload was a bunch of tardigrades, or “water bears.” These organisms are under a millimeter long and can survive extreme cold and radiation by expelling nearly all their moisture before entering a nearly death-like state. The Beresheet tardigrades may have survived the crash and could, potentially, be resurrected by being reintroduced to water.

The tardigrades—sometimes called moss piglets—are safely asleep and probably not running amok on the surface of the Moon. But, in general, scientists, governments, and space agencies around the world agree that bringing Earth's life to extraterrestrial locales, or vice versa, isn't great.

A new paper builds on the growing body of literature about this cosmic no-no and draws on the burgeoning field of invasion science—the research of how, on Earth, non-native species spread to and alter new locations. The zebra mussel's spread across North America through its ability to outcompete native species is a classic example.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/we-know-what-invasive-species-can-do-on-earth-what-about-in-space/

SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin are the biggest names in the space industry, but they all have their own goals. Here's how they differ.

By Patrick Kariuki - 30 November 2021

In 2000, Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin with a mission of taking humans to space and beyond. Elon Musk quickly followed with SpaceX in 2002 and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic in 2004.

These three companies have become the leading players in the commercial space sector. They have also made different bets on space that will shape the future of space travel in different ways. Let's take a look at what these differences are.

https://www.makeuseof.com/spacex-virgin-galactic-blue-origin-differences/

An unidentified object is sporadically dimming starlight in a system far, far away.

Isaac Schultz - 5 January 2022 5:01PM

Astronomers looking over data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) recently came across something weird: an object called TIC 400799224 has been fluctuating in brightness, like a star being routinely eclipsed. Their analysis of the observations suggests that TIC 400799224 is actually two stars, one of which is being orbited by a mystery object. The researchers suspect that a large asteroid or perhaps even a small planet is releasing dust clouds that dim the starlight from TESS’s perspective.

Launched in 2018, TESS is tasked with finding exoplanets—worlds beyond our solar system—that pass in front of their host stars, causing detectable dips in the star’s brightness. So far, TESS has discovered 172 exoplanets, and 4,703 candidate exoplanets await more analysis. These alien worlds help planetary scientists understand the demography of the universe and the diversity of planets that exist.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-spot-a-mystery-object-spewing-dust-in-space-1848307435

Don't presume the object is a neutron star.

Jon Fingas - January 27th, 2022

Astronomers are still finding strange objects that defy expectations. According to BBC News, researchers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have discovered a strange spinning Milky Way object about 4,000 light-years away. The repeating transient sent a giant burst of polarized radio energy for a full minute every 18 minutes, and was appearing and disappearing over the course of a few hours of observations — for context, a pulsar's burst lasts a few seconds or less.

The curiosity is smaller than the Sun, but is one of the brightest radio objects in the sky during its bursts. The disappearances were also unique, according to team lead Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker. Curtin student Tyrone O'Doherty first spotted the object using the combination of Australia's Murchison Widefield Array and a new observation method.

https://www.engadget.com/strange-milky-way-transient-object-radio-burst-155654094.html

Posted by msmash on Thursday January 27, 2022 08:03AM

While mapping radio waves across the universe, astronomers happened upon a celestial object releasing giant bursts of energy – and it's unlike anything they've ever seen before. From a report:

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/01/27/1553227/unknown-space-object-beaming-out-radio-signals-every-18-minutes-remains-a-mystery

A 2021 test of the “kinetic launch system” shot a 10-foot projectile high into the sky.

George Dvorsky - 12 April 2022 4:13PM

NASA is planning to test an unconventional system for launching small objects to low Earth orbit. The system, which uses intense centrifugal force and a final propulsion stage, aims to make launches more affordable and environmentally friendly, but the concept remains unproven.

SpinLaunch has been running tests of its system in the New Mexico desert for the past several months, and we certainly took notice of the California startup when it performed a successful first test on October 22, 2021, when the A-33 Suborbital Mass Accelerator—working at just 20% capacity—flung a 10-foot-long projectile to an altitude of tens of thousands of feet, according to the company.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-will-test-gigantic-centrifuge-for-hurling-objects-1848784359

punkpeye - 28 June 2022

I am about 2 years away from starting my next startup and I know it has to be something space tech. What are the best books / blogs / Twitter influencers to follow that I should be on top of?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31903499

Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies to build the 28-satellite constellation for warning, tracking

Richard Speed - Tue 19 Jul 2022 16:00 UTC

Northrop Grumman and L3Harris Technologies have won contracts worth up to $1.3 billion to build a 28-satellite constellation to support missile warning and tracking by the US Space Development Agency (SDA).

The first of the satellites are scheduled to launch in April 2025 and all 28 will eventually be tasked with collecting infrared data and providing network communications. There will also be a Ka-band payload.

The satellites are to be divided equally between the two companies, with 14 apiece. Melbourne-based L3Harris was awarded a potential $700 million while Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems scored $617 million.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/19/northrop_grumman_l3harris/

Space is stranger than we know.

Victor Tangermann - 8 September 2022

When they examined decades-old blood samples from 14 NASA astronauts who flew Space Shuttle missions between 1998 and 2001, researchers found that samples from all 14 astronauts showed mutations in their DNA.

While these mutations are likely low enough not to represent a serious threat to the astronauts' long term health, the research underlines the importance of regular health screenings for astronauts, especially as they embark on longer missions to the Moon and beyond in coming years.

The specific mutations, as identified in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications Biology, were marked by a high proportion of blood cells that came from a single clone, a phenomenon called clonal hematopoiesis.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-genetic-mutations-every-astronaut-blood-sample

Companies say it's not clear which government agency should oversee commercial space stations.

Passant Rabie - 14 October 2022 5:30PM

A host of companies are in the process of developing commercial space stations. Aside from the complexities of assembling these structures in low Earth orbit, these companies are also trying to figure out which government agency should serve as the regulator once their orbital outposts are up and running.

During panel discussions at the Beyond Earth Symposium, held in Washington, D.C., from October 12 to 13, representatives of private space companies expressed a need for clarity from the federal government regarding which agency will provide oversight of their future space stations, SpaceNews reported.

https://gizmodo.com/private-space-stations-developers-unsure-regulations-1849660418

The unprecedented signal likely comes from a set of merging galaxies eight billion light-years away.

Isaac Schultz - 18 October 2023 2:00PM

In June 2022, a radio telescope in Western Australia detected a fleeting radio signal from a galaxy over 10 billion light-years from Earth. Now, a team of astronomers that studied the blast have confirmed it’s the most distant of its kind yet seen.

The radio signal was a fast radio burst, or FRB, a type of short electromagnetic outburst far more energetic than our Sun. The FRB was spotted by CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio telescope composed of three dozen 40-foot (12-meter) dishes, and follow-up observations of the burst were taken using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. Analysis of the burst’s origins in the sky and its energy was published today in Science.

https://gizmodo.com/distant-fast-radio-burst-universe-weight-1850941702

No turning back? We can expect even more launches worldwide next year.

Stephen Clark - 11/29/2023, 3:18 PM

Led by SpaceX and China, the world's launch providers have put more rockets and payloads into orbit so far in 2023 than in any prior year, continuing an upward trend in launch activity over the last five years.

On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration reported that it screened more than 2.9 million airline passengers making their way through US airports after Thanksgiving. It was the busiest day in history for US airports.

A few days earlier, the world's spaceports set a new record with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with another batch of Starlink Internet satellites from Florida. This launch on November 22 was the 180th launch of 2023 to put its payload into orbit, eclipsing the mark of 179 successful orbital launches from last year.

Global launch activity stagnated after the end of the Cold War, when Russia, and to a lesser extent the United States, cut back on their military space programs. For nearly 30 years, the record number of orbital launches in a calendar year stood at 129, a tally from 1984. In 2005, only 52 rockets made their way into orbit.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/2023-has-been-another-year-with-a-record-number-of-orbital-launches/

The GUSTO experiment will map a large area of the Milky Way where new stars are born.

Passant Rabie - 20 December 2023

Using GUSTO, scientists will create a 3D map of a region of the Milky Way in extremely high frequency radio waves. NASA describes its balloon-borne telescope as a “cosmic radio” as it listens for signals of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the interstellar medium, or the space between the stars. This space may hold clues as to how stars like our Sun are born and evolve over time, and how the swirling disk of material around them forms planets like Earth.

GUSTO senses the high-frequency signals transmitted by atoms and molecules as it is designed to listen to frequencies about a thousand times higher than the ones cellphones operate at. “We basically have this radio system that we built that we can turn the knob and tune to the frequency of those lines,” Chris Walker, principal investigator of GUSTO at the University of Arizona, said in a statement. “And if we hear something, we know it’s them. We know it’s those atoms and molecules.”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-gusto-balloon-antarctica-interstellar-medium-stars-1851115869

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 20, 2024 03:34PM

“The discovery of a second ultra-large structure in the remote universe has further challenged some of the basic assumptions about cosmology,” writes SciTechDaily:

The Big Ring on the Sky is 9.2 billion light-years from Earth. It has a diameter of about 1.3 billion light-years, and a circumference of about four billion light-years. If we could step outside and see it directly, the diameter of the Big Ring would need about 15 full Moons to cover it.

It is the second ultra-large structure discovered by University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez who, two years ago, also discovered the Giant Arc on the Sky. Remarkably, the Big Ring and the Giant Arc, which is 3.3 billion light-years across, are in the same cosmological neighborhood — they are seen at the same distance, at the same cosmic time, and are only 12 degrees apart on the sky. Alexia said: “Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important — but what exactly?

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/20/2248217/ultra-large-structure-discovered-in-distant-space-challenges-cosmological-principle

A trio of clumsy Moon missions to start the year has me reflecting on humanity’s limited ability to explore and work in space.

George Dvorsky - 7 March 2024

We’re rapidly approaching the quarter mark of the 21st century, but instead of being at the brink of a radical transformative stage, such as the futuristic vision akin to Arthur C. Clarke’s Star Child from 2001: A Space Odyssey, we’re still throwing proverbial bones into the sky.

Such is the feeling I get in the wake of three recent Moon missions, in which two spacecraft, Japan’s SLIM and Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, survived despite falling awkwardly onto the lunar surface, while a third, Astrobotic’s Peregrine, failed to reach the Moon entirely.

https://gizmodo.com/space-exploration-technology-failed-lunar-landers-nasa-1851309053

Unlike earlier object, the new source's pulses of radio waves are erratic.

John Timmer - 6/5/2024, 11:59 AM

Roughly a year ago, astronomers announced that they had observed an object that shouldn't exist. Like a pulsar, it emitted regularly timed bursts of radio emissions. But unlike a pulsar, those bursts were separated by over 20 minutes. If the 22-minute gap between bursts represents the rotation period of the object, then it is rotating too slowly to produce radio emissions by any known mechanism.

Now, some of the same team (along with new collaborators) are back with the discovery of something that, if anything, is acting even more oddly. The new source of radio bursts, ASKAP J193505.1+214841.0, takes nearly an hour between bursts. And it appears to have three different settings, sometimes producing weaker bursts and sometimes skipping them entirely. While the researchers suspect that, like pulsars, this is also powered by a neutron star, it's not even clear that it's the same class of object as their earlier discovery.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/06/radio-telescope-finds-another-mystery-long-repeat-source/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 01, 2024 08:17PM

An anonymous reader shared this report from Reuters:

The rapid increase in satellites and space junk will make low Earth orbit unusable unless companies and countries cooperate and share the data needed to manage that most accessible region of space, experts and industry insiders said. A United Nations panel on space traffic coordination in late October determined that urgent action was necessary and called for a comprehensive shared database of orbital objects as well as an international framework to track and manage them. More than 14,000 satellites including some 3,500 inactive surround the globe in low Earth orbit, showed data from U.S.-based Slingshot Aerospace. Alongside those are about 120 million pieces of debris from launches, collisions and wear-and-tear of which only a few thousand are large enough to track… [T]here is no centralised system that all space-faring nations can leverage and even persuading them to use such a system has many obstacles. Whereas some countries are willing to share data, others fear compromising security, particularly as satellites are often dual-use and include defence purposes. Moreover, enterprises are keen to guard commercial secrets.

In the meantime, the mess multiplies. A Chinese rocket stage exploded in August, adding thousands of fragments of debris to low Earth orbit. In June, a defunct Russian satellite exploded, scattering thousands of shards which forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for an hour… Projections point to tens of thousands more satellites entering orbit in the coming years. The potential financial risk of collisions is likely to be $556 million over five years, based on a modelled scenario with a 3.13% annual collision probability and $111 million in yearly damages, said Montreal-based NorthStar Earth & Space…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/02/0414238/as-space-traffic-crowds-earth-orbit-a-push-for-global-cooperation

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 18, 2025 09:34PM

“The universe is expanding faster than predicted by theoretical models,” writes Phys.org, “and faster than can be explained by our current understanding of physics.” There's now been new confirmation of this (published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters) by a team led by Dan Scolnic, an associate professor of physics at Duke University.

And this means the so-called Hubble tension “now turns into a crisis,” said Dan Scolnic, who led the research team… This is saying, to some respect, that our model of cosmology might be broken.”

Measuring the universe requires a cosmic ladder, which is a succession of methods used to measure the distances to celestial objects, with each method, or “rung,” relying on the previous for calibration. The ladder used by Scolnic was created by a separate team using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is observing more than 100,000 galaxies every night from its vantage point at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Scolnic recognized that this ladder could be anchored closer to Earth with a more precise distance to the Coma Cluster, one of the galaxy clusters nearest to us. “The DESI collaboration did the really hard part, their ladder was missing the first rung,” said Scolnic. “I knew how to get it, and I knew that that would give us one of the most precise measurements of the Hubble constant we could get, so when their paper came out, I dropped absolutely everything and worked on this non-stop.” </blockquote>

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/01/19/0422230/a-hubble-crisis-new-measurement-confirms-universe-is-expanding-too-fast-for-current-models

A broken cable caused a 100-foot-long gash in the world's second-largest telescope.

Christine Fisher - 12 August 2020

The Arecibo Observatory – the second-largest radio telescope in the world – is in trouble again. Early this week, a support cable snapped, causing a 100-foot-long gash in the telescope’s reflector dish. It also damaged panels in a receiver called the Gregorian Dome and twisted a platform used to access the dome.

Most recently, the Puerto Rico-based observatory was studying near-Earth asteroids as part of a $19 million NASA grant. The University of Central Florida (UCF), which operates the telescope, has stopped work at the observatory until repairs can be made.

https://www.engadget.com/arecibo-observatory-ucf-telescope-damaged-144329280.html

Crews are still assessing the damage caused by a broken cable.

Christine Fisher - 19 August 2020

It could take several months to repair the recent damage to Arecibo Observatory, SpaceNews reports. During a NASA meeting earlier this week, Lindley Johnson, director of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said the massive radio telescope could be sidelined for months.

Last week, a broken cable caused a 100-foot-long gash in the telescope’s reflector dish, damaged panels in its receiver and twisted a platform used for staff access. Johnson revealed that the cable did not snap, as previously reported, but came out of a socket in a nearby support tower. Fortunately, the incident happened at night when no crews were present.

https://www.engadget.com/arecibo-observatory-telescope-months-to-repair-144606441.html

Hums the GoldenEye theme

Katyanna Quach - Tue 10 Nov 2020 / 00:47 UTC

America’s largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, has suffered yet more damage after another cable above the reflector dish snapped and came crashing down last week.

It doesn’t appear to be as serious as a similar accident in August, when a three-inch-thick auxiliary cable broke free and tore a 100-ft hole in the 1,000-foot dish below. The Arecibo Observatory remains closed; operations have been suspended.

“This is certainly not what we wanted to see, but the important thing is that no one got hurt,” said Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory, on Sunday.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/10/arecibo_telescope_damage/

George Dvorsky - 7 November 2020 10:54AM

Another cable has fallen onto the reflector dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, in yet another frustrating setback for this beloved facility.

The main support cable of the Arecibo Observatory failed and fell onto the dish below at 7:30 p.m. Puerto Rico time on Friday November 6, reports UCF Today. The extent of the damage is not yet known, but the dish was damaged further, as were some nearby cables. No one was hurt, but a safety zone has been set up around the facility as a precaution. With two failed support cables in three months, it’s imperative that response teams now find a way to stabilize the structure.

https://gizmodo.com/second-cable-fails-at-arecibo-causing-even-more-damage-1845619120

George Dvorsky - 15 November 2020 11:41AM

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is in an exceptionally precarious state following the recent failure of two support cables, placing the future of this renowned facility in doubt.

As we feared, the situation at Arecibo appears to be dire. With two support cables gone, the 900-ton platform located directly above the dish is now being supported by the remaining main and auxiliary cables—some of which are already fraying, according to the University of Central Florida (UCF).

https://gizmodo.com/900-ton-platform-threatens-to-crush-famed-arecibo-obser-1845687462

With no way to safely repair it, the National Science Foundation calls it.

John Timmer - 11/19/2020, 10:10 AM

Today, the National Science Foundation announced that its famed Arecibo radio observatory would be shut down. Built into a hilltop in Puerto Rico, the main dish of the observatory is over 300 meters across, and its massive size has made it a feature in popular culture ranging from James Bond movies to video games. But despite a long history of scientific contributions, the observatory has been struggling for funding for over a decade, and two cables that support it have failed this year, leaving it in a precarious state.

After engineering studies determined there was no way to repair the hardware without putting workers at risk, the NSF made the decision to shut the observatory down.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/11/famed-arecibo-observatory-to-be-decommissioned-in-wake-of-cable-breaks/

NSF can't carry out repairs without putting human lives at risk.

Igor Bonifacic - 19 November 2020

After 57 years of helping to expand human knowledge and understanding of the cosmos, the story of Puerto Rico’s world-famous Arecibo Observatory is coming to an unfortunate end. Following two cable failures in recent months, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency that oversees the telescope, announced on Thursday it has no choice but to decommission the structure.

The NSF commissioned multiple independent evaluations to determine how to go about repairing Arecibo. They all came to the same conclusion: the 900-ton structure that hangs over the observatory’s iconic dish is at risk of “catastrophic failure,” and attempting to repair it would put both construction workers and the staff’s facility at life-threatening risk. Moreover, even if workers could somehow carry out repairs safely, there’s no guarantee the observatory won’t have long-term stability issues.

https://www.engadget.com/arecibo-observatory-decommission-182031343.html

The aging structure is too hazardous to repair, engineers say

Katyanna Quach - Thu 19 Nov 2020 / 22:03 UTC

The Arecibo Observatory, America’s largest radio telescope, is to be blown up after the National Science Foundation decided recent damage has left it too dangerous to repair.

“NSF prioritizes the safety of workers, Arecibo Observatory’s staff and visitors, which makes this decision necessary, although unfortunate,” its director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, said in a statement on Thursday.

“For nearly six decades, the Arecibo Observatory has served as a beacon for breakthrough science and what a partnership with a community can look like. While this is a profound change, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain that strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico.”

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/arecibo_telescope_decommissioned/

George Dvorsky - 11/23/20 3:05PM

The big dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is on the verge of collapse, leaving officials with no choice but to retire the famous radio telescope. Astronomers around the world are now having to face a grim reality: that this dutiful dish—in service for the past 57 years—is no more.

I have to admit, the thought that the 1,000-foot (305-meter) dish at Arecibo would have to be torn down never occurred to me when I first started to cover this story during the summer. The first disturbing development came on August 10, when an auxiliary cable slipped out from its socket, crashing through the dish below. The falling cable created an unsightly 100-foot scar, but at the time, the incident seemed more of a nuisance than a catastrophic problem. And indeed, officials with the observatory soon made arrangements to repair the damage and replace the missing cable.

https://gizmodo.com/a-magically-surreal-symbol-of-human-ingenuity-scientis-1845738636

The receiver platform fell into the dish overnight.

Igor Bonifacic - 1 December 2020

The world-famous Arecibo Observatory has collapsed. The National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency that oversees the telescope, announced the unfortunate turn of events on Tuesday. At some point during the night, Arecibo’s receiver platform crashed into its iconic 1,000-foot wide antenna. “The platform fell unexpectedly,” a spokesperson for the NSF told The New York Times. The foundation didn’t say what caused the collapse, something it’s promised to do once it has more information. However, no one at the site was injured.

https://www.engadget.com/arecibo-observatory-collapse-173522919.html

Entire support system fails, all cables and instruments crash into the disk.

John Timmer - 12/1/2020, 7:43 AM

On Monday night, the enormous instrument platform that hung over the Arecibo radio telescope's big dish collapsed due to the failure of the remaining cables supporting it. The risk of this sort of failure was the key motivation behind the National Science Foundation's recent decision to shut down the observatory, as the potential for collapse made any attempt to repair the battered scope too dangerous for the people who would do the repairs.

Right now, details are sparse. The NSF has confirmed the collapse and says it will provide more information once it's confirmed. A Twitter account from a user from Puerto Rico shared an image that shows the support towers that used to hold the cables that suspended the instrument platform over the dish, now with nothing but empty space between them.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/arecibo-radio-telescopes-massive-instrument-platform-has-collapsed/

Star of science and celluloid is no more

Richard Speed Tue 1 Dec 2020 / 17:00 UTC

That's that then. The Arecibo Observatory appears to have been destroyed with the collapse of the platform previously suspended above the giant dish.

Before and after shots of the facility show the triangular platform, which had hung over the dish, is no longer in place.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/01/arecibo_collapse/

George Dvorsky - 1 December 2020 11:21AM

As feared, the 900-ton instrument platform collapsed yesterday at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, falling onto the gigantic radar dish below. Photos of the scene are revealing the extent of the damage at the famous facility, which is known for contributing to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and numerous astronomical discoveries.

The collapse occurred at around 7:55 a.m. local time on December 1, as the receiving platform plunged 450 feet (140 meters) down to the 1,000-foot (305-meter) dish below, which had already been damaged in recent months by fallen cables. No injuries were reported, but the collapse has caused considerable damage to the radar dish and surrounding facilities, including a learning center, according to the U.S. National Science Foundation.

https://gizmodo.com/gut-wrenching-photos-show-damage-at-arecibo-observatory-1845790190

George Dvorsky - December 2, 2020 12:14PM

Video of the recent collapse at the Arecibo Observatory, taken from two different perspectives, show the dramatic moment when a main cable failed, causing the 900-ton instrument platform to fall onto the large radio dish below.

The first of the two videos was taken from the Arecibo Observatory control room, where radio astronomers normally do their work. The camera was recently installed in this location to capture a collapse should it happen, Ashley Zauderer, program director for Arecibo Observatory at the National Science Foundation, told reporters today.

https://gizmodo.com/drone-video-shows-dramatic-moment-of-arecibo-collapse-1845799543

Arecibo's Program Director called it an unexpected, “violent” event.

Chris Velazco - 3 December 2020

The scientific community is still reeling from the collapse of the world's second largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico two days ago, and the National Science Foundation is starting to share more about what happened that day. In a briefing with reporters this morning, Arecibo Program Director Ashley Zauderer and Ralph Gaume, director of NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences, offered the most detailed account to date of the events leading up to — and including — the December 1st collapse.

The trouble at Arecibo began this August, when one of the auxiliary cables supporting the receiver platform slipped out of its socket atop Tower 4, one of the telescope's main support struts. Once free, the cable struck Arecibo's reflector dish, leaving behind a gash about 100 feet long. About three months later, one of that same tower's main support cables – each comprised of about 170 district metal wires — also failed, placing substantial additional strain on the three remaining cables.

https://www.engadget.com/arecibo-observatory-collapse-video-details-nsf-172859619.html

Two different cameras, with one capturing a close-up of the cables snapping.

John Timmer - 12/3/2020, 10:18 AM

Today, the National Science Foundation released video taken at the moment the Arecibo Radio Observatory's cables failed, allowing its massive instrument platform to crash into the dish below. In describing the videos, the NSF also talked a bit about the monitoring program that had put the cameras in place, ideas it had been pursuing for stabilizing the structure pre-collapse, and prospects for building something new at the site.

A quick recap of the collapse: the Arecibo dish was designed to reflect incoming radio radiation to collectors that hung from a massive, 900-ton instrument package that was suspended above it. The suspension system was supported by three reinforced concrete towers that held cables that were anchored farther from the dish, looped over the towers, and then continued on to the platform itself. Failure of these cables eventually led to the platform dropping into the dish below it.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/nsf-had-a-drone-watching-as-arecibos-cables-snapped/

It likely won't be enough, but it's a start.

Jon Fingas - December 31, 2020

There’s a glimmer of hope for the collapsed Arecibo Observatory telescope as 2020 draws to a close. El Nuevo Dia reports that Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez has signed an executive order approving $8 million to help rebuild the radio telescope. Its reconstruction is important as a matter of “public policy” and reestablishing the Observatory as a “world-class educational center,” the Governor’s office said.

The National Science Foundation said it would tear down the Observatory as repairs would be too dangerous, although that doesn’t rule out building a new structure in its place.

https://www.engadget.com/puerto-rico-approves-8-million-to-rebuild-arecibo-telescope-155454170.html

DÁNICA COTO - Fri, March 5, 2021, 11:02 AM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The National Science Foundation said Friday that it could cost up to $50 million just to clean up the debris at a renowned radio telescope that collapsed last year in Puerto Rico, adding that investigations into what caused its cables to fail are still ongoing.

The update is part of a report that the federal agency, which owns the telescope, had to submit to Congress as the investigation continues into the Arecibo telescope. It was until recently the world’s largest radio telescope and was used to study pulsars, detect gravitational waves, search for neutral hydrogen and detect habitable planets, among other things.

The NSF noted that results from the forensic evaluations by engineering firms, including mapping the distribution of debris, won’t be ready until late this year. In addition, the NSF said it asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to launch an independent and expedited study into what caused the telescope to collapse.

https://news.yahoo.com/officials-seeking-answers-puerto-rico-190213451.html

George Dvorsky - 8 March 2021 4:55PM

A new estimate suggests it’ll cost somewhere between $30 million and $50 million to clean up the mess created by the collapse of the iconic Arecibo Observatory dish late last year, according to an NSF report detailing the aftermath of the disaster and possible next steps.

The investigation into the cause of the collapse at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is still ongoing, but the National Science Foundation, through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, was asked to provide a report to Congress outlining the “causes and extent of the damage, the plan to remove debris in a safe and environmentally sound way, the preservation of the associated [Arecibo Observatory] facilities and surrounding areas, and the process for determining whether to establish comparable technology at the site, along with any associated cost estimates.”

https://gizmodo.com/cleanup-costs-at-the-damaged-arecibo-observatory-could-1846432545

The uncertain future of the Arecibo Observatory, and the end of an era in space science.

By Daniel Alarcón - March 29, 2021

Just before eight in the morning on December 1st of last year, Ada Monzón was at the Guaynabo studios of WAPA, a television station in Puerto Rico, preparing to give a weather update, when she got a text from a friend. Jonathan Friedman, an aeronomer who lives near the Arecibo Observatory, about an hour and a half from San Juan, had sent her a photo, taken from his sister-in-law’s back yard, of the brilliant blue Caribbean sky and the green, heavily forested limestone hills. In the picture, a thin cloud of dust hovered just above the tree line; the image was notable not for what it showed but for what was missing. On a normal day—on any day before that one, in fact—a shot from that back yard would have captured Arecibo’s nine-hundred-ton radio-telescope platform, with its massive Gregorian dome, floating improbably over the valley, suspended from cables five hundred feet above the ground. Accompanying the photo was Friedman’s message, which read, simply, “Se cayó ”—“It fell.”

Every year since Arecibo’s completion, in 1963, hundreds of researchers from around the world had taken turns pointing the radio telescope toward the sky to glean the secrets of the universe. It had played a role in the fields of radio astronomy and atmospheric, climate, and planetary science, as well as in the search for exoplanets and the study of near-Earth asteroids that, were they to collide with our planet, could end life as we know it. There were even biologists working at Arecibo, studying how plant life developed in the dim light beneath the telescope’s porous dish.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/05/the-collapse-of-puerto-ricos-iconic-telescope

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday October 15, 2022 12:00AM

The National Science Foundation announced Thursday that it will not rebuild a renowned radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which was one of the world's largest until it collapsed nearly two years ago. The Associated Press reports:

Instead, the agency issued a solicitation for the creation of a $5 million education center at the site that would promote programs and partnerships related to science, technology, engineering and math. It also seeks the implementation of a research and workforce development program, with the center slated to open next year in the northern mountain town of Arecibo where the telescope was once located. The solicitation does not include operational support for current infrastructure at the site that is still in use, including a 12-meter radio telescope or the Lidar facility, which is used to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere to analyze cloud cover and precipitation data.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/10/14/2246236/us-opts-to-not-rebuild-renowned-puerto-rico-telescope

The famous radio telescope dramatically crumbled in December 2020, and now we know what comes next.

Isaac Schultz - 14 October 2022 1:34PM

The National Science Foundation announced this week that the site of the destroyed Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico will become a STEM-focused educational center, and it’s seeking proposals to manage the new project.

According to an NSF release, the center will expand on existing educational programs at the Arecibo Observatory and would open in 2023.

https://gizmodo.com/site-of-collapsed-arecibo-telescope-will-become-an-educ-1849658856

Space scientists lament loss, say it won't be the same without actual working instruments

Thomas Claburn - Mon 17 Oct 2022 20:10 UTC

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided not to rebuild Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, shut down in August 2020 due to damage accrued three years earlier.

In its place, the NSF has solicited bids to create “a new multidisciplinary, world-class educational center” for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The Arecibo Center for STEM Education and Research (ACSER), as center is being called, “would serve as a hub for STEM discovery and exploration by building upon existing programs and opportunities currently in place at the Arecibo Observatory site, while also creating and implementing new STEM education, research, and outreach programs and initiatives,” the solicitation says.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/arecibo_telescope_education_center/

The damaged astronomy site faces an uncertain future.

Isaac Schultz - 1 December 2022 8:00AM

It happened in less than 10 seconds, two years ago today: The Arecibo Observatory’s 1,000-foot radio dish collapsed, eliminating one of the world’s most renowned sources of radio observations.

During its 57 years in operation in northern Puerto Rico, the radio telescope discovered new exoplanets, made radar maps of other worlds in our solar system, observed fast radio bursts, and supported the hunt for intelligent life beyond Earth.

https://gizmodo.com/whats-next-arecibo-observatory-collapse-2-years-later-1849836610

Whatever replaces the destroyed radio telescope will likely be smaller than the original, but a group of astronomers is arguing that its size won't matter.

Isaac Schultz - 7 June 2023

It’s been two and a half years since the Arecibo Observatory’s collapse, and the future of the famous radio telescope’s site remains in limbo. Now, observatory astronomers have refined their plans for Arecibo’s successor by reducing the scope of their plans.

The downsizing appears to be a result of lack of funding; even before the telescope’s collapse in December 2020, the National Science Foundation was seeking to reduce its spending on the massive observatory, according to the publication Science.

https://gizmodo.com/wrecked-arecibo-radio-observatory-small-resurrection-1850514864

Four institutions will become stewards of the observatory as it becomes an education center.

Isaac Schultz - 28 September 2023

In December 2020, the Arecibo Observatory’s radio telescope was destroyed when a catastrophic cable failure caused its 900-ton platform to collapse onto the iconic dish below. Now, the National Science Foundation has named the stewards of the site’s future as an education center, marking the probable end of Arecibo’s astronomical research endeavors.

Original plans to turn the destroyed radio telescope site into an education center were made public in October 2022, when the NSF began seeking proposals for managing the new project. At the time, the planned opening of such an education center was 2023.

Now, the NSF has announced that New York’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, San Juan’s University of the Sacred Heart, and the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras will manage Arecibo’s transition, and the new center is expected to open in early 2024.

https://gizmodo.com/arecibo-observatory-radio-astronomy-education-center-1850883567

The US National Science Foundation announces plan to use the historic site for biology and computer science education.

Anil Oza - 26 September 2023

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that four institutions will take over stewardship of the site of the former Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, as it transitions from a research hub to an education centre.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) at Río Piedras in San Juan; and the University of the Sacred Heart, also in San Juan; will oversee the new centre, in which the NSF will invest US$5.5 million over five years.

The decision comes nearly a year after the agency called for proposals on setting up and running an education centre at Arecibo. Two years before that, the observatory’s main telescope collapsed, and instead of rebuilding the instrument — which once made discoveries about exoplanets and studied near-Earth asteroids, among other things — the NSF said it would close down astronomy research at the site.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03021-6

An investigation by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found Hurricane Maria worsened a slow decay of the Arecibo Observatory's support cables.

Isaac Schultz - October 28, 2024

The famous Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapsed due to a combination of decayed zinc in the telescope’s cable sockets and previous damage from Hurricane Maria, according to a report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The massive radio telescope’s collapse in December 2020 marked the end of a prolific source of radio astronomy data. According to the recent report, the root cause of the telescope’s collapse was “unprecedented and accelerated long-term zinc creep induced failure.” That failure occurred in the telescope’s cable sockets—crucial bits of infrastructure for supporting the telescope’s 900-ton platform, which hung above the radio dish.

The cables began to fail before the collapse. The NSF decided to demolish the dish before it fell, but the weakened infrastructure beat them to the punch. The Academies’ Committee on Analysis of Causes of Failure and Collapse of the 305-Meter Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory published the aptly titled report. The committee analyzed data and investigations collected and performed by the University of Central Florida and the National Science Foundation (NSF). You can read the report online here.

https://gizmodo.com/jaw-dropping-report-reveals-causes-of-arecibo-telescope-collapse-2000517284

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/26982/chapter/1

Electromagnetic radiation contributed to that zincing feeling: analysts

Thomas Claburn - Wed 6 Nov 2024 18:40 UTC

The collapse of the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory in 2020 is being attributed to zinc creep – slow deformation due to stress – in the telescope's cable spelter sockets, according to a committee report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This effect may also have been accelerated by the effect of low-level electric current on the structure of zinc – a phenomenon known as electroplasticity.

Built in 1963, the iconic Puerto Rico-based telescope was the largest single-aperture device in the world until 2016 – when it was surpassed by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST, or Tianyan). It contributed to numerous scientific discoveries, such as finding the first known binary pulsar.

When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, the telescope was damaged, but it remained operational until 2020 when a supporting cable broke from its socket and fell across the main dish. Repair efforts in November 2020 failed, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) decided to demolish the structure.

In its place, the NSF plans to open a science education facility next year: the NSF Arecibo Center for Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Science Education, Computational Skills, and Community Engagement (NSF Arecibo C3).

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/arecibo_telescope_failure_analysis/

Space Perspective is hoping to have commercial operations underway in 2025, but a seat on the luxurious balloon is gonna cost you.

Adam Kovac - September 19, 2024

The dream, if you can call it that, of ballooning to not-quite-space, has gotten closer. Space Perspective, a company founded with the goal of floating people high in the Earth’s atmosphere in lavish style, announced a successful test run of their Neptune vehicle.

The startup launched the hydrogen-fueled craft from Florida’s Marine Spaceport Voyager on September 15, and spent four hours ascending into the stratosphere. Once there, the company said in a press release, it maintained cabin pressure and stability, before descending for a splashdown. The mission, dubbed Development Flight 2, marked the first time the actual Neptune capsule reached its maximum altitude. A previous test flight also reached the stratosphere but used a lighter mockup of the Neptune capsule.

https://gizmodo.com/so-called-space-balloon-completes-crucial-test-ahead-of-tourist-flights-2000501035

George Dvorsky - 23 June 2020 1:33PM

Astronomers are puzzling over observations that show a black hole smashing into a mystery object of unusual size.

New research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters describes a collision between a black hole and a yet-to-be identified object. At the time of this celestial tryst, the black hole was 23 times more massive than our Sun, but the unknown object was just 2.6 times the Sun’s mass, which is distinctly weird.

https://gizmodo.com/a-black-hole-collided-with-something-that-shouldnt-exis-1844134041

The black hole ejected stellar material in 2021, three years after pulling a star into its orbit.

Isaac Schultz - 13 October 2022 11:32AM

In June 2021, a radio telescope in New Mexico picked up signs that a black hole had begun flinging material into space, the astrophysical equivalent of spitting up your food. But here’s the rub: It hadn’t eaten anything in years.

A team of astronomers observed the ejection event using six observatories: four across North America, South America, Africa and Australia, and two in space. The team linked the 2021 rejectamenta to a star consumed by the black hole three years ago. The team’s research is published this week in The Astrophysical Journal.

https://gizmodo.com/black-hole-pukes-up-star-years-after-eating-it-1849652762

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday October 17, 2022 04:34AM

NPR reports that astronomers have spotted a black hole finally “burping” out energy from a star that it swallowed back in 2018:

How unusual is this? “Super unusual,” Yvette Cendes, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian and lead author of the paper, tells NPR. “We've never really seen this before to this degree.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/10/17/0048245/scientists-baffled-after-a-black-hole-burps-a-stars-energy---three-years-later

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday October 22, 2022 12:00AM

Researchers at Cardiff University have identified a peculiar twisting motion in the orbits of two colliding black holes, an exotic phenomenon predicted by Einstein's theory of gravity. Phys.Org reports:

Their study, which is published in Nature and led by Professor Mark Hannam, Dr. Charlie Hoy and Dr. Jonathan Thompson, reports that this is the first time this effect, known as precession, has been seen in black holes, where the twisting is 10 billion times faster than in previous observations. The binary black hole system was found through gravitational waves in early 2020 in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors. One of the black holes, 40 times bigger than our Sun, is likely the fastest spinning black hole to be found through gravitational waves. And unlike all previous observations, the rapidly revolving black hole distorted space and time so much that the binary's entire orbit wobbled back and forth. This form of precession is specific to Einstein's theory of general relativity. These results confirm its existence in the most extreme physical event we can observe, the collision of two black holes.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/10/21/2227243/wobbling-black-hole-most-extreme-example-ever-detected

These are the IXPE mission’s first observations of a mass-accreting black hole.

Isaac Schultz - 3 November 2022 2:00PM

The Cygnus X-1 system is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the Milky Way, consisting of a black hole called Cygnus X-1 and its giant companion, a star packing 41 times the mass of our Sun. Researchers recently measured the polarization of those X-rays to better understand the geometry of the superheated plasma in the Cygnus X-1 system.

Though nothing is visible beyond any black hole’s event horizon, superheated matter usually surrounds a black hole. At millions of degrees, the matter emits X-rays that offer information about the environment they came from.

https://gizmodo.com/x-rays-reveal-superheated-gloop-surrounding-a-black-hol-1849738422

February 15, 2023 - University of Michigan

Searching through existing data spanning 9 billion years, a University of Michigan physicist and colleagues have uncovered the first evidence of “cosmological coupling”—a newly predicted phenomenon in Einstein’s theory of gravity, possible only when black holes are placed inside an evolving universe.

Gregory Tarlé, U-M professor of physics, and researchers from the University of Hawaii and other institutions across nine countries studied supermassive black holes at the heart of ancient and dormant galaxies to develop a description of them that agrees with observations from the past decade. Their findings are published in two journal articles, one in The Astrophysical Journal and the other in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The first study found that these black holes gain mass over billions of years in a way that can’t easily be explained by standard galaxy and black hole processes, such as mergers or accretion of gas. According to the second paper, the growth in mass of these black holes matches predictions for black holes that not only cosmologically couple, but also enclose vacuum energy—material that results from squeezing matter as much as possible without breaking Einstein’s equations, thus avoiding a singularity.

https://news.umich.edu/scientists-find-first-observational-evidence-linking-black-holes-to-dark-energy/

Katyanna Quach - Sun 9 Apr 2023 10:37 UTC

A runaway supermassive black hole is speeding through space and creating a trail of stars behind it, a phenomenon accidentally discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The rogue object, estimated to be 20 million times more massive than the Sun, is believed to have been forcefully kicked from its host galaxy after it came into contact with other supermassive black holes. It's now barreling through space at such a velocity, it could cross the distance from Earth to the Moon in just 14 minutes.

Black holes are usually destructive. They grow by gobbling up nearby matter, and can rip apart stars and swallow clouds of gas and dust. Nothing can escape their pull once past the event horizon, not even light. That said, a team led by Yale University scientists have discovered one hole that has created a whopping 200,000-light-year-long chain of newborn stars behind it.

They clocked the phenomenon in an image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and immediately realized they had stumbled on something unique when they looked closer.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/09/black_hole_stars/

Calculations by a gravitational wave hunter suggest that the early universe was more developed than what we can observe.

Isaac Schultz - 22 June 2023

Since the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein were first detected in 2015, astrophysicists have been pondering the gravitational wave background—the cumulative undulations of these spacetime ripples as they cross the cosmos.

Now, one astrophysicist associated with the background hunt developed a model to sniff out ancient supermassive black holes, which could help explain how black holes form and evolve. The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Black holes—massive, dense objects with gravitational pulls so intense that light cannot escape their vicinity—are plentiful. One recent study estimated that 40 quintillion black holes lurk in the observable universe, but how they grow into supermassive black holes remains shrouded in mystery.

The gravitational wave background could help. As black holes and other massive objects like neutron stars interact, they rock the cosmic boat and generate gravitational waves that ripple through the universe.

https://gizmodo.com/massive-black-holes-littered-early-universe-simulation-1850566201

Posted by msmash on Thursday June 29, 2023 10:20AM

Supermassive black holes all over the universe are merging, a fate that will eventually come for the black hole at the center of our galaxy. From a report:

These mysterious cosmic structures at the heart of nearly every galaxy consume light and matter and are impossible to glimpse with traditional telescopes. But now, for the first time, astrophysicists have gathered knowledge directly from these titans, in the form of gravitational waves that ripple through space and time. What they learned suggests that the population of massive black hole pairs that are merging numbers in the hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/29/0924203/black-hole-at-heart-of-our-galaxy-is-on-crash-course-space-time-ripples-reveal

The distant object suddenly started feeding after a prolonged silence.

Isaac Schultz - 7 July 2023 12:45PM

Black holes often sit at the centers of galaxies, where they can gorge themselves on the superheated material that falls into their abyssal event horizons. Now, a team of astronomers have observed the beginning of one such meal.

The feast was found in a galaxy a staggering 10 billion light-years from Earth. The meal itself—or what the astronomers think is a black hole’s meal—is a luminous transient, meaning an object that changes in brightness quickly. It was first discovered in 2019 and is called J221951-484240 (J221951 for short.)

https://gizmodo.com/distant-black-hole-roaring-back-life-1850615050

A deep look at the Extended Groth Strip suggests the universe may be a more stable place than previously thought.

Isaac Schultz - 25 August 2023 2:45PM

A team of researchers scrutinizing the Extended Groth Strip, a region of space between the constellations Ursa Major and Boötes, saw fewer growing supermassive black holes and less dust than they expected.

The team was investigating active galactic nuclei, or AGN, galactic cores that expel high amounts of radiation, sometimes in the form of particle jets. The observations were made using data from the Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The team’s research is currently hosted on the preprint server and is set to publish in The Astrophysical Journal.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-fewer-supermassive-black-holes-1850775433

The super-dense object doesn't quite fit with what we know about black holes or neutron stars.

Isaac Schultz - 18 January 2024

A team of scientists found a compact object 40,000 light-years from Earth that is either a very massive neutron star or an itsy-bitsy black hole, but they’re not sure which.

The so-called mass gap object has a mass between 2.09 and 2.71 times that of our Sun. For a neutron star—the collapsed, superdense core of a star—that would be huge, perhaps even the largest yet known. But for a black hole—an even more compact object, so dense that not even light can escape it—it would be among the smallest of its kind; black holes can be millions if not billions of times the mass of our Sun. The team’s research exploring the neither-here-nor-there object is published today in Science.

https://gizmodo.com/mystery-space-object-biggest-neutron-star-black-hole-1851176506

Many cases of black holes destroying stars were hidden behind dust.

Elizabeth Rayne - 2/6/2024, 10:27 AM

Virtually anything in space could be a potential meal for a supermassive black hole, and that includes entire stars. Even stars much bigger than our Sun can fall victim to the black hole’s extreme gravity and be pulled in toward its gaping maw. It is a terrifying phenomenon, but how often does it really happen?

Tidal disruption events (TDEs)—when the tidal forces of a black hole overwhelm a star’s gravity and tear it apart—are thought to occur once every 10,000 to 100,000 years in any given galaxy. TDEs can be detected by the immense amounts of energy they give off. While observations of them are still pretty rare, an international team of researchers has now discovered a whopping 18 of them that previous searches had missed. Why?

Many TDEs can be found in dusty galaxies. Dust obscures many wavelengths of radiation, from optical to X-rays, but long infrared wavelengths are much less susceptible to scattering and absorption. When the team checked galaxies in the infrared, they found 18 TDEs that had eluded astronomers before.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/18-black-holes-devour-stars-in-cosmic-feeding-frenzy/

Hardware misbehaving in orbit? Time for a reset on the avionics

Richard Speed - Wed 27 Mar 2024 20:57 UTC

NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space observatory has had a problem, prompting engineers on the ground to hit the reset button.

It's a technique familiar to many engineers when faced with misbehaving hardware and one that IXPE's team has had to use on a previous occasion.

While out in low Earth orbit, IXPE has stopped transmitting valid telemetry data – an issue similar to one encountered in June 2023. The latest problem was noted on March 23 and, thanks to procedures developed last time, the team initiated a spacecraft avionics reset. IXPE then dropped into a safe mode, and the team is working to resume science operations.

According to NASA: “The spacecraft is in good health.”

The Register asked the US space agency to learn more about the issue and why it has reoccurred. We will update this piece should the boffins respond.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/nasa_ixpe_reset/

Blame it on a smaller orbiting black hole repeatedly punching through the accretion disk.

Jennifer Ouellette - 3/28/2024, 12:56 PM

In December 2020, astronomers spotted an unusual burst of light in a galaxy roughly 848 million light-years away—a region with a supermassive black hole at the center that had been largely quiet until then. The energy of the burst mysteriously dipped about every 8.5 days before the black hole settled back down, akin to having a case of celestial hiccups.

Now scientists think they've figured out the reason for this unusual behavior. The supermassive black hole is orbited by a smaller black hole that periodically punches through the larger object's accretion disk during its travels, releasing a plume of gas. This suggests that black hole accretion disks might not be as uniform as astronomers thought, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Co-author Dheeraj “DJ” Pasham of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space research noticed the community alert that went out after the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) detected the flare, dubbed ASASSN-20qc. He was intrigued and still had some allotted time on the X-ray telescope, called NICER (the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) on board the International Space Station. He directed the telescope to the galaxy of interest and gathered about four months of data, after which the flare faded.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/astronomers-have-solved-the-mystery-of-why-this-black-hole-has-the-hiccups/

It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe.

Rivka Galchen - March 30, 2024

Black holes are, of course, awesome. But, for scientists, they are more awesome. If a rainbow is marvellous, then understanding how all the colors of the rainbow are present, unified, in ordinary white light—that’s more marvellous. (Though, famously, in his poem “Lamia,” John Keats disagreed, blaming “cold philosophy” for unweaving the rainbow.) In recent years, the amount of data that scientists have discovered about black holes has grown exponentially. In January, astronomers announced that the James Webb Space Telescope had observed the oldest black hole yet—one present when the universe was a mere four hundred million years old. (It’s estimated that it’s now 13.8 billion years old.) Recently, two supermassive black holes, with a combined mass of twenty-eight billion suns, were measured and shown to have been rotating tightly around each other, but not colliding, for the past three billion years. And those are just the examples that are easiest for the public to make some sense of. To me, a supermassive black hole sounds sublime; to a scientist, it can also be a test of wild hypotheses. “Astrophysics is an exercise in incredible experiments not runnable on Earth,” Avery Broderick, a theoretical physicist at the University of Waterloo and at the Perimeter Institute, told me. “And black holes are an ideal laboratory.”

https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/black-holes-are-even-weirder-than-you-imagined

The event, which occurred when the universe was 740 million years young, gives scientists a clue about the number of light black holes in the universe.

Isaac Schultz - 16 May 2024

The cutting-edge Webb Space Telescope has spotted the most distant black hole merger yet, which occurred when the universe was just 740 million years old. It’s the first time astronomers have seen a merger so early in the universe’s history, making it a record breaker.

Black holes are massive objects peppered throughout our universe; their gravitational fields are so strong that not even light can escape their event horizons. Black hole mergers are exactly what they sound like: Slow, dreadful dances between two of the objects, often at the center of their respective galaxies, eventually coalescing into a single object.

The recent merger observation was made by an astronomical team in May 2023 using the Webb Telescope’s NIRSpec-IFU instrument. The cosmic meeting of holes occurred when the universe was about three-quarters of a billion years old (for reference, the universe is now 13 billion years older than that!), in a galaxy system called ZS7.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-most-distant-oldest-black-hole-merger-1851480974

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday May 18, 2024 12:34PM

“Albert Einstein was right,” reports CNN. “There is an area at the edge of black holes where matter can no longer stay in orbit and instead falls in, as predicted by his theory of gravity.”

The proof came by combining NASA's earth-orbiting NuSTAR telescope with the NICER telescope on the International Space Station to detect X-rays:

A team of astronomers has for the first time observed this area — called the “plunging region” — in a black hole about 10,000 light-years from Earth. “We've been ignoring this region, because we didn't have the data,” said research scientist Andrew Mummery, lead author of the study published Thursday in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “But now that we do, we couldn't explain it any other way.”

Mummery — also a Fellow in Oxford's physics department — told CNN, “We went out searching for this one specifically — that was always the plan. We've argued about whether we'd ever be able to find it for a really long time. People said it would be impossible, so confirming it's there is really exciting.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/05/18/1541243/study-confirms-einstein-prediction-black-holes-have-a-plunging-region

The intermediate-link black hole is believed to be a seed for supermassive black holes that formed just after the Big Bang.

Danny Gallagher - Updated Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 10:59 AM PDT

A group of international researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany recently discovered one of the rarest types of black holes in the universe. The researchers were observing a cluster of stars in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A (Sgr A) at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. They then discovered signs of an intermediate-mass black hole, a type of black hole that’s sometimes referred to as the “missing link” of black holes, according to NASA.

Black holes range in size from supermassive to primordial and the intermediate sits above primordial in size. They are believed to have formed just after the Big Bang and act as “seeds” for creating supermassive black holes.

https://www.engadget.com/another-missing-link-black-hole-discovered-near-the-center-of-the-galaxy-175859313.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday September 29, 2024 08:39PM

Scientific American has surprising news about the possibility of black holes the size of an atom but containing the mass of an asteroid — the so-called “primordial black holes” formed after the birth of the universe which could solve the ongoing mystery of the missing dark matter.

These atom-sized black holes “may fly through the inner solar system about once a decade, scientists say… And if they sneak by the moon or Mars, scientists should be able to detect them, a new study shows.”

If one of these black holes comes near a planet or large moon, it should push the body off course enough to be measurable by current instruments. “As it passes by, the planet starts to wobble,” says Sarah R. Geller, a theoretical physicist now at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-author of the study, which was published on September 17 in Physical Review D. “The wobble will grow over a few years but eventually it will damp out and go back to zero.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/30/0254210/could-atom-sized-black-holes-be-detected-in-our-solar-system

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.

This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces. Over the course of a few years, this disk expanded outward until it intersected with another object — either a star or a small black hole — that is also in orbit around the giant black hole. Each time this object crashes into the disk, it sends out a burst of X-rays detected by Chandra. The inset shows Chandra data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue).

https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/tde/

The gargantuan object is driving a “cosmic two-for-one” that could shed light on the source of a weird kind of X-ray.

Isaac Schultz - October 10, 2024

Talk about a cosmic bully: Astronomers have spotted a black hole that beat up a star, and is now using the shattered remains of that pulverized star to hit another star or small black hole in its vicinity.

These super-scaled playground antics are a rare kind of tidal disruption event, which occurs when an object gets too close to a black hole. This particle tidal disruption event suggests that a specific type of X-ray burst is linked to the behavior of the black hole. Studying the event—and others like it—could help astrophysicists understand the extreme environments around supermassive black holes, as well as the occupants of those environments.

Recently, a team of astronomers and astrophysicists studying soft X-ray bursts found a connection between the bursts and tidal disruption events. The X-ray bursts were quasi-periodic eruptions (or QPEs)—flurries of the X-rays that are often seen coming from the cores of galaxies—that followed a tidal disruption event called AT2019qiz, which astronomers discovered in 2019. The researchers who studied the recent black hole’s tidal disruption event published their findings in Nature.

https://gizmodo.com/black-hole-tears-star-to-shreds-flings-its-guts-toward-another-star-nearby-2000510039

Similar feeding events could explain the rapid growth of supermassive black holes.

John Timmer – Nov 4, 2024 1:21 PM

How did supermassive black holes end up at the center of every galaxy? A while back, it wasn't that hard to explain: That's where the highest concentration of matter is, and the black holes had billions of years to feed on it. But as we've looked ever deeper into the Universe's history, we keep finding supermassive black holes, which shortens the timeline for their formation. Rather than making a leisurely meal of nearby matter, these black holes have gorged themselves in a feeding frenzy.

With the advent of the Webb Space Telescope, the problem has pushed up against theoretical limits. The matter falling into a black hole generates radiation, with faster feeding meaning more radiation. And that radiation can drive off nearby matter, choking off the black hole's food supply. That sets a limit on how fast black holes can grow unless matter is somehow fed directly into them. The Webb was used to identify early supermassive black holes that needed to have been pushing against the limit for their entire existence.

But the Webb may have just identified a solution to the dilemma as well. It has spotted a black hole that appears to have been feeding at 40 times the theoretical limit for millions of years, allowing growth at a pace sufficient to build a supermassive black hole.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/researchers-spot-black-hole-feeding-at-40x-its-theoretical-limit/

Posted by BeauHD on Monday November 04, 2024 11:00PM

Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole in the early Universe devouring matter at over 40 times the Eddington limit. ScienceAlert reports:

Led by astronomer Hyewon Suh of Gemini Observatory and NSF's NOIRLab, a team of researchers used JWST to take follow-up observations of a smattering of galaxies identified by the Chandra X-ray Observatory that were bright in X-rays but dim in other wavelengths. When they got to LID-568, they were having trouble identifying its distance across space-time. The galaxy was very faint and very hard to see; but, using the integral field spectrograph on JWST's NIRSpec instrument, the team homed in on the galaxy's exact position. LID-568's far-off location is surprising. Although the object is faint from our position in the Universe, its distance means it must be incredibly intrinsically bright. Detailed observations revealed powerful outflows from the supermassive black hole, a signature of accretion as some of the material is being diverted and blasted into space.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/11/05/0352224/researchers-spot-black-hole-eating-stuff-at-over-40x-the-theoretical-limit

The research team says it’s time to “think outside the box” since nothing else is working.

Margherita Bassi - December 15, 2024

A pair of imaginative cosmologists have great news for everyone: If a primordial black hole tunnels through your body, you probably won’t die.

This unexpected reassurance is part of their larger hypothesis on where scientists might find primordial black holes (PBH): ancient, tiny, high-density, theoretical black holes. In a study published in the December issue of Physics of the Dark Universe and available online since September, the cosmologists suggest that evidence of PBHs might be present within hollow celestial bodies, as well as in objects right here on Earth.

“We have to think outside of the box because what has been done to find primordial black holes previously hasn’t worked,” Dejan Stojkovic of the University at Buffalo, who co-wrote the study, said in a university statement.

https://gizmodo.com/tiny-black-holes-could-have-left-tunnels-inside-earths-rocks-2000538216

Astronomers have never detected mid-infrared flares from our galaxy's supermassive black hole—until now.

Isaac Schultz - January 14, 2025

Astronomers have detected a mid-infrared flare from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy for the very first time, and it’s shedding new light on the complex physics driving these energetic outbursts.

The flare—a burst of energy that changed in intensity as the black hole’s magnetic field lines interacted—fills in an area of black hole observations that previously eluded scientists. However, questions remain about the chaotic environment near the heart of the abyssal object.

The team’s detection and modeling of the flare is accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and is currently available on the pre-print server arXiv. The findings were presented today at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.

The black hole, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced A-star), is an object about four million times the mass of our Sun and sits at the core of the Milky Way. Black holes are ultra-dense objects with gravitational fields so fierce that not even light can escape their bounds beyond a point called the event horizon. In the artist’s concept at the beginning of this article, the black hole is the dark chasm at the core of a swirl of material.

https://gizmodo.com/milky-ways-black-hole-just-lit-up-in-a-way-weve-never-seen-before-2000549973

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday March 09, 2025 04:19PM

NPR reports on “a monster black hole that's been lurking unseen in the galaxy next door.”

This appears to be the closest supermassive black hole outside our Milky Way galaxy, according to a report that's appearing in The Astrophysical Journal… “Now that there is strong evidence that it should be there, you can rest assured that we are very excitedly following up,” says Jesse Han of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, who led the study…

Han and his colleagues realized that this black hole must exist when they were studying so-called hypervelocity stars… [T]hey started out as normal stars that were part of a binary system, or two stars orbiting each other. When that kind of pair ventures too close to a supermassive black hole, says Han, “what can happen is one of the stars can get captured by the black hole. It is basically ripped apart from its companion.” The bereft companion star, meanwhile, gets flung away, going at ridiculously high speeds. It's as if the black hole basically hurled it out of the galaxy.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/03/09/2316231/that-galaxy-next-door-its-home-to-a-monster-black-hole

A new study lends credence to the radical idea that our universe sits within a black hole.

Isaac Schultz - March 14, 2025

One researcher’s analysis of Webb Space Telescope images could indicate that we’re all stuck in a black hole, according to research published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“The main finding of the study is that the vast majority of the galaxies in the universe, as seen from Earth, rotate in the same direction,” explained Lior Shamir, an astronomer at Kansas State University and lead author of the study, in an email to Gizmodo. “That adds another observation that disagrees with the existing current cosmological model.”

The current cosmological model, called Lambda CDM (short for Cold Dark Matter), has faced numerous stress tests over the years. One such test indicated that data from the decommissioned Planck satellite would be better explained if the universe was round.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that “Lambda CDM is at least incomplete,” Shamir added. “Perhaps the advantage of this observation is that anyone can very easily see it by just looking at the images of the early Universe.”

https://gizmodo.com/a-surprising-number-of-galaxies-rotating-in-lockstep-could-mean-were-in-a-black-hole-2000575624

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday April 20, 2025 02:55PM

For the first time, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a lone black hole,“ reports Science News — “one with no star orbiting it.”

It's “the only one so far,” says Kailash Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. In 2022, Sahu and his colleagues discovered the dark object coursing through the constellation Sagittarius. A second team disputed the claim, saying the body might instead be a neutron star. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope now confirm that the object's mass is so large that it must be a black hole, Sahu's team reports in the April 20 Astrophysical Journal…. [And that second team has revised its assessment and now agrees: the object is a black hole.]

While solitary black holes should be common, they are hard to find. The one in Sagittarius revealed itself when it passed in front of a dim background star, magnifying the star's light and slowly shifting its position due to the black hole's gravity. This passage occurred in July 2011, but the star's position is still changing. “It takes a long time to do the observations,” Sahu says. “Everything is improved if you have a longer baseline and more observations.” The original discovery relied on precise Hubble measurements of star positions from 2011 to 2017. The new work incorporates Hubble observations from 2021 and 2022 as well as data from the Gaia spacecraft.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/20/2153201/astronomers-confirm-first-lone-black-hole-discovery---and-its-in-the-milky-way

In this blog, Professor Enrique Gaztanaga from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, puts forward a new theory about how the Universe was created.

4 June 2025 - Enrique Gaztanaga

The Big Bang is often described as the explosive birth of the universe – a singular moment when space, time and matter sprang into existence. But what if this was not the beginning at all? What if our universe emerged from something else – something more familiar and radical at the same time?

In a new paper, published in Physical Review D, my colleagues and I propose a striking alternative. Our calculations suggest the Big Bang was not the start of everything, but rather the outcome of a gravitational crunch or collapse that formed a very massive black hole – followed by a bounce inside it.

This idea, which we call the black hole universe, offers a radically different view of cosmic origins, yet it is grounded entirely in known physics and observations.

Today’s standard cosmological model, based on the Big Bang and cosmic inflation (the idea that the early universe rapidly blew up in size), has been remarkably successful in explaining the structure and evolution of the universe. But it comes at a price: it leaves some of the most fundamental questions unanswered.

For one, the Big Bang model begins with a singularity – a point of infinite density where the laws of physics break down. This is not just a technical glitch; it’s a deep theoretical problem that suggests we don’t really understand the beginning at all.

To explain the universe’s large-scale structure, physicists introduced a brief phase of rapid expansion into the early universe called cosmic inflation, powered by an unknown field with strange properties. Later, to explain the accelerating expansion observed today, they added another “mysterious” component: dark energy.

https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/space-cosmology-and-the-universe/what-if-the-big-bang-wasnt-the-beginning-our-research-suggests-it-may-have-taken-place-inside-a-black-hole

Posted by BeauHD on Friday June 20, 2025 12:00AM

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert:

The colossal black hole lurking at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning almost as fast as its maximum rotation rate (https://www.sciencealert.com/our-galaxys-monster-black-hole-is-spinning-almost-as-fast-as-physics-allows). That's just one thing astrophysicists have discovered after developing and applying a new method to tease apart the secrets still hidden in supermassive black hole observations collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The unprecedented global collaboration spent years working to give us the first direct images of the shadows of black holes, first with M87* in a galaxy 55 million light-years away, then with Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy. […]

Their results show, among other things, that Sgr A* is not only spinning at close to its maximum speed, but that its rotational axis is pointed in Earth's direction, and that the glow around it is generated by hot electrons. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the magnetic field in the material around Sgr A* doesn't appear to be behaving in a way that's predicted by theory. M87, they discovered, is also rotating rapidly, although not as fast as Sgr A. However, it is rotating in the opposite direction to the material swirling in a disk around it – possibly because of a past merger with another supermassive black hole.

The findings have been detailed in three papers published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. They can be found here (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202553784), here (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202553785), and here (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202553786).

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/19/236226/our-galaxys-monster-black-hole-is-spinning-almost-as-fast-as-physics-allows

The proposal is highly theoretical and likely will take at least several decades to realize, but if we’re hoping someday to visit a black hole, scientists need to start somewhere.

Gayoung Lee - August 7, 2025

Fifty-six years after Disney filmmakers imagined what it would be like for a spacecraft crew to journey to a black hole in the 1979 movie The Black Hole, an astrophysicist has released a plan for a real interstellar mission to go where no spacecraft has gone before.

Outlined in a new paper published today in iScience, the proposal is a two-pronged, surprisingly simple approach. First, scientists need to find a black hole that’s relatively nearby. Second, they need to build something called a nanocraft—a tiny probe that runs on a microchip—sturdy enough to withstand the journey.

With the appropriate technological advances, it could be doable within a few decades, Cosimo Bambi, the paper’s author and a theoretical physicist at Fudan University in China, told Gizmodo.

The idea is “very speculative and extremely challenging,” the paper states, although “not completely unrealistic.” In addition to the proposal, Bambi presents a potential trajectory for the spacecraft, as well as an outline of what scientific experiments it could perform and how it might work.

https://gizmodo.com/daring-new-plan-lays-out-mission-to-a-black-hole-2000639970

Astronomers saw past the blinding light of a quasar, only to find a supermassive black hole that's much smaller than theoretical predictions.

Gayoung Lee - September 25, 2025

All galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center. A new finding doesn’t contradict that observation, but it does suggest that we’ve been overestimating just how heavy some of these black holes actually are.

Astrophysicists using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile found evidence that the black hole of an infant galaxy was ten times smaller than what theoretical models predicted. If they can find similar behavior in other galaxies, it would mean that we’re even more blind to the dynamics of the early universe than we believed. The study, forthcoming in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, is currently available as a preprint on arXiv.

“We have been wondering for years how it’s possible we discovered all these fully grown supermassive black holes in very young galaxies shortly after the Big Bang,” said Seb Hoenig, study co-author and an astronomer at the University of Southampton, in a statement. “Our results suggest the methods to weigh these black holes used previously are just not working reliably in the early universe.”

https://gizmodo.com/turns-out-the-first-supermassive-black-holes-werent-so-supermassive-research-suggests-2000663821

The images of the two cosmic beasts, locked in orbit around each other, prove that such binary systems exist.

Passant Rabie - October 10, 2025

When two black holes meet, they are drawn to one another by way of their enormous gravity, initiating a powerful orbital dance, spiraling closer together over time, until one subsumes the other and they merge.

One of the most energetic events in the universe, actually seeing a binary black hole system in action has proven elusive until now.

A group of scientists report that they have captured the first image of two black holes circling each other once every 12 years or so, around 5 billion light years away from Earth. The pair are at the center of a quasar called OJ287, an extremely bright galactic core that forms when the black hole at the center of the galaxy devours surrounding gas and dust.

The observations, detailed in a study published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal, offer a rare insight into the interactions of the universe’s most mysterious beasts.

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-spot-two-black-holes-caught-in-deadly-orbital-dance-for-the-first-time-2000670910

Early superdense star clusters may have planted seeds for monster black holes.

Ashley Balzer Vigil – Nov 10, 2025 9:37 AM

A new simulation could help solve one of astronomy’s longstanding mysteries—how supermassive black holes formed so rapidly—along with a new one: What are the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) “little red dots?”

Invisible leviathans lurk at the cores of nearly all of the 2 trillion or so galaxies strewn throughout space-time. Monster black holes entered the cosmic scene soon after the Universe’s birth and grew rapidly, reaching millions or even billions of times the Sun’s mass in less than a billion years. Astronomers have long wondered how these supermassive black holes could have grown so hefty in such little time.

The monster black hole mystery became even more perplexing in 2022 when “little red dots” were spotted at the far edges of space. When these tiny scarlet orbs began unexpectedly popping up in JWST images of the distant Universe, their nature was hotly debated. Now that scientists have amassed a sample of hundreds of them, many think the dots are growing supermassive black holes.

The problem is that they appear even earlier than astronomers thought possible, making the challenge of explaining early supermassive black holes even harder. Observations suggest that the little red dots mainly flickered on when the Universe was around 600 million years old and fizzled out within the next billion years (the supermassive black holes linger to the present time, but they no longer light up as little red dots).

A new study tries to explain the early formation of these immense objects via swelling swarms of stars.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/runaway-black-hole-mergers-may-have-built-supermassive-black-holes/

Their orbit periodically takes them through a cloud of gas, triggering flares.

Elizabeth Rayne – Dec 1, 2024 4:05 AM

What happens when a gargantuan cloud of gas swallows a pair of monster black holes with their own appetites? Feasting on the gas can cause some weird (heavenly) bodily functions.

AT 2021hdr is a binary supermassive black hole (BSMBH) system in the center of a galaxy 1 billion light-years away, in the Cygnus constellation. In 2021, researchers observing it using NASA’s Zwicky Transient Facility saw strange outbursts that were flagged by the ALerCE (Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events) team.

This active galactic nucleus (AGN) flared so brightly that AT 2021hdr was almost mistaken for a supernova. Repeating flares soon ruled that out. When the researchers questioned whether they might be looking at a tidal disruption event—a star being torn to shreds by the black holes—something was still not making sense. They then compared observations they made in 2022 using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to simulations of something else they suspected: a tidal disruption of a gas cloud by binary supermassive black holes. It seemed they had found the most likely answer.

“The variations in AT 2021hdr cannot be easily explained by any of the mechanisms usually associated to SMBHs,” the team said in a study recently published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.“However, we find that the behavior of AT 2021hdr broadly fits with models of the disruption and accretion of a gas cloud by a BSMBH.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/12/supermassive-black-hole-binary-emits-unexpected-flares/

Second supermassive black hole is a long way from the galaxy's core.

John Timmer – May 9, 2025 6:37 AM

Back in 2024, a system set up to identify objects that suddenly brighten found something unusual. Unfortunately, the automated system that was supposed to identify it couldn't figure out what it was looking at. Now, about a year later, we know it's the first tidal disruption event—meaning a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole—identified at visual wavelengths. It's also a rather unusual one, in that the supermassive black hole in question does not reside at the center of its galaxy. Instead, there's an even more massive object there, which is feeding on matter at the same time.

A mystery object

The object, now called AT2024tvd, was identified by the Zwicky Transient Facility, which is set up to scan the entire northern sky over a period of just two days, after which it repeats the process. Combined with software that scans the data for changes, these repeated exposures allow the system to identify objects that suddenly brighten (or, potentially, anything that suddenly goes dark). Among the events it can identify are tidal disruption events, where a star gets spaghettified by the enormous gravity of a supermassive black hole.

Normally, supermassive black holes live at the center of galaxies. So, the software that does the scanning will only flag something as a potential tidal disruption event if it coincides with the presence of a previous light source at the same location. And that wasn't the case with AT2024tvd, which appeared to be over 2,500 light-years from the center of the galaxy. As a result, the software didn't flag it as a potential tidal disruption event; people didn't figure out what it was until they looked more closely at it.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/05/a-star-has-been-destroyed-by-a-wandering-supermassive-black-hole/

The jig is up for this supermassive cosmic predator.

Isaac Schultz - May 11, 2025

Astronomers have spotted an apparent supermassive black hole snacking on a star 600 million light-years away, wandering through a galaxy with an even larger black hole at its core.

The event, dubbed AT2024tvd, was first spotted by the Palomar Observatory’s Zwicky Transient Facility and later confirmed by powerhouse space telescopes including Hubble and Chandra, which helped zero in on the cosmic crime scene. To the researchers’ surprise, the responsible black hole was not at the center of its host galaxy, as supermassive black holes tend to be. Rather, this one was 2,600 light-years from the galactic center—a huge distance on paper, but really just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) like this one occur when a black hole’s gravity pulls on a star so violently that the less massive ball of gas is stretched, shredded, and swirled around the black hole, in a process delightfully called spaghettification. The fleeting burst of energy from the event is gargantuan, even rivaling a supernova—the explosive death of a massive star—in brightness. The burst of light is also visible across the electromagnetic spectrum, making TDEs an invaluable resource for spotting black holes that might otherwise be too quiet or hidden to detect, such as the recent rogue object.

https://gizmodo.com/a-rogue-black-hole-of-unusual-size-is-devouring-stars-in-a-distant-galaxy-2000599676

The ancient behemoth was present just 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Ellyn Lapointe - Updated August 7, 2025

An international team of astronomers has identified the earliest black hole ever confirmed, an ancient behemoth that existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery could offer new clues to a mysterious class of ancient galaxies that confounded prevailing theories of cosmology.

In a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers describe CAPERS-LRD-z9—a distant, gas-enshrouded galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. It dates back some 13.3 billion years, a point when the universe was just 3% of its current age. Spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope, CAPERS-LRD-z9 is one of many “little red dot” galaxies—these strange bodies began popping up in Webb imagery within the first year of the telescope’s mission.

“The discovery of Little Red Dots was a major surprise from early JWST data, as they looked nothing like galaxies seen with the Hubble Space Telescope,” Steven Finkelstein, co-author of the new study and director of the Cosmic Frontier Center at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a press release. “Now, we’re in the process of figuring out what they’re like and how they came to be.”

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-discover-the-earliest-black-hole-ever-confirmed-2000640061

CEERS 1019 is much smaller than other ancient black holes previously discovered.

Mariella Moon|@mariella_moon|July 8, 2023 11:02 AM

The James Webb space telescope has given scientists the capability to discover celestial objects they wouldn't have been able to otherwise, such as ancient galaxies that theoretically shouldn't exist. Now, as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole we've seen to date.

Thanks to the near- and mid-infrared images James Webb has taken, researchers were able to find a supermassive black hole in the galaxy they've dubbed CEERS 1019. They were also able to determine that the black hole has existed merely 570 million years after the Big Bang and that it's around 9 million solar masses. In addition, the data provided by the telescope allowed them to come to the conclusion that the black hole is eating up a lot of gas and churning out new stars. “A galaxy merger could be partly responsible for fueling the activity in this galaxy's black hole, and that could also lead to increased star formation,” CEERS team member Jeyhan Kartaltepe of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York explained. In the image below, you can see CEERS 1019 appearing as three bright clumps.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-telescope-captures-the-most-distant-active-supermassive-black-hole-yet-150244921.html

University of Texas at Austin - July 6, 2023

Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The galaxy, CEERS 1019, existed about 570 million years after the big bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other yet identified in the early universe.

In addition to the black hole in CEERS 1019, the researchers identified two more black holes that are on the smaller side and existed 1 billion and 1.1 billion years after the big bang. JWST also identified eleven galaxies that existed when the universe was 470 million to 675 million years old.

The evidence was provided by JWST's Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led by Steven Finkelstein, a professor of astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. The program combines JWST's highly detailed near- and mid-infrared images and data known as spectra, all of which were used to make these discoveries.

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-webb-telescope-distant-supermassive-black.html

Off-the-charts gravitational waves ripple out from merged dead stars

Iain Thomson - Tue 15 Jul 2025 06:33 UTC

Researchers have observed the largest ever collision between two massive black holes witnessed by humans, a finding that’s sent astrophysicists back to their calculators to re-think models.

Astroboffins spotted the aftereffects of the event on November 23, 2023, when they detected emissions from two huge black holes, each around 100 and 140 times the mass of the Sun, that collided and merged into a massive object around 225 times the mass of our home star.

Scientists believe both black holes were spinning at immense speeds and after merging formed a body that current theories don’t predict.

Einstein predicted black hole collisions over a century ago but it was only in 2016 that the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) instruments in the US picked up the first waves from such an event.

The European Gravitational Observatory has since developed its own gravitational wave detector (Virgo) and Japan added the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA). The trio now work together as the “LVK Collaboration” and together spotted this extraordinary cosmic event.

“This is the most massive black hole binary we’ve observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,” said Professor Mark Hannam, from Cardiff University and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/15/ligo_largest_black_hole_collision/

The powerful merger, designated GW231123, produced an extremely large black hole about 225 times the mass of our Sun.

Gayoung Lee - July 13, 2025

Gravitational waves—ripples in space-time caused by violent cosmic events—travel at the speed of light in every direction, eventually fading out like ripples in water. But some events are so destructive and extreme that they create disturbances in spacetime more like powerful waves than small ripples, with enough energy to reach our own detectors here on Earth.

Today, the LIGO Collaboration announced the detection of the most colossal black hole merger known to date, the final product of which appears to be a gigantic black hole more than 225 times the mass of the Sun. Much about this signal, designated GW231123, contradicts known models for stellar evolution, sending physicists scrambling to apprehend how such a merger was even possible.

LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, made physics history in 2015 by detecting gravitational waves for the first time, capturing the cosmological echo of two colliding black holes. Since its Nobel-winning discovery, the LIGO Collaboration, an international partnership between LIGO and Virgo and KAGRA in Italy and Japan, respectively, has continued its meticulous surveillance of the galaxy. The collaboration has detected numerous signals from neutron stars, supernovas, and some 300 black hole mergers.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-detect-a-black-hole-merger-thats-so-massive-it-shouldnt-exist-2000628197

The event resulted in a new black hole with a mass 225 times larger than our Sun.

Jennifer Ouellette – Jul 14, 2025 1:30 PM

Physicists with the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration have detected the gravitational wave signal (dubbed GW231123) of the most massive merger between two black holes yet observed, resulting in a new black hole that is 225 times more massive than our Sun. The results were presented at the Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves in Glasgow, Scotland.

The LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration searches the universe for gravitational waves produced by the mergers of black holes and neutron stars. LIGO detects gravitational waves via laser interferometry, using high-powered lasers to measure tiny changes in the distance between two objects positioned kilometers apart. LIGO has detectors in Hanford, Washington, and in Livingston, Louisiana. A third detector in Italy, Advanced Virgo, came online in 2016. In Japan, KAGRA is the first gravitational-wave detector in Asia and the first to be built underground. Construction began on LIGO-India in 2021, and physicists expect it will turn on sometime after 2025.

To date, the collaboration has detected dozens of merger events since its first Nobel Prize-winning discovery. Early detected mergers involved either two black holes or two neutron stars. In 2021, LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA confirmed the detection of two separate “mixed” mergers between black holes and neutron stars.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/physicists-detected-the-most-massive-black-hole-merger-to-date/

Gravitational waves from massive black holes challenge current astrophysical models

July 14, 2025

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has detected the merger of the most massive black holes ever observed with gravitational waves using the US National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded LIGO observatories. The powerful merger produced a final black hole approximately 225 times the mass of our Sun. The signal, designated GW231123, was detected during the fourth observing run of the LVK network on November 23, 2023.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, made history in 2015 when it made the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time. In that case, the waves emanated from a black hole merger that resulted in a final black hole 62 times the mass of our Sun. The signal was detected jointly by the twin detectors of LIGO, one located in Livingston, Louisiana, and the other in Hanford, Washington.

Since then, the LIGO team has teamed up with partners at the Virgo detector in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan to form the LVK Collaboration. These detectors have collectively observed more than 200 black hole mergers in their fourth run, and about 300 in total since the start of the first run in 2015.

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ligo-detects-most-massive-black-hole-merger-to-date

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday July 15, 2025 12:00AM

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration has detected the most massive black hole merger to date, forming a final black hole around 225 times the Sun's mass. Caltech reports:

Before now, the most massive black hole merger – produced by an event that took place in 2021 called GW190521 – had a total mass of 140 times that of the Sun. In the more recent GW231123 event, the 225-solar-mass black hole was created by the coalescence of black holes each approximately 100 and 140 times the mass of the Sun. In addition to their high masses, the black holes are also rapidly spinning.

“The black holes appear to be spinning very rapidly – near the limit allowed by Einstein's theory of general relativity,” explains Charlie Hoy of the University of Portsmouth and a member of the LVK. “That makes the signal difficult to model and interpret. It's an excellent case study for pushing forward the development of our theoretical tools.” Researchers are continuing to refine their analysis and improve the models used to interpret such extreme events. “It will take years for the community to fully unravel this intricate signal pattern and all its implications,” says Gregorio Carullo of the University of Birmingham and a member of the LVK. “Despite the most likely explanation remaining a black hole merger, more complex scenarios could be the key to deciphering its unexpected features. Exciting times ahead!”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/14/2319237/ligo-detects-most-massive-black-hole-merger-to-date

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday August 13, 2023 08:22PM

“Earlier this year, after 15 years of searching, scientists finally heard the background hum of low-frequency gravitational waves that fill our universe,” writes Space.com.

“Now, the hard work of searching for the source of these ripples in spacetime can begin.”

Currently, the primary suspects in this case are pairings of supermassive black holes with masses millions, or even billions, of times that of the sun. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't room for a few unusual suspects, which could potentially point us toward new physics….

[G]ravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) express wavelengths that are thousands of miles (or km) in length and hold frequencies of milliseconds to seconds. The new gravitational waves detected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), by contrast, have wavelengths on a scale of trillions of miles (or km). This is similar to the distance between the sun and its neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, a staggering 20 light-years in length. Plus, NANOGrav gravitational wavelengths have frequencies on scales of years instead of mere seconds. Practically, what this means is scientists need to build over 15 years of NANOGrav data to confirm a low-frequency gravitational wave detection.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/08/14/0317234/could-supermassive-black-holes-explain-our-universes-gravitational-wave-hum

Posted by msmash on Monday January 01, 2024 10:38AM

India launched its first satellite on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year. From a report:

The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India's main spaceport of Sriharikota, off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, according to S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The satellite, weighing about 470 kilograms, will carry out research on X-rays emanating from around 50 celestial objects with the help of two payloads built by ISRO and a Bengaluru-based research institute.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/01/1839203/india-to-study-black-holes-with-first-satellite-launch-after-us

An accretion disk 7 light-years across powers an exceptionally bright galaxy.

John Timmer - 2/20/2024, 10:59 AM

Quasars initially confused astronomers when they were discovered. First identified as sources of radio-frequency radiation, later observations showed that the objects had optical counterparts that looked like stars. But the spectrum of these ostensible stars showed lots of emissions at wavelengths that didn't seem to correspond to any atoms we knew about.

Eventually, we figured out these were spectral lines of normal atoms but heavily redshifted by immense distances. This means that to appear like stars at these distances, these objects had to be brighter than an entire galaxy. Eventually, we discovered that quasars are the light produced by an actively feeding supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy.

But finding new examples has remained difficult because, in most images, they continue to look just like stars—you still need to obtain a spectrum and figure out their distance to know you're looking at a quasar. Because of that, there might be some unusual quasars we've ignored because we didn't realize they were quasars. That's the case with an object named J0529−4351, which turned out to be the brightest quasar we've ever observed.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/a-sun-a-day-brightest-quasar-found-yet-is-eating-a-lot/

Posted by msmash on Tuesday February 20, 2024 08:03AM

The brightest known object in the universe, a quasar 500tn times brighter than our sun, was “hiding in plain sight,” researchers say. From a report:

Australian scientists spotted a quasar powered by the fastest growing black hole ever discovered. Its mass is about 17bn times that of our solar system's sun, and it devours the equivalent of a sun a day. The light from the celestial object travelled for more than 12bn years to reach Earth. Australian National University scientists first spotted it using a 2.3-metre telescope at the university's NSW Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran. They then confirmed the find using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope, which has a primary mirror of 8 metres. The findings by the ANU researchers, in collaboration with the ESO, the University of Melbourne, and France's Sorbonne Universite have been published in Nature Astronomy.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/02/20/163250/astronomers-discover-universes-brightest-object

The galactic core is the brightest quasar ever seen.

Isaac Schultz - 20 February 2024

Our Sun is about 330,000 times the mass of Earth, yet it is dwarfed by the black holes that lurk at the centers of galaxies. A team of astronomers recently found the fastest-growing of this group: a 17-billion solar mass black hole in the distant universe, which is growing at the rate of one solar mass per day.

The black hole is actually a quasar, aka an actively feeding black hole at the center of a galaxy. When quasars accrete matter—which is to say, as their strong gravitational fields pull gas, dust, and other space debris towards them—they emit huge amounts of radiation, which is detectable to a range of Earth-based telescopes.

The quasar is named J0529-4351 (catchy, right?), and it sits at a redshift of 3.9, making the light from the quasar over 12 billion years old. The recent astronomical team observed the quasar at optical and near-infrared wavelengths using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Their research describing the object is published this week in Nature Astronomy.

https://gizmodo.com/fastest-growing-black-hole-is-eating-a-sun-per-day-1851270789

19 February 2024 - ESO

Using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have characterised a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies and they are powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole to date.

The black holes powering quasars collect matter from their surroundings in a process so energetic that it emits vast amounts of light. So much so that quasars are some of the brightest objects in our sky, meaning even distant ones are visible from Earth. As a general rule, the most luminous quasars indicate the fastest-growing supermassive black holes.

“We have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion Suns, and eats just over a Sun per day. This makes it the most luminous object in the known Universe,” says Christian Wolf, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) and lead author of the study published today in Nature Astronomy. The quasar, called J0529-4351, is so far away from Earth that its light took over 12 billion years to reach us.

The matter being pulled in toward this black hole, in the form of a disc, emits so much energy that J0529-4351 is over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun [1]. “All this light comes from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter — this must be the largest accretion disc in the Universe,” says ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai. Seven light-years is about 15 000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

And, remarkably, this record-breaking quasar was hiding in plain sight. “It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now,” says co-author Christopher Onken, an astronomer at ANU. He added that this object showed up in images from the ESO Schmidt Southern Sky Survey dating back to 1980, but it was not recognised as a quasar until decades later.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2402/

California Institute of Technology - September 18, 2024

Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That's equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.

“This pair is not just the size of a solar system, or a Milky Way; we are talking about 140 Milky Way diameters in total,” says Martijn Oei, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar and lead author of a Nature paper reporting the findings. “The Milky Way would be a little dot in these two giant eruptions.”

The jet megastructure, nicknamed Porphyrion after a giant in Greek mythology, dates to a time when our universe was 6.3 billion years old, or less than half its present age of 13.8 billion years. These fierce outflows—with a total power output equivalent to trillions of suns—shoot out from above and below a supermassive black hole at the heart of a remote galaxy.

Prior to Porphyrion's discovery, the largest confirmed jet system was Alcyoneus, also named after a giant in Greek mythology. Alcyoneus, which was discovered in 2022 by the same team that found Porphyrion, spans the equivalent of around 100 Milky Ways. For comparison, the well-known Centaurus A jets, the closest major jet system to Earth, spans 10 Milky Ways.

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-astronomers-biggest-black-hole-jets.html

The jets are 140 times larger than the Milky Way.

John Timmer - 9/18/2024, 9:57 AM

The supermassive black holes that sit at the center of galaxies aren't just decorative. The intense radiation they emit when feeding helps drive away gas and dust that would otherwise form stars, providing feedback that limits the growth of the galaxy. But their influence may extend beyond the galaxy they inhabit. Many black holes produce jets and, in the case of supermassive versions, these jets can eject material entirely out of the galaxy.

Now, researchers are getting a clearer picture of just how far outside of the galaxy their influence can reach. A new study describes the largest-ever jets observed, extending across a total distance of 23 million light-years (seven megaparsecs). At those distances, the jets could easily send material into other galaxies and across the cosmic web of dark matter that structures the Universe.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/researchers-spot-largest-black-hole-jets-ever-discovered/

Astrophysicists are calling the gargantuan megastructure “Porphyrion,” after a mythological Greek giant.

Isaac Schultz - Updated September 18, 2024

Space is vast and filled with giants: asteroids that can put planets on new evolutionary trajectories, roiling stars, and enormous galaxies. Now, a team of researchers has found some of the hugest objects yet: gargantuan jets of material traveling at nearly the speed of light away from a black hole.

At 23 million light-years long, the black hole jets are the largest yet seen. How big is 23 million light-years, you ask? It’s the equivalent of 140 Milky Ways lined up end-to-end. The study describing the jet megastructure, dubbed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, is published today in Nature.

“We present evidence that supermassive black holes do not only hold sway over their galaxies, but also the cosmic web,” said Martijn Oei, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology and lead author of the paper, in a press conference Monday. Conventional knowledge held that black hole jets stay “within or very close to their host galaxy,” Oei added, but Porphyrion makes abundantly clear that the jets attain the size of more major cosmic structures.

https://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-black-hole-jets-ever-seen-are-140-milky-ways-long-2000499283

The jets of material that spew from black holes catalyze stellar eruptions, surprising astronomers and raising questions about the jets' role in the universe.

Isaac Schultz - September 26, 2024

Is there anything more awesome in space than black holes, the phantasmal, jet-spewing regions of spacetime that are so densely packed with matter that they collapse under their own gravity? Actually, yes: Some of these black hole jets seem to cause stars to explode.

These stars are not in the direct paths of the jets, but close enough to the near-light-speed particle beams that it causes them to erupt. The stars in question are white dwarfs—burnt-out shells of stars that take on hydrogen from their companion star. Once the dwarfs have about a mile-thick layer of hydrogen on their surfaces, the layer explodes off the star and the cycle repeats.

“We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s just a very exciting finding,” said Alec Lessing, an astrophysicist at Stanford University and lead author of a new study describing the phenomenon, in an ESA release.

https://gizmodo.com/jets-from-black-holes-cause-stars-to-explode-hubble-reveals-2000503788

There's a 2.5x boost in nova frequency, and all reasonable explanations fail.

John Timmer - 9/27/2024, 1:29 PM

The intense electromagnetic environment near a black hole can accelerate particles to a large fraction of the speed of light and sends the speeding particles along jets that extend from each of the object's poles. In the case of the supermassive black holes found in the center of galaxies, these jets are truly colossal, blasting material not just out of the galaxy, but possibly out of the galaxy's entire neighborhood.

But this week, scientists have described how the jets may be doing some strange things inside of a galaxy, as well. A study of the galaxy M87 showed that nova explosions appear to be occurring at an unusual high frequency in the neighborhood of one of the jets from the galaxy's central black hole. But there's absolutely no mechanism to explain why this might happen, and there's no sign that it's happening at the jet that's traveling in the opposite direction.

Whether this effect is real, and whether we can come up with an explanation for it, may take some further observations.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/black-hole-jet-appears-to-boost-rate-of-nova-explosions/

New observations of M87*, the first black hole ever imaged, revealed that the supermassive blackhole has experienced several magnetic flips in the last decade.

Gayoung Lee - September 18, 2025

In 2019, scientists unveiled the first-ever images of a black hole, M87. Those observations kickstarted a wave of new investigations into how black holes work, how they grow, and how they change. And now, after a few upgrades, the Event Horizon Telescope network is back with another bombshell centered on M87—finding tantalizing evidence of previously unknown physics at the event horizon of the black hole itself.

In a series of images taken by the EHT between 2017 and 2021, scientists observed a completely unexpected reversal in the black hole’s magnetic fields—in other words, its polarization flipped. They also detected strange jets blasting out of M87*. The observations provide researchers their most detailed view yet of the black hole and, perhaps as a consequence, the extreme conditions surrounding it. The findings are set to be detailed in an upcoming Astronomy & Astrophysics paper.

“These results show how the EHT is evolving into a fully fledged scientific observatory, capable not only of delivering unprecedented images but also of building a progressive and coherent understanding of black hole physics,” said Mariafelicia De Laurentis, study co-author and an astronomer at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, in a release.

https://gizmodo.com/something-extremely-strange-happening-event-horizon-supermassive-blackhole-2000660888

The research team says it’s time to “think outside the box” since nothing else is working.

Margherita Bassi - December 15, 2024

A pair of imaginative cosmologists have great news for everyone: If a primordial black hole tunnels through your body, you probably won’t die.

This unexpected reassurance is part of their larger hypothesis on where scientists might find primordial black holes (PBH): ancient, tiny, high-density, theoretical black holes. In a study published in the December issue of Physics of the Dark Universe and available online since September, the cosmologists suggest that evidence of PBHs might be present within hollow celestial bodies, as well as in objects right here on Earth.

“We have to think outside of the box because what has been done to find primordial black holes previously hasn’t worked,” Dejan Stojkovic of the University at Buffalo, who co-wrote the study, said in a university statement.

“Familiar” black holes, if you can call them that, typically form in the wake of dying stars that collapse inwards. Primordial black holes, on the other hand, might have formed shortly after the Big Bang, when areas of dense space also collapsed inwards, before stars even existed—hence the primordial part.

https://gizmodo.com/tiny-black-holes-could-have-left-tunnels-inside-earths-rocks-2000538216

May help explain why we see so many of these monsters colliding.

John Timmer - 4/16/2024, 1:18 PM

As far as black holes go, there are two categories: supermassive ones that live at the center of the galaxies (and we're unsure about how they got there) and stellar mass ones that formed through the supernovae that end the lives of massive stars.

Prior to the advent of gravitational wave detectors, the heaviest stellar-mass black hole we knew about was only a bit more than a dozen times the mass of the Sun. And this makes sense, given that the violence of the supernova explosions that form these black holes ensures that only a fraction of the dying star's mass gets transferred into its dark offspring. But then the gravitational wave data started flowing in, and we discovered there were lots of heavier black holes, with masses dozens of times that of the Sun. But we could only find them when they smacked into another black hole.

Now, thanks to the Gaia mission, we have observational evidence of the largest black hole in the Milky Way outside of the supermassive one, with a mass 33 times that of the Sun. And, in galactic terms, it's right next door at about 2,000 light-years distant, meaning it will be relatively easy to learn more.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/second-biggest-black-hole-in-the-milky-way-found/

March 27, 2024 - Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. This similarity also hints toward a hidden jet in Sgr A. The results were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Scientists unveiled the first image of Sgr A— which is approximately 27,000 light-years away from Earth— in 2022, revealing that while the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87’s, it looks remarkably similar. This made scientists wonder whether the two shared common traits outside of their looks. To find out, the team decided to study Sgr A in polarized light. Previous studies of light around M87* revealed that the magnetic fields around the black hole giant allowed it to launch powerful jets of material back into the surrounding environment. Building on this work, the new images have revealed that the same may be true for Sgr A*.

https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/astronomers-unveil-strong-magnetic-fields-spiraling-edge-milky-way%E2%80%99s-central-black-hole

Data from a recent stellar explosion showed a mathematical discrepancy, possibly providing rare evidence of a black hole forming right before our very eyes.

Isaac Schultz - 27 March 2024

A team of astronomers recently captured a series of images of a distant star as it went supernova, providing a remarkable play-by-play of stellar death and possibly the birth of a black hole.

Supernovae are massive explosions that occur when massive stars die. These events sometimes leave nebulae, neutron stars, or even black holes in their wake. The timing of supernovae can be difficult to predict, usually leaving astronomers with only the opportunity to image their aftermath, namely starbursts of gas and dust.

However, the recent team managed to catch a supernova in the act, just 22 million light-years from Earth (which is not so far as far as galaxies are concerned). The team’s analysis of this cataclysmic cosmic event was published today in Nature.

“It’s very rare, as a scientist, that you have to act so swiftly,” said Avishay Gal-Yam, an astronomer at the Weizmann Institute of Science and co-author of the paper, in a Keck Observatory release. “Most scientific projects don’t happen in the middle of the night, but the opportunity arose, and we had no choice but to respond accordingly.”

https://gizmodo.com/epic-supernova-births-black-hole-sn2023ixf-1851369781

There are also hints of an elusive high-energy jet, similar to larger M87* black hole.

Jennifer Ouellette - 3/27/2024, 1:55 PM

Physicists have been confident since the1980s that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, similar to those thought to be at the center of most spiral and elliptical galaxies. It's since been dubbed Sagittarius A* (pronounced A-star), or SgrA* for short. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) captured the first image of SgrA* two years ago. Now the collaboration has revealed a new polarized image (above) showcasing the black hole's swirling magnetic fields. The technical details appear in two new papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The new image is strikingly similar to another EHT image of a larger supermassive black hole, M87*, so this might be something that all such black holes share.

The only way to “see” a black hole is to image the shadow created by light as it bends in response to the object's powerful gravitational field. As Ars Science Editor John Timmer reported in 2019, the EHT isn't a telescope in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a collection of telescopes scattered around the globe. The EHT is created by interferometry, which uses light in the microwave regime of the electromagnetic spectrum captured at different locations. These recorded images are combined and processed to build an image with a resolution similar to that of a telescope the size of the most distant locations. Interferometry has been used at facilities like ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in northern Chile, where telescopes can be spread across 16 km of desert.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/event-horizon-telescope-captures-stunning-new-image-of-milky-ways-black-hole/

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday March 24, 2025 12:34AM

RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) writes:

A recent paper on ArXiv reports a novel idea about the central regions of “our” galaxy.

Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an “image” of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as “Sagittarius A” (or SGR-A)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a “mirror” symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.

This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being “lensed” by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a “best-fit” of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* (“S2” — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with “S2” unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)

The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of “normal” stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not “super massive”) black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/03/23/2227207/another-large-black-hole-in-our-galaxy

New solar measurements of trillion electron volt gamma ray emissions combined with recent published papers independently support the conclusion that the Sun may harbor a black hole at its core. Such evidence supports my unified physics-based stellar evolution model that stars, including the Sun, are black holes.

Nassim Haramein - Updated 2024/05/07 at 9:11 PM

New solar measurements of trillion electron volt gamma ray emissions combined with recent published papers independently support the conclusion that the Sun may harbor a black hole at its core. Such evidence supports my unified physics-based stellar evolution model that stars, including the Sun, are black holes.

Black holes have been characterized as many things over the decades since their indisputable confirmation— transitioning from theory to fact— but their lesser-known characterizations include being the brightest objects in the known universe, called quasars, the sources of the highest emissions of matter and energy— seemingly quite contrary to their main qualities of being black and an inescapable hole— as well they have recently been characterized as potentially life-nurturing energy sources, and as engines of creation [1, see also Evidence of Black Holes Forming Galaxies is Mounting!]. In seeming attempts to grab attention, they are more commonly characterized as voracious devouring systems that only wreak chaos and destruction, and while this may be good for eye-catching headlines, it is not an accurate characterization of black holes, and has largely misled scientists and non-technical audiences alike.

https://spacefed.com/astronomy/is-the-sun-a-black-hole/

The object appears to be older than our solar system itself.

Ellyn Lapointe - July 9, 2025

After defending his PhD thesis on modeling interstellar objects on Monday, June 30, Matthew Hopkins intended to take some well-deserved time off. It would appear the universe had other plans for him.

The very next day, the Atlas Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, detected a mysterious object whizzing toward the Sun. Early observations suggested that it came from outside our solar system, potentially marking the third discovery of an interstellar object in history. Astronomers across the globe—including Hopkins—leapt into action, racing to gather as much data on this wandering space rock as they could. By Thursday, July 3, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center confirmed that an interstellar object was, indeed, traveling through our cosmic neighborhood, naming it 3I/ATLAS. Now, Hopkins and his colleagues believe they know where it came from.

“It’s very exciting!” Hopkins, an astrophysics graduate student at the University of Oxford, told IFLScience. “I’ve been anticipating the chance to compare my predictions to new data for four years, and 3I/ATLAS is already giving us new insights into this fascinating galaxy-spanning population.”

Through preliminary observations, astronomers have learned a lot about 3I/ATLAS. It’s the largest and brightest interstellar object yet, according to Space.com. Experts are fairly confident that it’s a comet zipping through our solar system at incredibly high speeds. Upon its discovery, the object was traveling 137,000 miles per hour (221,000 kilometers per hour), and it will speed up as it approaches the Sun. 3I/ATLAS appears to be much bigger than the two interstellar objects that came before it: ‘Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov. Early size estimates suggest it could be 6 to 19 miles (10 to 30 kilometers) wide. Don’t worry, there’s no chance of this space rock hitting our planet, but it will safely make its closest approach to Earth on October 30.

https://gizmodo.com/a-third-interstellar-visitor-is-here-and-astronomers-might-know-where-it-came-from-2000626820

The Gemini North telescope in Hawaii recently snapped a close-up of the comet that's captured the world’s attention.

Ellyn Lapointe - July 17, 2025

A comet unlike any seen before has fixated astronomers around the world. An observatory in Hawaii has unveiled the most stunning image of this ancient interstellar visitor yet.

The Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii, recently snapped a close-up of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever discovered. The telescope’s highly sensitive Multi-Object Spectrograph captured the comet’s compact coma—a cloud of gas and dust surrounding its icy nucleus—in striking detail. 3I/ATLAS is inbound to the inner solar system, and as it approaches the Sun and heats up, its coma will expand and make the comet appear brighter. Observing this uptick in activity, known as cometary outgassing, will allow astronomers to gain more insight into the composition of 3I/ATLAS. Understanding what this interstellar comet is made of will offer a glimpse of the conditions and processes that shaped the distant star system from which it came.

“The sensitivity and scheduling agility of the International Gemini Observatory has provided critical early characterization of this interstellar wanderer,” Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory, said in a statement. “We look forward to a bounty of new data and insights as this object warms itself on sunlight before continuing its cold, dark journey between the stars.”

https://gizmodo.com/our-best-view-yet-of-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-2000630705

The recently discovered comet is the third interstellar object discovered wandering through our solar system.

Passant Rabie - July 26, 2025

Nearly a month ago, a mysterious object was seen hurtling through the solar system and later confirmed as an interstellar visitor traveling toward the Sun. Several telescopes have since turned their attention to the wandering object, but it turns out the brand-new Vera C. Rubin Observatory was the first to catch a glimpse of 3I/ATLAS.

In an act of cosmic serendipity, astronomers pointed the Rubin Observatory toward the patch of sky where the interstellar object appeared during its commissioning phase. Images captured by the observatory, perched atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes, later revealed the comet in its full glory. Rubin’s observations of 3I/ATLAS were recorded on June 21, around 10 days before its official discovery, according to a recent paper available on the preprint website arXiv.

The Rubin Observatory, overseen by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE), boasts the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. Its car-sized, 3.2-gigapixel camera is designed to capture ultra-high-definition images and videos of the cosmos. The observatory unveiled its first images to the public on June 23, observing millions of galaxies and stars in the Milky Way over a period of just 10 hours. The images were not only beautiful—they also revealed supernovas and distant galaxies that could help astronomers study the universe’s expansion.

https://gizmodo.com/rubin-observatory-may-have-been-the-first-to-spot-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-2000632526

Iain Todd - August 7, 2025 at 7:55 am

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest image yet of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which is currently passing through our Solar System.

Observations by Hubble have enabled astronomers to better estimate the size of the comet's nucleus, which is made of dust and ice.

Hubble managed to capture a dust plume being ejected by the comet, as well as a glimpse of a dust tail streaming away from its nucleus.

3I/ATLAS is one of only three interstellar visitors ever observed passing through our Solar System, the other two being 1I/ʻOumuamua, discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

These objects originate from deep space and make a brief detour through our Solar System, then continue on their journey across the cosmos.

Comet 3I/ATLAS (2025) was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on 1 July 2025, when it was 675 million kilometres from the Sun.

Hubble's image, captured on 21 July 2025, follows an earlier Gemini North Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS, which you can see below.

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/hubble-3i-atlas-july-2025

The first JWST survey of 3I/ATLAS revealed more of the comet’s surprising characteristics, helping astronomers gain a clearer picture of where it came from.

Ellyn Lapointe - August 27, 2025

Ever since interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS whizzed into our cosmic neighborhood in July, astronomers have been racing to uncover its characteristics. Now that the powerful James Webb Space Telescope has taken a good look at this icy interloper, it seems to be weirder than anyone imagined.

A preprint submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters for peer review on Monday, August 25, describes the first results from JWST’s survey of 3I/ATLAS.

A team of astronomers observed the comet with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Spectroscopic (NIRSpec) instrument to measure the composition of its coma—the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds its nucleus—and determine what drives its activity. Their surprising findings bring 3I/ATLAS’s origin into clearer focus, helping astronomers retrace the comet’s long journey to our solar system.

3I/ATLAS, detected by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope on July 1, is only the third interstellar object ever discovered. These celestial bodies hail from star systems beyond our own. Studying them offers a glimpse of the conditions and processes that shaped these distant systems. Over the past two months, researchers have already uncovered unprecedented details about this latest cosmic visitor.

https://gizmodo.com/this-visiting-interstellar-comet-just-keeps-getting-weirder-2000648450

Editors of EarthSky - October 3, 2025

The world’s 3rd known interstellar object – 3I/ATLAS – has made its closest approach to Mars. The approach took place at 4 UTC on October 3, 2025 (11 p.m. CDT on October 2). At that time, the comet was approximately 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) from Mars. It was the object’s closest approach to any planet during its one-time journey through our solar system.

As of this writing (10 UTC on October 3), we have not seen any new images from the pass. But multiple space agencies, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), are coordinating observations using various spacecraft and orbiters around Mars. Instruments on ESA’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, as well as NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are focusing on capturing detailed data from this interstellar visitor. In an October 2 story from AP, Marcia Dunn reported:

https://earthsky.org/space/new-interstellar-object-candidate-heading-toward-the-sun-a11pl3z/

The comet has reached perihelion—its closest point to the Sun.

Ellyn Lapointe - October 31, 2025

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on Wednesday reached its closest point to the Sun, a point known as perihelion. Although this cosmic visitor hasn’t been visible from Earth since September, our space-based observatories were able to track it on its path toward our star, witnessing it as it grew brighter and brighter.

As the comet approached the Sun, the stars heat caused the comet’s icy surface to rapidly transform from a solid to a gas—so fast that it bypassed a liquid phase. The resulting gas surrounded the comet’s nucleus in a bright, glowing cloud called a coma, creating a visible tail.

Interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS offer exceptionally rare opportunities to study other solar systems, briefly illuminating the distant reaches of our galaxy. Astronomers are particularly interested in studying the comet at perihelion because the gases and dust emanating from its nucleus can reveal its composition.

https://gizmodo.com/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-dazzles-as-it-swoops-behind-the-sun-2000679815

Astronomers believe they've found just the third known interstellar object in history.

Ellyn Lapointe - July 2, 2025

Astronomers are scrambling to gather data on a mysterious object that’s currently hurtling through the solar system. Preliminary observations suggest it came from interstellar space, and if confirmed, it would mark the third discovery of an interstellar object in history.

The cosmic visitor—tentatively named A11pl3Z—first appeared in data collected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) between June 25 and 29, Universe Today reports. ATLAS uses telescopes in Chile, South Africa, and Hawaii to scan the skies multiple times a night in search of moving objects. ATLAS spotted A11pl3Z again on Tuesday, July 1, and by Wednesday, the Deep Random Survey remote telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, had detected it, too. These early observations suggest the dim object is likely a large asteroid or comet—potentially 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide—that is traveling toward the inner solar system at roughly 152,000 miles per hour (245,000 kilometers per hour), according to EarthSky. It appears to be approaching from the Milky Way’s galactic disk.

The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center added the object to its near-Earth object confirmation list on Tuesday, July 1. This means astronomers need further observations to confirm that it is, in fact, a new near-Earth object. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has also added A11pl3Z to its near-Earth object confirmation page. Though it’s too soon to say anything for certain about this visitor, early estimations of its speed and trajectory suggest that it came from outside the solar system and has enough momentum to shoot through it without slowing down. But don’t worry, A11pl3Z has no chance of hitting Earth or even coming that close to us.

https://gizmodo.com/meet-a11pl3z-a-possible-third-known-interstellar-visitor-whizzing-through-our-solar-system-2000623474

The object has a very high eccentricity.

Eric Berger – Jul 2, 2025 6:38 AM

There is a growing buzz in the astronomy community about a new object with a hyperbolic trajectory that is moving toward the inner Solar System.

Early on Wednesday, the European Space Agency confirmed that the object, tentatively known as A11pl3Z, did indeed have interstellar origins.

“Astronomers may have just discovered the third interstellar object passing through the Solar System!” the agency's Operations account shared on Bluesky. “ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world.”

Only recently identified, astronomers have been scrambling to make new observations of the object, which is presently just inside the orbit of Jupiter and will eventually pass inside the orbit of Mars when making its closest approach to the Sun this October. Astronomers are also looking at older data to see if the object showed up in earlier sky surveys.

An engineer at the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, David Rankin, said recent estimates of the object's eccentricity are about 6. A purely circular orbit has an eccentricity value of 0, and anything above 1 is hyperbolic. Essentially, this is a very, very strong indication that A11pl3Z originated outside of the Solar System.

NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies has begun to post preliminary data about the object here. It poses no threat to Earth and, unfortunately, it appears that our planet will be on the opposite side of the Sun when the object makes its closest approach.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/astronomers-may-have-found-a-third-interstellar-object/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday July 03, 2025 12:00AM

Astronomers have detected a mysterious “interstellar object,” dubbed A11pl3Z, speeding through the solar system at 152,000 mph. If confirmed, it would be just the third known interstellar visitor, following 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The visiting space object will pass near Mars and the Sun later this year before leaving the solar system forever. Live Science reports:

The newly discovered object, currently dubbed A11pl3Z, was first spotted in data collected between June 25 and June 29 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which automatically scans the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii and South Africa. The mystery object was confirmed by both NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies and the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center on Tuesday (July 1), according to EarthSky.org.

A11pl3Z is most likely a large asteroid, or maybe a comet, potentially spanning up to 12 miles (20 kilometers). It is traveling toward the inner solar system at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h) and is approaching us from the part of the night sky where the bar of the Milky Way is located. Based on A11pl3Z's speed and trajectory, experts think it originated from beyond the sun's gravitational influence and has enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down. However, more observations are needed to tell for sure.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/03/0041226/a-new-interstellar-visitor-has-entered-the-solar-system

Object CWISE J1249 is a bit of a mystery; all we know is that it has some unique properties and it's moving really fast. Like, really fast.

Adam Kovac - August 15, 2024

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make important astronomical discoveries. Sometimes, all it takes is an internet connection and some spare time.

That’s all Tom Bickle, Martin Kabatnik, and Austin Rothermich needed to find a celestial object rocketing through the Milky Way at roughly one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) per hour. The trio were participants in Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, an online collaboration wherein volunteers look at images captured by NASA’s recently retired Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The goal is to identify objects at the edge of the solar system, such as brown dwarfs (balls of gas too big to be planets, but too small to be stars), low-mass stars, and even a hypothesized ninth planet orbiting the Sun.

The photos sent to the citizen scientists were actually processed from WISE’s infrared cameras, which scans wavelengths of light invisible to human eyes. The volunteers analyzed series of photos of the same objects taken about five years apart, which enabled them to filter out stars that are too distant to be of interest, and also potential glitches from WISE’s instruments.

https://gizmodo.com/citizen-scientists-spot-weird-object-careening-across-the-cosmos-at-ludicrous-speeds-2000487675

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday August 17, 2024 12:00AM

Citizen scientists from NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project discovered a hypervelocity object, CWISE J1249, moving fast enough to escape the Milky Way. “This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star,” reports NASA's Science Editorial Team, suggesting the object may have originated from a binary star system or a globular cluster. From the report:

A few years ago, longtime Backyard Worlds citizen scientists Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle, and Dan Caselden spotted a faint, fast-moving object called CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, marching across their screens in the WISE images. Follow-up observations with several ground-based telescopes helped scientists confirm the discovery and characterize the object. These citizen scientists are now co-authors on the team's study about this discovery published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a pre-print version is available here). CWISE J1249 is zooming out of the Milky Way at about 1 million miles per hour. But it also stands out for its low mass, which makes it difficult to classify as a celestial object. It could be a low-mass star, or if it doesn't steadily fuse hydrogen in its core, it would be considered a brown dwarf, putting it somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/17/0251248/nasa-citizen-scientists-spot-object-moving-1-million-miles-per-hour

Two international teams zoned in on a potential answer to a decades-long mystery surrounding ephemeral cosmic X-rays.

Gayoung Lee - July 9, 2025

Whenever we study space, we’re usually talking about long-lasting objects, like our own solar system or faraway galaxies that occasionally catch our attention when something extraordinary happens. But sometimes, the universe sends us quick, random bursts of energy that are usually too far away and too ephemeral for scientists to make any sense of—like fast X-ray transients (FXTs), whose elusive origins have long evaded astronomers.

Recently, however, astrophysicists had a lucky strike: spotting an FXT flashing unprecedentedly close to Earth and for a marginally longer time than usual. Not only that, but the X-ray burst, later named EP 250108a, seemed to be a faint spillover signal—likely the result of a cosmic jet—that barely escaped the powerful gravitational binds of a supernova.

Using multiple space telescopes around the world, an international team of astrophysicists from Northwestern University and the University of Leicester in England found compelling evidence that EP 250108a may have originated from the “failed” jets of a gamma-ray burst, likely triggered by the explosive death of a star around 2.8 billion light-years from Earth.

https://gizmodo.com/mysterious-signals-from-deep-space-expose-aftermath-of-failed-cosmic-eruptions-2000626850

Private companies are joining government efforts

Sep 16th 2021

AT ORBITAL SPEEDS a tennis-ball-sized piece of space junk packs enough energy to obliterate a satellite. It makes good sense, then, to track orbiting debris, the better to steer spacecraft away from danger. That this is hard was underscored on April 23rd, as a SpaceX capsule sped toward the International Space Station (ISS). The crew were preparing to sleep when ground control hastily announced they had just 20 minutes to complete a safety procedure before a potential impact. The object, probably a piece of defunct spacecraft, later whizzed past harmlessly.

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/tracking-space-debris-is-a-growing-business/21804756

Space junk is just as dangerous as the junk on this planet.

By Katie Rees - 23 September 2021

Over the years, the world's various space agencies have launched countless numbers of aerospace vehicles into space. Satellites, rovers, shuttles, the list goes on. But, what many of us don't realize is that these vehicles often shed numerous parts and sections as they make their ascent into space, and this is becoming a huge issue.

But, why exactly is this? Before understanding how space junk poses a threat, it's important to understand what it actually is.

https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-space-junk-and-its-problems/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 29, 2022 02:34PM

America's Department of Defense “wants to clean up space…at least the increasingly polluted region in low Earth orbit, where thousands of bits of debris, spent rocket stages and dead satellites whiz uncontrollably,” writes the Washington Post.

They're reporting that America's Space Force has now launched a program to give companies seed money to develop space-cleaning technology to eventually demo in space (starting with awards of $250,000 that rise as high as $1.5 million). The name of the program: Orbital Prime.

The issue also has gotten the attention of the White House. Its Office of Science and Technology Policy recently held a meeting asking for input from space industry leaders about what to do about the problem. Speaker after speaker said that governments around the world need to fund these efforts to help create a market for companies to operate. They also said that it had become an imperative for the governments largely responsible for the problem in the first place. “If the U.S. Navy had had a derelict ship sitting in sovereign waters, creating a safety hazard, the U.S. Navy would go out and grab that ship,” said Doug Loverro, a former top Pentagon and NASA space official. “And I'm not sure why we don't see the same responsibility for government for their derelict ships and their derelict bodies that are in space today.”

https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/01/29/0315204/us-space-force-wants-to-fund-space-junk-cleaning-startups

“All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices.”

Eric Berger - 8/2/2022, 9:27 AM

Things have been falling out of the sky of late. Fortunately, no one has been hurt, but two recent space debris events offer a good reminder that what goes up often does come down.

This past weekend, a huge Chinese rocket broke apart in the atmosphere above Southeast Asia, with large chunks of the 24-metric-ton booster landing in Indonesia and Malaysia. Some of this debris fell within about 100 meters of a nearby village, but there have been no reported injuries.

The debris came from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket launched on July 24 to deliver a module to the country's new Tiangong space station. The large rocket has a core stage and four solid rocket boosters mounted to its side. With the rocket's design, the core stage also acts as the upper stage, delivering its payload into orbit. Because the YF-77 engines cannot restart, the core stage typically reenters the atmosphere about one week after launching when used for low Earth orbit missions.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/why-space-debris-keeps-falling-out-of-the-sky-and-will-continue-to-do-so/

The incident is another reminder that regularly falling space junk is poised to become the new normal.

Passant Rabie - 2 August 2022 5:50PM

Pieces of debris found on Australian farmland are suspected of originating from a SpaceX mission that launched nearly two years ago. It seems likely that the parts belong to SpaceX, but the private space company has yet to own up to the fallen remnants.

The Australian Space Agency is currently investigating apparent space junk that crashed onto the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales, The Guardian reported. Three large pieces of burnt debris were found between July 14 and 25, one resembling an alien monument planted amidst the grassy field.

https://gizmodo.com/newly-fallen-space-junk-in-australia-likely-belongs-to-1849361034

It's hard to make things out there when dust-sized particles can destroy them

Brandon Vigliarolo - Mon 8 Aug 2022 14:45 UTC

The US Federal Communications Commission is looking at how it can help kickstart manufacturing in space, but said orbital debris needs to be addressed first.

In a meeting held August 5, the FCC voted unanimously (4-0) to open proceedings on in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) to examine what sort of opportunities and challenges would be created by moving some industrial processes above Earth.

ISAM, the agency said in a statement, “has the potential to build entire industries, create new jobs, mitigate climate change, and advance America's economic, scientific, technological, and national security interests.”

The FCC's notice of inquiry will look into uses of ISAM including in-flight satellite refueling, inspections and repairs of orbital spacecraft, “transforming materials through manufacturing while in space,” and debris removal, something that FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said is essential to promoting safety and responsibility in space.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/orbital_cleanup_space_factories/

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday August 08, 2022 04:34AM

“No one imagined commercial space tourism taking hold, no one believed crowd-funded satellites and mega constellations at low earth orbit were possible, and no one could have conceived of the sheer popularity of space entrepreneurship,” reads a statement Friday from the chair of America's Federal Communications Commission. “But it's all happening….”

And Reuters reports on what happens next:

With Earth's orbit growing more crowded with satellites, a U.S. government agency on Friday said it would begin revising decades-old rules on getting rid of space junk and on other issues such as satellite refueling and inspecting and repairing in-orbit spacecraft. “We believe the new space age needs new rules,” Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said after the 4-0 FCC vote, adding that current rules “were largely built for another era.”

https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/08/08/0328244/as-satellites-and-space-junk-proliferate-us-to-revise-rules

George Dvorsky - 1 June 2021 3:35PM

Low Earth orbit can be a dangerous place, as a recent incident involving Canadarm2 confirms.

A small chunk of space junk has pierced Canadarm2, creating a discernible hole on the robotic device, the Canadian Space Agency has revealed in a statement. Ths CSA is calling it a “lucky strike,” as Canadarm2, attached to the International Space Station, remains functional despite the gaping wound.

https://gizmodo.com/space-junk-has-blasted-a-hole-in-a-key-space-station-to-1847008565

Space boffin tells Reg it's stupidly hard to clean up orbiting trash after Canadarm2 survives encounter with item too small to be tracked

Laura Dobberstein - Tue 1 Jun 2021 / 06:44 UTC

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has revealed that a piece of space debris punctured the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station (ISS).

The second-generation robotic arm, officially titled the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), is still operational but has a punctured thermal blanket and the boom is damaged underneath.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/iss_canadarm2_space_junk_collision/

Space junk in orbit is looking to become our next ecological mess

Clive Thompson - Nov 17, 2021

Back in 1978, the astrophysicist Donald Kessler made an alarming prediction: Space junk could wreck our ability to keep satellites aloft.

In a fascinating paper, Kessler noted that “low earth orbit” — a region between 99 miles and 1,200 miles up — was getting pretty crowded. In 1978 there were already 3,866 objects being tracked in space. That included satellites used by scientists (say, to monitor weather) or spy agencies. It also included a lot of debris: Every time a rocket launches a satellite into orbit, it tends to leave stray bits of material.

The thing is, when objects are zooming through space about 2 km/s, even something as tiny as a chip of paint can smash through glass or steel. Pieces of debris become bullets.

https://onezero.medium.com/get-ready-for-the-kessler-syndrome-to-wreck-outer-space-7f29cfe62c3e

The European Space Agency is teaming up with Astroscale to remove dead satellites from orbit.

Kevin Hurler - 27 May 2022

The European Space Agency is joining forces with Astroscale, an orbital debris removal company, to thin the massive cloud of space debris orbiting Earth. This effort will pave the way for communications company OneWeb to continue building its telecommunication network.

The European Space Agency revealed in a press release today that Astroscale, a company focusing on space debris removal, will be partnering with OneWeb, a space communications company, on an ESA Partnership Project to develop a spacecraft that will capture satellites in low Earth orbit with a 14.8 million euros ($15.8 million) investment from the Agency. The ELSA-M spacecraft developed by Astroscale will be able to remove multiple decommissioned satellites in a single mission, and is set to launch at the end of 2024. The removal of dead satellites from orbit will then pave the way for OneWeb to launch more telecommunications satellites as part of its joint Sunrise Program with the ESA.

https://gizmodo.com/european-space-agency-astroscale-space-space-junk-1848986761

Full Title: Mitigating Orbital Debris by Shortening Time for Satellite Disposal Post-Mission

This is not a final, adopted action. This has been circulated for tentative consideration by the Commission at its Open Meeting. The issues referenced and the Commission's ultimate resolution of those issues are subject to change

Released On: Sep 8, 2022 / Issued On: Sep 8, 2022

https://www.fcc.gov/document/mitigating-orbital-debris-shortening-time-satellite-disposal

“Flexing geopolitical muscles in space to harm others has already happened.”

Eric Berger - 12/14/2022, 3:45 AM

Up until about a decade ago, an average of 80 to 100 satellites per year were launched into varying orbits. Some reentered Earth's atmosphere quickly, while others will remain in orbit for decades.

This now seems quaint. In the last five years, driven largely by the rise of communications networks such as SpaceX's Starlink and a proliferation of small satellites, the number of objects launched into space has increased dramatically.

In 2017, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the annual number exceeded 300. By 2020, the annual number of objects launched exceeded 1,000 for the first time. This year, the total has already surpassed 2,000. With more broadband-from-space networks like Amazon's Project Kuiper on the way, further growth can be expected.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/space-debris-expert-orbits-will-be-lost-and-people-will-die-later-this-decade/

In my final year of engineering undergrad, I worked under Dr. Moriba Jah to build out an automated orbital debris detection system using machine learning and open-source data. I made a ton of mistakes and didn’t get as far as I wanted, but I did get to learn from some truly spectacular researchers.

Orbital Debris

There has been a considerable increase in the number of things humans have lofted into space, specifically low-Earth orbit (LEO) in the past ~6 years. In 2016, there were about 6,000 satellites that had ever been launched into space, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs [1]. Of that, there were about 4,000 satellites orbiting the planet, many of them launched before the turn of the century by the USA and USSR between 1957 and 1999. At the time of writing this post (EOY 2022), there are about 8,500 satellites in orbit, and more than 12,000 satellites total have been thrown into space by humans.

https://locationtbd.home.blog/2022/12/17/how-free-radar-data-can-save-billions-of-dollars/

The orbital near miss happened on January 27, with the two large pieces of space junk, both from the Soviet era, missing each other by an estimated 20 feet.

George Dvorsky - 30 January 2023

An old rocket body and military satellite—large pieces of space junk dating back to the Soviet Union—nearly smashed into each other on Friday morning, in an uncomfortable near-miss that would’ve resulted in thousands of pieces of debris had they collided.

LeoLabs, a private company that tracks satellites and derelict objects in low Earth orbit, spotted the near-collision in radar data. The company, which can track objects as tiny as 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter, operates three radar stations, two in the U.S. and one in New Zealand.

The two objects whizzed past each other at an altitude of 611 miles (984 kilometers) on the morning of Friday, January 27. LeoLabs “computed a miss distance of only 6 meters [20 feet] with an error margin of only a few tens of meters,” the company said in a tweet.

https://gizmodo.com/near-miss-orbit-collision-satellite-rocket-soviet-1850048253

The ClearSpace-1 mission was going to chuck a defunct payload adapter to its fiery death, but another piece of space debris got to it first.

Passant Rabie - 23 August 2023

In a sad case of debris-on-debris crime, a defunct payload adapter that was chosen as the subject of a space debris cleanup mission was itself hit by a piece of space junk.

The VESPA payload adapter has been floating in Earth’s orbit following the launch of a Vega rocket in 2013, adding to the thousands of pieces of space junk that currently surround our planet. On August 10, the European Space Agency (ESA) was informed by the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that new pieces of debris were spotted within the vicinity of the VESPA adapter, suggesting that the object broke up into smaller pieces due to a collision with another piece of space debris.

After a decade in orbit as a useless piece of space junk, VESPA was on the verge of serving a final purpose as the target of ClearSpace-1—a claw-like spacecraft designed to grab space junk and fling it into Earth’s atmosphere to burn up. The European mission is slated for launch in 2026, and was meant to rendezvous with VESPA in order to test the new junk removal technology in space.

https://gizmodo.com/clearspace-1-space-junk-removal-mission-hit-space-junk-1850767761

There are at least 100 bags of human waste on the surface of the Moon.

Chris Impey, The Conversation - 8/31/2023, 7:13 AM

There’s a lot of trash on the Moon right now—including nearly 100 bags of human waste—and with countries around the globe traveling to the Moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit.

In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s surface, while India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed in the southern polar region, making India the fourth country to land on the Moon.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/space-junk-is-on-the-rise-and-no-one-is-in-charge-of-cleaning-it-up/

The administration is seeking a regulation change that would require companies to responsibly deorbit their upper stages.

Passant Rabie - 21 September 2023

As more rockets liftoff into the skies, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is trying to control how long those launch vehicles stay in orbit as floating space junk.

On Wednesday, the FAA proposed a new rule that would require private space companies to dispose of their upper stages after launch to mitigate the growing issue of orbital debris.

As rockets launch to orbit, their upper stages burn up in the atmosphere, fall back to Earth, or join thousands of discarded fragments that form a cloud of orbital debris around our planet.

The proposed rule suggests five disposal options for companies with FAA commercial launch licenses to choose from. Those options include carrying out a controlled reentry of the upper stage, moving it to a less congested orbit (also known as a graveyard orbit), sending it farther out into space on an Earth-escape trajectory, retrieving the upper stage within five years, or performing an uncontrolled atmospheric disposal where it burns up upon reentry.

https://gizmodo.com/faa-stricter-rocket-disposal-rules-space-debris-1850862400

Posted by BeauHD on Monday January 15, 2024 11:00PM

Japanese startup EX-Fusion plans to eliminate small pieces of space junk with laser beams fired from the ground. Nikkei Asia reports:

EX-Fusion stands apart in that it is taking the ground-based approach, with the startup tapping its arsenal of laser technology originally developed in pursuit of fusion power. In October, EX-Fusion signed a memorandum of understanding with EOS Space Systems, an Australian contractor that possesses technology used to detect space debris. EX-Fusion plans to place a high-powered laser inside an observatory operated by EOS Space outside of Canberra. The first phase will be to set up laser technology to track debris measuring less than 10 cm. Pieces of this size have typically been difficult to target from the ground using lasers.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/16/0027236/japan-startup-eyes-fusion-laser-to-shoot-down-space-junk-from-ground

With more rockets launching each year, there's more risk of falling debris causing damage — or hitting someone

Nicole Mortillaro, CBC News - May 23, 2024 1:00 AM PDT / Updated May 27, 2024

In March 2022, a couple living in the rural town of São Mateus do Sul, Brazil, were shocked to find a 600-kilogram piece of smashed metal lying just 50 metres from their home.

Four months later, two Australian sheep farmers found a strange, black object that appeared to have embedded itself in a field.

Then last week, a farmer in Ituna, Sask., found a similar object in his wheat field.

Alien invasion? Nope. All pieces of SpaceX debris that had fallen from the sky.

In the past, these events were rare. Instead, it was often said that because our planet is more than 70 per cent ocean, the chances of space debris reaching the ground in a populated area were slim.

While that is still largely true, the chances may be on the rise, said Cassandra Steer, the deputy director of mission specialists at Australian National University's Institute for Space.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/space-debris-responsibility-1.7211473

Douglas Gorman - July 23, 2024

The number of satellites in LEO has ballooned in recent years, and the story is the same as in all popular destinations: traffic is a nightmare.

Things have become so congested that the cumulative volume of spacecraft and debris in LEO is unsustainable, ESA’s 2024 Space Environment Report determined. Without the widespread adoption of debris mitigation tactics, the report warns that the future of space travel could be in jeopardy.

Congestion on the LEO: 2023 was a record year for satellite launches, with over 2,800 satellites entering LEO over the course of the year.

The majority of these satellites joined large commercial communications 
constellations 500–600 km above Earth. 

Two-thirds of all active satellites now operate in this orbital band, and satellite 
operators have to work harder to avoid one another.

Add to this traffic jam the vast quantity of debris careening around LEO. Of the 35,000 objects in orbit that are tracked by space surveillance networks, 26,000 are pieces of debris larger than 10 cm, and ESA’s Space Debris Office estimates there are a further 1M pieces of space debris larger than 1 cm.

https://payloadspace.com/esa-report-shows-unsustainable-levels-of-orbital-debris/

“In their rush to move quickly, they are adding to the long-term collision hazard.”

Stephen Clark – Oct 3, 2025 1:33 PM

A new listing of the 50 most concerning pieces of space debris in low-Earth orbit is dominated by relics more than a quarter-century old, primarily dead rockets left to hurtle through space at the end of their missions.

“The things left before 2000 are still the majority of the problem,” said Darren McKnight, lead author of a paper presented Friday at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. “Seventy-six percent of the objects in the top 50 were deposited last century, and 88 percent of the objects are rocket bodies. That's important to note, especially with some disturbing trends right now.”

The 50 objects identified by McKnight and his coauthors are the ones most likely to drive the creation of more space junk in low-Earth orbit (LEO) through collisions with other debris fragments. The objects are whizzing around the Earth at nearly 5 miles per second, flying in a heavily trafficked part of LEO between 700 and 1,000 kilometers (435 to 621 miles) above the Earth.

An impact with even a modestly sized object at orbital velocity would create countless pieces of debris, potentially triggering a cascading series of additional collisions clogging LEO with more and more space junk, a scenario called the Kessler Syndrome.

McKnight, a senior technical fellow at the orbital intelligence company LeoLabs, spoke with Ars before the paper's release. In the paper, analysts considered how close objects are to other space traffic, their altitude, and their mass. Larger debris at higher altitudes pose a higher long-term risk because they could create more debris that would remain in orbit for centuries or longer.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/10/everyone-but-china-has-pretty-much-stopped-littering-in-low-earth-orbit/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday October 05, 2025 07:12PM

If we could remove the 50 most concerning pieces of space debris in low-Earth orbit, there'd be a 50% reduction in the overall debris-generating potential, reports Ars Technica. That's according to Darren McKnight, lead author of a paper presented Friday at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, which calculated the objects most likely to collide with other fragments and create more debris. (Russia and the Soviet Union lead with 34 objects, followed by China with 10, the U.S. with three, Europe with two, and Japan with one.) Even just the top 10 were removed, the debris-generating potential drops by 30%.

“The things left before 2000 are still the majority of the problem,” he points out, and “76% of the objects in the top 50 were deposited last century.” 88% of the objects are post-mission rocket bodies left behind to hurtle through space.

“The bad news is, since January 1, 2024, we've had 26 rocket bodies abandoned in low-Earth orbit that will stay in orbit for more than 25 years,” McKnight told Ars… China launched 21 of the 26 hazardous new rocket bodies over the last 21 months, each averaging more than 4 metric tons (8,800 pounds). Two more came from US launchers, one from Russia, one from India, and one from Iran. This trend is likely to continue as China steps up deployment of two megaconstellations — Guowang and Thousand Sails — with thousands of communications satellites in low-Earth orbit.

Launches of these constellations began last year. The Guowang and Thousand Sails satellites are relatively small and likely capable of maneuvering out of the way of space debris, although China has not disclosed their exact capabilities. However, most of the rockets used for Guowang and Thousand Sails launches have left their upper stages in orbit. McKnight said nine upper stages China has abandoned after launching Guowang and Thousand Sails satellites will stay in orbit for more than 25 years, violating the international guidelines.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/10/06/0148246/removing-50-objects-from-orbit-would-cut-danger-from-space-junk-in-half

Astroscale's satellite parked itself next to an old rocket, aiming to capture the wayward junk and fling it towards a fiery death.

Passant Rabie - 15 April 2024

A Japanese mission to stalk, capture, and hurl space junk into the atmosphere is progressing rather nicely. The orbital garbage truck recently completed the rendezvous phase, parking next to a second stage rocket that’s been aimlessly zipping around Earth orbit since 2009.

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J mission successfully rendezvoused with a second-stage H-2A rocket, coming to within several hundred kilometers of the wayward object, the Tokyo-based company announced last week. The spacecraft is gearing up to get a closer look at the old rocket, circling its target and snapping photos of it.

More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris are currently being tracked by the Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network, with lots of smaller pieces also floating around undetected. In an effort to clean up Earth orbit, Japan’s Astroscale wants to be the first commercial deorbiting service for hire.

Astroscale’s satellite is designed to creep up on the defunct spacecraft and, after inspecting it, match its tumble rate in order to align and dock with it. Once it’s docked, Astroscale will lower the spacecraft’s orbit using its thrusters before releasing it on a trajectory toward Earth’s atmosphere. The decommissioned spacecraft will then burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, putting an end to its stint in orbit.

https://gizmodo.com/astroscale-space-junk-rendezvous-old-japanese-rocket-1851410133

Marianne Guenot - 2 August 2022

Australian farmers mysteriously found space debris scattered across their fields last month. An astrophysicist who examined the junk now believes it was from a SpaceX flight.

People near Dalgety, New South Wales, found three large pieces of debris, with the largest — a 10-foot-tall triangular structure — found planted firmly into the ground, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The objects were scarred by scorch marks, consistent with reentry into the atmosphere, ABC reported.

Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist who inspected the debris, said in a video they were likely fragments of the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon aircraft used during the Crew-1 mission in 2020. Some of the fragments had serial numbers, Tucker said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/space-debris-australia-farmland-likely-spacex-crew-1-astrophysicist-2022-8

Old TV satellite's graveyard orbit isn't high enough, poses orbital debris risk.

Jon Brodkin - 10/3/2023, 9:31 AM

The Federal Communications Commission said it has issued a space debris enforcement action for the first time ever by imposing a fine of $150,000 on Dish for failing to properly deorbit a TV satellite.

“To settle this matter, Dish admits that it failed to operate the EchoStar-7 satellite in accordance with its authorization, will implement a compliance plan, and will pay a $150,000 civil penalty,” the FCC said in an order issued yesterday. The FCC said the action is “a first in space debris enforcement” and part of its increased focus on satellite policy that included the establishment of a Space Bureau. The FCC added:

  The FCC's investigation found that the company violated the Communications Act, the FCC rules, and the terms of 
  the company's license by relocating its direct broadcast satellite ("DBS") service EchoStar-7 satellite at the 
  satellite's end-of-mission to a disposal orbit well below the elevation required by the terms of its license. At this
  lower altitude, it could pose orbital debris concerns.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/10/dish-botches-satellite-deorbit-gets-hit-with-fccs-first-space-debris-fine/

Dish Network was fined $150,000 after it admitted to improperly disposing of a satellite.

Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor - Tue, Oct 3, 2023, 8:35 AM PDT

The FCC hit Dish Network with a $150,000 fine for failing to properly dispose of a defunct satellite after its mission ended. It’s the first such penalty the agency has enforced as it attempts to crack down on the growing problem of space junk in low Earth orbit (LEO). Decommissioned satellites and other objects pose a collision risk for other instruments operating in these lower altitudes. In LEO, debris travels at thousands of miles per hour, meaning even a millimeter-sized scrap can pose a serious threat.

While Dish and the FCC had an agreed-upon deorbit plan for the company’s EchoStar-7 satellite, which launched in 2002 and was scheduled to be retired in May 2022, it started running out of fuel earlier than expected. Dish was supposed to maneuver the satellite into the designated graveyard orbit about 186 miles above where it had operated. But, EchoStar-7 only made it about 76 miles up. The company realized in February 2022 that its propellant was too low to carry out the plan, and the satellite was abandoned there.

https://www.engadget.com/the-fcc-has-begun-fining-companies-over-their-dead-satellites-153516781.html

FCC wants $150K after EchoStar-7 missed its orbital graveyard

Richard Speed - Tue 3 Oct 2023 15:15 UTC

US television provider DISH is facing a $150,000 penalty from the US Federal Communications Commission after one of its satellites was dumped into the wrong orbit at the end of operational life.

The satellite EchoStar-7 was launched in 2002 and placed into a geostationary orbit. The direct broadcast spacecraft spent much of the following two decades beaming content to US receivers before reaching the end.

With plenty of time left, DISH filed its orbital debris mitigation plan for EchoStar-7 with the FCC in 2012. The plan called for the satellite's orbit to be raised 300km, sending the spacecraft into a graveyard orbit.

Things didn't work out quite that way though: In February 2022, DISH determined that the satellite didn't have enough propellant left to reach the required orbit. Instead, it was dumped at 122km above the geostationary arc, less than half the distance promised.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/03/dish_orbit_penalty/

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 03, 2023 12:00AM

Todd Shields and Loren Grush reporting via Bloomberg:

Dish Network Corp. was fined $150,000 by US regulators for leaving a retired satellite parked in the wrong place in space, reflecting official concern over the growing amount of debris orbiting Earth and the potential for mishaps. The Federal Communications Commission called the action its first to enforce safeguards against orbital debris. “This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules,” Loyaan A. Egal, the agency's enforcement bureau chief, said in a statement.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/10/03/000254/dish-dealt-first-ever-space-debris-fine-for-misparking-satellite

Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to properly dispose of satellite and violating the FCC’s anti-space debris rule

Abené Clayton - Mon 2 Oct 2023 21.27 EDT

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its first fine to a company that violated its anti-space debris rule, the commission announced on Monday.

Dish Network has to pay $150,000 to the commission over its failure to deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite, which has been in space for more than two decades. Instead of properly deorbiting the satellite, Dish sent it into a “disposal orbit” at an altitude low enough to pose an orbital debris risk.

“As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments,” said Loyaan A Egal, the FCC’s enforcement bureau chief, in the statement announcing the Dish settlement. “This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/02/fcc-space-debris-fine-dish-network-satellite

The two satellites came to within less than 30 feet of each other back in February, a distance far closer than initial estimates suggested.

Passant Rabie - 22 April 2024

That was a really close one. Further analysis of a near-miss collision between two satellites in space revealed that they came even closer to one another than initially believed, raising more alarm over the growing danger of space debris.

In late February, NASA’s TIMED spacecraft and the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 nearly avoided crashing into one another, which would have added thousands of space junk fragments in low Earth orbit. At the time, the incident was declared as “too close for comfort,” as ground observations estimated that the two satellites came within 20 meters of one another, but a NASA official recently revealed that it was a much closer encounter.

“We recently learned through analysis that the pass ended up being less than 10 meters [33 feet] apart–within the hard-body parameters of both satellites,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said during the 39th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, according to Space.com. “It was very shocking personally, and also for all of us at NASA.”

https://gizmodo.com/russian-space-junk-very-close-smashing-nasa-satellite-1851425897

Zap it and trap it like a cosmic Marie Kondo, but will everyone approve?

Dan Robinson - Wed 31 Jan 2024 18:45 UTC

A Japanese biz wants to remove debris from Earth orbit by using a satellite-mounted laser to decelerate an object such as a defunct satellite so it gradually descends towards the atmosphere and burns up.

Orbital Lasers is a startup backed by Japanese satellite operator SKY Perfect JSAT as a space debris removal service. If all goes to plan, the fledgling outfit aims to start operating sometime during 2029, .

The technology required for this service has been jointly designed and the operator and Japan's renowned Riken research institute, and is designed to operate by using laser ablation.

Orbital's satellite payload is designed to emit a laser beam that can vaporize part of the surface of the targeted space debris, and it is the impulse from the vaporized material that the company intends to use to detumble a rotating object if necessary, and then decelerate it so that it slowly sinks towards Earth and burns up.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/31/japan_laser_space_junk/

September 13, 2022

ORBITS Act would demonstrate technologies to clear dangerous orbital debris that threatens astronauts and satellites—and even crashed into a Washington state farm

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, joined U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to introduce the Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act, a bipartisan bill to establish a first-of-its-kind demonstration program to reduce the amount of space junk in orbit.

Space junk, or orbital debris, currently poses a threat to human space exploration, scientific research missions, and emerging commercial space services. In March 2021, a large piece of space junk crashed into a farmer’s property in Grant County, Wash.

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2022/9/cantwell-hickenlooper-lummis-wicker-introduce-bill-to-thin-out-the-900-000-pieces-of-orbiting-junk-that-endanger-the-future-of-space-exploration

China, India and Russia all voted against the measure.

Will Shanklin - December 8, 2022 5:30 PM

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution today asking countries not to conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite tests (ASAT) that create space junk. The US spearheaded the measure after the International Space Station (ISS) had a close call last year with more than 1,500 pieces of debris from a Russian ASAT.

The measure doesn’t ban the development or testing of ASAT systems, but it discourages conducting them in a way that creates space debris. Although since it came from the UN General Assembly and not the Security Council, it isn’t legally binding.

In addition to creating navigational hazards for astronauts, space junk also reflects sunlight to Earth’s surface, interfering with ground-based telescopes. Moreover, researchers expect orbital debris to increase by magnitudes over the next decade as internet-broadcasting mini-satellites, like SpaceX’s Starlink, grow in popularity.

https://www.engadget.com/un-measure-space-debris-asat-satellite-tests-223049818.html

The space junk was created in November 2021 when Russia used a missile to deliberately destroy a defunct satellite.

Passant Rabie - 11 August 2022 2:20PM

Orbital debris from a Russian anti-satellite weapons test is menacing the Starlink satellite constellation, with researchers reporting more than 6,000 close calls with the SpaceX satellites.

The near collisions were discussed during a talk on Monday at the Small Satellite Conference in Utah, SpaceNews first reported. According to Dan Oltrogge, chief scientist at COMSPOC, a company that tracks objects in space, debris from the destruction of Cosmos 1408, a defunct 4,400-pound (2,000 kg) satellite launched in 1982, is causing an increasing number of close approaches, or what Oltrogge calls “conjunction squalls.”

https://gizmodo.com/debris-russian-test-threaten-spacex-starlink-satellites-1849400714

Is this a debris inspection mission or an Ubuntu release?

Richard Speed - Thu 26 Sep 2024 22:00 UTC

NASA and Starfish Space have inked a contract worth $15 million to inspect defunct satellites in Earth's orbit ahead of future missions to deal with space junk.

The Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission is funded over three years and will send Starfish's Otter spacecraft to inspect disused US-owned satellites. Otter is to collect data on each satellite, including the rate and axis of spin and the condition of the surface materials.

Otter, the spacecraft to be used in the SSPICY mission, is designed to rendezvous with, dock, service, or deorbit satellites.

The spacecraft's first commercial assignment will come in 2026, when it will be launched to provide services for Intelsat satellites. This calls for Otter to dock and maneuver a retired Intelsat satellite in the geostationary graveyard orbit. If all goes well, Otter will then dock with an operational Intelsat satellite and use its electric propulsion system to keep the satellite in an operational orbit for a few extra years.

SSPICY is more about inspecting satellites and demonstrating that the electric propulsion technology works as expected. Electric propulsion is not generally used for proximity and rendezvous operations. According to NASA, “The Otter spacecraft is expected to launch in late 2026 and will begin performing inspections in 2027.”

https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/nasa_sspicy_otter_starfish/

But it could be the beacon we need to finally attract extra-terrestrial attention.

Andrew Tarantola - April 23, 2023 10:30 AM

The gargantuan artificial construct enveloping your local star is going to be rather difficult to miss, even from a few light years away. And given the literally astronomical costs of resources needed to construct such a device — the still-theoretical-for-humans Dyson Sphere — having one in your solar system will also serve as a stark warning of your technological capacity to ETs that comes sniffing around.

Or at least that's how 20th century astronomers like Nikolai Kardashev and Carl Sagan envisioned our potential Sol-spanning distant future going. Turns out, a whole lot of how we predict intelligences from outside our planet will behave is heavily influenced by humanity's own cultural and historical biases. In The Possibility of Life, science journalist Jaime Green examines humanity's intriguing history of looking to the stars and finding ourselves reflected in them.

https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-the-possibility-of-life-jaime-greene-hanover-square-press-113047089.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday May 06, 2023 09:34AM

Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this report from Futurism:

We'd need an astronomical amount of resources to construct a Dyson sphere, a giant theoretical shell that would harvest all of a given star's energy, around the Sun. In fact, as science journalist Jaime Green explores in her new book “The Possibility of Life,” we'd have to go as far as to demolish a Jupiter-sized planet to build such a megastructure, a concept first devised by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960…

https://idle.slashdot.org/story/23/05/06/0256208/could-we-build-a-dyson-sphere-around-the-sun-using-jupiter-for-raw-materials

30 May 2024 - PhysicsWorld

Seven candidate Dyson spheres found from their excess infrared radiation could be a case of mistaken identity, with evidence for dusty background galaxies spotted close to three of them.

The seven candidates were discovered by Project Hephaistos, which is coordinated by astronomers at Uppsala University in Sweden and Penn State University in the US.

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical construct: a swarm of energy collectors capturing all of a star’s radiant energy to provide huge amounts of power for its builders. As these energy collectors – basically huge arrays of solar panels – absorb sunlight, they must emit waste heat as infrared radiation to avoid overheating. While a complete Dyson swarm would hide a star from view, this waste heat would still be detectable.

The caveat is that to build a complete Dyson swarm, a lot of raw material is required. In his 1960 paper describing the concept, Freeman Dyson calculated that dismantling a gas giant planet like Jupiter should do the trick.

Given that this is easier said than done, Project Hephaistos has been looking for incomplete Dyson swarms “that do not block all starlight, but a fraction of it,” says Matías Suazo of Uppsala University, who is leading the project.

https://physicsworld.com/a/are-dusty-quasars-masquerading-as-dyson-sphere-candidates/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday June 15, 2024 12:34PM

Have scientists discovered infrared radiation, evidence of waste heat generated by the energy-harvesting star-surrounding spheres first proposed by British American physicist Freeman Dyson? CNN reports:

[A] new study that looked at 5 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy suggests that seven candidates could potentially be hosting Dyson spheres — a finding that's attracting scrutiny and alternate theories… Using historical data from telescopes that pick up infrared signatures, the research team looked at stars located within less than 1,000 light-years from Earth: “We started with a sample of 5 million stars, and we applied filters to try to get rid of as much data contamination as possible,” said lead study author Matías Suazo, a doctoral student in the department of physics and astronomy of Uppsala University in Sweden. “So far, we have seven sources that we know are glowing in the infrared but we don't know why, so they stand out….”

Among the natural causes that could explain the infrared glow are an unlucky alignment in the observation, with a galaxy in the background overlapping with the star, planetary collisions creating debris, or the fact that the stars may be young and therefore still surrounded by disks of hot debris from which planets would later form…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/06/15/1855235/have-scientists-found-potential-evidence-of-dyson-spheres

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday March 22, 2025 10:34AM

Slashdot reader Required Snark shared this article from Phys.org:

In the realm of science fiction, [sun-energy capturing] Dyson spheres and ringworlds have been staples for decades. But it is well known that the simplest designs are unstable against gravitational forces and would thus be torn apart. Now a scientist from Scotland, UK has shown that certain configurations of these objects near a two-mass system can be stable against such fractures…

[A] rigid ring around a star or planet, as in Larry Niven's “Ringworld” series of novels, is also unstable, as it would drift under any slight gravitational differences and collide with the star. So [engineering science professor Colin] McInnes considered a restricted three-body problem where two equal masses orbit each other circularly with a uniform ring of infinitesimal mass rotating in their orbital plane. The ring could enclose both masses, just one or none… McInnes also investigated a shell-restricted three-body problem with the shell also of infinitesimal mass, again with the shell enclosing two masses, one or none.

For the restricted ring, McInnes found that there are seven equilibrium points in the orbital plane of the dual masses, on which, if the ring's center were placed, it would stay and not experience stresses, akin to the three stable Lagrange points where a small mass can reside permanently for the two-body problem… McInnes restricted this research to a planar ring (in the plane of the circularly orbiting masses) but says it can be shown that a vertical ring, normal to the plane, can also generate equilibria…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0414254/surprisingly-some-dyson-spheres-and-ringworlds-can-be-stable

Foreign astronomers will get 10 percent of observation time.

Steve Dent - 4 January 2021

China will open its 500-meter (1,600 foot) telescope to the global scientific community starting on April 1st, China’s Global Times reported. The “Sky Eye” parabolic dish is the world’s largest Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) used for spotting pulsars and other energetic astronomical targets. It will also be used occasionally to search for alien life.

Foreign scientists will be able to submit applications to China’s National Astronomical Observatories online, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. After review, observation times will be doled out starting on August 1st. Around 10 percent of observation times will be allotted to global astronomers this year, according to FAST’s chief engineer Jiang Peng.

https://www.engadget.com/china-will-open-its-500-meter-satellite-to-astronomers-across-the-world-105359520.html

NOIRLab - 15 October 2022

In the early-morning hours of today, 14 October 2022, astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile operated by NSF's NOIRLab observed the unprecedented aftermath of one of the most powerful explosions ever recorded, Gamma-Ray Burst GRB221009A. This record-shattering event, which was first detected on 9 October 2022 by orbiting X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes, occurred 2.4 billion light-years from Earth and was likely triggered by a supernova explosion giving birth to a black hole.

A titanic cosmic explosion triggered a burst of activity from astronomers around the world as they raced to study the aftermath from what is one of the nearest and possibly the most-energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed. Just-released observations by two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile—one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF's NOIRLab—targeted the bright, glowing remains of the explosion, which likely heralded a supernova giving birth to a black hole.

https://phys.org/news/2022-10-record-breaking-gamma-ray-possibly-powerful-explosion.html

Telescopes picked up an absolutely massive outburst of gamma rays on the morning of October 9.

Isaac Schultz - 14 October 2022 4:20PM

Astronomers have detected a big boom in the distant universe that they believe may be the most powerful explosion ever recorded. It’s already got a nickname: ‘BOAT,’ or the Brightest Of All Time.

The explosion was a gamma-ray burst that scientists believe was triggered by a supernova, or the death of a star, that gave way to a black hole. The event, named GRB 221009A, was seen by the Gemini South telescope in Chile, operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.

https://gizmodo.com/most-powerful-explosion-gamma-ray-burst-october-2022-1849660318

It's a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to address fundamental questions of these bursts.

Jennifer Ouellette - 10/17/2022, 11:03 AM

On the morning of October 9, multiple space-based detectors picked up a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) passing through our solar system, sending astronomers around the world scrambling to train their telescopes on that part of the sky to collect vital data on the event and its afterglow. Dubbed GRB 221009A, astronomers say the gamma-ray burst is the most powerful yet recorded and likely could be the “birth cry” of a new black hole. The event was promptly published in the Astronomer's Telegram, and observations are still ongoing.

“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT,’ or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” said Jillian Rastinejad, a graduate student at Northwestern University. Rastinejad led one of two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study the event's afterglow.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/its-the-boat-astronomers-observe-brightest-of-all-time-gamma-ray-burst/

Long gamma-ray burst stems from neutron star merger, not usual supernova explosion.

Jennifer Ouellette - 12/7/2022, 3:44 PM

A year ago, astronomers discovered a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) lasting nearly two minutes, dubbed GRB 211211A. Now that unusual event is upending the long-standing assumption that longer GRBs are the distinctive signature of a massive star going supernova. Instead, two independent teams of scientists identified the source as a so-called “kilonova,” triggered by the merger of two neutron stars, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature. Because neutron star mergers were assumed to only produce short GRBs, the discovery of a hybrid event involving a kilonova with a long GBR is quite surprising.

“This detection breaks our standard idea of gamma-ray bursts,” said co-author Eve Chase, a postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “We can no longer assume that all short-duration bursts come from neutron-star mergers, while long-duration bursts come from supernovae. We now realize that gamma-ray bursts are much harder to classify. This detection pushes our understanding of gamma-ray bursts to the limits.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/new-kilonova-has-astronomers-rethinking-what-we-know-about-gamma-ray-bursts/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday August 20, 2020 03:00AM

schwit1 shares a report from Phys.Org:

A new study led by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign astronomy and physics professor Brian Fields explores the possibility that astronomical events were responsible for an extinction event 359 million years ago, at the boundary between the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team concentrated on the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary because those rocks contain hundreds of thousands of generations of plant spores that appear to be sunburnt by ultraviolet light – evidence of a long-lasting ozone-depletion event.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/2237230/exploding-stars-may-have-caused-mass-extinction-on-earth-study-shows

Red dwarf hurls plasma at speeds rarely seen from Sun, potentially stripping atmospheres from orbiting planets

Richard Speed - Wed 12 Nov 2025 17:34 UTC

Astronomers have made the first definitive observation of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on a nearby star.

CME events are a regular occurrence at our sun. Massive amounts of material are emitted and flood nearby space. Some can create the dazzling auroras seen in the sky from Earth as they interact with the magnetosphere, but they can also negatively impact space weather and disrupt spacecraft.

CMEs can erode the atmosphere of planets too, but until this observation, researchers had to extrapolate their understanding of the Sun's CMEs to other stars.

“Previous findings have inferred that they exist, or hinted at their presence,” said Joe Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), author of the new research published in Nature, “but haven't actually confirmed that material has definitively escaped out into space. We've now managed to do this for the first time.”

The CME was determined to be moving at 2,400 km per second – a speed only seen once in every 2,000 CMEs from the Sun – and was both fast and dense enough to completely strip away the atmospheres of any planets closely orbiting the star.

A planet's habitability for life as it is understood on Earth depends on whether or not it is situated within the star's 'habitable zone' – somewhere where liquid water and an atmosphere can exist. However, if a planet is bombarded with powerful CMEs, it might lose its atmosphere entirely despite its orbit being 'just right'.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/12/scientists_spot_a_huge_explosion/

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday April 06, 2024 12:00AM

Whenever a rocket launch occurs, air traffic controllers ensure the safety of commercial flights by managing airspace closures and monitoring rocket debris, without receiving compensation from commercial space companies like SpaceX for these services. The Biden administration's budget proposal aims to change this by suggesting that for-profit space companies begin paying for their use of government air traffic control resources. The New York Times reports:

Commercial space companies are exempt from aviation excise taxes that fill the coffers of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which pays for the F.A.A.'s work and will get roughly $18 billion in tax revenues for the current fiscal year. The taxes are paid primarily by commercial airlines, which are charged 7.5 percent of each ticket price and an additional fee of about $5 to $20 per passenger, depending on the destination of each flight. Mr. Biden's budget proposal vows to work with Congress to overhaul the tax structure and split the cost of operating the nation's air traffic control system. His promise is based in part on an independent safety review report commissioned by the F.A.A., which advises that the federal government update the excise taxes to charge commercial space companies.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/04/06/0037238/biden-takes-aim-at-spacexs-tax-free-ride-in-american-airspace

A huge furnace under Arizona Stadium has started casting the Giant Magellan Telescope's sixth mirror.

Igor Bonifacic - March 5th, 2021

This week, the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab began work on the sixth of seven primary mirror segments for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). On March 1st, the lab started heating its one-of-a-kind glass furnace to a temperature of 1,165 degrees Celsius. That in itself was a major milestone in a manufacturing process known as spin-casting. It took about four months to make the mold and another nine hours to cover it in nearly 90 tons of rare borosilicate glass.

On Friday, the furnace started to spin at about five revolutions per minute. The combination of heat and motion will force the glass up the mold's sides as it melts, causing it to form a curved surface. Once the 8.4-meter mirror is cast over the weekend, it will enter a month-long “annealing” process that will see the furnace slowly come to a stop while the glass cools. That's done so that the mirror cools uniformly, making the final product tough and free of as many imperfections as possible. It will take another month-and-a-half for it to cool to room temperature. It's at that point that the lengthy process of polishing it can begin.

https://www.engadget.com/gmt-mirror-spin-casting-201237230.html

Starlink satellites might annoy astronomers, but at least they're easy to spot

Richard Speed - Mon 9 Dec 2024 23:30 UTC

Space debris tracking specialist Neuraspace added another optical telescope to extend satellite tracking over the Southern Hemisphere.

The telescope is located in Chile and looks for all the world like an observatory perched on top of a container. Its Northern Hemisphere counterpart is installed at the Beja air base in Portugal.

Neuraspace has high hopes for the new telescope, which can acquire more than one image per second for low orbits and track objects as small as 10 cm in diameter. According to Neuraspace, “This precision reduces the uncertainty level for positional errors to less than 100 meters within a single orbital revolution,” which the company says meets the 2023 ESA Space Debris Mitigation Requirement.

The Beja telescope has already produced more than 300,000 measurements of space objects in orbits from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geostationary within its first three months, and Neuraspace expects the telescope in Chile to be more productive thanks to the clear nights in the region.

Clear nights are important since the telescopes are optical, although Neuraspace also pulls in data from other providers to build up a picture of what is whizzing around in orbit to advise customers when it might be a good time to move a spacecraft and when things can be left alone.

Neuraspace CEO Chiara Manfletti told The Register that one goal of the new telescope was to give Neuraspace more autonomy and control over its services and products.

“They also expand the amount of data already provided by other providers and allow the reduction of uncertainties associated with the orbital path of satellites with more frequent and timely updates,” she said.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/09/neuraspace_second_telescope/

The Contreras Fire began on June 11 and reached the observatory this morning.

Kevin Hurler - 17 June 2022 4:27PM

The Contreras Fire, which has been raging through the Arizona mountains since last week, has reached Kitt Peak National Observatory, threatening the site’s telescopes.

Kitt Peak National Observatory is an astronomical research facility located on the land of the Tohono O’odham Nation in the mountains of Tuscon, Arizona, and the observatory is run by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab—the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. Wildfires have been burning across the American Southwest recently, and the Contreras Fire has made its way to the observatory. NOIRLab said in a press release that the fire started as a lightning strike, while the mountainous terrain and high winds in the area have made firefighting difficult. According to the Arizona Emergency Information Network, the Contreras Fire has scorched nearly 11,500 acres as of June 16 with no signs of slowing.

https://gizmodo.com/kitts-peak-national-observatory-wildfire-1849078406

A proposed zone for testing new technologies could head off the problem.

Christopher Gordon De Pree, Christopher R. Anderson, and Mariya Zheleva, The Conversation - 3/3/2023, 7:08 AM

Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that astronomers use to study the Universe. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light, other space telescopes capture X-ray images, and observatories like the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and dozens of other observatories around the world work at radio wavelengths.

Radio telescopes are facing a problem. All satellites, whatever their function, use radio waves to transmit information to the surface of the Earth. Just as light pollution can hide a starry night sky, radio transmissions can swamp out the radio waves astronomers use to learn about black holes, newly forming stars, and the evolution of galaxies.

We are three scientists who work in astronomy and wireless technology. With tens of thousands of satellites expected to go into orbit in the coming years and increasing use on the ground, the radio spectrum is getting crowded. Radio quiet zones—regions, usually located in remote areas, where ground-based radio transmissions are limited or prohibited—have protected radio astronomy in the past.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/radio-interference-from-satellites-is-threatening-astronomy/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 18, 2025 09:34AM

“The next great space telescope will study distant galaxies and faraway planets from an orbital outpost about a million miles from Earth,” writes the Washington Post. “But first it has to be put together, piece by piece, in a cavernous chamber at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.”

One long-time NASA worker calls it “the largest clean room in the free world,” and the Post notes everyone wears white gowns and surgical masks “to keep hardware from being contaminated by humans. No dust allowed. No stray hairs. One wall is entirely covered by HEPA filters.”

The place is known as the Clean Room, or sometimes the High Bay. It is 125 feet long, 100 feet wide, 90 feet high, with almost as much volume as the Capitol Rotunda. NASA boasts that in the Clean Room you could put nearly 30 tractor-trailers side by side on the floor and stack them 10 high… About two dozen workers clustered around towering pieces of hardware, some twice or three times the height of a typical person. When stacked and integrated, these components will form the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The assembly of the telescope ramped up this fall, with 600 workers aiming to get everything integrated and tested by late 2026. NASA has committed to launching the telescope no later than May 2027. The telescope will be roughly the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, but not quite as long (a “stubby Hubble,” some call it). What the astronomy community and the general public will receive in exchange for the considerable taxpayer investment of nearly $4 billion is an instrument that can do what other telescopes can't.

It will have a sprawling field of view, about 100 times that of the Hubble or Webb space telescopes. And it will be able to pivot quickly across the night sky to new targets and download tremendous amounts of data that will be instantly available to the researchers. A primary goal of the Roman is to understand “dark energy,” the mysterious driver of the accelerating expansion of space. But it will also attempt to study the atmospheres of exoplanets — worlds orbiting distant stars…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/01/18/0613233/visiting-the-roman-space-telescope---as-its-being-assembled

Ross Andersen - 2 December 2024

In the early months of 2023, the astronomer Željko Ivezić found himself taking part in a highly unusual negotiation. Ivezić is the 59-year-old director of the Vera Rubin Observatory, a $1 billion telescope that the United States has been developing in the Chilean high desert for more than 20 years. He was trying to reach an agreement that would keep his telescope from compromising America’s national security when it starts stargazing next year.

This task was odd enough for any scientist, and it was made more so by the fact that Ivezić had no idea with whom he was negotiating. “I didn’t even know which agency I was talking to,” he told me on a recent video call from his field office in Chile. Whoever it was would communicate with him only through intermediaries at the National Science Foundation. Ivezić didn’t even know whether one person or several people were on the other side of the exchange. All he knew was that they were very security-minded. Also, they seemed to know a great deal about astronomy.

The Vera Rubin is housed in a sleek building on a mountaintop in the Atacama Desert. The chamber that holds its primary mirror juts up from the end of the elongated structure like the head of a sphinx. The observatory represents a freakish augmentation of human vision. Like the James Webb Space Telescope that NASA launched a few years ago, it will be able to see to the far edge of the universe. But the Webb can observe only a tiny region of sky. The Vera Rubin will be able to lock onto a tile of sky that is much larger and, after 30 seconds, return an image of that tile that extends 13 billion light-years into space. Then it will pan over and lock onto an adjacent tile of sky and do the same thing. After just three nights of going tile-by-tile like a handyman redoing a bathroom wall, it will have captured a deep image of the entire sky.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/when-a-telescope-is-a-national-security-risk/ar-AA1v7EwG

The Earth may be crawling with undiscovered creatures with a biochemistry that differs from life as we know it.

Samantha Rolfe

Life is pretty easy to recognise. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym “MRSGREN” to describe it. It stands for movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition.

But Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut and a chemist at Imperial College London, recently said that alien lifeforms that are impossible to spot may be living among us. How could that be possible?

While life may be easy to recognise, it’s actually notoriously difficult to define and has had scientists and philosophers in debate for centuries – if not millennia. For example, a 3D printer can reproduce itself, but we wouldn’t call it alive. On the other hand, a mule is famously sterile, but we would never say it doesn’t live.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/could-invisible-aliens-really-exist-among-us-an-astrobiologist-explains?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Posted by msmash on Tuesday November 03, 2020 12:06PM

Here's a good sign for alien hunters: More than 300 million worlds with similar conditions to Earth are scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. A [[https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.14812.pdf|new analysis]] [PDF] concludes that roughly half of the galaxy's sunlike stars host rocky worlds in habitable zones where liquid water could pool or flow over the planets' surfaces. From a report:

“This is the science result we've all been waiting for,” says Natalie Batalha, an astronomer with the University of California, Santa Cruz, who worked on the new study. The finding, which has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal, pins down a crucial number in the Drake Equation. Devised by my father Frank Drake in 1961, the equation sets up a framework for calculating the number of detectable civilizations in the Milky Way. Now the first few variables in the formula – including the rate of sunlike star formation, the fraction of those stars with planets, and the number of habitable worlds per stellar system – are known. The number of sunlike stars with worlds similar to Earth “could have been one in a thousand, or one in a million – nobody really knew,” says Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute who was not involved with the new study.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/11/03/1958222/how-many-alien-civilizations-are-out-there-a-new-galactic-survey-holds-a-clue

This “Galactic Federation” has supposedly been in contact with Israel and the US for years, but are keeping themselves a secret to prevent hysteria until humanity is ready.

By AARON REICH - DECEMBER 8, 2020 00:21

Has the State of Israel made contact with aliens?

According to retired Israeli general and current professor Haim Eshed, the answer is yes, but this has been kept a secret because “humanity isn't ready.”

Speaking in an interview to Yediot Aharonot, Eshed – who served as the head of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is a three-time recipient of the Israel Security Award – explained that Israel and the US have both been dealing with aliens for years.

And this by no means refers to immigrants, with Eshed clarifying the existence of a “Galactic Federation.”

https://www.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-says-aliens-exist-humanity-not-ready-651405

Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 07, 2020 11:00PM

The former head of Israel's space program, Haim Eshed, says space aliens have reached an agreement with the U.S. government to stay mum on the experiments they conduct on Earth – as well as their secret base on Mars – until mankind is ready to accept them. The New York Post reports:

“The aliens have asked not to announce that they are here [because] humanity is not ready yet,” Eshed told Israeli paper Yedioth Aharonoth, according to the Jewish Press. The Jewish Press – speculating that Eshed, 87, may have gone to insanity and beyond – goes on to unspool his tangled web, which claims the involvement of President Trump and interplanetary diplomacy.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/20/12/08/0225219/aliens-in-hiding-until-mankind-is-ready-says-ex-israeli-space-head

The findings could be of assistance to SETI researchers.

George Dvorsky - 23 June 2021 11:22AM

Astronomers on Earth have spotted thousands of exoplanets since the 1990s, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that aliens, should they exist, would be capable of the same feat. Working under this assumption, astronomers have identified a surprising number of nearby stars from which alien astronomers could’ve detected our planet since the advent of human civilization.

It has only been within the past 30 years that astronomers have finally been able to answer the age-old question about whether planets exist around other stars. To date, over 4,000 exoplanets have been confirmed by scientists, the vast majority of them (around 70%) spotted using the transit method. The technique works by measuring periodic decreases in a star’s luminosity—the result of a passing exoplanet. The bigger the dip in brightness, the bigger the planet. And by documenting repeat transits, astronomers can calculate the length of an exoplanet’s year.

https://gizmodo.com/aliens-from-1-715-stars-could-ve-seen-earth-over-the-pa-1847156609

We may not be alone in the universe, just too far apart

Nov 12 2021

Brett: We still have this problem of what DNA was doing for that approximately two and a half billion years—the overwhelming majority of the history of life on Earth. Why didn’t it evolve at all during that time? What’s going on?

There’s a book, Rare Earth, by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, and these guys talk about all the quirky things that happened in the evolutionary history of the Earth. I just picked on the fact that we universal explainers evolved seemingly fortuitously, seemingly once; but you can go back and realize that evolving from single-cell bacteria to a multicellular organism was weird and unusual and hasn’t been able to be repeated in a laboratory setting.

https://nav.al/far-away

The only thing they will lack is the knowledge they don’t have

Nov 15 2021

Brett: I think Stephen Hawking said that it was a mistake to broadcast radio waves out into the universe because the aliens are going to be out there and they’re going to be like conquistadors. They’re going to want to take over our planet for their resources and various other things.

There’s a couple of responses you can have to the idea of evil aliens coming to get us.

The first is that the only way to make progress into the infinite future and to have the technologies that would enable you to traverse the galaxy, is to have this vision of knowledge that Popper had—namely, that you are freely able to explore the space of ideas, able to falsify assumptions, and don’t have centralized authorities and force being used on paper, which dampens down creativity.

To have a maximally creative society, you have to have freedom, you have to have liberty, and therefore you will have a non-violent society. You’ll have a society that values creativity as an end in itself.

https://nav.al/resources

KS Arpita - 9 June 2022

Chinese astronomers have detected a radio signal coming from a galaxy believed to be nearly 3 billion light-years away. Read to know more.

What are fast radio bursts(FRBs)?

As per reports, scientists in China detected an active fast radio burst (FRB) which could be an alien message. China’s Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) detected this FRB.

State-run Global Times reported that the new FRB, called FRB190520B was detected in a dwarf galaxy.

Fast radio bursts are short flashes of radio frequency, lasting for not more than a few milliseconds. The mysterious frequency was earlier detected in Guizhou, China in 2019.

https://www.breezyscroll.com/space/radio-signal-coming-from-another-galaxy-detected-by-scientists/

Will Dunham - April 17, 20253:31 AM PDT

Summary

Planet, called K2-18 b, is 8.6 times the mass of Earth
It is located about 124 light-years from Earth
Gases found are the same as those produced by algae on Earth
Scientists do not announce discovery of actual alien life

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet's atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.

The two gases - dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, and dimethyl disulfide, or DMDS - involved in Webb's observations of the planet named K2-18 b are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton - algae.

This suggests the planet may be teeming with microbial life, the researchers said. They stressed, however, that they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms but rather a possible biosignature - an indicator of a biological process - and that the findings should be viewed cautiously, with more observations needed.

https://www.reuters.com/science/scientists-find-strongest-evidence-yet-life-an-alien-planet-2025-04-16/

New JWST data strengthens earlier hints that K2-18b, a possible water world 120 light-years away, could host the chemical byproducts of life.

Isaac Schultz - April 17, 2025

Look alive: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have picked up signs of a potential biosignature on a steamy, ocean-covered exoplanet called K2-18b—a biosignature that, on Earth, is produced by marine life.

The main character here is dimethyl sulfide, a molecule produced by many ocean denizens, but especially plankton. If the molecule is really floating around in the atmosphere of K2-18b, it raises the tantalizing possibility that something on the world might be alive. Or at least emitting suspiciously life-like chemical signals.

K2-18b, located 120 light-years away, has been on scientists’ radar since NASA’s Kepler space telescope spotted it in 2015. It’s about 8.6 times the mass of Earth and orbits within the habitable (or “Goldilocks”) zone of a red dwarf star.

Earlier observations from Hubble hinted that K2-18b had water vapor in its atmosphere, a claim later shown to be in error. But JWST has taken matters several steps further, doubling down on an earlier finding of dimethyl sulfide in the planet’s atmosphere. The team behind the discovery, led by Nikku Madhusudhan from the University of Cambridge, includes researchers from five institutions.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-say-theyve-recorded-the-strongest-sign-yet-of-life-beyond-earth-2000590613

The changes, such as extra prep training, reflect lessons learned from Axiom Space's recent mission to the ISS.

Passant Rabie - 2 August 2022

As more private astronauts venture out into space, NASA is seeking to better regulate their journeys to Earth orbit. The space agency recently announced some updates to the set of rules required for upcoming private astronaut missions, including the stipulation that all future missions be led by a former NASA astronaut.

NASA released the list of updated rules on Monday, which will be documented as part of the Private Astronaut Mission Authorization, Coordination, and Execution (PACE) Annex 1. The updates are “lessons learned” from the first private astronaut mission to the ISS, in which Axiom space sent four astronauts to the ISS in April. Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) was led by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, but the new requirements now call for all future missions to be led by a former NASA astronaut. For these missions, the NASA astronaut will serve as the mission commander and provide guidance “during pre-flight preparation through mission execution.”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-is-changing-its-rules-for-private-astronauts-1849360030

It’s a big deal for future missions beyond Earth.

Igor Bonifacic - June 25, 2023 2:43 PM

NASA has achieved a technological milestone that could one day play an important role in missions to the Moon and beyond. This week, the space agency revealed (via Space.com) that the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring onboard the station. Functionally, you can imagine the system operating in a way similar to the Stillsuits described in Frank Herbert’s Dune. One part of the ECLSS uses “advanced dehumidifiers” to capture moisture the station’s crew breaths and sweat out as they go about their daily tasks.

Another subsystem, the imaginatively named “Urine Processor Assembly,” recovers what astronauts pee with the help of vacuum distillation. According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and a urine brine that still contains reclaimable H20. The agency recently began testing a new device that can extract what water remains in the brine, and it’s thanks to that system that NASA observed a 98 percent water recovery rate on the ISS, where previously the station was recycling about 93 to 94 percent of the water astronauts were bringing aboard.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-is-recycling-98-percent-of-astronaut-pee-and-sweat-on-the-iss-into-drinkable-water-184332789.html

And sweat.

NASA has achieved a technological milestone, announcing the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is now recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring onboard. Advanced dehumidifiers capture moisture from the station’s crew breaths and sweats, while urine processor assembly recovers water from astronauts’ urine through vacuum distillation.

According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and a urine brine that still contains reclaimable H20. Now, a new device can extract the remaining water in the brine, increasing the water recovery rate from 93 to 98 percent. If the idea is making you gag, it shouldn’t, says Jill Williamson, NASA’s ECLSS water subsystems manager. “The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth.” I'll pass.

https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-nasa-is-recycling-98-percent-of-astronaut-pee-on-the-iss-into-drinkable-water-111541147.html

Nasa ‘still piecing things together’ two weeks after return from ISS but crew members cite medical privacy

Richard Luscombe - Fri 8 Nov 2024 17.35 EST

Three Nasa astronauts who were taken to a Florida hospital after returning to Earth from the International Space Station two weeks ago told reporters on Friday that they were all in good health following the medical ordeal – and that the agency was “still piecing things together” about what happened.

Michael Barrett, pilot of the crew that splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on 25 October after seven months in orbit, gave few further details at a press conference in Houston, citing medical privacy laws that he said prevented him from discussing the episode in detail.

“Space flight is still something we don’t fully understand. We’re finding things that we don’t expect sometimes – this was one of those times,” he said.

“We’re still piecing things together. I’m a medical doctor, space medicine is my passion, and how we adapt, how we experience human space flight, is something that we all take very seriously. In the fullness of time, we will allow this to come out.”

Barrett was joined at Nasa headquarters by crewmates Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps. A fourth member, the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, was not present.

All four were diverted to the Ascension Sacred Heart hospital in Pensacola, in what Nasa said was “an abundance of caution”, soon after their landing in a SpaceX capsule following 235 days in space.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/08/astronauts-hospital-nasa-international-space-station

“I did not say I was uncomfortable talking about it. I said we're not going to talk about it.”

Stephen Clark – Nov 11, 2024 3:35 PM

The astronauts who came home from the International Space Station last month experienced some drama on the high frontier, and some of it accompanied them back to Earth.

In orbit, the astronauts aborted two spacewalks, both under unusual circumstances. Then, on October 25, one of the astronauts was hospitalized due to what NASA called an unspecified “medical issue” after splashdown aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that concluded the 235-day mission. After an overnight stay in a hospital in Florida, NASA said the astronaut was released “in good health” and returned to their home base in Houston to resume normal post-flight activities.

The space agency did not identify the astronaut or any details about their condition, citing medical privacy concerns. The three NASA astronauts on the Dragon spacecraft included commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and mission specialist Jeanette Epps. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin accompanied the three NASA crew members. Russia's space agency confirmed he was not hospitalized after returning to Earth.

Dominick, Barratt, and Epps answered media questions in a post-flight press conference Friday, but they did not offer more information on the medical issue or say who experienced it. NASA initially sent all four crew members to the hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for evaluation, but Grebenkin and two of the NASA astronauts were quickly released and cleared to return to Houston. One astronaut remained behind until the next day.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/there-are-some-things-the-crew-8-astronauts-arent-ready-to-talk-about/

Jessica Taveau - Aug 08, 2025

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy on the passing of famed Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. He passed away Aug. 7, in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97 years old.

“NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades. Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.

“From a pair of pioneering Gemini missions to the successes of Apollo, Jim helped our nation forge a historic path in space that carries us forward to upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

“As the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 8, Jim and his crewmates became the first to lift off on a Saturn V rocket and orbit the Moon, proving that the lunar landing was within our reach. As commander of the Apollo 13 mission, his calm strength under pressure helped return the crew safely to Earth and demonstrated the quick thinking and innovation that informed future NASA missions.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/acting-nasa-administrator-reflects-on-legacy-of-astronaut-jim-lovell/

Posted by BeauHD on Friday August 08, 2025 04:20PM

Jim Lovell, the legendary NASA astronaut who commanded the Apollo 13 “successful failure” mission, has died at age 97. From a report:

Lovell was already well-known among NASA astronauts, having flown to space on the Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8 missions, before he was selected to command Apollo 13, which would have marked the third successful crewed moon landing for NASA. But during the ill-fated mission – which carried Lovell as well as astronauts John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. on board – an oxygen tank located on the crew's service module exploded when they were about 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) away from Earth.

Lovell delivered the news to mission control, saying “Houston, we've had a problem.” With the damage effectively taking out the crew's power source and other life support supplies, the Apollo 13 crew had to abruptly abandon their trek to the lunar surface and use several engine burns to swing around the far side of the moon and put themselves on a course back toward Earth. The three-person crew made a high-stakes splashdown return in the South Pacific Ocean about three days after the tank explosion, marking the conclusion of what has come to be known as the “successful failure” of the Apollo missions. The ordeal was fictionalized in Ron Howard's 1995 film “Apollo 13.” […]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/08/211245/apollo-13-astronaut-jim-lovell-dies-at-97

Lovell was the first person to fly to the Moon twice.

Robert Pearlman – Aug 8, 2025 6:28 PM

James Lovell, a member of humanity's first trip to the moon and commander of NASA's ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, has died at the age of 97.

Lovell's death on Thursday was announced by the space agency.

“NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy in a statement on Friday. “Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”

A four-time Gemini and Apollo astronaut, Lovell was famously portrayed in the 1995 feature film Apollo 13. The movie dramatized his role as the leader of what was originally planned as NASA's third moon landing, but instead became a mission of survival after an explosion tore through his spacecraft's service module.

“I know today when I came out many of you were expecting Tom Hanks, but you're going to have to settle for little old me,” Lovell often said at his public appearances after the movie was released. two men in tuxedos talk to each other while one stands and the other sits on a stage

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/08/astronaut-james-lovell-famed-apollo-13-commander-dies-at-97/

Veteran of four spaceflights dies at 97

Richard Speed - Mon 11 Aug 2025 12:00 UTC

Lovell was selected as part of the second group of NASA astronauts in 1962, having missed out on becoming part of the original Mercury 7. The omission meant Lovell never got to fly in the Mercury capsule, which he more than made up for by being the first astronaut to fly into space four times, twice with the Gemini program and twice with Apollo.

His first mission was 1965’s Gemini 7, which he flew as pilot with Frank Borman as commander. The pair spent nearly 14 days in orbit – a record for the US until the first crewed Skylab mission in 1973 – and the spacecraft served as a passive rendezvous target for Gemini 6A, a first for NASA and a vital milestone for plans to reach the Moon.

Lovell's second mission was the final crewed flight in the Gemini program, Gemini 12, in 1966. This time around, Lovell was the commander, and a rookie, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, was pilot. The mission duration was just a shade under four days, during which Aldrin undertook three Extravehicular activities (EVAs) totalling five hours and thirty minutes, demonstrating that NASA had gotten to grips with astronauts working outside spacecraft.

The mission was also notable for Lovell having to fly the rendezvous manually under instruction from Aldrin following equipment issues.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/11/jim_lovell_has_died/

“We made the mistake of peeking out the Cupola windows.”

Eric Berger – Oct 28, 2024 2:12 PM

For his most recent trip to the International Space Station, in lieu of bringing coffee or some other beverage in his “personal drink bag” allotment for the stay, NASA astronaut Don Pettit asked instead for a couple of bags of unflavored gelatin.

This was not for cooking purposes but rather to perform scientific experiments. How many of us would give up coffee for science?

Well, Donald Roy Pettit is not like most of us.

At the age of 69, Pettit is NASA's oldest active astronaut and began his third long-duration stay on the space station last month. A lifelong tinkerer and gifted science communicator, he already is performing wonders up there, and we'll get to his current activities in a moment. But just so you understand who we're dealing with, the thing to know about Pettit is that he is insatiably curious, and wants to share the wonder of science and the natural world with others.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/10/nasa-astronaut-don-pettit-is-a-giant-nerd-and-were-all-luckier-for-it/

“If you guys don't give me a chance to repair my instrument, I'm not going back.”

Eric Berger - 1/22/2024, 3:00 AM

Taylor Wang was deeply despondent.

A day earlier, he had quite literally felt on top of the world by becoming the first Chinese-born person to fly into space. But now, orbiting Earth on board the Space Shuttle, all of his hopes and dreams, everything he had worked on for the better part of a decade as an American scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had come crashing down around him.

Wang was the principal investigator of an experiment called the Drop Dynamics Module, which aimed to uncover the fundamental physical behavior of liquid drops in microgravity. He had largely built the experiment, and he then effectively won a lottery ticket when NASA selected him to fly on the 17th flight of the Space Shuttle program, the STS-51-B mission. Wang, along with six other crew members, launched aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in April 1985.

On the second day of the mission, Wang floated over to his experiment and sought to activate the Drop Dynamics Module. But it didn't work. He asked the NASA flight controllers on the ground if he could take some time to try to troubleshoot the problem and maybe fix the experiment. But on any Shuttle mission, time is precious. Every crew member has a detailed timeline, with a long list of tasks during waking hours. The flight controllers were reluctant.

After initially being told no, Wang pressed a bit further. “Listen, I know my system very well,” he said. “Give me a shot.” Still, the flight controllers demurred. Wang grew desperate. So he said something that chilled the nerves of those in Houston watching over the safety of the crew and the Shuttle mission.

“Hey, if you guys don't give me a chance to repair my instrument, I'm not going back,” Wang said.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/solving-a-nasa-mystery-why-did-space-shuttle-commanders-lock-the-hatch/

A recent photo of Williams aboard the ISS sparked rumors about her health, restoring the media's habit of prying into the appearance of women astronauts.

Passant Rabie - November 13, 2024

Floating in a microgravity environment that’s 250 miles above Earth’s surface hasn’t spared Suni Williams from inappropriate comments about her body, forcing the NASA astronaut to issue a public statement on her weight.

In response to tabloid reports that raised concern over the astronaut’s appearance, Williams reiterated that she is in good health and has maintained the same weight since boarding the International Space Station (ISS) in June. Although the rumors surrounding Williams stemmed from her extended stay on the space station, the line of questioning reiterated the media’s focus on the appearance of women astronauts and the assumption that women have a harder time in space.

Williams, along with NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, launched to the ISS on June 5, riding on board Boeing’s Starliner for the first crewed test flight of the spacecraft. The spacecraft remained docked to the space station for three months as teams on the ground debated whether or not it was safe to return the crew on board Starliner. During its trip to the ISS, five of the spacecraft’s thrusters failed and the spacecraft developed five helium leaks, one of which was identified prior to liftoff, forcing NASA to ultimately decide to return an uncrewed Starliner and bring back its crew on board SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-shouldnt-have-to-discuss-her-weight-to-dismiss-tabloid-rumors-2000524132

The private aerospace company also confirmed a proposed launch schedule for its upcoming spaceplane, Dream Chaser.

Kevin Hurler - 15 June 2022 1:30PM

Sierra Space announced its plans yesterday to launch a spaceflight center and astronaut training academy, which is good news for all of the adults out there who never got to go to space camp as a kid.

Colorado-based private space company Sierra Space announced yesterday its plans to build and operate the “world’s first fully integrated commercial human spaceflight center and astronaut training academy.” The academy will recruit and train three different types of astronauts who will work on Orbital Reef, the proposed space station that’s a collaboration between Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Sierra Space.

https://gizmodo.com/sierra-space-dream-chaser-nasa-orbital-reef-astronaut-t-1849064268

For the Tianwen-4 mission, two spacecraft will attempt to launch aboard the same rocket and then embark on separate trips to the outer solar system.

Passant Rabie - 26 September 2022 11:15AM

After successfully landing a rover on Mars last year, China has its interplanetary ambitions set on farther destinations in the solar system. As part of its expanding Tianwen program, China hopes to launch two spacecraft in the early 2030s to explore Jupiter and Uranus.

The plan is to launch a pair of spacecraft together aboard a Long March 5 rocket, in which the larger probe would heads towards Jupiter and the smaller spacecraft would make its way further out towards Uranus. The details of the mission, dubbed Tianwen-4, were revealed by Wang Qiong during a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress held in Paris on Wednesday, Space.com reported. Wang works out of the China National Space Administration’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.

https://gizmodo.com/china-missions-jupiter-uranus-tianwen-4-1849575036

China “poised to overtake us in the next five to 10 years if we don't do something.”

Eric Berger – Sep 16, 2025 9:22 AM

As Jonathan Roll neared completion of a master's degree in science and technology policy at Arizona State University three years ago, he did some research into recent developments by China's ascendant space program. He came away impressed by the country's growing ambitions.

Now a full-time research analyst at the university, Roll was recently asked to take a deeper dive into Chinese space plans.

“I thought I had a pretty good read on this when I was finishing grad school,” Roll told Ars. “That almost everything needed to be updated, or had changed three years later, was pretty scary. On all these fronts, they've made pretty significant progress. They are taking all of the cues from our Western system about what's really galvanized innovation, and they are off to the races with it.”

Roll is the co-author of a new report, titled “Redshift,” on the acceleration of China's commercial and civil space activities and the threat these pose to similar efforts in the United States. Published on Tuesday, the report was sponsored by the US-based Commercial Space Federation, which advocates for the country's commercial space industry. It is a sobering read and comes as China not only projects to land humans on the lunar surface before the US can return, but also is advancing across several spaceflight fronts to challenge America.

“The trend line is unmistakable,” the report states. “China is not only racing to catch up—it is setting pace, deregulating, and, at times, redefining what leadership looks like on and above Earth. This new space race will not be won with a single breakthrough or headline achievement, but with sustained commitment, clear-eyed vigilance, and a willingness to adapt over decades.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/a-new-report-finds-chinas-space-program-will-soon-equal-that-of-the-us/

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday September 16, 2025 08:30PM

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

As Jonathan Roll neared completion of a master's degree in science and technology policy at Arizona State University three years ago, he did some research into recent developments by China's ascendant space program. He came away impressed by the country's growing ambitions. Now a full-time research analyst at the university, Roll was recently asked to take a deeper dive into Chinese space plans. “I thought I had a pretty good read on this when I was finishing grad school,” Roll told Ars. “That almost everything needed to be updated, or had changed three years later, was pretty scary. On all these fronts, they've made pretty significant progress. They are taking all of the cues from our Western system about what's really galvanized innovation, and they are off to the races with it.”

Roll is the co-author of a new report, titled “Redshift,” on the acceleration of China's commercial and civil space activities and the threat these pose to similar efforts in the United States. Published on Tuesday, the report was sponsored by the US-based Commercial Space Federation, which advocates for the country's commercial space industry. It is a sobering read and comes as China not only projects to land humans on the lunar surface before the US can return, but also is advancing across several spaceflight fronts to challenge America. “The trend line is unmistakable,” the report states. “China is not only racing to catch up – it is setting pace, deregulating, and, at times, redefining what leadership looks like on and above Earth. This new space race will not be won with a single breakthrough or headline achievement, but with sustained commitment, clear-eyed vigilance, and a willingness to adapt over decades.”

https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/16/2050253/a-new-report-finds-chinas-space-program-will-soon-equal-that-of-the-us

The team added new limits to how dark matter could interact with the LIGO detector, boosting hopes for future runs.

Isaac Schultz - September 23, 2024

A team of researchers has proposed a novel way to search for dark matter: in the perturbations of spacetime itself. The team pored over data from the third observing run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory, or LIGO, and published its findings earlier this month in Physical Review Letters.

Dark matter is an umbrella term for the matter whose presence is inferred through its gravitational interactions with ordinary matter but which is otherwise invisible. Dark matter accounts for about 27% of the mass-energy content of the universe, and while it accounts for a huge amount of everything, it has proven vexingly difficult to observe directly. As in, scientists haven’t yet done so. Instead, they’ve been relegating to witnessing its gravitational effects on other objects.

“Some theories suggest dark matter behaves more like a wave than a particle,” Alexandre Göttel, a physicist at Cardiff University and lead author of the study, told Phys.org. “These waves would cause tiny oscillations in normal matter, which can be detected by gravitational wave detectors.”

https://gizmodo.com/dark-matter-could-be-hiding-in-gravitational-wave-data-2000502048

The object was detected by observing how its gravity distorts light behind it.

Passant Rabie - October 10, 2025

Astronomers have discovered an extremely faint, low-mass object in the distant cosmos, raising suspicion that it could be made up of dark matter, the elusive substance that makes up nearly 30% of the universe.

The team claims this may be the lowest-mass dark object ever found in the universe, but they haven’t yet been able to determine the nature of this mysterious discovery. Too faint to be seen, the object was found using gravitational lensing, which works by measuring the effect of an object’s gravity on light passing around it.

“Finding low-mass objects such as this one is critical for learning about the nature of dark matter,” study coauthor Chris Fassnacht, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis, said in a statement.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-discover-suspiciously-hard-to-see-object-might-be-dark-matter-2000671004

Some officials at the Pentagon have been calling for such a new classification policy for years.

Brett Tingley - 23 January 2024

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) wants to declassify more space programs in order to boost the nation's military edge in space.

As the world's superpowers continue to invest in the militarization of space, some leaders at the Pentagon believe it's time to declassify some of the secretive space programs in the United States' portfolio. To that end, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks recently approved a new policy that will reduce the classification level of some highly secret space programs and technologies.

The policies that have prohibited sharing this information are outdated and are holding back the U.S. when it comes to superiority in space, according to DoD Assistant Secretary for Space Policy John Plumb. “What the classification memo does, generally, is it overwrites — it really completely rewrites — a legacy document that had its roots 20 years ago, and it's just no longer applicable to the current environment that involves national security space,” Plumb said last week, according to Breaking Defense.

https://www.space.com/pentagon-us-military-declassify-secret-space-programs

Many defense officials argue that less secrecy will lead to better security.

Stephen Clark - 1/24/2024, 3:31 PM

Late last year, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed a memo to overhaul a decades-old policy on how the Pentagon keeps sensitive military space programs secret. However, don't expect defense officials to openly discuss everything they're doing to counter China and Russia in orbit.

John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, revealed the policy change in a roundtable with reporters on January 17. For many years, across multiple administrations, Pentagon officials have lamented their inability to share information with other countries and commercial partners. Inherently, they argued, this stranglehold on information limits the military's capacity to connect with allies, deter adversaries, and respond to threats in space.

In his statement last week, Plumb said this new policy “removes legacy classification barriers that have inhibited our ability to collaborate across the US government and also with allies on issues related to space.”

But Plumb was careful to point out that the memo from Hicks calls for “declassification, not unclassification” of military space programs. “So think of it as reducing classification.” Effectively, this means the Pentagon can make sensitive information available to people with lower security clearances. More eyes on a problem usually mean better solutions.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/secret-military-space-programs-can-be-a-little-less-secret-pentagon-says/

The annular phenom will be viewable from parts of the US, Mexico and Central and South America.

Stephanie Barnes, Contributing Writer - Wed, Oct 11, 2023, 6:00 AM PDT

It's an exciting time for astronomy enthusiasts as October is expected to bring a dazzling solar event. On October 14, there will be an annular solar eclipse viewable from some parts of the US, Mexico, Central and South America. Unlike a total solar eclipse, where the moon fully covers the sun, an annular eclipse occurs when the moon sits at the part of its orbit farthest from Earth. Because of the distance, the moon looks too small to completely block the sun, which creates a bright ring of sunlight around a dark lunar silhouette. This is often referred to as the “ring of fire.”

To view the eclipse safely in person, you'll need protective eyewear compliant with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard. You can also buy or create pinhole projectors. The eclipse will start over the Pacific Ocean and move southeast, passing over parts of the US, Mexico and Central/South America before moving over the Atlantic Ocean.

https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-the-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-on-october-14-130001895.html

The annular eclipse will be visible across North America on October 14, but only some lucky viewers will witness the famous ring.

George Dvorsky - 12 October 2023

On October 14, sky-watchers across North America will have the opportunity to witness a stunning annular solar eclipse, provided the weather plays along. Here’s your guide to when and where to catch this celestial event, from the vibrant “ring of fire” to varying degrees of partial obscurity.

https://gizmodo.com/where-when-eclipse-october-2023-ring-fire-live-stream-1850921930

You don’t want to be under one if the cable snaps.

Rhett Allain, wired.com - 1/22/2022, 6:00 AM

In the first episode of the Foundation series on Apple TV, we see a terrorist try to destroy the space elevator used by the Galactic Empire. This seems like a great chance to talk about the physics of space elevators and to consider what would happen if one exploded. (Hint: It wouldn't be good.)

People like to put stuff beyond the Earth's atmosphere: It allows us to have weather satellites, a space station, GPS satellites, and even the James Webb Space Telescope. But right now, our only option for getting stuff into space is to strap it to a controlled chemical explosion that we usually call “a rocket.”

Don't get me wrong, rockets are cool, but they are also expensive and inefficient. Let's consider what it takes to get a 1-kilogram object into low Earth orbit (LEO). This is around 400 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, about where the International Space Station is. In order to get this object into orbit, you need to accomplish two things. First, you need to lift it up 400 kilometers. But if you only increased the object’s altitude, it wouldn't be in space for long. It would just fall back to Earth. So, second, in order to keep this thing in LEO, it has to move—really fast.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/what-happens-if-a-space-elevator-breaks/

No, really. It has signed a contract to make this happen in 2025

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Fri 27 Nov 2020 / 04:01 UTC

The European Space Agency has formalised its plan to dispose of space junk by using an orbiting claw to grab an old bit of rocket before dragging both the claw and the junk to a fiery doom.

The agency announced the plan in late 2019 when it revealed it had asked Swiss startup ClearSpace to fully scope the mission.

The paperwork was due in March and found favour with ESA's Ministerial Council, which has approved funding for an €86 million contract to fund the mission.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/27/esa_clearspace_space_junk_cleanup_mission/

Work to develop a reusable engine for European rockets is progressing, with full ignition of an early prototype of Prometheus. These images were taken on 22 June 2023 at ArianeGroup’s test facility in Vernon, France during a 12-second burn.

23/06/2023

According to ArianeGroup, which is developing Prometheus under contact to ESA, testing will continue at the end of 2023 at the German aerospace agency DLR’s test site in Lampoldshausen, Germany.

The 100-tonne thrust class Prometheus features extensive use of new materials and manufacturing techniques designed to reduce its cost to just a tenth of Ariane 5’s Vulcain 2, an upgraded version of which – Vulcain 2.1 – powers the core stage of Ariane 6.

Prometheus burns liquid oxygen-liquid methane fuel. Methane is clean burning and simplifies handling, to help enable reusability and reduce the cost of ground operations before and after flight. A version using liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen is also being developed.

Prometheus features variable thrust and multiple ignition capability. Additive layer manufacturing – so-called 3D printing – features extensively, reducing the number of parts, speeding up production and reducing waste.

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Full_ignition_for_ESA_s_reusable_rocket_engine

ESA released a new video showing the final moments before its satellite was deliberately destroyed in Earth's atmosphere.

Passant Rabie - 7 September 2023

In late July, the Aeolus Earth Explorer satellite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere to burn up as scraps. Its unprecedented controlled reentry was captured through a series of images that show the spacecraft during its tumbling, fiery demise.

The European Space Agency (ESA) released a new animation made from the last eight images taken of Aeolus, revealing the final moments of the satellites as it began to tumble its way through Earth’s atmosphere as a giant fireball.

The images were captured by the Tracking and Imaging Radar (TIRA), a space observation radar at Fraunhofer FHR in Germany. Using its 110-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) antenna , TIRA tracked Aeolus on July 28 at around 12:20 p.m. ET for about four minutes as it was making its way down, according to ESA.

https://gizmodo.com/aeolus-wind-satellite-intentional-destruction-1850814691

Navigation satellites are typically located in medium Earth orbit, but bringing them closer could result in greater accuracy—and heightened space traffic.

Passant Rabie - 26 October 2022 2:50PM

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to test new navigation satellites that will orbit much closer to Earth than those already in place, in an effort to deliver more accurate location data to our everyday devices.

Currently, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are typically placed in medium Earth orbits about 6,300 to 12,500 miles (10,000 to 20,000 kilometers) above the surface and they send location data to smartphones, cars, and other mapping devices. But ESA is planning on building a constellation of navigation satellites, or satnavs, just a few hundred miles high, testing a multi-layer satnav system to supplement its already-existing Galileo satellites, according to ESA.

https://gizmodo.com/europe-navigation-satellites-low-earth-orbit-1849704712

The European Space Agency’s Juice probe launches next month, flying closer to icy moons – including Ganymede, the solar system’s largest – than ever before

Stuart Clark - Sun 5 Mar 2023 07.00 EST

For most of the past 200 years, were you to ask an astronomer where the most likely place in the solar system is to find life, the answer will have been Mars. The red planet and its potential inhabitants have captured our collective imagination for centuries, transforming from an imaginary canal-building civilisation in the 19th century to the much more scientifically plausible microbes of today. But now, the thinking is different.

In the past few decades, astronomers have been increasingly drawn to the deeper, darker realms of the solar system. Specifically, they have become fascinated by the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Years of research have all but proved that some of these moons contain vast oceans of liquid water below their frozen surfaces.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/05/could-jupiters-icy-moons-support-life

Europe's JUICE probe will investigate three of Jupiter's largest ice moons for signs of potential habitability.

George Dvorsky - 5 April 2023

More than a decade after the mission was announced, JUICE is finally ready for its much-anticipated journey to Jupiter. Packed with 10 instruments, it’s one of the most advanced probes ever sent to the outer solar system. Here’s your guide to the European Space Agency’s historic mission, set to launch on April 13.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been exploring Jupiter for the past seven years, but the mission is set to expire in 2025. The space agency’s Lucy probe is currently en route to Jupiter’s orbit, but it won’t investigate the gas giant and will instead focus on the Trojan asteroids. As a result, there’s going to be a gap when it comes to our on-the-scene investigations of Jupiter and its intriguing moons, but NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE will soon be on their way, the latter probe launching next week.

https://gizmodo.com/juice-mission-jupiter-ice-moons-esa-launch-science-1850299987

JUICE is having some difficulties deploying one of its most crucial science instruments—a tool for scanning the subsurfaces of Jupiter's icy moons.

Passant Rabie - 28 April 2023 4:50PM

The JUICE mission is at the very beginning of its eight-year journey to Jupiter and its moons, but one of its science instruments is already misbehaving.

The European Space Agency’s Jovian probe is having difficulty deploying its Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, which remains “partially extended but still stowed away,” according to a statement by the space agency.

JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or JUICE for short, launched on April 14 on a 12-year mission to study three of Jupiter’s icy moons: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. For its first two weeks in space, the spacecraft has been commissioning the different instruments on board. JUICE has already captured its first images using its monitoring cameras, deployed its solar array, and even got its first taste of science by deploying its magnetometer boom and recording a blip of the surrounding magnetic field.

https://gizmodo.com/key-tool-juice-jupiter-probe-exhibiting-problems-1850387472

Posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, 2023 02:23PM

The European Space Agency appears to have a slight problem: a critical antenna is jammed on their Jupiter-bound spacecraft launched two weeks ago. From the Associated Press:

The 52-foot (16-meter) radar antenna on Juice unfolded only one-third of the way following liftoff, according to the space agency. Engineers suspect a tiny pin may be protruding. Flight controllers in Germany plan to fire the spacecraft's engine in hopes of shaking the pin loose. If that doesn't work, they said they have plenty of time to solve the problem.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/04/28/2121241/key-radar-antenna-stuck-on-europes-jupiter-bound-spacecraft

JUICE’s 52-foot-long antenna is now at full length, but it required some serious coaxing—and a big jolt—to get the job done.

George Dvorsky -12 May 2023

A JUICE instrument for scanning the subsurface structure of Jupiter’s icy moons has finally been extended to its full length after stubbornly refusing to do so since launching last month.

JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or JUICE for short, is on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, where it will explore Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—three Gallilean moons suspected of harboring subsurface oceans and potentially habitable conditions. This is the European Space Agency’s first mission to Jupiter, which will reach the Jovian system in 2031 and perform scientific observations until 2034.

JUICE got off to a good start, launching to space on April 14, but flight controllers ran into issues when attempting to deploy the probe’s ice-penetrating Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna. The antenna remained lodged within its mounting bracket, keeping it to roughly one-third of its fully intended length. Engineers with the mission blamed a tiny stuck pin for the anomaly, saying it was problematically holding other segments in place.

https://gizmodo.com/stuck-antenna-jupiter-juice-probe-unfurls-1850433517

12/05/2023 - ESA / Science & Exploration / Space Science / Juice

More than three weeks after efforts began to deploy Juice’s ice-penetrating Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, the 16-metre-long boom has finally escaped its mounting bracket.

During the first attempt to extend the folded-up antenna, only the first segments of each half were deployed. Flight controllers suspected that a tiny stuck pin jammed the other segments in place.

Fortunately, the flight control teams at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt had lots of ideas up their sleeves.

To try to shift the pin, they shook Juice using its thrusters, then they warmed Juice with sunlight. Every day the RIME antenna was showing signs of movement, but no full release.

On 12 May RIME was finally jolted into life when the flight control team fired a mechanical device called a ‘non-explosive actuator’ (NEA), located in the jammed bracket. This delivered a shock that moved the pin by a matter of millimetres and allowed the antenna to unfold.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Juice_s_RIME_antenna_breaks_free

The spacecraft was a million miles from Earth when it was spotted by the Airbus telescope.

Passant Rabie - 16 May 2023

Europe’s JUICE mission is on an eight-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, traveling deep into the solar system to study Jupiter and its icy, potentially habitable moons. A ground-based telescope recently caught a sneaky glimpse of the probe as it barreled through space.

On Monday, Airbus Space released rare footage of the JUICE spacecraft, captured by the Airbus Robotic Telescope (ART) based in Spain. The telescope managed to spot the spacecraft during the early part of its journey, when it was around 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. Its destination, the Jupiter system, is more than 500 million miles away from our planet, so JUICE has a long road ahead.

https://gizmodo.com/oh-hey-theres-the-juice-probe-heading-for-jupiter-1850440987

The spacecraft had run into some trouble deploying a 52-foot-long antenna, but is now fully primed and ready as it continues along its eight-year journey.

Passant Rabie - 31 May 2023

It’s been six weeks since Europe’s JUICE mission launched towards the Jovian system, and the spacecraft is now all suited-up, with its instruments ready to explore the potential habitability of Jupiter’s mysterious, icy moons.

This week, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that its JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or JUICE for short, has fully deployed its solar panels, antennas, probes and booms. The spacecraft’s various instruments were safely tucked away to fit into the Ariane 5 rocket that launched it to space, but have now unfurled to reveal JUICE in its full glory.

“It’s been an exhausting but very exciting six weeks,” Angela Dietz, deputy spacecraft operations manager for the mission, said in the ESA statement. “We have faced and overcome various challenges to get [JUICE] into the right shape for getting the best science out of its trip to Jupiter.”

https://gizmodo.com/juice-jupiter-probe-deployed-ready-exploration-moons-1850492007

Timer fail blamed for probe going quiet as Venus looms

Richard Speed - Tue 26 Aug 2025 15:18 UTC

The European Space Agency (ESA) is breathing easier after communications with Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) were restored – the spacecraft is currently barreling toward Venus for a gravity-assist flyby on August 31.

The probe, which was launched in April 2023, began giving controllers the silent treatment when ESA's deep space antenna in Cebreros, Spain, failed to contact the spacecraft at the expected time of 0450 CEST on July 16. The ground station appeared to be functioning properly, and when ESA's New Norcia station also failed to make contact, controllers realized the problem was on Juice itself.

So what had happened? If there had been a major failure, Juice might have gone into survival mode and entered a slow spin, sweeping its antenna across the Earth once per hour. However, there wasn't a peep out of the spacecraft.

“Losing contact with a spacecraft is one of the most serious scenarios we can face,” said Angela Dietz, Juice Spacecraft Operations Manager. “With no telemetry, it is much more difficult to diagnose and resolve the root cause of an issue.”

Perhaps the antenna had somehow become misaligned, or maybe there had been a failure in the signal transmitter or amplifier. Teams scrambled to find a solution – with the Venus flyby looming, simply waiting 14 days for the next automatic spacecraft reset wasn't an option. Instead, the team attempted to send commands blindly into space, where Juice was expected to be, hoping that a backup antenna might receive them.

It took over 20 hours – each command takes 11 minutes to reach the spacecraft, another 11 minutes for a response to arrive. Six attempts to point the medium-gain antenna back toward Earth were unsuccessful. However, a command to switch on the signal amplifier that boosts the strength of the signal that Juice sends toward Earth did work, and contact was reestablished.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/juice_communications_bug/

ESA engineers worked through the night to troubleshoot an ill-fated software bug that jeopardized the mission.

Passant Rabie - August 27, 2025

An exceptionally heavy interplanetary probe is on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, using the gravity of Earth and Venus to propel it on its path toward the gas giant. Just weeks before its scheduled flyby of Venus, the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission went silent, threatening its ability to perform the planetary encounter.

Unable to communicate with the spacecraft, teams of engineers got to work on figuring out the problem under a tight schedule, hoping their efforts would reach JUICE as it cruises millions of miles away.

JUICE, or JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, is currently on its way to Venus to perform a gravity assist maneuver on August 31, following the resolution of a pesky software glitch that had weakened the spacecraft’s signal. Mission control managed to reestablish communication with the spacecraft just in time to prepare it for its upcoming flyby, pulling off an impressive recovery of the mission as it heads toward its target.

https://gizmodo.com/last-minute-software-patch-saves-jupiter-probe-ahead-of-critical-venus-flyby-2000648893

ESA and the Argonauts

Richard Speed - Fri 31 Jan 2025 10:17 UTC

The European Space Agency (ESA) has inked a deal worth €862 million with Thales Alenia Space to develop a lunar lander.

The lander, called Argonaut, is designed to carry cargo to the lunar surface and will consist of three parts: the Lunar Descent Element (LDE), which will be responsible for the journey to the Moon and landing on the lunar surface, a cargo platform which will provide an interface between payload and lander, and finally the payload itself.

As well as being able to heft science instruments and resources for astronauts to the Moon, Argonaut is expected to survive the lunar environment and endure for five years after landing. Delivery of the first lander is expected in 2030, ahead of a launch on an Ariane 6 rocket in 2031.

Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor and system integrator for the LDE. Thales Alenia Space in France and in the UK will respectively focus on data handling systems and propulsion.

Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA director for Human and Robotic Exploration, said, “This first-of-its-kind European lunar lander demonstrates ESA's dedication to advancing our industrial capabilities in deep space exploration.

“Argonaut will enable Europe to contribute meaningfully to international partnerships, while paving the way for a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Europe is on its journey to the Moon and has broken the ground towards European autonomy in Exploration.”

https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/31/european_space_agency_taps_thales/

What would you do with an otherwise healthy spacecraft?

Richard Speed - Wed 3 Aug 2022 16:30 UTC

ESA has admitted defeat and declared the mission of its Sentinel-1B spacecraft is at an end after attempts to deal with a borked power bus ended in failure.

The issue was an unwelcome Christmas gift from orbit for controllers and resulted in the payload of the Sentinel-1B being inoperative since December 23, 2021.

The Sentinel-1 mission consists of two polar-orbiting satellites which provide continuous radar mapping of the Earth. The constellation was expected to transmit data for at least seven years and had enough fuel onboard for twelve years.

Sentinel-1A was launched in 2014 and has had an eventful life with debris encounters and the odd swift manoeuvre to dodge space junk. Sentinel-1B went up on a Soyuz in 2016. Both are part of the Copernicus program.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/03/bye_bye_sentinel_1b/

Jay Kakade - June 22, 2025

For years, astronomers have been working to piece together the story of our universe, but the critical early chapters remained largely incomplete. Our telescopes simply haven't been sensitive enough to pick up those faintest traces of light from the farthest reaches of the universe. Until now that is. A new collaborative project dubbed the COSMOS-Web field has compiled the most comprehensive cosmic map ever, including images of the early universe as far back as 13.5 billion years.

By using the data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s 6.5‑meter (21-ft) mirror, scientists at UC Santa Barbara have surveyed 0.54 square degrees of sky, which is equivalent to the area of three full moons when viewed from Earth. Charting nearly 800,000 galaxies, the COSMOS-Web dataset covers almost 98% of cosmic history.

“Our goal was to construct this deep field of space on a physical scale that far exceeded anything that had been done before,” said the co-leader of the COSMOS collaboration and UC Santa Barbara physics professor Caitlin Casey.

Thanks to JWST, positioned in space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, and its sensitivity to capture these weak photons, researchers gathered a vast amount of raw data. However, interpreting this raw data required specialized knowledge and powerful computers. The COSMOS team spent over two years turning these raw images into user-friendly accessible catalogs.

https://newatlas.com/space/largest-map-universe-reveals-800000-galaxies/

Astronomers believe dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238 may have swallowed up a smaller neighbor.

Kris Holt - Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 7:47 AM PDT

NASA and the European Space Agency have released an image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope of a dwarf irregular galaxy that they admit looked “unexciting” at first glance. However, there's more going on than might initially meet the eye. The agencies say that a great deal of research is going into the “complicated structure” of NGC 5238, which is 14.5 million light-years away in the Canes Venatici constellation. In fact, astronomers believe the distribution of stars in NGC 5238 may have been distorted after it swallowed up another galaxy.

They reckon that due to NGC 5238's star population (which Hubble is adept at helping to image), it had a “close encounter” with another galaxy perhaps as recently as a billion years ago. But since there isn't a galaxy close enough to have distorted the star distribution in this fashion, it's more likely that NGC 5238 merged with a smaller galaxy. Along with hosting many stars, the galaxy is home to globular clusters, which NASA describes as “glowing, bright spots both inside and around the galaxy swarmed by even more stars.”

https://www.engadget.com/why-an-unexciting-galaxy-could-provide-clues-about-the-universes-evolution-144754342.html

Posted by BeauHD on Friday June 14, 2024 12:00AM

A new study by astrophysicist Richard Lieu suggests that gravity can exist without mass, proposing thin, shell-like layers of 'topological defects' as an alternative to dark matter for explaining the gravitational binding of galaxies. This theory posits that these defects create a gravitational force without detectable mass, potentially eliminating the need for dark matter in current cosmological models. Clare Watson reports via ScienceAlert:

Lieu started out trying to find another solution to the Einstein field equations, which relate the curvature of space-time to the presence of matter within it. As Einstein described in his 1915 theory of general relativity, space-time warps around bundles of matter and streams of radiation in the Universe, depending on their energy and momentum. That energy is, of course, related to mass in Einstein's famous equation: E=mc2. So an object's mass is linked to its energy, which bends space-time – and this curvature of space-time is what Einstein described as gravity, a notch more sophisticated than Newton's 17th-century approximation of gravity as a force between two objects with mass. In other words, gravity seems inextricably linked to mass. Not so, posits Lieu.

In his workings, Lieu set about solving a simplified version of the Einstein field equations that allows for a finite gravitation force in the absence of any detectable mass. He says his efforts were “driven by my frustration with the status quo, namely the notion of dark matter's existence despite the lack of any direct evidence for a whole century.” Lieu's solution consists of shell-shaped topological defects that might occur in very compact regions of space with a very high density of matter. These sets of concentric shells contain a thin layer of positive mass tucked inside an outer layer of negative mass. The two masses cancel each other out, so the total mass of the two layers is exactly zero. But when a star lies on this shell, it experiences a large gravitational force dragging it towards the center of the shell. “The contention of my paper is that at least the shells it posits are massless,” Lieu says. If those contentious suggestions bear any weight, “there is then no need to perpetuate this seemingly endless search for dark matter,” Lieu adds.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/06/13/2233255/wild-new-study-suggests-gravity-can-exist-without-mass

The “gravitational memory effect” predicts that a passing gravitational wave should forever alter the structure of space-time. Physicists have linked the phenomenon to fundamental cosmic symmetries and a potential solution to the black hole information paradox.

Katie McCormick, Writing Intern - December 8, 2021

The first detection of gravitational waves in 2016 provided decisive confirmation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But another astounding prediction remains unconfirmed: According to general relativity, every gravitational wave should leave an indelible imprint on the structure of space-time. It should permanently strain space, displacing the mirrors of a gravitational wave detector even after the wave has passed.

Since that first detection almost six years ago, physicists have been trying to figure out how to measure this so-called “memory effect.”

“The memory effect is absolutely a strange, strange phenomenon,” said Paul Lasky, an astrophysicist at Monash University in Australia. “It’s really deep stuff.”

https://www.quantamagazine.org/gravitational-waves-should-permanently-distort-space-time-20211208/

A new study on the structure of ice formed in space overturns a decades-long consensus in astronomy.

Gayoung Lee - July 10, 2025

For astronomers, probing the mysteries of “space ice”—its molecular makeup and how it formed—could be the key to understanding not just extraterrestrial geology but also the potential for alien life.

In a study published Monday in Physical Review B, researchers in England report that “space ice” likely contains countless tiny crystals inside and is less liquid-like than astronomers previously believed. At least, that’s according to computer simulations and experimental replications. The discovery resets our understanding of how ice behaves in the frigid vastness of deep space and could influence our theories about planet formation, comet chemistry—and even the origin of life.

“We now have a good idea of what the most common form of ice in the universe looks like at an atomic level,” said Michael B. Davies, a physicist at University College London (UCL) in England and the study’s lead author, in a statement. “This is important, as ice is involved in many cosmological processes, for instance, in how planets form, how galaxies evolve, and how matter moves around the universe.”

https://gizmodo.com/space-ice-is-actually-really-weird-scientists-say-2000627600

Some sensational things happened during the first month of 2024, some good, some bad, and some utterly unexpected.

George Dvorsky - 31 January 2024

We knew 2024 was going to be a landmark year in spaceflight, and judging by the wide range of developments in just the first month, we’re in for an extraordinary ride throughout the rest of the year.

It’s been a wild month in space. NASA finally cracked open its asteroid sample container, revealing cosmic secrets inside. Meanwhile, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter unexpectedly buzzed its last flight. Not just that—two missions zoomed off to the Moon, while a pair of spectacular new rockets hit the scene, among many other stories.

https://gizmodo.com/january-was-one-hell-of-month-in-spaceflight-1851158753

NASA - January 29, 2024 10:00AM (EST)

A new treasure trove of Webb images has arrived! Near- and mid-infrared images show off every facet of these face-on spiral galaxies.

Humanity has spent centuries mapping Earth’s features – and we frequently repeat the process by using more advanced instruments. When we combine the data, we get a more complete understanding of our planet.

Now, look outward into space. Astronomers have observed nearby, face-on spiral galaxies for decades. Both space- and ground-based telescopes have contributed to a cache of data in wavelengths from radio to ultraviolet light. Astronomers have long planned to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to obtain the highest resolution near- and mid-infrared images ever taken of these galaxies, and today they are publicly available.

Everyone can explore Webb’s newest set of exquisite images, which show stars, gas, and dust on small scales beyond our own galaxy. Teams of researchers are studying these images to uncover the origins of these intricate structures. The research community’s collective analysis will ultimately inform theorists’ simulations, and advance our understanding of star formation and the evolution of spiral galaxies.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-105

ISRO is exploring alternative uses for the satellite in its current orbit.

Passant Rabie - February 3, 2025

A recently launched satellite is stuck in space after failing to fire its thrusters, preventing it from reaching its operational orbit.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) shared an update on its NVS-02 satellite, which is currently in an unplanned elliptical orbit. The navigation satellite launched on January 29 on board India’s GSLV-Mk 2 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, headed toward a geostationary orbit. A few days after launch, however, the satellite was unable to carry out its orbital raising maneuvers after failing to fire its thrusters.

NVS-02 is the second satellite in ISRO’s NVS series, a constellation designed to provide accurate Position, Velocity and Timing (PVT) service to users in India. The satellite is set to replace the first generation satellite series, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. Its launch was also celebrated as the space-faring nation’s first launch of 2025 and its 100th launch overall, but the party didn’t last long.

Things were initially looking good for NVS-02. The satellite was successfully placed in a geosynchronous transfer orbit, its solar panels were deployed, and it established communication with ground control. “All the launch vehicle stages performed flawlessly and the orbit was achieved with a high degree of precision,” ISRO wrote in a statement on Sunday.

https://gizmodo.com/indias-new-navigation-satellite-is-stranded-in-the-wrong-orbit-after-thruster-glitch-2000558279

Aria Alamalhodaei - 21 December 2023

It was a jaw-dropping year for the space industry, and while we all know by now that progress isn’t linear, we feel pretty confident that 2024 will be even more astonishing.

This year was tough for many space companies, and we aren’t trying to paper that over with our optimism. The world of zero-interest-rate policy, or ZIRP, officially ended; cash got more expensive and fundraising became more challenging. Nevertheless, 2023 also produced a number of tailwinds that we think will make next year one of the most eventful so far.

Here’s a brief list of what we’re most excited for next year. This is TechCrunch, so the list skews toward venture-backed startups; keep that in mind before you complain about the absence of Artemis II.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/21/what-were-looking-forward-to-seeing-from-the-space-industry-in-2024/

What happened to 'for all mankind'? Fear of Russia and China, for starters

Laura Dobberstein - Wed 14 Jun 2023 05:31 UTC

On Tuesday, the government of Japan adopted its first official plan for space security – and it will likely include counterstrike capabilities.

“The new Basic Plan for Space Policy presents a vision of the future of security, disaster prevention and mitigation, innovation, civil sectors such as space science and exploration, and rockets that support these space activities, and sets out a plan to accomplish it over the next ten years,” declared prime minister Fumio Kishida in Japanese.

The PM's overview of Japan's next space plan (old ones can be found here) notes “the use of outer space is accelerating as the security environment becomes more complex and severe.”

His vision is based on last December's National Security Strategy. PM Kishida said it will include a host of space-related endeavors – such as boosting missile detection and tracking technology, AI to improve satellite image analysis, faster information transmission between satellites, use of the private sector to further space technology, and better collaboration between the space agency, JAXA, and the Defense Ministry.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/japan_space_security_plan/

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday September 16, 2023 12:00AM

Analysts are concerned that a lack of skilled labor in the space industry “could impact aerospace's growth in recent years, putting key projects on hold or preventing space startups from gaining traction,” reports ExtremeTech. From the report:

According to the Space Foundation's annual Space Report, job opportunities within the U.S. space industry have grown 18% over the past five years. Meanwhile, American colleges saw a decline in engineering students across the same period, prompting the industry to wonder whether the workforce could keep up with demand. Indeed, the Space Foundation says only 17% of NASA's workforce is under 35; not only does the agency tend to hire workers who have accumulated a lot of experience, but there aren't as many young professionals under consideration as there could be.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/09/15/2119239/space-industry-is-growing-faster-than-its-workforce-analysts-say

Keith Cowing - May 25, 2023

In a meeting today of the NASA New Horizons Science Team, a presentation strongly suggests that our solar system actually has a second Kuiper Belt. And the New Horizons spacecraft will be visiting it in a few years.

The presentation was made by co-investigator Wes Fraser from the Herzberg Astrophysics Institute in Canada. The above chart, shared during the presentation, shows data from ground-based observations. This data suggests that there are potentially many Kuiper Belt objects that might just be targets for another New Horizons Flyby.

In the chart above, the black dot on the horizontal axis is the current position of New Horizons, which is currently between the two belts. The orbits of objects to the right of New Horizons are the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) in the suspected second belt. New Horizons will be in the region of the second belt in the late 2020s or early 2030s.

https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/second-kuiper-belt-new-horizons-headed/

Icy bodies at Solar System’s edge found during target hunt for NASA spacecraft

3 Oct 20234:50 PM ET - Paul Voosen

There just doesn’t seem to be enough of the Solar System. Beyond Neptune’s orbit lie thousands of small icy objects in the Kuiper belt, with Pluto its most famous resident. But after 50 astronomical units (AU)—50 times the distance between Earth and the Sun—the belt ends suddenly and the number of objects drops to zero. Meanwhile, in other solar systems, similar belts stretch outward across hundreds of AU. It’s disquieting, says Wesley Fraser, an astronomer at the National Research Council Canada. “One odd thing about the known Solar System is just how bloody small we are.”

A new discovery is challenging that picture. While using ground-based telescopes to hunt for fresh targets for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now past Pluto on a course out of the Solar System, Fraser and his colleagues have made a tantalizing, though preliminary, discovery: about a dozen objects that lie beyond 60 AU—nearly as far from Pluto as Pluto is from the Sun. The finding, if real, could suggest that the Kuiper belt either extends much farther than once thought or—given the seeming 10-AU gap between these bodies and the known Kuiper belt—that a “second” belt exists.

https://www.science.org/content/article/puzzling-objects-found-far-beyond-neptune-hint-second-kuiper-belt

Already one of the largest structures in the solar system, the donut-shaped Kuiper Belt could stretch way beyond previous estimates.

Passant Rabie - 21 February 2024

While journeying through the far reaches of the solar system, the New Horizons probe picked up a dusty trail of icy fragments that may indicate that the Kuiper Belt—home to former planet Pluto and countless other objects—is way bigger than we thought.

New observations from the NASA mission suggest that the massive donut-shaped outer zone of the solar system, also known as the Kuiper Belt, could extend billions of miles farther than current estimates. There even might be a second, outer belt altogether, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

https://gizmodo.com/plutos-neighborhood-may-extend-billions-of-miles-farthe-1851272268

Ruth Hamilton says space rock came through the ceiling, landing on her pillow at her Golden, B.C., home

CBC News · Posted: Oct 12, 2021 11:30 AM PT

Ruth Hamilton had been asleep for hours in her Golden, B.C., home when she awoke to the sound of her dog barking, giving her a moment's notice before a rock from outer space hurtled into her bedroom.

“The next thing was just a huge explosion and debris all over my face,” Hamilton recalled in an interview Tuesday.

“I jumped out of bed and turned on the lights. I didn't know what else to do, so I called 911,” she said.

“Talking to the operator, she was asking me all kinds of questions, and at that point, I rolled back one of the two pillows I'd been sleeping on and in between them was the meteorite.”

A charcoal-grey chunk of rock roughly the size of a melon had plummeted from space, tearing through Hamilton's roof before coming to rest on her floral pillowcase, inches from where her head had been moments earlier.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meteorite-crashes-into-womans-bedroom-golden-bc-1.6207904

These spectacular fireballs hit Earth’s atmosphere at a shallow angle and sometimes even ‘bounce’ back into space.

George Dvorsky - 12 November 2021 11:07AM

Skywatchers in Georgia and Alabama were treated to a glorious light show this Tuesday when a rare earthgrazing meteor zoomed across the night sky.

The bright fireball became visible at 6:39 p.m. ET on November 9, and it was so bright that some skywatchers were still able to see it through partially overcast skies, as NASA Meteor Watch explained on its Facebook page. The object first appeared above Taylorsville, Georgia, moving northwest at 38,500 miles per hour (61,960 kilometers per hour) and at an altitude of 55 miles (89 km) above Earth.

The meteor hunters were able to calculate the object’s trajectory and orbit thanks to three NASA meteor cameras in the region, but some extra number crunching was required due to the surprising length of its journey through Earth’s atmosphere.

https://gizmodo.com/rare-earthgrazer-meteor-flew-186-miles-over-3-states-1848046040

Scientists speculate that asteroids colliding with Earth delivered water—an essential building block of life—but new research suggests the planet didn't need the delivery.

Margherita Bassi - April 19, 2025

Water is essential to life as we know it, but scientists are still unsure about how it originated on Earth. One theory is that asteroids express-shipped us hydrogen, essential to the formation of water molecules, by colliding with our planet in its early history. New research, however, suggests Earth already had enough hydrogen of its own, thank you very much.

Researchers in the UK discovered previously unknown quantities of hydrogen in a type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite. I know what you’re thinking: What does hydrogen on a meteorite have to do with the origin of water on Earth? The composition of enstatite chondrite meteorites closely resembles that of Earth 4.55 billion years ago. So if the meteorite has its own source of hydrogen, then early Earth likely did, too—meaning it could have produced water without the help of foreign emissaries.

“A fundamental question for planetary scientists is how Earth came to look like it does today. We now think that the material that built our planet–which we can study using these rare meteorites–was far richer in hydrogen than we thought previously,” James Bryson of the University of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences said in a university statement. “This finding supports the idea that the formation of water on Earth was a natural process, rather than a fluke of hydrated asteroids bombarding our planet after it formed.”

https://gizmodo.com/a-meteorite-from-alaska-challenges-theory-of-how-earth-got-its-water-2000590233

The team found five meteorites during their recent expedition. The rocks are now headed to a museum for study.

Kevin Hurler - 18 January 2023

Researchers combing the surface of Antarctica for space rocks hit the jackpot by finding five meteorites in the tundra, one of which weighs almost 17 pounds.

The expedition team found the meteorites sitting on top of the snow in Antarctica, where the rocks’ black bodies stuck out against the white snow fields of the continent. Antarctica is an ideal place to find relatively undisturbed space rocks, since its dry climate prevents excess weathering over time. Maria Valdes, a research scientist with the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, and her team found a total of five meteorites during their hunt in December, one of which weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kilograms).

https://gizmodo.com/17-pound-meteorite-found-antarctica-1850000562

A rocky stretch in Western Australia's Pilbara, near Earth's earliest-confirmed lifeforms, was hit by a meteorite about 3.5 billion years ago.

Isaac Schultz - March 6, 2025

Scientists in Australia say they’ve found the world’s oldest impact crater, surpassing the previous record-holder’s age by more than 1.25 billion years.

The meteorite impact—in Western Australia’s Pilbara region—dates back 3.5 billion years, while the former record-holding impact crater is just 2.2 billion years old. By far, the Pilbara crater is the oldest known on Earth, the researchers say, and they managed to find it thanks to a distinctive rock formation. The team’s findings are published today in Nature Communications.

“This study provides a crucial piece of the puzzle of Earth’s impact history and suggests there may be many other ancient craters that could be discovered over time,” said Tim Johnson, a geologist at Curtin University in Australia and co-lead author of the study, in a university release.

The distinctive rocks that helped researchers identify the crater are called shatter cones, and they only form in the extreme environment caused by a meteorite impact. The space rock hit an area now known as the North Pole Dome, in a part of the Pilbara about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Marble Bar in Western Australia. The now second-oldest-known crater is also in Western Australia, at Yarrabubba.

https://gizmodo.com/huge-impact-crater-in-australia-breaks-record-for-worlds-oldest-by-over-a-billion-years-2000572516

A tale of “sand dunes, a guy named Gaston, secret aeromagnetic surveys, and camel drivers.”

Jennifer Ouellette - 2/23/2024, 12:24 PM

In 1916, a French consular official reported finding a giant “iron hill” deep in the Sahara desert, roughly 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Chinguetti, Mauritania—purportedly a meteorite (technically a mesosiderite) some 40 meters (130 feet) tall and 100 meters (330 feet) long. He brought back a small fragment, but the meteorite hasn't been found again since, despite the efforts of multiple expeditions, calling its very existence into question.

Three British researchers have conducted their own analysis and proposed a means of determining once and for all whether the Chinguetti meteorite really exists, detailing their findings in a new preprint posted to the physics arXiv. They contend that they have narrowed down the likely locations where the meteorite might be buried under high sand dunes and are currently awaiting access to data from a magnetometer survey of the region in hopes of either finding the mysterious missing meteorite or confirming that it likely never existed.

Captain Gaston Ripert was in charge of the Chinguetti camel corps. One day he overheard a conversation among the chameliers (camel drivers) about an unusual iron hill in the desert. He convinced a local chief to guide him there one night, taking Ripert on a 10-hour camel ride along a “disorienting” route, making a few detours along the way. He may even have been literally blindfolded, depending on how one interprets the French phrase en aveugle, which can mean either “blind” (i.e. without a compass) or “blindfolded.” The 4-kilogram fragment Ripert collected was later analyzed by noted geologist Alfred Lacroix, who considered it a significant discovery. But when others failed to locate the larger Chinguetti meteorite, people started to doubt Ripert's story.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/a-meteorite-has-been-lost-in-the-sahara-since-1916-heres-how-we-might-find-it/

The meteorite was ruled to be ‘immovable property’ after it fell on to private property in 2020

Associated Press in Stockholm - Thu 21 Mar 2024 10.09 EDT

A Swedish landowner has won a legal battle to keep a 14kg (31lb) meteorite after an appeal court ruled that such rocks should be considered “immovable property” and part of the land where they are found.

The land on which the meteorite landed contains iron, which the meteorite is made of. Therefore it “cannot be easily separated from what is usually regarded as (immovable) property”, the Svea court of appeal ruled on Thursday.

On 7 November 2020 an iron meteorite fell on the private property in Uppland, north of Stockholm. In December of that year two geologists found it and eventually handed it over to the Swedish Museum of Natural History in the Swedish capital.

The Swedish news agency TT said the owner of the private land where it was found, Johan Benzelstierna von Engeström, appealed against a December 2022 ruling by the Uppsala district court. That ruling gave the rock’s finders, Andreas Forsberg and Anders Zetterqvist, the right to the stone because the meteorite was not part of the property, and was a movable property without an owner.

On Thursday, the appeals court said the iron meteorite “is made up of substances that are already present in the Earth’s surface”. Judge Robert Green said that meteorites or space rocks should be considered “part of immovable property just like other stones, even though it may intuitively feel like it is something foreign to the Earth”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/21/swedish-landowner-can-keep-14kg-meteorite-after-court-battle-with-geologists

As good time as any for Europe to announce a 2030 asteroid-spotting mission

Katyanna Quach - Wed 22 Feb 2023 08:30 UTC

A rock two-feet-wide last week hurtled toward Earth at 27,000 miles per hour – and exploded with an energy equivalent to eight tons of TNT into pieces that rained over McAllen, Texas. (That's 0.6 metres wide and 43,000 km per hour for you metric folks)

America's National Weather Service said a Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument aboard one of its satellites detected a bright flash at around 17​​23 CST (2323 UTC) on February 15 over Southern Texas. Residents nearby reported hearing a loud boom that rattled their windows in the early evening.

NASA confirmed that the object was a hefty fireball streaking through the sky, it was estimated to weigh 1,000 pounds (~454 kilograms). The space rock fragmented into smaller chunks at an altitude of 21 miles due to the effect of barreling through Earth's atmosphere.

Robert Ward, a planetary researcher from Arizona, recovered the first piece of the meteorite on private property near El Sauz, Texas, according to the American Meteor Society.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/22/texas_meteorite_nasa/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday August 10, 2025 10:34AM

The BBC reports:

A meteorite that crashed into a home in the U.S. is older than planet Earth, scientists have said…

Researchers at the University of Georgia examined a fragment of the rock that pierced the roof of a home in the city of McDonough [30 miles south of Georgia, on June 26]. They found that, based on the type of meteorite, it is expected to have formed 4.56 billion years ago, making it roughly 20 million years older than Earth… The rock quickly diminished in size and speed, but still travelled at least 1 km per second, going through a man's roof in Henry County…

Using optical and electron microscopy, Scott Harris [a Univeristy of Georgia geologist] and his team determined the rock was a chondrite — the most abundant type of stony meteorite, according to NASA — which meant that it was approximately 4.56 billion years old.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/10/1647247/meteorite-that-hit-home-is-older-than-earth-scientists-say

Studying this ancient space rock will help scientists prepare for larger, more dangerous asteroid impacts.

Ellyn Lapointe - August 11, 2025

On a clear June day in Georgia, a blazing fireball suddenly fell out of the sky over the Atlanta metro area. The source of this spectacle was a 1-ton meteor that exploded in mid-air, sending a cherry tomato-sized fragment shooting through the roof of a McDonough home.

Though no one knew it then, this space rock hailed from a time long before Earth had even formed. Using optical and electron microscopes, geologists at the University of Georgia analyzed 0.8 ounces (23 grams) of fragments recovered from the piece that ripped through the house on June 26. Their study revealed that this meteor was likely over 4.56 billion years old. That’s 20 million years older than our planet.

“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, ​​and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,” Scott Harris, a University of Georgia geology researcher, said in a release.

https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-crashes-into-georgia-home-turns-out-to-be-20-million-years-older-than-earth-2000641545

Posted by BeauHD on Friday January 17, 2025 11:00PM

Smithsonian Magazine reports:

A homeowner on Prince Edward Island in Canada has had a very unusual near-death experience: A meteorite landed exactly where he'd been standing roughly two minutes earlier. What's more, his home security camera caught the impact on video – capturing a rare clip that might be the first known recording of both the visual and audio of a meteorite striking the planet. The shocking event took place in July 2024 and was announced in a statement by the University of Alberta on Monday.

“It sounded like a loud, crashing, gunshot bang,” the homeowner, Joe Velaidum, tells the Canadian Press' Lyndsay Armstrong. Velaidum wasn't home to hear the sound in person, however. Last summer, he and his partner Laura Kelly noticed strange, star-shaped, grey debris in front of their house after returning from a walk with their dogs. They checked their security camera footage, and that's when they saw and heard it: a small rock plummeting through the sky and smashing into their walkway. It landed so quickly that the space rock itself is only visible in two of the video's frames.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/01/18/0044243/meteorite-crash-in-canada-is-caught-by-home-security-camera

Mining water, metals, and oxygen from the Moon and asteroids seems promising, but only if these space-based resources are reasonably accessible.

Kevin Hurle - 5 September 2023

The new era of space exploration is opening entirely new possibilities, including the tantalizing prospect of mining for resources on the Moon and asteroids. Sounds exciting—and potentially very profitable—but the reality of the situation is that space mining is completely uncharted territory. Plenty of prospecting needs to be done first to determine if these resources are even economically worth being harvested in the first place.

In the next decade, NASA and its collaborators are turning their gaze back to the Moon. The agency is looking to land astronauts there in 2025 as part of the ongoing Artemis program; this would be the first time an astronaut has landed on the Moon since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

https://gizmodo.com/will-mining-the-moon-and-asteroids-be-worth-the-trouble-1850756029

Mining in space might be less environmentally harmful than mining asteroids on Earth.

Ramin Skibba, WIRED.com - 10/21/2023, 4:47 AM

Everyone’s into asteroids these days. Space agencies in Japan and the United States recently sent spacecraft to investigate, nudge, or bring back samples from these hurtling space rocks, and after a rocky start, the space mining industry is once again on the ascent. Companies like AstroForge, Trans Astronautica Corporation, and Karman+ are preparing to test their tech in space before venturing toward asteroids themselves.

It’s getting serious enough that economists published a series of papers on October 16 considering the growth of economic activity in space. For instance, a study by Ian Lange of the Colorado School of Mines considers the potential—and challenges—for a fledgling industry that might reach a significant scale in the next several decades, driven by the demand for critical metals used in electronics, solar and wind power, and electric car components, particularly batteries. While other companies are exploring the controversial idea of scooping cobalt, nickel, and platinum from the seafloor, some asteroids could harbor the same minerals in abundance—and have no wildlife that could be harmed during their extraction.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/space-is-starting-to-look-like-the-better-mining-operation/

“Nature is handing us an incredibly rare experiment.”

Eric Berger – Jun 27, 2025 4:00 AM

A little less than four years from now, a killer asteroid will narrowly fly past planet Earth. This will be a celestial event visible around the world—for a few weeks, Apophis will shine among the brightest objects in the night sky.

The near miss by the large Apophis asteroid in April 2029 offers NASA a golden—and exceedingly rare—opportunity to observe such an object like this up close. Critically, the interaction between Apophis and Earth's gravitational pull will offer scientists an unprecedented chance to study the interior of an asteroid.

This is fascinating for planetary science, but it also has serious implications for planetary defense. In the future, were such an asteroid on course to strike Earth, an effective plan to deflect it would depend on knowing what the interior looks like.

“This is a remarkable opportunity,” said Bobby Braun, who leads space exploration for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in an interview. “From a probability standpoint, there’s not going to be another chance to study a killer asteroid like this for thousands of years. Sooner or later, we’re going to need this knowledge.”

But we may not get it.

https://arstechnica.com/features/2025/06/trump-budget-kills-nasas-golden-opportunity-to-see-a-killer-asteroid-up-close/

Space boffins task engineers with creating 40kW lunar fission plant that can operate for ten years

Katyanna Quach - Fri 24 Jun 2022 01:45 UTC

NASA has chosen the three companies it will fund to develop a nuclear fission reactor ready to test on the Moon by the end of the decade.

This power plant is set to be a vital component of Artemis, the American space agency's most ambitious human spaceflight mission to date. This is a large-scale project to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, and establish a long-term presence on Earth's natural satellite.

NASA envisions [PDF] astronauts living in a lunar base camp, bombing around in rovers, and using it as a launchpad to explore further out into the Solar System. In order for this to happen, it'll need to figure out how to generate a decent amount of power somehow.

Enter fission surface power. A nuclear fission reactor harnesses the energy released from splitting apart atoms like uranium. Unlike solar panels, fission reactors can provide constant power and can be placed in dark cool corners of the lunar surface that receive little to no sunlight. NASA believes it will need 40 kilowatts of power for the first lunar inhabitants. Last year, the agency, with the US government's Dept of Energy, invited companies to send in proposals of how to build such a system.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/nasa_nuclear_power_moon/

There are also concepts for an observatory 'swarm' and self-growing Mars habitats.

Jon Fingas| - January 10, 2023 11:37 AM

NASA is still willing to fund unusual concepts in its bid to advance space exploration. The agency is handing out $175,000 initial study grants to 14 projects that could be useful for missions in and beyond the Solar System. The highlight may be TitanAir, a seaplane from Planet Enterprises' Quinn Morley that could both fly through the nitrogen-and-methane atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan and sail its oceans. The “flying boat” would collect methane and complex organic material for study by sucking it in through a porous leading edge.

A project from UCLA's Artur Davoyan, meanwhile, could speed up missions to the outer edge of the Solar System and even interstellar space. His design (shown at middle) would propel spacecraft by producing a “pellet-beam” of microscopic particles travelling at very high speed (over 74 miles per second) using laser blasts. The concept could dramatically shorten the time it takes to explore deep space. Where Voyager 1 took 35 years to reach interstellar space (the heliopause, roughly 123AU from the Sun), a one-ton spacecraft could reach 100AU in just three years. It could travel 500AU in 15 years.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-titan-seaplane-pellet-beam-propulsion-163726530.html

Instead of relying on fasteners to keep structures together in space, astronauts may need to use lasers to weld on the lunar surface.

Passant Rabie - November 8, 2024

As space agencies look to establish human habitats on the Moon and Mars, astronauts must be equipped with tools to manufacture structures in space. But rather than packing a traditional tool box to space, NASA is looking to use laser beams to potentially revolutionize in-space manufacturing and make those long-duration stays on the lunar surface more durable.

A team of engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Ohio State University are carrying out a multi-year study to test the effects of laser beam welding in a combined vacuum and reduced gravity environment, the space agency announced.

“For a long time, we’ve used fasteners, rivets, or other mechanical means to keep structures that we assemble together in space,” Andrew O’Connor, NASA’s technical lead for the project, said in a statement. “But we’re starting to realize that if we really want strong joints and if we want structures to stay together when assembled on the lunar surface, we may need in-space welding.”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-wants-to-bring-welding-back-to-space-after-50-years-this-time-with-lasers-2000522052

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday March 23, 2025 12:34AM

NASA is considering “closing its headquarters and scattering responsibilities among the states,” reports Politico, citing two people familiar with the plan. “The proposal could affect up to 2,500 jobs and redistribute critical functions, including who manages space exploration and organizes major science missions.”

While much of the day-to-day work occurs at NASA's 10 centers, the Washington office plays a strategic role in lobbying for the agency's priorities in Congress, ensuring the White House supports its agenda and partnering with foreign countries on critical space projects. Some of the headquarter's offices might remain in Washington, the people said, but it's not clear which ones those would be or who would keep their jobs…

One of the biggest fallouts is the damage it could do to coordination among NASA leadership on pressing issues… It would also limit cooperation with international partners on space, which is often done through embassies in Washington. NASA works with foreign partners on a range of projects, including the International Space Station and returning to the moon. The European Space Agency, for example, plans to provide modules for Gateway, a lunar space station that is central to NASA's Artemis program to land American astronauts back on the moon… The agency also helps coordinate support from foreign nations for the Artemis accords, which set goals for transparency and data sharing — and help create a level of trust in an unregulated part of the universe.

But the reallocation could have some benefits. Such a move would bring headquarters employees closer to the processes they manage. And it would give legislative liaison staff a chance to interact with lawmakers in their districts. “You're probably getting a lot more time with [lawmakers] at the local center or hosting events in the state or district,” said Tom Culligan, a longtime space lobbyist,, the space industry lobbyist.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/223207/nasa-considers-eliminating-its-headquarters-in-washington-dc

For the first time, a hybrid antenna successfully received both radio and laser signals, in what's a big leap in space communications technology.

Passant Rabie - 12 February 2024

NASA outfitted its aging communications network with a hybrid antenna that allowed it to receive both radio frequency and laser signals for the first time, helping the space agency keep up with its increasing number of missions traveling through deep space.

Deep Space Station 13, an experimental 112-foot-long (34-meters) radio-frequency-optical-hybrid antenna, tracked and decoded a signal from a gold-capped laser transceiver attached to NASA’s asteroid probe Psyche, the space agency recently announced. The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment launched on board the Psyche spacecraft on October 13, 2023 as the first demonstration of laser, or optical, communications from as far away as Mars.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-hybrid-antenna-revolution-in-space-communication-1851248214

Seven of the new strains were cultured during the assembly of the Phoenix mission that landed on the surface of Mars.

Passant Rabie - May 19, 2025

In space travel, it can often be the tiniest things that ruin a big mission. That’s why attention to detail is key, particularly inside a cleanroom where spacecraft are put together and prepped for their rigorous journey through the cosmos. But even those meticulously regulated rooms can’t keep some microorganisms out. In fact, some bacteria thrive in the stringent environment.

A group of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as other institutes in India and Saudi Arabia, discovered 26 previously unknown bacterial species in the cleanroom used to assemble the Phoenix spacecraft ahead of its launch in August 2007. The discovery, recently published in the journal Microbiome, highlights the potential risk posed by highly resilient microorganisms that could contaminate space missions or the planets they visit.

For the study, the team of scientists sequenced 215 bacterial strains. Some of these were present before the Phoenix spacecraft arrived at its cleanroom on April 25, 2007, while others formed during the spacecraft’s assembly and testing, and after it had been moved to the launchpad to begin its journey to Mars. Out of the 215 strains, the team identified 53 strains belonging to 26 new species.

https://gizmodo.com/26-unidentified-bacterial-species-detected-in-nasa-cleanroom-2000603987

“I can't go and print the dollars.”

Eric Berger - 8/13/2024, 2:32 PM

Ars Technica recently had the opportunity to speak with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who has now led the US space agency for more than three years. We spoke about budget issues, Artemis program timelines, and NASA's role as a soft power in global diplomacy. What follows is a very lightly edited transcript of the conversation between Senior Space Editor Eric Berger and Nelson.

Ars Technica: I wanted to start with NASA's budget for next year. We've now seen the numbers from the House and Senate, and NASA is once again facing some cuts. And I'm just wondering, what are your big concerns as we get into the final budgeting process this fall?

Administrator Bill Nelson: Well, the big concern is that you can't put 10 pounds of potatoes in a five-pound sack. When you get cut $4.7 billion over two years, and when $2 billion of that over two years is just in science, then you have to start making some hard choices. Now, I understand the reasons for the cuts. Had I still been a member of the Senate I would've voted for it simply because they were held hostage by a small group in the House to get what they wanted. Which was reduced appropriations in order to raise the artificial, statutory budget debt ceiling in order for the government not to go into default. That's part of the legislative process. It's part of the compromises that go on. It happened over a year ago, and it was called the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The price for doing that wasn't cuts across the entire budget. Remember, two-thirds of the budget is entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and it certainly wasn't in defense. So, all the cuts came out of everything left over, including NASA. I'm hoping that we're going to get a reprieve come fiscal year '26 when we will not be in the budgetary constraints of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. But who knows? Because lo and behold, they've got another artificial debt ceiling they're going to have to raise next January.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/a-conversation-with-nasa-chief-bill-nelson-on-artemis-budget-holes-and-more/

Buildings at Johnson Space Center in Houston are among the worst at any NASA facility.

Stephen Clark - 9/12/2024, 7:22 AM

A panel of independent experts reported this week that NASA lacks funding to maintain most of its decades-old facilities, could lose its engineering prowess to the commercial space industry, and has a shortsighted roadmap for technology development.

“NASA’s problem is it always seems to have $3 billion more program than it has of funds,” said Norm Augustine, chair of the National Academies panel chartered to examine the critical facilities, workforce, and technology needed to achieve NASA's long-term strategic goals and objectives. Augustine said a similar statement could sum up two previous high-level reviews of NASA's space programs that he chaired in 1990 and 2009. But the report released Tuesday put NASA's predicament in stark terms.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/eminent-officials-say-nasa-facilities-some-of-the-worst-theyve-ever-seen/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday September 14, 2024 04:02PM

More details on that report about NASA from the Washington Post:

NASA is 66 years old and feeling its age. Brilliant engineers are retiring. Others have fled to higher-paying jobs in the private space industry. The buildings are old, their maintenance deferred. The Apollo era, with its huge taxpayer investment, is a distant memory. The agency now pursues complex missions on inadequate budgets. This may be an unsustainable path for NASA, one that imperils long-term success. That is the conclusion of a sweeping report, titled “NASA at a Crossroads,” written by a committee of aerospace experts and published Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The report suggests that NASA prioritizes near-term missions and fails to think strategically. In other words, the space agency isn't sufficiently focused on the future.

NASA's intense focus on current missions is understandable, considering the unforgiving nature of space operations, but “one tends to neglect the probably less glamorous thing that will determine the success in the future,” the report's lead author, Norman Augustine, a retired Lockheed Martin chief executive, said Tuesday. He said one solution for NASA's problems is more funding from Congress. But that may be hard to come by, in which case, he said, the agency needs to consider canceling or delaying costly missions to invest in more mundane but strategically important institutional needs, such as technology development and workforce training. Augustine said he is concerned that NASA could lose in-house expertise if it relies too heavily on the private industry for newly emerging technologies. “It will have trouble hiring innovative, creative engineers. Innovative, creative engineers don't want to have a job that consists of overseeing other people's work,” he said…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/040222/underfunded-aging-nasa-may-be-on-unsustainable-path-report-warns

Michael Hiltzik - June 9, 2025 Updated 9:39 AM PT

Like all sponsors of science programs, NASA has had its ups and downs. What makes it unique is that its achievements and failures almost always happen in public.

Triumphs like the moon landings and the deep-space images from the Hubble and Webb space telescopes were great popular successes; the string of exploding rockets in its early days and the shuttle explosions cast lasting shadows over its work.

But the agency may never have had to confront a challenge like the one it faces now: a Trump administration budget plan that would cut funding for NASA’s science programs by nearly 50% and its overall spending by about 24%.

The budget, according to insiders, was prepared without significant input from NASA itself. That’s not surprising, because the agency doesn’t have a formal leader.

On May 31 Donald Trump abruptly pulled the nomination as NASA administrator of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, space enthusiast, and two-time crew member on private space flights, apparently because of his ties to Elon Musk. The withdrawal came only days before a Senate confirmation vote on Isaacman’s appointment.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-06-09/trumps-nasa-cuts-would-destroy-decades-of-science-and-wipe-out-its-future

Casey Handmer - June 2025

NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik and the emerging necessity of a robust, government supported space exploration and technology development program to safeguard US interests in space.

NASA embodies the US ideals of optimism and technical excellence. I was privileged to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for four years, among titans of the industry.

It is clear, however, that today’s NASA is but a shadow of its former self. I care less about the why of NASA’s long decline, than about whether NASA can be rebuilt once again, and how. I believe NASA is worth saving. I’m accustomed to articulating a minority view point, but in this I’m confident – there are millions of Americans who want NASA to once again embody a golden century of supreme optimism and confidence. A NASA that leads humanity into its infinitely bright future.

In this post, I summarize some of NASA’s existential challenges and point the way to a better future. It is partly a response to the recent withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA Administrator, in whose leadership so much of our hope had rested. Jared’s skills and experience are rare but hopefully not unique. NASA, and the American people, deserve a leader equal to its current challenges.

https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2025/06/12/nasa-is-worth-saving/

A Trump appointee suggests NASA may not have a new administrator until next year.

Stephen Clark – Jun 26, 2025 5:47 AM

The four people at the helm of America's space agency held a town hall meeting with employees Wednesday, fielding questions about downsizing, layoffs, and proposed budget cuts that threaten to undermine NASA's mission and prestige.

Janet Petro, NASA's acting administrator, addressed questions from an auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. She was joined by Brian Hughes, the agency's chief of staff, a political appointee who was formerly a Florida-based consultant active in city politics and in Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. Two other senior career managers, Vanessa Wyche and Casey Swails, were also on the stage.

They tried to put a positive spin on the situation at NASA. Petro, Wyche, and Swails are civil servants, not Trump loyalists. None of them looked like they wanted to be there. The town hall was not publicized outside of NASA ahead of time, but live video of the event was available—unadvertised—on an obscure NASA streaming website. The video has since been removed.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/06/during-a-town-hall-wednesday-nasa-officials-on-stage-looked-like-hostages/

The space agency says its facilities are in an “increasing state of decline.”

Stephen Clark - 8/17/2023, 3:55 PM

It's big news when a hurricane damages buildings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center or hits a rocket factory in New Orleans. There's damage that needs repairing immediately so missions can move forward to launch.

But there's a deeper problem with NASA's infrastructure. Erik Weiser, director of NASA's facilities and real estate division, told a blue-ribbon National Academies panel Thursday that the agency's budget for maintenance and construction is “wholly underfunded.”

In his presentation to the National Academies committee, Weiser described NASA's infrastructure as in an “increasing state of decline.” There's a mismatch between what NASA needs to maintain or upgrade its facilities and the dollars the agency devotes to those efforts. The maintenance gap is $259 million per year using NASA's most conservative estimate, or more than $600 million if NASA followed the maintenance practices of the commercial industry, Weiser said.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/nasas-buildings-are-even-older-than-its-graying-workforce/

Flagship facility has just 48 GPUs

Simon Sharwood - Fri 15 Mar 2024 01:00 UTC

NASA's supercomputing capabilities are not keeping pace with the latest technology developments, and are “oversubscribed and overburdened,” causing delays to missions that are sometimes addressed by teams acquiring their own infrastructure.

The above are some of the findings of an assessment [PDF] of the aerospace agency's high-end compute capabilities, conducted by NASA's internal auditor, the Office of Inspector General.

Published on Thursday, the audit opens by declaring “NASA needs a renewed commitment and sustained leadership attention to reinvigorate its [high-end computing] HEC efforts. Without key changes, the Agency's HEC is likely to constrain future mission priorities and goals.”

Those changes are needed because NASA's HEC ops – a term the audit uses interchangeably with supercomputing – are managed by its Earth Science Research Program within the Science Mission Directorate, rather than as a central function.

NASA's CIO has some oversight of HEC, but it is not directly engaged in HEC activities or governance.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/15/nasa_oig_supercomputing_audit/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday August 31, 2023 06:00AM

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency's Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas in California, Spain, and Australia used to maintain contact with missions scattered across the Solar System. Everything from NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive commands and transmit data back to Earth. Suzanne Dodd, who oversees the DSN in her position at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, likes to highlight the network's importance by showing gorgeous images from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Perseverance rover on Mars. “All these images, and all these great visuals for the public, and all the science for the scientists come down through the Deep Space Network,” Dodd said Tuesday in a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/08/31/0543239/nasa-officials-sound-alarm-over-future-of-the-deep-space-network

Former Space Shuttle boss's blog booted from Trump-era agency website

Richard Speed - Wed 30 Apr 2025 14:04 UTC

NASA has excised former Space Shuttle manager Wayne Hale's blog from its website in a reminder that nothing is forever.

Hale began his blog in 2008, as the Space Shuttle program was winding down. The agency had named him as deputy associate administrator for strategic partnerships, after he served a stint as Space Shuttle program manager and supervised the program's return to flight following the Columbia disaster, which killed seven astronauts.

“I was told to 'try out' some of the new social media applications,” he recalled, and kept a blog on the NASA website until he retired from the agency in 2010. The blog moved into NASA's archives, but could still be found until recently, when, after some apparent housekeeping within the US space agency, Hale's posts were removed.

“I guess NASA doesn't need or care about my work anymore,” he said.

We asked NASA if Hale's blog had indeed been deleted forever, or if it would be resurrected elsewhere in the agency's archives. A spokesperson for the American agency told us it's basically gone:

As part of NASA’s web modernization efforts, the agency is reducing its digital footprint, including removing blogs no longer actively maintained, have low traffic, and/or do not support an active mission.

We're relieved to say Hale's posts can be found on the Internet Archive. The day the DEI died

Last month, NASA removed all language signposting equality efforts on its website as a result of the Trump administration's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) purge. Among them was a pledge to include a woman of color in the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027, which will put the first boots on the lunar surface in more than half a century (Artemis II will do a flyby in 2026). This doesn't preclude the agency from doing so, of course, but the pledge is gone.

It would be a shame if the posts remain permanently removed from NASA's site, since Hale's recollections on how the Space Shuttle program worked, its attitude to risk, and so on, remain useful lessons for today's engineers. This includes workers on NASA's program to return to the Moon, using bits of Space Shuttles and shiny new capsules.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/space_shuttle_bosss_blog_booted/

“We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place.”

Stephen Clark – Dec 4, 2024 10:41 AM

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he has selected Jared Isaacman, a billionaire businessman and space enthusiast who twice flew to orbit with SpaceX, to become the next NASA administrator.

“I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology, and exploration.”

In a post on X, Isaacman said he was “honored” to receive Trump's nomination.

“Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,” Isaacman wrote. “On my last mission to space, my crew and I traveled farther from Earth than anyone in over half a century. I can confidently say this second space age has only just begun.”

Top officials who served at NASA under President Trump and President Obama endorsed Isaacman as the next NASA boss.

“Jared Isaacman will be an outstanding NASA Administrator and leader of the NASA family,” said Jim Bridenstine, who led NASA as administrator during Trump's first term in the White House. “Jared’s vision for pushing boundaries, paired with his proven track record of success in private industry, positions him as an ideal candidate to lead NASA into a bold new era of exploration and discovery. I urge the Senate to swiftly confirm him.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/jared-isaacman-entrepreneur-and-private-astronaut-is-trumps-choice-to-lead-nasa/

NASA says there’s insufficient evidence to warrant a name change for the James Webb Space Telescope.

George Dvorsky - 30 September 2021 5:05PM

The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch later this year, and NASA has no intention to rename the instrument despite complaints that it’s named after a man who presided over the firings of gay and lesbian government employees, NPR reports.

In just a few months, finger’s crossed, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will park itself in the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point, from where it will gaze upon the cosmos. Far from the noise and clutter of low Earth orbit, the $10 billion telescope will peer at ancient galaxies, dust disks around stars, and the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. Profoundly, JWST even has the potential to detect biosignatures consistent with alien life.

But for each mind-bending discovery this telescope is certain to make, we’ll have to cringe at its unfortunate name and link to the Lavender Scare—a despicable era in American history when gay and lesbian government employees were fired or forced to resign on account of their sexuality. James Webb, NASA administrator from 1961 to 1968, actively participated in the Lavender Scare, yet the most powerful space telescope ever built was named in his honor.

https://gizmodo.com/space-telescope-will-retain-name-of-nasa-administrator-1847777684

NASA is leading an anomaly review board to investigate and conduct additional testing.

Eric Berger - 11/22/2021, 2:09 PM

A short update on the projected launch date of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope came out of NASA on Monday, and it wasn't exactly a heart-warming missive.

The large, space-based telescope's “no earlier than” launch date will slip from December 18 to at least December 22 after an “incident” occurred during processing operations at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. That is where the telescope will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket provided by the European Space Agency.

“Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket,” NASA said in a blog post. “A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/an-incident-with-the-james-webb-space-telescope-has-occurred/

Posted by msmash on Tuesday November 23, 2021 08:11AM A short update on the projected launch date of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope came out of NASA on Monday, and it wasn't exactly a heart-warming missive. From a report:

The large, space-based telescope's “no earlier than” launch date will slip from December 18 to at least December 22 after an “incident” occurred during processing operations at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. That is where the telescope will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket provided by the European Space Agency. “Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket,” NASA said in a blog post. “A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band – which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter – caused a vibration throughout the observatory.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/11/23/1611235/an-incident-with-the-james-webb-space-telescope-has-occurred

The $10 billion space telescope is now scheduled to launch on December 22.

George Dvorsky - Thursday 25 November 2021 12:30PM

A processing incident that caused the entire Webb Space Telescope to shake did not cause any perceptible damage to the observatory, a NASA-led investigation has concluded.

“Engineering teams have completed additional testing confirming NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is ready for flight,” as NASA explained in a statement.

That’s a huge relief. This means launch preparations can continue as planned, with blast off now scheduled for Wednesday December 22 at 7:20 a.m. ET (4:30 a.m. PT). Launch of the next-gen space telescope was originally scheduled for December 18, but a scary mounting incident at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, resulted in a four day delay. Private contractor Arianespace is managing the launch for NASA.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-not-damaged-following-mounting-incident-1848122047

Three decades after it was conceived, Hubble’s successor is set for launch. Here’s why astronomers around the world can’t wait.

Alexandra Witze - 08 December 2021

Lisa Dang wasn’t even born when astronomers started planning the most ambitious and complex space observatory ever built. Now, three decades later, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is finally about to launch, and Dang has scored some of its first observing time — in a research area that didn’t even exist when it was being designed.

Dang, an astrophysicist and graduate student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, will be using the telescope, known as Webb for short, to stare at a planet beyond the Solar System. Called K2-141b, it is a world so hot that its surface is partly molten rock. She is one of dozens of astronomers who learnt in March that they had won observing time on the telescope. The long-awaited Webb — a partnership involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) — is slated to lift off from a launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than 22 December.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03620-1

Blast off is scheduled for December 22 and holy crap this might actually happen.

George Dvorsky - 7 December 2021 11:24AM

Wearing protective suits to guard against toxic chemicals, a small team of mission specialists has completed the 10-day fueling of the upcoming Webb space telescope. For what seems like the first time ever, the long-delayed mission is actually starting to feel real.

Fueling was completed on December 3 at the payload preparation facility at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, according to a European Space Agency press release. It’s a major milestone, as all that’s left is for mission specialists to mount the telescope atop an Ariane 5 rocket, make some final adjustments, and then roll it out to the launch pad.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-now-fueled-up-as-much-anticipated-launch-1848172493

Fingers crossed the telescope will finally take to space on 22 December

Katyanna Quach - Tue 7 Dec 2021 00:48 UTC

Engineers have finished pumping the James Webb Space Telescope with fuel, and are now preparing to carefully place the folded instrument inside the top of a rocket, expected to blast off later this month.

“Propellant tanks were filled separately with 79.5 [liters] of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidiser and 159 [liters of] hydrazine,” the European Space Agency confirmed on Monday. “Oxidiser improves the burn efficiency of the hydrazine fuel.” The fuelling process took ten days and finished on 3 December.

All eyes are on the JWST as it enters the last leg of its journey to space; astronomers have been waiting for this moment since development for the world’s largest space telescope began in 1996.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/07/jwst_fueled/

14/12/2021 - ESA

On Saturday 11 December, the James Webb Space Telescope was placed on top of the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

After its arrival in the final assembly building, Webb was lifted slowly about 40 m high and then carefully manoeuvred on top of Ariane 5, after which technicians bolted Webb’s launch vehicle adapter down to the rocket.

This whole process was performed under strict safety and cleanliness regulations, as it was one of the most delicate operations during the entire launch campaign for Webb.

A ‘shower curtain’ about 12 m high and 8 m in diameter was installed in between two platforms, to create a closed-off space around Webb to avoid any contamination.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_placed_on_top_of_Ariane_5

The spacecraft launched successfully, but there are still perils ahead before it begins its science mission.

Isaac Schultz - 28 December 2021

The Webb Space Telescope left Earth safe and sound on Christmas morning, and astronomers across the world breathed a sigh of relief. But the weeks ahead contain a series of hurdles that must be cleared for the $10 billion telescope to begin its scientific duties. On Monday night, Webb officially passed the orbital distance of the Moon, traveling over half a mile per second on its journey to its final destination.

At time of writing, the telescope is over 305,000 miles from Earth, about a third of the way to its destination, a point in space called L2. (You can check the location of Webb here.) The telescope’s current deployment step is what NASA calls its “second mid-course correction burn,” meaning the second use of fuel to correct the spacecraft’s trajectory toward its destination. Next up today is the beginning of the deployment of the all-important sunshield, which will protect the astronomical data Webb collects from heat. According to NASA, this will be “one of the most challenging spacecraft deployments NASA has ever attempted.”

https://gizmodo.com/here-s-what-s-next-for-the-webb-space-telescope-as-it-h-1848276284

We're on the verge of trying to fully extend the sunscreen.

John Timmer - 12/29/2021, 11:01 AM

When fully operational, the James Webb Space Telescope will be enormous, with a sun shield measuring 12 x 22 meters. Obviously, however, it can't be sent to space in that configuration. As a result, the tension of the launch will be followed by weeks of equally nerve-wracking days as different parts of the observatory are gradually unfolded.

The good news is that the process has already started, and everything has gone off without a hitch so far. Meanwhile, NASA has analyzed the results of the initial firings of the observatory's on-board rockets, and determined that it will have enough fuel for “significantly more” than a decade of operations.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/webb-continues-to-unfold-has-enough-fuel-for-over-a-decade/

“I don't expect any drama.”

Eric Berger - 1/3/2022, 10:52 AM

Nine days after the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA says it has made good progress deploying the $10 billion instrument and has now begun the critical process of “tensioning” the sunshield.

On Monday, six motors on board the telescope began the process of fully extending the first of five layers of the sunshield. These tennis-court sized layers, each made of a polyimide film called Kapton, will shade the instrument and allow it to cool down to 50 Kelvin, which is -223 degrees Celsius and just 50 degrees above absolute zero. This cold environment is critical for Webb to observe infrared light and detect heat from very distant objects.

NASA's Webb project manager, Bill Ochs, said the first of these five layers should be completely deployed by the end of Monday. The goal is to extend the other four layers on Tuesday and Wednesday. After this time, the massive sunshield—the most complex aspect of an intricate deployment process—will be complete.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/nasa-might-just-pull-off-the-james-webb-space-telescope-deployment/

It's an important milestone for the spacecraft.

Igor Bonifacic - January 4th, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope has completed one of the most challenging tasks involved in its mission to probe the depths of our universe. This week, NASA successfully deployed JWST’s 70-foot sunshield. The system is essential to the telescope’s operation. It will ensure its instruments don’t get hotter than 380 degrees Fahrenheit so that they’re cold enough to see the infrared light that Webb is designed to track.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-sunshield-deployment-185747431.html

“It was a wonderful moment. A lot of joy. A lot of relief.”

Eric Berger - 1/4/2022, 11:19 AM

NASA has not finished deploying the James Webb Space Telescope yet, but the scientists and engineers working on the $10 billion instrument are feeling a lot better today.

As of late Tuesday morning, NASA and the telescope's primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, successfully stretched all five layers of the telescope's sunshield. This step completed the critical process of deploying the telescope's massive and essential sunshield, which keeps the telescope cold so that it can make delicate observations of faint objects.

“The mood is hard to describe,” said Hilary Stock, a structural engineer at Northrop Grumman who worked on the sunshield “tensioning” Monday and Tuesday, during a teleconference with reporters. “It was a wonderful moment. A lot of joy. A lot of relief.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/nasa-completes-most-challenging-part-of-the-webb-telescopes-deployment/

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday January 04, 2022 02:02PM

“On Tuesday morning, all five layers of the James Webb Space Telescope were fully locked into place,” writes Slashdot reader quonset. The BBC reports:

There were many who doubted the wisdom of a design that included so many motors, gears, pulleys and cables. But years of testing on full-scale and sub-scale models paid dividends as controllers first separated the shield's different layers and then tensioned them. The fifth and final membrane was locked into place at 16:58 GMT.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/01/04/2042246/james-webb-space-telescope-sun-shield-fully-deployed

Its first pictures are still months away.

J. Fingas - January 24th, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home. NASA has confirmed the remote observatory successfully entered its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (aka L2) after one last course correction burn. The telescope's primary mirror segments and secondary mirror have already been deployed, but you'll have to wait until the summer for the first imagery. NASA will spend the next several months readying the JWST for service, including a three-month optics alignment process.

The L2 orbit is crucial to the telescope's mission. It provides a largely unobstructed view of space while giving the spacecraft a cold, interference-free position that helps its instruments live up to their full potential. The JWST is expected to study the early Universe using infrared light, providing data that wouldn't be available from an Earth orbit telescope like Hubble.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-arrives-at-final-orbit-203522307.html

The observatory has been traveling for nearly a month to reach the second Lagrange point.

Isaac Schultz - 24 January 2022 1:27PM

The Webb Space Telescope is expected to arrive at the second Lagrange point on Monday afternoon. The telescope has been traveling for nearly a month to reach this spot, where it will make its observations of the cosmos.

The telescope launched from French Guiana on December 25. As the spacecraft has traveled through space, it has deployed its mirrors and sunshield. Now, the telescope is less than 1,000 miles from its final destination. NASA will host an online conference to discuss the mission this afternoon on its website; a broadcast at 3 p.m. EST will be followed by a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST.

Webb’s destination—the second Lagrange point, or L2—is useful because it allows any telescope there to keep the Sun, Earth, and the Moon in a line behind it, giving an unobstructed view out into the universe. L2 is also a relatively stable point in orbit around the Sun, enabling the spacecraft to use minimal fuel to stay in position there.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-completes-its-million-mile-journey-1848410686

Latest estimates suggest the mission could last upwards of 20 years—nearly twice as long as initially hoped.

George Dvorsky - 25 January 2022

A robotic telescope in Italy has caught a faint glimpse of the Webb Space Telescope at its final location some 1 million miles from Earth.

The new image comes courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project 2.0, an astronomical program that provides real-time observations of space with remotely controlled telescopes. The 300-second exposure showing Webb at L2 was taken by the 17-inch telescope “Elena,” which operates near Rome, Italy.

The $10 billion Webb observatory was approximately 1 million miles (1.4 million km) from Earth when the image was taken. Launched on December 25, 2021, the next-gen telescope has reached the solar orbit from which it will perform infrared astronomical observations. More specifically, Webb has reached the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, aka L2. This location offers a clear and unhampered view of the cosmos as well as a highly stable orbit that doesn’t require an excessive amount of fuel to maintain.

https://gizmodo.com/new-image-shows-webb-space-telescope-parked-in-its-fina-1848417681

Posted by BeauHD on Monday January 24, 2022 11:00PM

NASA has confirmed that the James Webb Space Telescope has successfully entered its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point after one last course correction burn. Engadget reports:

The telescope's primary mirror segments and secondary mirror have already been deployed, but you'll have to wait until the summer for the first imagery. NASA will spend the next several months readying the JWST for service, including a three-month optics alignment process. The L2 orbit is crucial to the telescope's mission. It provides a largely unobstructed view of space while giving the spacecraft a cold, interference-free position that helps its instruments live up to their full potential. The JWST is expected to study the early Universe using infrared light, providing data that wouldn't be available from an Earth orbit telescope like Hubble.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/01/24/236220/the-james-webb-space-telescope-arrives-at-its-final-orbit

At times, it remains difficult to believe this is really happening.

Eric Berger - 1/25/2022, 5:51 AM

I met John Grunsfeld outside a coffee shop in Houston, across the street from Johnson Space Center, a little more than five years ago.

He had only recently retired from NASA after a long and storied career. Over the course of nearly two decades, Grunsfeld had flown into space five times, the latter three of which were missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope. A physicist by training, Grunsfeld had become affectionately known as a “Hubble Hugger” for his work on the venerable instrument in space.

He had then left the astronaut corps and gone on to lead NASA's science missions as associate administrator of the agency's science directorate. When we met late in the fall of 2016, Grunsfeld had just returned to private life. Now that he could speak more freely, I wanted to know what Grunsfeld really thought about the space agency's science priorities. He was in Houston for his annual astronaut physical, and we enjoyed the pleasant late November sunshine as cars zipped by on NASA Road 1.

We discussed a number of topics, but what stood out to me during that conversation were the few minutes we touched on the James Webb Space Telescope. Grunsfeld explained his concerns about Webb and the hundreds of single-point failures it faced during the deployment process in space. So many things could go wrong, he said worryingly. He thought something probably would go sideways, and then where would NASA be the next time it went to Congress and asked for big money to fund an ambitious science project?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/whats-left-for-the-webb-telescope-now-waggling-mirrors-turning-on-instruments/

HD 84406 will go down in history as the first star spotted by the $10 billion space telescope.

George Dvorsky - 4 February 2022 11:00AM

A major milestone has been achieved in the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, with an onboard instrument detecting its first photons from a distant star. This means engineers can now begin the three-month process of aligning the space telescope’s 18 mirrors.

After years of delays and a seemingly endless succession of hiccups during development, the $10 billion Webb mission—now in its seventh week—has been smooth as silk. The painstaking process of unfolding the space telescope and getting it ready to perform groundbreaking astronomy has been progressing about as well as anyone could’ve hoped, the most recent achievement being the telescope’s first detection of starlight, which happened earlier this week.

https://gizmodo.com/james-webb-space-telescop-first-star-light-hd-84406-1848480785

Posted by BeauHD on Friday February 11, 2022 11:00PM

The first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have been released, according to Space.com. Slashdot readers g01d4 and fahrbot-bot first shared the news. From the report:

The main photo, which doesn't even hint at the power Webb will bring to the universe once it's fully operational, shows a star called HD 84406 and is only a portion of the mosaic taken over 25 hours beginning on Feb. 2, during the ongoing process to align the observatory's segmented mirror. “The entire Webb team is ecstatic at how well the first steps of taking images and aligning the telescope are proceeding,” Marcia Rieke, principal investigator of the instrument that Webb relies on for the alignment procedure and an astronomer at the University of Arizona, said in a NASA statement.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/02/11/2216253/first-images-from-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope

The telescope will look deep into space, and also whatever deep space spits up.

Isaac Schultz - 17 February 2022 1:00PM

As the Webb Space Telescope continues gearing up for its first observations, researchers are getting excited about the technology’s ability to look at interstellar objects that pass through our solar system.

The $10 billion spacecraft is an infrared telescope charged with studying every phase of cosmic history. Webb will observe galactic evolution, stellar nurseries, and exoplanets, and it will be able to see back in time over 13.5 billion years, nearly to the birth of the universe. But it will also look at nearby objects, including anything that suddenly appears in our neighborhood from afar.

“With Webb, we can do really interesting science at much fainter magnitudes or brightnesses,” said Cristina Thomas, a planetary scientist at Northern Arizona University, in a NASA release. “We’ve never been able to observe interstellar objects in this region of the infrared. It opens a lot of opportunities for the different compositional signatures that we’re interested in.”

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-could-get-a-good-look-at-the-next-1848555105

The observatory should meet or beat expectations.

Jon Fingas - March 16th, 2022

Astronomers can breathe a little easier. NASA has confirmed the James Webb Space Telescope has passed checks and tests verifying its optical performance following a “fine phasing” alignment on March 11th. There also aren't any critical problems or detectable blockages. Optical systems are performing “at, or above, expectations,” NASA said.

The fine phasing corrected alignment errors by using optical elements inside the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam science instrument. The mission team gauged the performance by aligning and focusing the telescope on a star. The technology is very sensitive — as you can see above, Webb captured galaxies and stars in the background despite the very bright star in the middle.

NASA expects to finish aligning the observatory across all instruments by early May or sooner. After that, the team will spend two months prepping the instruments for capturing and sharing the first practical images and data in the summer.

The milestones show not just that Webb survived the 930,000-mile journey to its observation point, but that the telescope's novel segmented mirror design works as promised — particularly important given the $10 billion price tag, numerous delays and Hubble's mounting problems. For the most part, scientists can now concentrate on how they'll use Webb to study the early universe and other elusive aspects of the cosmos.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-optics-test-182917850.html

What's cooler than being cool? Minus 448 degrees Fahrenheit.

Igor Bonifacic - April 13th, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to probing the depths of the universe. On Wednesday, NASA announced that it was ready to start taking test images and aligning the optics of the JWST after the telescope’s instrumentation reached its final operating temperature of minus 448 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 267 degrees Celsius) partway through last week.

The JWST has been gradually cooling down ever since its successful December 25th launch, but the telescope took a major step forward on that front when it deployed its massive 70-foot sunshield at the start of the year. That component allowed JWST’s systems, including its critical Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), to drop to a temperature of approximately minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit (or about minus 183 degrees Celsius).

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-cyrocooler-212704170.html

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center - April 13, 2022

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will see the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang, but to do that, its instruments first need to get cold—really cold. On April 7, Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)—a joint development by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency)—reached its final operating temperature below 7 kelvin (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 266 degrees Celsius).

Along with Webb's three other instruments, MIRI initially cooled off in the shade of Webb's tennis-court-size sunshield, dropping to about 90 kelvin (minus 298 F, or minus 183 C). But dropping to less than 7 kelvin required an electrically powered cryocooler. Last week, the team passed a particularly challenging milestone called the “pinch point,” when the instrument goes from 15 kelvin (minus 433 F, or minus 258 C) to 6.4 kelvin (minus 448 F, or minus 267 C).

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-james-webb-telescope-coldest-instrument.html

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday May 03, 2022 12:00AM Scientists working on NASA's James Webb Telescope have reached an important milestone, completely aligning

the space observatory's massive mirrors. New Atlas reports: The achievement means the team can now move ahead with configuring the onboard instruments and prepare them to begin capturing sharp and in-focus images of the cosmos. Back in January, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finished deploying its set of 18 mirrors, which it will use to direct light from cosmic objects onto its instruments to capture images. But to do so, the mirrors had to be precisely aligned over a three-month period in order to focus that light correctly. In March, the mirrors were brought into alignment with the telescope's primary imaging instrument, the Near-Infrared Camera, enabling it to focus and snap a crystal-clear image of a bright star. The team then continued aligning the mirrors with the JWST's remaining instruments, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, Mid-Infrared Instrument, and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph – a task that is now complete.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/05/02/2325232/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-completely-aligned-fully-focused

The telescope achieved a “perfect” alignment, according to Webb scientists.

Isaac Schultz - 9 May 2022

NASA held a press conference Monday morning to discuss the precise alignment of the Webb Space Telescope and the spacecraft’s upcoming scientific operations. The space agency also released images from the telescope that put Webb’s progress on dazzling display.

“I’m delighted to report that the telescope alignment has been completed with performance even better than we had anticipated,” said Michael McElwain, a Webb observatory project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a NASA press conference. “This is an extraordinary milestone for humanity.”

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-sharp-images-nasa-1848899825

The first spectroscopic data from the observatory will be released too.

Kris Holt - June 1st, 2022

Just over six months after the James Webb Space Telescope launched, we'll get our first look at full-color images captured by the telescope. The European Space Agency says the imagery and first spectroscopic data will be unveiled on July 12th.

“The release of Webb’s first full-color images will offer a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before,” Webb deputy program director Eric Smith said. “These images will be the culmination of decades of dedication, talent, and dreams — but they will also be just the beginning.”

JWST required several months of preparation before starting science work. The process included cooling the telescope to its operating temperature, calibrating instruments and aligning the mirrors. The ESA, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci) spent over five years figuring out what Webb should capture first in order to show off what the observatory can do.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-full-color-images-release-date-spectroscopic-data-180056334.html

NASA has set July 12 as the official release date of the telescope’s first high-quality shots of the cosmos.

Isaac Schultz - 2 June 2022

Long before Webb even launched from French Guiana, we’ve been waiting for this moment: the first full-color images from this cutting-edge space telescope. NASA announced yesterday that those pictures will be available on July 12, along with some spectroscopic data.

“The release of Webb’s first full-color images will offer a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before,” said Eric Smith, a Webb program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a NASA release.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-first-full-color-images-nasa-1849009748

The space telescope’s mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid, but it's still in great shape to carry out its mission, NASA says.

Isaac Schultz - 8 June 2022 4:40PM

NASA said today that one of the Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror segments was hit by a micrometeoroid, a small asteroid fragment, between May 23 and May 25. Initial assessments of the telescope found that the spacecraft was still performing exceptionally well, though the effects of the impact were noticeable in recent data readouts.

Micrometeoroids are extremely small (dust-sized), fast-moving space debris. They’re a regular part of a hostile space environment that will bombard the Webb telescope throughout its years in operation.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-micrometeoroid-impact-nasa-1849036398

Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent - 9 June 2022

A tiny rock fragment has hit the new James Webb Space Telescope's main mirror.

The damage inflicted by the dust-sized micrometeoroid is producing a noticeable effect in the observatory's data but is not expected to limit the mission's overall performance.

James Webb was launched in December to succeed the revolutionary - but now ageing - Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomers are due to release its first views of the cosmos on 12 July.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61744257

Impact at the end of May bad enough to garble data, but NASA isn't worried

Brandon Vigliarolo - Thu 9 Jun 2022 15:00 UTC

The James Webb Space Telescope has barely had a chance to get to work, and it's already taken a micrometeoroid to its sensitive primary mirror.

The NASA-built space observatory reached its final destination, the L2 orbit, a million miles away from Earth, at the end of January.

In a statement, NASA said the impact happened some time at the end of May. Despite the impact being larger than any that NASA modeled and “beyond what the team could have tested on the ground,” the space agency said the telescope continues to perform at higher-than-expected levels. The telescope has been hit on four previous occasions since launch.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/james_webb_meteoroid/

The data was taken to test how well the telescope could stay locked onto a target.

Eric Berger - 7/7/2022, 6:21 AM

We are now just five days away from the public release of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and anticipation is running pretty high. After more than two decades, and $10 billion, it's time for Webb to pay off.

Early indications are that it will.

On Wednesday evening NASA released a “test” image from the telescope that suggests the forthcoming scientific images and data will be spectacular. The release of the test photo, which NASA casually says is “among the deepest images of the Universe ever taken,” almost feels like a flex because it is so good for a throw-away engineering image.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/even-the-webb-telescopes-engineering-test-images-manage-to-wow/

“Webb's First Deep Field” shows a snapshot of the cosmos as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.

Igor Bonifacic - July 11, 2022 6:30 PM

After 14 years of development and six months of calibration, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to embark on its mission to probe the depths of our cosmos. On Monday, NASA and President Joe Biden shared the first colored image from the space telescope, showcasing a look at the early days of the universe.

According to NASA, “Webb's First Deep Field” represents the sharpest and “deepest” image of the distant universe to date. What you see is a snapshot of a cluster of galaxies known as SMACS 0723 as they appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of all the galaxies pictured acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying the much more distant celestial bodies seen in the background. Some of the galaxies have never-before-seen features that astronomers will soon study to learn more about the history of our universe. NASA notes Webb's First Deep Field doesn't represent our earliest look at the universe. Microwave telescopes like the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) captured snapshots closer to the Big Bang but did not offer a view of stars and galaxies like the one captured by Webb.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-image-223020435.html

Posted by BeauHD on Monday July 11, 2022 03:50PM

“On Monday, July 11, President Joe Biden released one of the James Webb Space Telescope's first images in a preview event at the White House in Washington,” reports NASA in a press release. The full set of Webb's first full-color images and spectroscopic data will be released tomorrow on Tuesday, July 12 at 10:30 a.m. (14:30 UTC). You can watch the live broadcast of the unveiling here. From the report:

This first image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb's First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb's view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/07/11/2234225/first-image-from-the-james-webb-space-telescope

Here's the first batch of images from the advanced telescope, featuring an exoplanet, nebulae, and more.

Isaac Schultz - 12 July 2022 11:04AM

NASA is releasing the first full-color images taken by the Webb Space Telescope, and holy cow. The five images—with the first revealed last night and the rest coming out one by one this morning—are a remarkable first glimpse at the science to come for the cutting-edge space observatory, which is expected to operate for about 20 years, if not longer.

The first image out today was a graphic showing the spectra for WASP-96b, a gas giant exoplanet 1,150 light-years from Earth. The data showed the “distinct signature of water” as well as evidence of of clouds and haze in the planet, which is slightly larger than Jupiter but has a lower mass, according to a NASA release. “Webb’s immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterize potentially habitable planets beyond Earth,” the release says.

https://gizmodo.com/first-images-from-webb-space-telescope-nasa-1849168516

The Wi-Fi is surprisingly good in translunar space

Devin Coldewey - 1:51 PM PDT July 12, 2022

NASA has just revealed the James Webb Space Telescope’s first set of images, from an awe-inspiring deep field of galaxies to a minute characterization of a distant exoplanet’s atmosphere. But how does a spacecraft a million miles away get dozens of gigabytes of data back to Earth?

First let’s talk about the images themselves. These aren’t just run of the mill .jpgs — and the Webb isn’t just an ordinary camera.

Like any scientific instrument, the Webb captures and sends home reams of raw data from its instruments, two high-sensitivity near- and mid-infrared sensors and a host of accessories that can specialize them for spectroscopy, coronography, and other tasks as needed.

Let’s take one of the recently released first images with a direct comparison as an example.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/how-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-sends-images-to-earth/

NASA has released stunning debut photos from the new orbital observatory.

Isaac Schultz and Artem Golub - 12 July 2022 6:50PM

Video presnetation

https://gizmodo.com/first-full-color-images-from-webb-space-telescope-1849171282

Aria Alamalhodaei - 3:53 PM PDT•July 12, 2022

NASA unveiled full-color images from the $11 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Tuesday, marking the first of what is sure to be many releases from the super powerful optical instrument. But even taken by themselves, these five images mark a massive achievement and the culmination of a 26-year-long process to give humanity an even more detailed look into the early universe.

The image reveal today followed the initial image release by President Joe Biden on Monday. That shot, named “Webb’s First Deep Field,” showed the cluster SMACS 0723, a vast swirl of galaxies that in actuality only represents a slice of the universe the size of “a grain of sand on the tip of your finger at arm’s length,” as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson put it on the livestream.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/what-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-first-images-tell-us-about-the-universe/

Performs better than expected, which is just as well – as it's going to be pelted with space rocks

Katyanna Quach - Sat 16 Jul 2022 10:04 UTC

Is the $10 billion price tag for the world's most expensive telescope worth it?

The first set of images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope published this week revealed the birth and death of stars and merging galaxies in stunning full color.

Direct comparisons of the same objects taken by the aging Hubble Space Telescope show just how much better the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is at infrared wavelengths, with countless more dazzling stars and galaxies popping up into view.

The goal of the James Webb effort was to build an observatory that could receive light from the deepest voids of space so scientists could peer back to a time when the first galaxies began to form. But the 'scope went through multiple redesigns since work began on it in 1990s, and it suffered numerous delays with valuable time spent fixing tears in its tennis court-sized sunshield and patching up hundreds of other points of potential failure.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/16/ames_webb_space_telescope/

Luckily, it can transmit that data back to Earth far faster than Hubble.

Steve Dent - July 18, 2022 5:55 AM

With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now powered up and snapping some spectacular images, you may wonder exactly how it's storing them. Surprisingly enough, it carries a relatively tiny 68GB SSD, according to IEEE Spectrum — enough to handle a day's worth of JWST images, but not a lot more.

While that might sound ludicrously small for a $10 billion satellite, there are multiple reasons NASA chose the system. To start with, the JWST is a million miles from Earth where it gets bombarded by radiation and operates at a temperature of less than 50 degrees above absolute zero (-370 degrees F). So the SSD, like all other parts, must be radiation hardened and survive a grueling certification process.

While not nearly as fast as consumer SSDs, it can still be nearly filled in as little as 120 minutes via the telescope's 48 Mbps command and data handling subsystem (ICDH). At the same time, the JWST can transmit data back to Earth at 28 Mbps via a 25.9 Ghz Ka-band connection to the Deep Space Network.

https://www.engadget.com/the-james-webb-space-telescope-has-a-68-gb-ssd-095528169.html

In the days after the mega-telescope started delivering data, astronomers reported exciting new discoveries about galaxies, stars, exoplanets and even Jupiter.

Jonathan O'Callaghan, Contributing Writer - July 25, 2022

As soon as President Biden unveiled the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on July 11, Massimo Pascale and his team sprang into action.

Coordinating over Slack, Pascale, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and 14 collaborators divvied up tasks. The image showed thousands of galaxies in a pinprick-size portion of the sky, some magnified as their light bent around a central cluster of galaxies. The team set to work scrutinizing the image, hoping to publish the very first JWST science paper. “We worked nonstop,” said Pascale. “It was like an escape room.”

Three days later, just minutes before the daily deadline on arxiv.org, the server where scientists can upload early versions of papers, the team submitted their research. They missed out on being first by 13 seconds, “which was pretty funny,” said Pascale.

The victors, Guillaume Mahler at Durham University in the United Kingdom and colleagues, analyzed that same first JWST image. “There was just a sheer pleasure of being able to take this amazing data and publish it,” Mahler said. “If we can do it fast, why should we wait?”

https://www.quantamagazine.org/two-weeks-in-the-webb-space-telescope-is-reshaping-astronomy-20220725/

NASA says the observatory has shed more light on star formation within the galaxy.

Kris Holt - August 2, 2022 12:42 PM

NASA and its partners on the James Webb Space Telescope have shared more spectacular images from the observatory. This time around, they provided a fresh look at the Cartwheel Galaxy, which Hubble and other telescopes previously observed. NASA said JWST has been able to reveal new details about both star formation and the black hole at the center of the galaxy, which is around 500 million light years from Earth.

Using infrared light detection, JWST was able to peer through the dust that obscured the Cartwheel Galaxy from view when other telescopes observed it. The above image is a composite from JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The JWST website has higher-resolution versions.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-cartwheel-galaxy-164218343.html

The Cartwheel Galaxy formed from a high-speed collision of two galaxies.

Kevin Hurler - 2 August 2022 5:25PM

The Webb Space Telescope team has unveiled the latest image from the observatory, and it’s a gorgeous portrait of the Cartwheel Galaxy, a dazzling object 500 million light-years away that formed from the high-speed collision of two galaxies.

Webb has wowed us several times now with its earliest images of the universe, including new views of Jupiter. This fresh shot features striking pinks, red-oranges, and dull blues. The Cartwheel Galaxy is what’s known as a ring galaxy and is located in the Sculptor constellation. NASA says that, unlike the common spiral galaxies that litter our universe, ring galaxies are a much rarer sight.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-cartwheel-galaxy-1849360270

The unexpected new data coming back from the telescope are inspiring panic among astronomers

News - August 13, 2022 Physicist Eric J. Lerner comes to the point:

To everyone who sees them, the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images of the cosmos are beautifully awe-inspiring. But to most professional astronomers and cosmologists, they are also extremely surprising—not at all what was predicted by theory. In the flood of technical astronomical papers published online since July 12, the authors report again and again that the images show surprisingly many galaxies, galaxies that are surprisingly smooth, surprisingly small and surprisingly old. Lots of surprises, and not necessarily pleasant ones. One paper’s title begins with the candid exclamation: “Panic!”

Why do the JWST’s images inspire panic among cosmologists? And what theory’s predictions are they contradicting? The papers don’t actually say. The truth that these papers don’t report is that the hypothesis that the JWST’s images are blatantly and repeatedly contradicting is the Big Bang Hypothesis that the universe began 14 billion years ago in an incredibly hot, dense state and has been expanding ever since. Since that hypothesis has been defended for decades as unquestionable truth by the vast majority of cosmological theorists, the new data is causing these theorists to panic. “Right now I find myself lying awake at three in the morning,” says Alison Kirkpatrick, an astronomer at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, “and wondering if everything I’ve done is wrong.”

• Eric J. Lerner, “The Big Bang didn’t happen” at IAI.TV (August 11, 2022)

Although we didn’t usually hear of it, there’s been dissatisfaction with the Standard Model, which begins with the Big Bang, ever since it was first proposed by Georges Lemaitre nearly a century ago. But no one expected the James Webb Space Telescope to contribute to the debate.

https://mindmatters.ai/2022/08/james-webb-space-telescope-shows-big-bang-didnt-happen-wait/

Posted by msmash on Thursday August 18, 2022 01:45PM

It turns out that JavaScript had a hand in delivering the stunning images that the James Webb Space Telescope has been beaming back to Earth. From a report:

I mean that the actual telescope, arguably one of humanity's finest scientific achievements, is largely controlled by JavaScript files. Oh, and it's based on a software development kit from 2002. According to a manuscript (PDF) for the JWST's Integrated Science Instrument Module (or ISIM), the software for the ISIM is controlled by “the Script Processor Task (SP), which runs scripts written in JavaScript upon receiving a command to do so.” The actual code in charge of turning those JavaScripts (NASA's phrasing, not mine) into actions can run 10 of them at once.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/08/18/1930242/the-james-webb-space-telescope-runs-javascript-apparently

They make just as good of a duo as Perseverance and Ingenuity.

Igor Bonifacic - August 30, 2022 1:28 PM

The JWST has dazzled since it began sending images back to Earth, but sometimes even the most advanced space telescope ever needs a little help from a friend. On Monday, the European Space Agency released a new image of the Phantom Galaxy. Located approximately 32 million light years away from Earth, Messier 74 has been a favorite of astronomers ever since it was discovered in 1780 by Pierre Méchain.

What makes the above image of the Phantom Galaxy different from the ones you might have seen in the past is that it’s a composite. It incorporates visible and ultraviolet wavelengths captured by the Hubble Space Telescope with infrared light seen by James Webb Space Telescope. You can see the separate images the two captured below. Webb’s snap of M74 highlights all the gas and dust at the outer edge of the “grand design spiral” galaxy. The image also shows off the nuclear star cluster at its center.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-hubble-capture-image-of-m74-phantom-galaxy-172850395.html

The Webb team has paused observations using the medium-resolution spectroscopy mode after detecting “increased friction.”

Passant Rabie - 20 September 2022 3:45PM

The Webb Space Telescope has been dutifully beaming back incredible images of the cosmos since its “perfect” alignment earlier this year—but nothing is entirely perfect, even a $10 billion telescope. One of Webb’s observing mechanisms has apparently run into a bit of trouble, and mission engineers are working to figure out a solution.

On August 24, a mechanism used to support Webb’s medium-resolution spectroscopy (MRS) experienced “increased friction” while being set up for a science observation, NASA said in a blog post on Tuesday. The space agency called for a meeting of an anomaly review board on September 6 to “assess the best path forward.” As the board works to analyze the issue and develop strategies to resolve it, NASA has paused observations using this particular mode.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-glitch-medium-resolution-spectroscopy-1849559410

The famous clouds of gas and dust are dazzling in the state-of-the-art instrument’s eye.

Isaac Schultz - 19 October 2022 11:01AM

The Webb Space Telescope has just imaged what might be its most iconic target yet: the Pillars of Creation, a monumental arm of the Eagle Nebula.

The pillars are so-named for their magnitude. They are light-years-long tendrils of gas and dust that reach out like the grand fingers of a cosmic hand. The recent image, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, highlights the bright red sites of new star births.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-pillars-of-creation-1849676900

The image provides a much better look at newborn stars.

Jon Fingas - October 19, 2022 11:52 AM

The James Webb Space Telescope's sightseeing tour just provided a fresh look at one of the most recognizable interstellar objects. Researchers have captured their most detailed image yet of the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming nursery in the Eagle Nebula roughly 6,500 light-years away. The near-infrared picture shows even more detail than Hubble's 2014 snapshot, with an abundance of stars (particularly newborns) in view — there isn't even a galaxy within sight.

The new stars are the bright red points of light in the scene and are estimated to be 'just' a few hundred thousand years old. The red glow of the pillars, not to mention the wavy lines at some edges, are the result of jets and bow shocks that energize hydrogen and push it outward. You don't see galaxies as the gas and dust of the Milky Way's interstellar medium blocks more distant objects in such a dense area.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-pillars-of-creation-images-155226093.html

The cluster could help scientists understand cosmic expansion.

Jon Fingas - October 20, 2022 12:53 PM

The James Webb Space Telescope has produced its second revelatory image in as many days. Scientists using the observatory have discovered a tightly-packed “knot” of at least three galaxies that were forming around a quasar 11.5 billion years ago, just over 2 billion years after the Big Bang. The telescope's near-infrared spectrograph not only showed that the galaxies were orbiting each other at high speeds (up to 435 miles per second), but that this one of the most dense known areas of early galaxy formation. The density is unusually high enough that lead researcher Dominika Wylezalek suggested there may even be two “halos” of dark matter merging in this area.

The quasar itself is unusual. The not-so-elegantly-named SDSS J165202.64+172852.3 is a very red example that doesn't emit as wide a variety of light as already-rare 'normal' quasars. These objects serve as active galactic nuclei and are powered by the gas tumbling into a supermassive black hole at the core of their galaxies.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-galaxy-cluster-early-universe-165352781.html

The image from Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) will help us better understand how stars form.

Kris Holt - October 28, 2022 12:35 PM

NASA has released another image that the James Webb Space Telescope has captured of the Pillars of Creation. While the picture that the agency offered up last week provided a detailed look at stars forming in the region, the latest one is a spookier and more ethereal image.

Bathed in orange and black, the image that Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) captured is certainly timely, given that Halloween is just a few days away. NASA says the rendering provides a fresh perspective on the Pillars of Creation, with a focus on the region's gas and dust.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-pillars-of-creation-space-miri-163527776.html

The iconic arms of the Eagle Nebula are zombie-skin blue in this view from the MIRI tool.

Isaac Schultz - 28 October 2022 11:35AM

A week and a half ago, NASA released a stunning image of the iconic Pillars of Creation taken by the Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion state-of-the-art space observatory that launched last December.

Now, the space agency has shared a shot of the same structure taken with Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). It’s a perfectly terrifying image to release days before Halloween.

The Pillars of Creation are huge structures made of gas and dust that form one arm of the Eagle Nebula, a cluster of stars about 6,500 light-years from Earth.

The pillars themselves are about five light-years long (meaning if you were standing on the tip of one of the pillars, it would take about five years to see light arrive from the other end). And for the reference of terrestrial travelers, one light year is about 5.88 trillion miles.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-drops-creepy-image-of-the-pillars-of-cre-1849714897

A deeper look through a massive cluster has turned up two galaxies that formed just after the cosmic dawn.

Isaac Schultz - 17 November 2022

In late June, the Webb Space Telescope trained its eye on two of the farthest galaxies seen to date. The galaxies existed several hundred million years after the Big Bang, making them some of the earliest light sources to emerge in the universe.

The galaxies are seen on the outskirts of Abell 2744, a giant galaxy cluster (in fact, a hodge-podge of four smaller clusters) in the constellation Sculptor. One of the galaxies existed 450 million years after the Big Bang, the moment that the universe came into being; the other is seen just 350 million years after.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-most-ancient-galaxies-nasa-space-1849796723

Its latest image gives us more insight on the formation of stars in the early stages.

Mariella Moon - November 17, 2022 6:50 AM

The James Webb Telescope has been providing clearer images of celestial bodies that had only been poorly imaged in the past ever since it became operational. Its first photo showed the “deepest” image of the distant universe to date, followed by an unprecedented photo of the Pillars of Creation and the best view we've had of Neptune's rings, among many others. Now its latest image reveals the once-hidden features of a very young protostar within the dark cloud L1527, giving us a look into how stars form and turn into something like our sun. 

The photo above shows an hourglass-like figure blazing blue and orange. This can only be seen in infrared light and was captured using James Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). But where's the protostar, you ask? It's actually right in the middle, or the neck of the hourglass, showing up as a black band. Stars form by gathering massive amounts of gas and dust, which spiral around the center as they're sucked in by gravity. This forms an accretion disk of material that surrounds the young star. 

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-telescope-hidden-features-young-protostar-115023390.html

The ethereal Southern Ring Nebula may have emerged from a dance party gone wrong between stars.

Isaac Schultz - 8 December 2022

2,500 years ago, one of space’s most beautiful features was born: the Southern Ring Nebula. The nebula was vividly imaged by the Webb Space Telescope earlier this year, and astronomers now think they know exactly how a star’s violent outburst occurred, leaving the elegant nebula in its wake.

The star that bore the nebula was about three times the size of the Sun and 500 million years old. That’s quite young, in stellar terms; our Sun is about 4.6 billion years old and should live for another 5 billion.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-southern-ring-nebula-stars-1849870153

A communications delay timed out the instrument’s flight software, and some planned observations will have to be rescheduled, NASA says.

Isaac Schultz - 25 January 2023

NASA says the Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph is currently unavailable for science operations following a software glitch earlier this month.

In a release published yesterday, the agency stated that the issue started on January 15, when a communications delay within the instrument caused its flight software to time out. Flight software is a crucial aspect of any instrument operating in space, as it manages a whole suite of operations on a given spacecraft, including its orientation, communications, data collection, and thermal control.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-spectrograph-software-glitch-nasa-1850029749

The latest shot in the space telescope’s portfolio is a piercing gaze into a distant part of the sky.

Isaac Schultz - 31 January 2023

The European Space Agency has released its image of the month for January, and it is (perhaps unsurprisingly) a stunning shot from the Webb Space Telescope.

At the bottom of the image is LEDA 2046648, a spiral galaxy over one billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. Behind LEDA is a field of more distant galaxies, ranging from spiral shapes to pinpricks of light in the distant universe.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-captures-countless-galaxies-in-new-image-1850055190

Continuing its run of ground-breaking discoveries, the James Webb Space Telescope has snapped the clearest images yet of the dusty disk around the young star Fomalhaut.

Kit Gilchrist - May 8, 2023

Fomalhaut, a bright, young star 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, illuminates a disk of planet-forming debris. Such debris disks contain clues about exoplanets and even smaller bodies that would otherwise remain hidden.

András Gáspár (University of Arizona) and his team present in Nature Astronomy images of the Fomalhaut system taken by the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The images reach a resolution and sensitivity far beyond the capability of earlier instruments. The team also analyzed new images taken by Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, in which the star’s light is blocked using a coronagraph.

Previously, Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and other telescopes have shown a far-out debris ring surrounding Fomalhaut that’s akin to the Kuiper Belt in our solar system. Analysis of the system’s brightness at different wavelengths had also suggested the presence of a dusty inner disk. Now, the new JWST images reveal unprecedented detail, including a new belt inside the first, an extended inner disk, and a gap between the two. They also show what might be a dust cloud in the outer, previously detected ring.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-james-webb-space-telescope-reveals-fomalhauts-disk-in-unprecedented-detail/

The discovery also creates a new mystery.

Jon Fingas - May 15, 2023 4:38 PM

The James Webb Space Telescope just made its second breakthrough observation in as many weeks. Researchers have used the observatory's near-infrared camera to detect the first known instance of water vapor around a comet in the main asteroid belt, also known as a main belt comet. Scientists had thought comets could preserve water ice so relatively close to the Sun, but didn't have firm evidence until now. They generally expected comets to sit in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, both of which are far enough away from the Sun that ice could last.

The findings have created a new riddle, however. While carbon dioxide normally represents 10 percent of the potentially vaporized material in a comet, Webb's instruments didn't detect any in Read. The research group speculates that the CO2 either dissipated over billions of years, or that Read formed in a comparatively balmy part of the Solar System that didn't have CO2.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-telescope-finds-water-around-a-comet-in-the-main-asteroid-belt-203825983.html

Niels Bohr Institute - 17 May 2023

The first results from the James Webb Space Telescope have hinted at galaxies so early and so massive that they are in tension with our understanding of the formation of structure in the universe. Various explanations have been proposed that may alleviate this tension. But now a new study from the Cosmic Dawn Center suggests an effect which has never before been studied at such early epochs, indicating that the galaxies may be even more massive.

If you have been following the first results from the James Webb Space Telescope, you have probably heard about the paramount issue with the observations of the earliest galaxies: They are too big.

From a few days after the release of the first images, and repeatedly through the coming months, new reports of ever-more distant galaxies appeared. Disturbingly, several of the galaxies seemed to be “too massive.”

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-james-webb-massive-galaxies.html

A barred spiral galaxy 17 million light-years from Earth is the latest target of NASA’s most perceptive observatory.

Isaac Schultz - 2 June 2023 3:20PM

The Webb Space Telescope is on a tear, imaging regions of star formation across the cosmos. Its latest target? The barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068—a bedazzled conglomeration of gas and stars 17 million light-years from Earth.

Launched in December 2021, Webb has been making scientific observations since July 2022. It’s uniquely capable of seeing some of the oldest, most distant light, which it does at infrared wavelengths. Taking data on this ancient light clues astronomers into the formation and evolution of the universe as we know it.

But besides that ancient light, Webb is examining a bevy of cosmic objects, from distant supernovae to planets in our own solar system. Its perceptive vision can cut through clouds of gas and dust that obscure regions of star formation from more veteran telescopes, like the Hubble Space Telescope.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-takes-portrait-of-star-studded-barred-galaxy-1850501243

I can see clearly now reionization's done

Brandon Vigliarolo - Wed 14 Jun 2023 11:30 UTC

If you didn't already know, it may surprise you to discover that space wasn't always clear.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Space – or at least the gas between stars and galaxies – was opaque in the early days of the universe. The gas later became transparent and energetic starlight could then penetrate it. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we now know why.

An international team, led by ETH Zürich's Simon Lilly, working on the Emission-line galaxies and Intergalactic Gas in the Epoch of Reionization (EIGER) project made the determination in a series of papers that early galaxies were responsible for ionizing interstellar gas after they pointed Webb at a quasar estimated to have formed some 900 million years after the Big Bang during the period of reionization.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/jwsts_latest_resolved_space_mystery/

A carbon-based ion—likely an important building block of interstellar carbon chemistry—was spotted in a protoplanetary disk 1,350 light-years away.

Isaac Schultz - 29 June 2023

The Webb Space Telescope recently peered into a gassy region of the Orion Nebula and managed to spot a carbon-based molecule that could be a “cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry,” according to a European Space Agency release.

The molecule has never been detected in space before, the release stated. It was found in a system called d203-506, about 1,350 light-years from Earth. The system is surrounded by gas and dust, and has a small red dwarf star—about one-tenth the mass of the Sun—at its center. A preliminary version of the team’s research describing the discovery was published in Nature.

The molecule is the methyl cation (CH3+), and while it doesn’t react efficiently with hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element, it frequently reacts with other molecules. An ion is an atom or molecule with a net electric charge; a cation is a positively charged ion (hence the + in CH3+’s name). Due to its unique properties, CH3+ is theorized to be an important building block of interstellar carbon chemistry.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-image-carbon-molecule-star-system-1850591527

Talk about the circle of life. It is here. It is there. It is everywhere.

Eric Berger - 7/12/2023, 6:59 AM

To commemorate the first year of scientific operations by the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA has released a stunning new image of a stellar nursery.

The photo is gorgeous. It could easily hang in a museum, as if it were a large canvas painting produced by a collaboration of impressionistic and modern artists. But it is very real, showcasing the process of stars being born a mere 390 light years from Earth. This is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth.

Given the nursery's proximity and Webb's unparalleled scientific instruments, we have never had this kind of crystal-clear view of these processes before. The detail revealed in this image of about 50 stars is truly remarkable, a distillation of all that Webb has delivered over the last 12 months and all that it promises to do over the next 10 or 20 years.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/07/the-webb-telescope-just-offered-a-revelatory-view-of-humanitys-distant-past/

It's been a year since the $10 billion observatory has started releasing scientific images.

Isaac Schultz - 12 July 2023 12:05PM

The Webb Space Telescope launched to space in December 2021 with an ambitious goal: providing scientists with a deeper, sharper view of the history of the universe.

It took the telescope a month to arrive at its location in space, a region called L2 that sits one million miles from Earth, and another six months to commission the telescope for scientific imaging.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-best-images-one-year-anniversary-1850630719

The region is 390 light years from Earth.

Lawrence Bonk - July 12, 2023 12:34 PM

It’s hard to believe, but the James Webb Space Telescope started sending out stunning images of the universe one full year ago. To commemorate the milestone, NASA's letting the telescope do what it does best, showing us obscenely cool space shots. The latest and greatest image depicts a (relatively) nearby region of space that’s a galactic nursery of sorts, with 50 young stars that could one day form systems that resemble our own.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is approximately 390 light years from Earth, which is peanuts when compared to the vastness of space, though it would still take 14,500,000 years of travel to get there using current technology. The stars shown in the image are mostly similar in mass to our beloved sun and some even boast the beginnings of circumstellar disks, which are the swirling rings of gas and dust where planets are born.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-telescope-marks-first-anniversary-with-an-image-of-a-nearby-stellar-nursery-163444912.html

Webb is casting the universe in a new light, but the space telescope's discovery of a cosmological question mark has us scratching our heads.

George Dvorsky - 31 July 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope captured the eerie punctuation mark, found buried within an image of Herbig-Haro 46/47—a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars located 1,470 light years from Earth.

The high-resolution near-infrared image, captured by the Webb Space Telescope, a project from NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, came out last week. But if you zoom in close enough (at the center bottom), you’ll see an astronomical feature that, from our perspective, bears an uncanny resemblance to a question mark, as Space.com points out.

https://gizmodo.com/question-mark-spotted-in-deep-space-webb-telescope-1850693160

The panchromatic image reveals numerous galaxies and areas of gravitational lensing.

Isaac Schultz - 9 November 2023

It’s not yet December, but NASA is already in a festive mood: the Webb and Hubble space telescopes recently imaged MACS0416, a pair of colliding galaxy clusters 4.3 billion light-years from Earth that is bedecked in sparkling lights.

The image combines visible and infrared light, the respective wheelhouses of Hubble and Webb, to create a sweeping view of the colliding clusters. The Webb observations were taken as part of the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science, or PEARLS, program, and the Hubble data was collected as part of the Frontier Fields program, which began in 2014.

“We are building on Hubble’s legacy by pushing to greater distances and fainter objects,” said Rogier Windhorst, an astronomer at Arizona State University and principal investigator of PEARLS, in a Space Telescope Science Institute release. “The whole picture doesn’t become clear until you combine Webb data with Hubble data.”

https://gizmodo.com/webb-hubble-space-telescope-galaxies-clusters-stars-1851008045

Astronomers are trying to figure out how an isolated brown dwarf could produce such a phenomenon.

Isaac Schultz - 11 January 2024

The Webb Space Telescope has spotted something weird: a brown dwarf with what appear to be aurorae, what we Earthlings sometimes call the Northern Lights. What makes the observation particularly surprising is that the brown dwarf doesn’t have a nearby star that could cause such an aurora.

Aurorae on Earth happen when particles from the Sun interact with gasses in our planet’s atmosphere, along the lines of Earth’s magnetic field. Other planets in our solar system sport aurorae; Webb imaged luminous aurorae on Jupiter’s poles in 2022, and astronomers using the Keck II Telescope’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSPEC) imaged an aurora on Uranus last October.

But brown dwarfs are not planets. They are objects that are dozens of times more massive than Jupiter (our solar system’s largest planet) but smaller than stars. And unlike stars, as EarthSky explains, brown dwarfs do not undergo normal stellar fusion. In that way, brown dwarfs are failed stars, though they can still be thousands of degrees hotter than the Sun. But not always: the recently observed brown dwarf (named W1935) is pretty cold, only about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius), and doesn’t have a star to cascade particles its way. Aurorae have been observed around brown dwarf-like objects before, but this brown dwarf has no known star that could power the light shows.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-aurora-brown-dwarf-space-1851156767

A gravitational lens tripled the event in the night sky and helped astronomers measure the rate at which the universe is expanding.

Isaac Schultz - October 2, 2024

A remarkable image taken by the Webb Space Telescope shows the same supernova three times, thanks to a quirk of spacetime known as gravitational lensing. The image also helped the team measure the Hubble constant, a frustrating number (we’ll explain why) that represents the rate of the universe’s expansion.

Gravitational lenses are regions of spacetime where light is bent—magnified, in fact—by the mass of large structures like black holes and even clusters of galaxies. The lens explored by the recent team was created by the latter: a collection of galaxies in the constellation Ursa Major, whose collective gravitational heft bends and focuses the light from more distant sources.

By bending the light from those farther-out—and thus, more ancient—sources, the gravitational lenses make those sources easier to see from Earth (and in Webb’s case, about one million miles from Earth). This particular gravitational lens magnified a supernova—the brilliant explosion that marks the death of some stars—and multiplied it in the sky.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-captures-supernova-appearing-three-times-due-to-spacetime-bending-2000506262

Demand for observing time on Webb outpaces supply by a factor of nine.

Stephen Clark – Nov 6, 2024 2:50 PM

Astronomers combined images from two of Webb's infrared science instruments to create this view of Crab Nebula, the remnants of a violent supernova explosion in 1054. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

From its halo-like orbit nearly a million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope is seeing farther than human eyes have ever seen.

In May, astronomers announced that Webb detected the most distant galaxy found so far, a fuzzy blob of red light that we see as it existed just 290 million years after the Big Bang. Light from this galaxy, several hundreds of millions of times the mass of the Sun, traveled more than 13 billion years until photons fell onto Webb's gold-coated mirror.

A few months later, in July, scientists released an image Webb captured of a planet circling a star slightly cooler than the Sun nearly 12 light-years from Earth. The alien world is several times the mass of Jupiter and the closest exoplanet to ever be directly imaged. One of Webb's science instruments has a coronagraph to blot out bright starlight, allowing the telescope to resolve the faint signature of a nearby planet and use spectroscopy to measure its chemical composition.

These are just a taste of the discoveries made by the $10 billion Webb telescope since it began science observations in 2022. Judging by astronomers' interest in using Webb, there are many more to come.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/more-and-more-astronomers-are-eager-to-use-the-james-webb-space-telescope/

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday November 06, 2024 11:00PM

The James Webb Space Telescope has made groundbreaking discoveries, detecting the most distant galaxy yet and capturing an image of the closest directly-imaged exoplanet. “Judging by astronomers' interest in using Webb, there are many more to come,” writes Ars Technica's Stephen Clark. With immense demand for observation time, Webb is set to explore a vast array of cosmic targets – from early galaxies to exoplanet atmospheres – offering insights that extend far beyond Hubble's reach. From the report:

The Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates Webb on behalf of NASA and its international partners, said last week that it received 2,377 unique proposals from science teams seeking observing time on the observatory. The institute released a call for proposals earlier this year for the so-called “Cycle 4” series of observations with Webb. This volume of proposals represents around 78,000 hours of observing time with Webb, nine times more than the telescope's available capacity for scientific observations in this cycle. The previous observing cycle had a similar “oversubscription rate” but had less overall observing time available to the science community.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/11/07/0041226/nearly-three-years-since-launch-webb-is-a-hit-among-astronomers

Observations of HOPS-315 align with theories of how our own solar system began to take shape

Lindsay Clark - Wed 16 Jul 2025 15:01 UTC

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has helped provide a snapshot of the formation of a planetary system around a young star for the first time, according to astroboffins.

Along with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), JWST has provided data from HOPS-315, a protostar in the Orion B molecular cloud, which proves a good fit with models of the formation of planets in the early solar system, according to a paper in Nature this week.

In an accompanying paper, Fred Ciesla, professor of planetary science at the University of Chicago, said: “This is the first time that astronomers have been able to see details of the inner structure of such a system. This provides an opportunity to study how planetary systems such as ours were shaped in the first stages of their existence.”

Meteorites – and the stuff trapped in them, called inclusions – have offered scientists a glimpse of the early solar system. Their work has shown calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions (CAIs) were the first solid objects to form in the solar system. Hence, those looking for planets forming outside the solar system are on the hunt for signs of CAIs.

But there are a couple of problems with finding them, Ciesla explained. First, the early stages of star formation can be obscured by dust and gas. The second issue is that CAIs only form very early in the star's evolution, in the first 100,000 years or so, and finding stars that young is extremely challenging.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/16/jwst_star_planet_formation/

The roughly Colosseum-sized rock marks a new kind of target for Webb Space Telescope.

Isaac Schultz - 6 February 2023

One of the solar system’s 1.1-million-plus asteroids was recently spotted by the Webb Space Telescope, from a distance of about 62 million miles. The asteroid is relatively small, making it a showcase of the new space observatory’s sharp vision.

The object is between 328 feet and 656 feet across, putting it in the same ballpark as the moonlet Dimorphos or the Roman Colosseum. Dimorphos is the space rock struck by NASA’s DART mission in September.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-small-asteroid-1850078491

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday August 20, 2022 02:54PM from the Big-Bang-theorized dept.

“The very first results from the James Webb Space Telescope seem to indicate that massive, luminous galaxies had already formed within the first 250 million years after the Big Bang,” reports Sky and Telescope.

“If confirmed, this would seriously challenge current cosmological thinking.”

Shortly after NASA published Webb's first batch of scientific data, the astronomical preprint server arXiv was flooded with papers claiming the detection of galaxies that are so remote that their light took some 13.5 billion years to reach us. Many of these appear to be more massive than the standard cosmological model that describes the universe's composition and evolution. “It worries me slightly that we find these monsters in the first few images,” says cosmologist Richard Ellis (University College London)….

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/08/20/2151228/has-the-webb-telescope-disproved-the-big-bang-theory

Six distant dots spotted by Webb are actually massive 13-billion-year-old galaxies.

Isaac Schultz - 22 February 2023 12:47PM

The Webb Space Telescope has spotted six pinpricks of reddish-orange light that scientists say are actually galaxies as mature as the Milky Way—despite being billions of years younger.

The galaxies are seen as they looked about 500 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. The presence of galaxies so early in the universe is not surprising, but the degree to which the galaxies are developed is throwing astronomers for a loop. Analysis of the image data is published today in Nature.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-massive-galaxies-early-universe-1850144999

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday February 26, 2023 05:59PM

Pennsylvania State University has an announcement. “Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe.”

“These objects are way more massiveâ than anyone expected,” said Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, who modeled light from these galaxies. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we've discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/02/27/0158202/webb-telescopes-discovery-of-massive-early-galaxies-still-defies-prior-understanding-of-universe

Dust reservoirs spewed by two stellar deaths show how stars might be born.

Isaac Schultz - 5 July 2023

Two supernovae 22 million light-years away ejected dust into their region of the universe, Webb Space Telescope observations reveal, indicating that violent stellar deaths could give rise to new star systems.

Supernovae are luminous stellar deaths; when some stars die, they explode outwards, spewing their material across the cosmos.

The supernovae currently in question are SN 2004et and SN 2017eaw, and both are in NGC 6946 — the Fireworks Galaxy. Webb imaged the two objects using its Mid-Infrared (MIRI) instrument.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-early-universe-fuel-supernovae-debris-1850606363

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 16, 2023 @01:34PM from the tell-a-telescope dept.

“The James Webb Space Telescope has delivered yet another astounding discovery,” reports CNN, “spying an active supermassive black hole deeper into the universe than has ever been recorded.”

The black hole lies within CEERS 1019 — an extremely old galaxy likely formed 570 million years after the big bang — making it more than 13 billion years old. And scientists were perplexed to find just how small the celestial object's central black hole measures. “This black hole clocks in at about 9 million solar masses,” according to a NASA news release. A solar mass is a unit equivalent to the mass of the sun in our home solar system — which is about 333,000 times larger than the Earth. That's “far less than other black holes that also existed in the early universe and were detected by other telescopes,” according to NASA. “Those behemoths typically contain more than 1 billion times the mass of the Sun — and they are easier to detect because they are much brighter.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/07/16/1928235/webb-detects-most-distant-active-supermassive-black-hole-to-date---and-its-small

It’s an early example of how the new space telescope can reveal remarkable details of exoplanets.

Isaac Schultz - 25 August 2022 12:32PM

Webb Space Telescope has detected “unequivocal” evidence of carbon dioxide in a distant exoplanet’s atmosphere, according to a European Space Agency release. According to the ESA, “it is the first clear, detailed, indisputable evidence” of carbon dioxide in a planet outside of our solar system.

The world is a gas giant—similar to Jupiter—about 700 light-years away. It’s called WASP-39 b and was first discovered in 2011, but only now were scientists able to train the Webb Telescope’s remarkable spectroscopic powers on the planet.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-cardon-dioxide-exoplanet-wasp39b-1849456443

This same tech could someday help us discover strange, new – and habitable – worlds

Brandon Vigliarolo - Fri 26 Aug 2022 17:30 UTC

NASA is reporting another James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) first as the orbital observatory has found clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

According to NASA, prior observations of CO2-rich WASP-39b by the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes were able to detect water vapor, sodium, and potassium in the planet's atmosphere. Webb's instruments are far more sensitive, the space agency said, enabling it to measure planetary atmospheres at a precision that could eventually help scientists identify potentially habitable planets.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/26/jwst_co2_exoplanet/

The telescope is likely to deal with plenty more space debris during its tenure.

Isaac Schultz - 18 July 2022 2:59PM

A micrometeoroid that hit the Webb Space Telescope in late May caused permanent damage to the spacecraft, according to a Space Telescope Science Institute report.

The report was published last week by NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies. It described the telescope’s science performance up to July 12, 2022, the day the telescope’s first images were publicly released, and included an exciting first look of the planet Jupiter as seen by Webb.

https://gizmodo.com/space-pebble-that-hit-webb-telescope-caused-significant-1849190867

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday July 23, 2022 08:34AM

“A small space rock has proven to have a big effect on NASA's newly operational deep-space telescope,” reports Space.com, causing “significant uncorrectable change” according to a new report from NASA engineers. But fortunately, “Seventeen mirror segments remain unblemished and engineers were able to realign Webb's segments to account for most of the damage.”

A micrometeoroid struck the James Webb Space Telescope between May 22 and 24, impacting one of the observatory's 18 hexagonal golden mirrors. NASA had disclosed the micrometeoroid strike in June and noted that the debris was more sizeable than pre-launch modeling had accounted for. Now, scientists on the mission have shared an image that drives home the severity of the blow in a report released July 12 describing what scientists on the mission learned about using the observatory during its first six months in space.

Happily, in this case the overall effect on Webb was small….

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/07/23/053206/micrometeoroid-noticeably-damaged-one-of-webb-scopes-mirror-segments

Online catalog gives open science access to data from early universe

Lindsay Clark - Mon 9 Jun 2025 19:29 UTC

A NASA-backed project using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released more than 1.5 TB of data for open science, offering the largest view deep into the universe available to date.

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), a joint project from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Rochester Institute of Technology, has launched a searchable dataset for budding astrophysics enthusiasts worldwide.

As well as a catalog of galaxies, the dataset includes an interactive viewer that users can search for images of specific objects or click them to view their properties, covering approximately 0.54 square degrees of sky with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and a 0.2 square degree area with the Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

Although the raw data was already publicly available to the science community, the aim of the COSMOS-Web project was to make it more usable for other scientists.

“Those raw data are public, but it takes a lot of work to do all of the calibrations and correct for all of the different types of artifacts that you can get in the imaging… such as the background light, so that you end up with a final image that's clean and usable for science,” said Jeyhan Kartaltepe, associate professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and lead researcher of COSMOS-Web.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/jwst_open_science_data/

If confirmed, the presence of an atmosphere would be a breakthrough for exoplanet research.

Robert Lea - 2 May 2023

We could be on the verge of a major breakthrough in the search for other worlds that might support life.

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe water vapor around a distant rocky planet. The water vapor could indicate the presence of an atmosphere around the extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, a discovery that could be important for our search for habitable worlds outside the solar system. However, the scientists behind the discovery caution that this water vapor could be coming from the world's host star rather than the planet itself.

“Water vapor in an atmosphere on a hot rocky planet would represent a major breakthrough for exoplanet science,” principal investigator behind the findings and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory researcher, Kevin Stevenson said in a statement (opens in new tab). “But we must be careful and make sure that the star is not the culprit.”

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-exoplanet-water-vapor-atmosphere-or-star

This Exoplanet’s Weird Orbit Defies the Rules of Physics

Brian Koberlein & Universe Today - May 7, 2023

In our Solar System, the planetary orbits all have a similar orientation. Their orbital planes vary by a few degrees, but roughly the planets all orbit in the same direction. This invariable plane, as it’s known, also has an orientation within a few degrees of the Sun’s rotational plane. Most planetary systems have a similar arrangement, where planetary orbits and stellar rotation are roughly aligned. But a few exoplanets defy this trend — and we aren’t entirely sure why.

Common orientation within a planetary system makes sense given how planetary systems form. The protostellar cloud out of which a star and its planets form usually has some inherent rotational momentum. As a star begins to coalesce, a protoplanetary disk forms around the star. Since the planets form within this disk, they all end up with similar orbits. Things can be more complicated with binary or multiple-star systems, but you’d expect single-star planetary systems to have an invariable plane similar to ours.

https://www.inverse.com/science/bizarre-exoplanet-131b-orbit

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday June 18, 2023 03:09PM

Universe Today reports:

The best hope for finding life on another world isn't listening for coded messages or traveling to distant stars, it's detecting the chemical signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres. This long hoped-for achievement is often thought to be beyond our current observatories, but a new study argues that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could pull it off.

Most of the exoplanets we've discovered so far have been found by the transit method. This is where a planet passes in front of its star from our point of view. Even though we can't observe the planet directly, we can see the star's brightness dip by a fraction of a percent. As we watch stars over time, we can find a regular pattern of brightness dips, indicating the presence of a planet. The star dips in brightness because the planet blocks some of the starlight. But if the planet also has an atmosphere, there is a small amount of light that will pass through the atmosphere before reaching us. Depending on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, certain wavelengths will be absorbed, forming absorption spectra within the spectra of the starlight.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/18/1618242/how-the-jwst-could-detect-signs-of-life-on-exoplanets

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday June 20, 2023 12:00AM

A new study argues that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is capable of detecting the chemical signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres – the best hope for finding life on another world. Phys.Org reports:

The team simulated atmospheric conditions for five broad types of Earth-like worlds: an ocean world, a volcanically active world, a rocky world during the high bombardment period, a super-Earth, and a world like Earth when life arose. They assumed all these worlds had a surface pressure of less than five Earth atmospheres, and calculated the absorption spectra for several organically produced molecules such as methane, ammonia, and carbon monoxide. These molecules can also be formed by non-biological methods, but they form a good baseline as a proof of concept.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/19/2253258/webb-telescope-is-powerful-enough-to-see-a-variety-of-biosignatures-in-exoplanets-argues-new-paper

Hydrogen should be constantly boiled off, but we're not always seeing it.

Elizabeth Rayne - 8/15/2023, 10:06 AM

Some planets cannot hold on to their atmospheres. It's thought that most of whatever atmosphere Mars may have had was annihilated by the solar wind billions of years ago, even as Earth and Venus held on to theirs. But there are planets that orbit so close to their star that atmospheric loss is inevitable. With at least one of them, we’ve learned that it is also unpredictable.

Exoplanet Au Mic b is that planet. It orbits the young, hot, and temperamental red dwarf star Au Microscopii (Au Mic), which is only 23 million years old—nothing compared to our 4-billion-year-old sun. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope caught this scorched world losing a portion of its atmosphere.

When a team of scientists from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Dartmouth College, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and other institutions analyzed the Hubble observations, they were confused by the planet’s erratic behavior. There would be evidence of atmospheric loss in some of the data, then suddenly none at all. It was unpredictable.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/an-exoplanet-is-getting-vaporized-but-is-trying-to-hide-it/

Space agency said potential finding of dimethyl sulfide on K2-18 b, produced only by life on Earth, is yet to be confirmed

Richard Luscombe - Mon 11 Sep 2023 17.25 EDT

Scientists at Nasa have announced the existence of a possible rare water ocean on a giant exoplanet scores of light years away and also a chemical hint of a sign of potential life.

The “intriguing” discovery was made by the space agency’s James Webb telescope, peering 120 light years from Earth in the constellation Leo, building on earlier studies of the region using Webb’s predecessors, Hubble and Kepler.

Researchers have named the exoplanet K2-18 b, an unremarkable moniker for something with such potential significance. Almost nine times the mass of Earth, it is, Nasa, says: “a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface”.

The space agency said that its observations of the chemical makeup of the planet’s atmosphere suggested the possibility of an ocean world. “The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b,” it said.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/11/nasa-planet-ocean-life-james-webb-telescope

Dust blocks light from Sun-like star as far-off worlds meet

Lindsay Clark - Wed 11 Oct 2023 15:17 UTC

Evidence of a collision between planets outside our solar system was published for the first time today.

Data on infrared radiation and the dimming of the host star's light led researchers to conclude they may have witnessed planets between the size of Earth and Neptune smashing into each other while circling the distant stellar orb.

In 2021, researchers spotted distant star ASASSN-21qj dimming. A subsequent investigation of infrared radiation from the region added to the intrigue. A research team led by Matthew Kenworthy, associate professor at the Netherland's Leiden Observatory, concluded that the best explanation was a collision that generated enough heat for the infrared radiation while also throwing up enough dust to dim the star's light.

“These observations are consistent with a collision between two exoplanets of several to tens of Earth masses… Such an impact produces a hot, highly extended post-impact remnant with sufficient luminosity to explain the infrared observations. Transit of the impact debris, sheared by orbital motion into a long cloud, causes the subsequent complex eclipse of the host star,” says the paper published in Nature today.

The researchers suggest the power of the impact would be enough to destroy both exoplanets. “Giant impacts are one of the most energetic events that planets experience. For example, the kinetic energy of impacts between two half-Neptune-mass bodies range from 1033 to 1034 Joules, enough to vaporize the colliding bodies several times over,” the paper says.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/11/unprecedented_observations_reveal_exoplanet_carcrash/

Emissions in infrared shot up, then visible light dropped two years later.

John Timmer - 10/11/2023, 2:08 PM

Planet formation is thought to be a messy process, as lots of growing planets end up in unstable orbits, resulting in large collisions like the one that resulted in the Moon's formation. The messiness may not end there, as many exosolar systems have indications that their planets migrated after their formation, creating the potential for further collisions. Again, there are indications that a similar thing happened in our own Solar System, as Jupiter and Saturn seem to have moved around before reaching their present orbits.

All the evidence for these collisions, however, is indirect or the product of modeling. Planetary migrations are too slow for us to track them, and we can't image planets that are close enough to their stars for collisions to be likely.

But a large team of scientists now think they have evidence of a smash-up of giant planets orbiting a Sun-like star. The evidence comes from a combination of two unusual events: the sudden brightening of the star at infrared wavelengths, followed over two years later by its dimming in the visual.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/stars-strange-behavior-ascribed-to-giant-planet-smash-up/

New research suggests some exoplanets shrink over time due to intense core heat, potentially solving the mystery of the galaxy's missing planets.

Isaac Schultz - 16 November 2023

Exoplanets pushing their atmospheres away may explain a gap in exoplanet masses, according to a team of researchers that recently studied data from NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope.

The activity could explain an absence of exoplanets with masses between 1.5 to 2 times the size of Earth, according to findings published this week in The Astronomical Journal.

“Exoplanet scientists have enough data now to say that this gap is not a fluke,” said Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist at Caltech/IPAC and lead author of the new study, in a NASA release. “There’s something going on that impedes planets from reaching and/or staying at this size.”

Exoplanets come in a few types, whose names refer to their analogous forms in our own solar system. There are super-Earths—rocky like our own planet—and hot Jupiters, high-temperature gas giants like the largest planet in our cosmic neighborhood. But there’s been a strange dearth of exoplanets in the mass range between super-Earth and sub-Neptunes; now, scientists think that gap is because worlds on the larger side of that range are losing their atmospheres.

https://gizmodo.com/retired-nasa-telescope-reveals-clues-to-the-elusive-siz-1851029005

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday January 29, 2024 12:44AM

“Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed the smallest exoplanet where water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere,” writes SciTechDaily.

“At only approximately twice Earth's diameter, the planet GJ 9827d could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy.”

“This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars,” said team member Björn Benneke of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal. “This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/29/052234/hubble-spots-water-vapor-in-small-exoplanets-atmosphere

TWA 7 b is 110 light years from Earth.

Lawrence Bonk - Updated Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 10:23 AM PDT

NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of a planet outside of our solar system, which is the first time it has accomplished such a feat. This is a very big deal because exoplanets don't put out much light, so researchers typically discover new planets through indirect methods like keeping track of shadows as they pass across a host star.

Webb, however, didn't have to do all that. It has directly captured images of a planet called TWA 7 b. Scientists believe the planet is around the mass of Saturn and is located 100 light years away from Earth.

The planet is much further away from its star than Earth, so it has a wider orbital period that lasts several hundred years. The planetary system is thought to be around 6 million years old, so we are really getting a snapshot into the early stages of its development. Our sun is considered to be middle-aged and is around 4.6 billion years old.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-has-captured-its-first-direct-image-of-an-exoplanet-172346802.html

The space-based observatory has revolutionized the way we see space, and it can now add another remarkable accomplishment to its growing list.

Passant Rabie - June 25, 2025

Since it began its science operations in July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has been probing the atmospheres of alien planets to study their potential for habitability. For the first time, however, Webb has discovered its own exoplanet, finding a young system hidden in a swirling cloud of dust and debris.

Webb has captured a previously unseen exoplanet, the lightest planet imaged so far—an accomplishment made possible by the space-based telescope’s advanced capabilities. The recent discovery, detailed in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, marks Webb’s first discovery of an exoplanet and opens up a new window into hidden, Saturn-like worlds.

“The planets are much fainter by orders of magnitudes than their parent stars, and seen from Earth or from JWST, they are angularly very close to them,” Anne-Marie Lagrange, research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research and lead author of the paper, told Gizmodo. “Hence, when looking at a planet we see only the star.” In order to overcome this issue, the team behind the new discovery used a coronagraph—a telescopic attachment for Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. The coronagraph recreates the effect of a solar eclipse, blocking the light from a star to make its surroundings more visible.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-just-did-something-its-never-done-before-and-astronomers-are-thrilled-2000620073

Astronomers have used the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes to confirm one of the most puzzling notions in all of physics, that the universe appears to be expanding at different speeds.

March 27, 2024

In 2019, measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the puzzle was real; in 2023, even more precise measurements from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cemented the discrepancy.

Now, triple-checking both telescopes working together appears to have put the possibility of any measurement error to rest. The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests that there may be something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe.

“With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” lead study author Adam Riess, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement.

There are currently two “gold standard” methods for figuring out the Hubble constant, the value that describes the expansion rate of the universe. The first involves poring over tiny fluctuations in cosmic microwave background (CMB) — an ancient relic of the universe’s first light produced just 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

https://www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com/space/james-webb-telescope-to-confirms-that-the-universe-is-expanding-at-different-speeds/

Follow-up observations of a distant galaxy suggest its age is about 13.4 billion years.

Isaac Schultz - 15 August 2023

A galaxy first seen in a massive Webb Space Telescope deep field image a year ago is one of the earliest ever spotted, according to a team of astronomers that reviewed imagery of the structure.

The galaxy dates to about 390 million years after the Big Bang (For reference, the universe as a whole is about 13.77 billion years old) and was named Maisie’s galaxy after the daughter of the project’s principal investigator, Steven Finkelstein, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin. The image was taken in June 2022 as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey, or CEERS.

The team’s recent inspection of the CEERS imagery confirmed the redshifts of several galaxies, and suggests that the abundance of large, luminous galaxies in the early universe may require astronomers to go back to the drawing board of galaxy formation models. The team’s research was published today in Nature.

https://gizmodo.com/galaxy-spotted-by-webb-space-telescope-is-one-of-the-ea-1850739476

At 390 million years after the Big Bang, it isn’t quite as old as initially estimated.

Will Shanklin - August 15, 2023 4:52 PM

Astronomers have used advanced instruments to calculate a more accurate age of Maisie’s galaxy, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in June 2022. Although the star system isn’t quite as old as initially estimated, it’s still one of the oldest recorded, from 390 million years after the Big Bang — making it about 13.4 billion years old. That’s a mere 70 million years younger than JADES-GS-z13-0, the (current) oldest-known system.

A team led by the University of Texas at Austin astronomer Steven Finkelstein discovered the system last summer. (The name “Maisie’s galaxy” is an ode to his daughter because they spotted it on her birthday.) The group initially estimated that it was only 290 million years after the Big Bang, but analyzing the galaxy with more advanced equipment revealed it’s about 100 million years older than that. “The exciting thing about Maisie’s galaxy is that it was one of the first distant galaxies identified by JWST, and of that set, it’s the first to actually be spectroscopically confirmed,” said Finkelstein.

https://www.engadget.com/astronomers-confirm-maisies-galaxy-is-one-of-the-oldest-observed-205246905.html

Thaddeus Cesari - May 30, 2024

Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.

Over the last two years, scientists have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called Webb or JWST) to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn – the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where the first galaxies were born. These galaxies provide vital insight into the ways in which the gas, stars, and black holes were changing when the universe was very young. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers used Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), they obtained a spectrum of a record-breaking galaxy observed only two hundred and ninety million years after the big bang. This corresponds to a redshift of about 14, which is a measure of how much a galaxy’s light is stretched by the expansion of the universe. We invited Stefano Carniani from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, and Kevin Hainline from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, to tell us more about how this source was found and what its unique properties tell us about galaxy formation.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2024/05/30/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-finds-most-distant-known-galaxy/

The freshly spotted galaxy offers a rare glimpse of our universe when it was young, less than 300 million years after the Big Bang.

Passant Rabie - 30 May 2024

Researchers recently observed a record-breaking galaxy beaming with young stars, which existed only 290 million years after the universe came into existence, challenging our view of the Cosmic Dawn with its unexpected luminosity.

On Thursday, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of the most distant and earliest galaxy ever seen, observed at a time less than 300 million years after the Big Bang. That may not seem like a short period of time but considering that the Big Bang likely took place 13.7 billion years ago, we’re looking at the cosmos during its infancy.

This period, known as the Cosmic Dawn, spans from about 50 million to one billion years after the Big Bang, when the first stars, black holes, and galaxies formed in the universe. Using the Webb Space Telescope, scientists have captured deep field images that reveal ancient galaxies. As the light from these distant galaxies travels through space, it is stretched to longer wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe, shifting it to infrared light. The Webb Telescope is specifically designed to observe this infrared light.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-discovers-most-distant-galaxy-record-1851509116

The “bright, massive and large” star system reportedly formed just 290 million years after the big bang.

Lawrence Bonk - Updated Thu, May 30, 2024, 11:58 AM PDT

The hits keep on coming with NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope. According to the space agency, the JWST just found the most distant known galaxy ever. The catchily-named JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy is said to have formed just 290 million years after the big bang, but it features some unique properties that are at odds with that notion.

The galaxy is incredibly large, at 1,600 light years across. It’s also very bright and features an unusual amount of starlight, given how soon it formed after the big bang. This has led researchers Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainline to ask “how can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?” In cosmic time, that’s barely a blip.

The wavelengths of light emitted from JADES-GS-z14-0, as spotted by the JWST’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), indicate the presence of strong ionized gas emissions, likely from an abundance of hydrogen and oxygen. This is also weird, as oxygen is not typically present early in the life of a galaxy. This suggests that “multiple generations of very massive stars had already lived their lives before we observed the galaxy.”

https://www.engadget.com/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-has-found-the-most-distant-galaxy-ever-observed-185833121.html

Christopher Plain and Ryan Whalen - November 15, 2024

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time into the farthest reaches of the universe have found stunning evidence for an alternate theory of gravity.

Current models of galaxy formation in the early cosmos predict the presence of excess gravity caused by dark matter to pull material into slowly forming galaxies. However, an alternate theory of gravity first proposed in 1998 called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) suggests that structures in the early universe formed very quickly without the need for theoretical dark matter.

Now, researchers from Case Western Reserve University say that scans of ancient galaxies gathered by the JWST seem to contradict the commonly accepted predictions of the most widely accepted Cold Dark Matter theory, Lambda-CDM. Instead, the readings seem to support a basis for MOND, which would force astronomers and cosmologists to reconsider this alternative and long-controversial theory of gravity.

https://thedebrief.org/james-webb-space-telescope-finds-stunning-evidence-for-alternate-theory-of-gravity/

Comet debris is right in JWST's path, and could further damage its sensitive mirror

Brandon Vigliarolo - Tue 26 Jul 2022 14:45 UTC

The James Webb Space Telescope is predicted to pass through Halley's Comet's debris trail next year, meaning that particles could further endanger its sensitive primary mirror.

JWST's mirror is exposed to the vacuum of space, and while that means it produces images with far more clarity than Hubble, it also has nothing to shield it from sand grain-sized debris traveling at 10km/second, or 6.2 miles/second (over 22,300mph).

Small debris can cause serious damage, such as the May impact on Webb's mirror that caused irreparable harm, but which NASA was able to correct for.

Halley's Comet itself won't be back in the inner solar system until 2061, but the bright tail trailing out behind it is filled with dust, debris and ice shed by the comet. It's that debris field that JWST is predicted to enter in 2023 and 2024.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/26/james_webb_and_halleys_comet/

The telescope captured an incredibly intricate, close-up view of one of the most famous celestial objects.

Passant Rabie - 29 April 2024

The Webb Space Telescope has given us another cosmic treat. The young observatory captured a closer look of the ethereal clouds of dust and gas that form a nearby nebula, illuminated by a companion star in the constellation Orion.

Located a mere 1,375 light-years away, the Horsehead Nebula is shaped like a celestial horse galloping across the clouds in a starry dream. In the latest observations of the iconic nebula, Webb captured the sharpest infrared image to date of a zoomed-in portion of the Horsehead Nebula, according to the European Space Agency.

https://gizmodo.com/details-unreal-new-webb-image-horsehead-nebula-1851442544

Webb delivers with a new look on an iconic classic.

Eric Berger - 5/1/2024, 5:00 AM

Good morning. It's May 1, and today's photo is ridiculously awesome. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, it features the sharpest infrared image of the Horsehead Nebula captured to date—it is so zoomed in we can only see the mane. Even so, the image covers an area that is nearly one light-year across, or about 7.6 trillion km.

The Horsehead Nebula is fairly close to Earth, as these things go, about 1,300 light-years. So, it is within our galaxy. In addition to the prominent star at the top of the image and a handful of other stars with six diffraction spikes, the rest of the objects in this image are distant galaxies.

Enjoy the view, as astronomers estimate that the Horsehead only has about 5 million years left before it disintegrates.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/daily-telescope-seeing-a-mane-attraction-up-close/

The newly discovered, 320 mile-per-hour jet disturbs layers of the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Isaac Schultz - 20 October 2023 1:25PM

In July 2022, the Webb Space Telescope detected an intense jet shooting across the equator of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The jet is traveling at about 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) and is about 25 miles (40 km) in altitude, corresponding to Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.

Astronomers knew east-west jets existed in the gas giant’s atmosphere, but analysis of the newly spotted fast-moving jet suggested that Jupiter’s gassy insides may be more dynamic than previously thought. The team’s research scrutinizing the jet is published in Nature Astronomy.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-reveals-a-high-speed-jet-on-jupiter-1850945367

The tiny moon, Amalthea, can be seen orbiting the gas giant against a backdrop of its famous Great Red Spot, but you'll need to squint.

Passant Rabie - 14 May 2024

Oh, there it is. Jupiter’s unassuming moon Amalthea was spotted in two recent images captured by NASA’s Juno probe.

During its 59th close flyby of Jupiter on March 7, the Juno spacecraft captured its usual stunning views of the giant planet’s swirling winds and colorful belts. The new photos offered an unexpected treat: a rare glimpse of one of Jupiter’s tiny, mysterious moons.

https://gizmodo.com/jupiter-moon-amalthea-photobombs-jupiter-red-spot-juno-1851475578

Researchers at the University of Leicester are learning more about the massive auroras on our solar system's largest planet.

Andre Revilla - Updated Mon, May 12, 2025, 10:11 AM PDT

The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has captured new images of the auroras at Jupiter’s north pole. These massive auroras, caused by charged particles crashing into Jupiter’s atmosphere, are hundreds of times brighter than our own Aurora Borealis, and, for the first time, we can now see them in greater detail thanks to these new images.

Auroras on Earth are caused by solar storms, which occur when charged particles from the Sun collide with our upper atmosphere. This energizes the gases in the atmosphere, which gives them that distinctive colored glow that we know as the Northern (or Southern) Lights.

Among the coolest things we’ve gleaned from the telescope’s observations is that particles from solar storms are not the only source for Jupiter’s auroras. The giant planet’s strong magnetic field is also pulling in charged particles from its surroundings, which includes particles thrown into the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions on Io, a moon orbiting Jupiter. Together, these varied sources lead to a more complex auroral system than the one on Earth.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-webb-telescope-captures-mesmerizing-images-of-jupiters-auroras-171107945.html

The distant world is about the same size as Earth, but questions surrounding its atmosphere remain.

Kevin Hurler - 11 January 2023

The incredibly powerful Webb Space Telescope—which has fed us dazzling images of the cosmos since July—has officially found its first exoplanet, a world that is approximately the same size as Earth.

The planet is named LHS 475 b, and it’s 41 light-years away with a diameter that is 99% Earth’s. LHS 475 b’s presence was suspected by researchers who observed hints of the planet using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, but they were able to confirm its existence with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph. Webb has shed light on already-discovered exoplanets before this, but confirming the existence of LHS 475 b is the first time the telescope has located an exoplanet in the night sky, which is one of its core scientific missions.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-first-exoplanet-discovery-lhs475b-1849976159

LHS 475 b is just 41 light years away.

Andrew Tarantola - January 11, 2023 2:34 PM

Having already returned visually stunning and scientifically spectacular results from its first six months in operation, the James Webb Space Telescope has recorded another inaugural milestone: its first exoplanet discovery confirmation. It peered 41 light years into the cosmos and found a planet in the Octans constellation with a diameter 99 percent that of Earth itself — say hello to LHS 475 b.

Specifically a team of astronomers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, led by Kevin Stevenson and Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, first spotted evidence of the candidate exoplanet while digging through data generated from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). However it was Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) that confirmed the planets existence by observing two transits in front of its parent star. “There is no question that the planet is there. Webb’s pristine data validate it,” Lustig-Yaeger declared in a NASA press release. 

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-jwst-webb-telescope-exoplanet-confirmation-193422325.html

LHS 475 b is the same size as Earth, rocky, but hotter, and so close to its star it orbits in 2 days

Brandon Vigliarolo - Thu 12 Jan 2023 17:15 UTC

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed its first exoplanet: a rocky, hot world with a diameter 99 percent the size of Earth that completes an orbit around its star in just two days. 

Star LHS 475 is a red dwarf around 41 light years away and was chosen as a target when a transiting survey identified signs of a potential planet in the system, NASA said. Using Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), astronomers were able to get clear observations of the planet, dubbed LHS 475 b, in just two transits across its star.

NASA scientists involved with the project said they're impressed with Webb's observations of the small, rocky 475 b, and NASA Astrophysics division director Mark Clampin said Webb's first observations of a terrestrial exoplanet bode well for future exploration. 

“Webb is bringing us closer and closer to a new understanding of Earth-like worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is only just getting started,” Clampin said. 

Whether there's life, or habitable conditions, on planet b is far from clear, though. LHS 475 b is closer to its star than any planet in our solar system, and observations point to its surface temperature being a few hundred degrees warmer than Earth.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/12/jwst_confirms_its_first_exoplanet/

Posted by msmash on Thursday January 12, 2023 02:20PM

NASA's Webb telescope has discovered an exoplanet, which is any planet that is outside of our solar system, for the first time, the agency announced Wednesday. From a report:

The planet, called LHS 475 b, is nearly the same size as Earth, having 99% of our planet's diameter, scientists said. However, it is several hundred degrees hotter than Earth and completes its orbit around its star in two days. LHS 475 b is in the constellation Octans and is 41 light-years away, which is relatively nearby. Scientists are still trying to determine if the planet has an atmosphere. It's possible LHS 475 b has no atmosphere or one made completely out of carbon dioxide, but one option can be totally eliminated.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/01/12/1610258/nasas-webb-telescope-discovers-its-first-exoplanet

11/01/2023

Researchers have confirmed the presence of an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. Formally classified as LHS 475 b, the planet is almost exactly the same size as our own, clocking in at 99% of Earth’s diameter.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_confirms_its_first_exoplanet

Monica Young - January 10, 2023

Images and spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that the first galaxies in the universe are too many or too bright compared to what astronomers expected.

Evidence is building that the first galaxies formed earlier than expected, astronomers announced at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

As the James Webb Space Telescope views swaths of sky spotted with distant galaxies, multiple teams have found that the earliest stellar metropolises are more mature and more numerous than expected. The results may end up changing what we know about how the first galaxies formed.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-james-webb-space-telescope-is-finding-too-many-early-galaxies/

There is a robust debate ongoing in the scientific community.

Eric Berger - 1/16/2024, 6:59 AM

The rumors have been out there for a while now, percolating through respectable corners of the astronomy and astrobiological community, that the James Webb Space Telescope has found a planet with strong evidence of life.

Some of this sentiment recently bubbled into the public view when the British news magazine The Spectator published an item titled “Have we just discovered aliens?” In accordance with Betteridge's law of headlines, the answer to the question posed in this headline is no.

But is it a hard no? That's a more difficult question. The Spectator featured comments by some serious British scientists, including astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst, who said, “I think we are going to get a paper that has strong evidence for a biosignature on an exoplanet very, very soon.”

Additionally, there was British astronaut Tim Peake fanning the flames with this comment: “Potentially, the James Webb telescope may have already found [alien life]… it’s just that they don’t want to release or confirm those results until they can be entirely sure, but we found a planet that seems to be giving off strong signals of biological life.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/no-the-james-webb-space-telescope-hasnt-found-life-out-there-at-least-not-yet/

NASA selected the $8.5 million cubesat to aid the Webb telescope, and together the space-base duo will observe the cosmos in ultraviolet light.

Passant Rabie - 12 June 2023

For more than a year, the largest space-based telescope ever built has been observing the far ends of the cosmos with unprecedented detail. The Webb Space Telescope could soon get a little extra help in the form of a miniature satellite the size of a toaster oven and equipped with extremely powerful vision.

NASA recently selected the Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars with uv Imaging and Spectroscopy (MANTIS) to assist Webb by observing the skies in the full range of ultraviolet light. The cubesat, which cost $8.5 million, is currently being built at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and is scheduled to launch in 2026.

The Webb telescope primarily observes the cosmos in infrared light, which can’t be seen by the human eye as it contains wavelengths longer than those of visible light. Ultraviolet light, on the other hand, has wavelengths shorter than those of visible light. “We proposed MANTIS as a kind of ultraviolet sidekick that will follow JWST and look wherever it’s looking, filling in this important piece of context on the stellar environments in which these planets live,” Kevin France, an associate professor at LASP and scientist on the MANTIS team, said in a statement by the University of Colorado Boulder.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-tiny-sidekick-explore-exoplanets-1850529063

The images already offer a few surprises.

Jon Fingas - September 19, 2022 4:54 PM

The James Webb Space Telescope is still snapping its first pictures of Solar System planets, and the latest batch could be particularly useful. NASA and the ESA have shared early images of Mars, taken on September 5th, that promise new insights into the planet's atmosphere. Data from the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) is already offering a few surprises. For starters, the giant Hellas Basin is oddly darker than nearby areas at the hottest time of the day, NASA's Giuliano Liuzzi and Space.com noted — higher air pressure at the basin's lower altitude has suppressed thermal emissions.

The JWST imagery also gave space agencies an opportunity to share Mars' near-infrared atmospheric composition using the telescope's onboard spectrograph array. The spectroscopic 'map' (pictured at middle) shows the planet absorbing carbon dioxide at several different wavelengths, and also shows the presences of carbon monoxide and water. A future research paper will provide more detail about the Martian air's chemistry.

https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-mars-images-205450473.html

This visualization shows the current location and communication activity of all operating landers, rovers and orbiters at Mars that transmit data to Earth via NASA’s Mars Relay Network.

https://mars.nasa.gov/explore/mars-now/

The rock, dubbed Cacao, is made of iron and nickel, NASA says.

Isaac Schultz - 6 February 2023

NASA’s Curiosity rover found a meteorite as it was trucking across Mars last week.

The iron-nickel meteorite, nicknamed Cacao, is about a foot across and clearly made up of different stuff than its overwhelmingly rust-colored surroundings. The space rock was spotted by Curiosity’s Mastcam, which took 19 images of the meteorite and sent them to Earth for NASA scientists to stitch into a panorama.

https://gizmodo.com/curiosity-rover-mars-meteorite-iron-nickel-nasa-1850077919

Posted by BeauHD on Friday January 19, 2024 11:00PM

Keith Cooper reports via Space.com:

A European Space Agency (ESA) probe has found enough water to cover Mars in an ocean between 4.9 and 8.9 feet (1.5 and 2.7 meters) deep, buried in the form of dusty ice beneath the planet's equator. The finding was made by ESA's Mars Express mission, a veteran spacecraft that has been engaged in science operations around Mars for 20 years now. While it's not the first time that evidence for ice has been found near the Red Planet's equator, this new discovery is by far the largest amount of water ice detected there so far and appears to match previous discoveries of frozen water on Mars.

“Excitingly, the radar signals match what we expect to see from layered ice and are similar to the signals we see from Mars' polar caps, which we know to be very ice rich,” said lead researcher Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution in the United States in an ESA statement. The deposits are thick, extended 3.7km (2.3) miles underground, and topped by a crust of hardened ash and dry dust hundreds of meters thick. The ice is not a pure block but is heavily contaminated by dust. While its presence near the equator is a location more easily accessible to future crewed missions, being buried so deep means that accessing the water-ice would be difficult.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/19/2246210/water-ice-buried-at-mars-equator-is-over-2-miles-thick

Reminiscent of the Eye of Sauron and psychedelic whirlpools, the new images reveal never-before-seen details of galaxies.

Isaac Schultz - 29 January 2024

Shall I compare thee to the Webb Space Telescope’s latest image drop? Well, for starters, thou art less ancient and far less spectacular. The new collection of 19 images reveal face-on spiral galaxies, meaning they are oriented toward Webb’s perceptive gaze. The shots were taken as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, which is collecting data on 74 spiral galaxies.

To us, the galaxies may simply appear to be stupendous feats of nature: luminous kaleidoscopes of gas and dust, with cores so bright we cannot make out the secrets that lie in their centers. For astronomers, Webb images—taken by its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)—help provide answers as to how galaxies take shape.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-spiral-galaxy-images-1851205689

This is what it looks like when light from one galaxy is bent around the mass of another.

Ian Carlos Campbell - Updated Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 11:59 AM PDT

The latest image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, pictured above, also happens to be a stunning illustration of Einstein's theory of general relativity. So much so that the cosmic phenomenon is called an “Einstein ring.”

Einstein rings happen when light from one distant object is bent around the mass of another, slightly closer and even larger object. The effect is normally too subtle to observe up close on a local level, “but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales,” NASA writes. In the case of this image, when the light from one distant galaxy is warped around the mass of another.

This “gravitational lensing,” as it's technically called, is Einstein's general relativity in practice. Spacetime (the fusion of space and time that makes up the fabric of the universe) curving around an object's mass, with the curve itself being gravity. Objects like the ones pictured in the image — an elliptical galaxy wrapped in a spiral galaxy — are “the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see.”

This Einstein ring was captured by the “Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey” conducted at the University of Liège in Belgium. The survey is led by a team of astronomers looking “to trace eight billion years of galaxy cluster evolution,” according to NASA.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/latest-webb-telescope-image-shows-a-cosmic-phenomenon-called-an-einstein-ring-185911553.html

Meow.

Will Shanklin - Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 9:47 AM PDT

Feast your eyes on the most mesmerizing feline foot known to humankind. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured this image of the Cat's Paw nebula. The European Space Agency (ESA) shared the picture to honor the telescope's three years of service.

The Cat's Paw nebula is part of the Scorpio constellation. (You know, the one that looks like a scorpion?) It floats about 4,000 light years away from us. That translates to 23.5 quintillion miles. Put another way, that's a billion miles times a billion times 23.5.

So, what we're seeing is a snapshot of the Cat's Paw from approximately 4,000 years ago. On Earth, that's when the Egyptian pyramids were only a few hundred years old and Stonehenge was nearly complete.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-webb-telescope-captures-a-mesmerizing-view-of-the-cats-paw-nebula-164747111.html

Images taken by the telescopes NIRCam and MIRI instruments show the gassy structure as never before.

Isaac Schultz - 21 August 2023

The Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Ring Nebula with its two primary imagers, revealing the gaseous formation in never-before-seen detail.

The breathtaking images show the hydrogen-rich globules in the nebula and its inner region, rife with hot gas. The nebula—first discovered in 1779—was imaged by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared instrument (MIRI), which showcase different aspects of the planetary nebula’s structure and composition.

The new NIRCam image highlights aspects of the inner ring’s filament structure, while the MIRI image details aspects of the nebula’s outer concentric features. Important to note: the recently imaged Ring Nebula (NGC 6720) is not to be confused with the Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132), which Webb imaged last year.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-ring-nebula-two-new-images-1850758937

The gaseous cloud sits about 2,500 light years away from Earth.

Will Shanklin - August 21, 2023 5:30 PM

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured extraordinarily detailed images published today of the Ring Nebula. The gaseous cloud, also called M57 and NGC 6720, contains 20,000 dense globules rich in molecular hydrogen. It sits about 2,500 light years away from Earth.

The first image (above) was taken with the NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera), one of the Webb Space Telescope’s primary sensors. It is designed to detect light in the near-infrared spectrum and can capture remarkably detailed images. NIRCam also took the equally hypnotizing updated image of the Pillars of Creation.

https://www.engadget.com/webb-space-telescope-captures-the-ring-nebula-in-mesmerizing-detail-213005773.html

The moon's clouds and a bit of its surface are visible in new views from the space-based observatory.

Isaac Schultz - 2 December 2022

The Webb Space Telescope snapped images of Saturn’s moon Titan last month, which are now released for our viewing pleasure. The images offer a newly detailed view of Titan’s atmospheric makeup and even elements of its strange surface.

The telescope’s NIRCam instrument, which images in the near-infrared range, captured the views. They show clouds in Titan’s atmosphere (whimsically named A and B in annotated images) but also a blurry look at Kraken Mare, which is thought to be a methane sea, as well as dark sand dunes.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-titan-moon-saturn-clouds-1849846932

Daniel Strain - May 12, 2023

A new study led by physicist Sascha Kempf at CU Boulder has delivered the strongest evidence yet that Saturn’s rings are remarkably young—potentially answering a question that has boggled scientists for well over a century.

The research, published May 12 in the journal Science Advances, pegs the age of Saturn’s rings at no more than 400 million years old. That makes the rings much younger than Saturn itself, which is about 4.5 billion years old.

“In a way, we’ve gotten closure on a question that started with James Clerk Maxwell,” said Kempf, associate professor in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder.

The researchers arrived at that closure by studying what might seem like an unusual subject: dust.

Kempf explained that tiny grains of rocky material wash through Earth’s solar system on an almost constant basis. In some cases, this flux can leave behind a thin layer of dust on planetary bodies, including on the ice that makes up Saturn’s rings.

In the new study, he and his colleagues set out to put a date on Saturn’s rings by studying how rapidly this layer of dust builds up—a bit like telling how old a house is by running your finger along its surfaces.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2023/05/12/how-old-are-saturns-rings-far-younger-once-thought-according-new-study

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday May 13, 2023 01:34PM

“Astronomers have discovered 62 new moons orbiting the ringed planet Saturn,” reports Space.com.

So while Jupiter remains the largest planet orbiting our sun — and shaped our solar system with its gravitational bulk — nonetheless the New York Times reports that “the fight over which planet has the most moons in its orbit has swung decisively in Saturn's favor.”

This month, the International Astronomical Union is set to recognize 62 additional moons of Saturn based on a batch of objects discovered by astronomers. The small objects will give Saturn 145 moons — eclipsing Jupiter's total of 95. “They both have many, many moons,” said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. But Saturn “appears to have significantly more,” he said, for reasons that are not entirely understood.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/05/13/182258/scientists-discover-62-more-moons-orbiting-saturn-bringing-total-to-145-moons

'In a way, we’ve gotten closure on a question that started with James Clerk Maxwell.”

Jennifer Ouellette - 5/12/2023, 2:41 PM

Astronomers had long assumed that Saturn's distinctive rings formed around the same time as the planet some 4.5 billion years ago in the earliest days of our Solar System. That assumption received a serious challenge from a 2019 analysis of data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, suggesting that the rings were just 10 million to 100 million years ago—a mere blink of an eye on cosmic time scales. Now, a fresh analysis of data on how much dust has accumulated on the rings confirms that controversial finding, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

“In a way, we’ve gotten closure on a question that started with James Clerk Maxwell,” said co-author Sascha Kempf, an astronomer at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1610, Galileo Galilei was the first to observe the rings, though his telescope was too crude to identify them as actual rings. He described them as “Saturn's ears” since they looked like two smaller planets on either side of Saturn. Galileo was bemused when the “ears” vanished in 1612 as the Earth passed through the ring plane, even more so when they became visible again the following year.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/more-evidence-emerges-that-saturns-rings-are-much-younger-than-the-planet/

A new image from the $10 billion observatory reveals the gas giant’s ring structure and its moons.

Isaac Schultz - 3 July 2023

The Webb Space Telescope has taken an image of the ringed planet Saturn, completing its photo album of our solar system’s gas giants.

Webb is a $10 billion space observatory launched in December 2021. The telescope consists of two imagers: the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Webb has been producing scientific images since July 2022.

Though one of Webb’s primary focuses is the earliest light it can see, which dates back to several hundred million years after the Big Bang, it also is providing insights on our stellar neighborhood. The new image of Saturn complete’s the telescope’s tour of our solar system’s gas giants, or the nearby worlds mostly composed of helium and hydrogen.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-webb-telescope-snaps-saturn-s-luminous-rings-1850601369

Ravit Helled - 26 Jun 2023

The formation history of giant planets inside and outside the solar system remains unknown. We suggest that runaway gas accretion is initiated only at a mass of ~100 MEarth and that this mass corresponds to the transition to a gas giant, a planet that its composition is dominated in hydrogen and helium. Delaying runaway accretion to later times (a few Myr) and higher masses is likely to be a result of an intermediate stage of efficient heavy-element accretion (at a rate of ~10^-5 MEarth/yr) that provides sufficient energy to hinder rapid gas accretion. This may imply that Saturn has never reached runaway gas accretion, and that it is a “failed giant planet”. The transition to a gas giant planet above Saturn's mass naturally explains the differences between the bulk metallicities and internal structures of Jupiter and Saturn. The transition mass to a gas giant planets strongly depends on the exact formation history and birth environment of the planets, which are still not well constrained for our Solar System. In terms of giant exoplanets, delaying runaway gas accretion to planets beyond Saturn's mass can explain the transitions in the mass-radius relations of observed exoplanets and the high metallicity of intermediate-mass exoplanets.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.14740

A luminous oval approximately 163,000 light-years distant poses a formidable challenge for the state-of-the-art space observatory.

Isaac Schultz - 31 August 2023

The Webb Space Telescope recently imaged Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), one of the brightest supernovae in the night sky and the nearest observed in centuries, according to NASA.

The image spans 8.5 light years and was taken in September 2022, but was only published today. It is composed of several exposures taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and reveals the supernova’s equatorial and outer rings, its crescent, and its inner ejecta (or “keyhole”), the dense core of which not even Webb’s sharp sights can pierce.

The structure’s equatorial ring formed from material that was spewed from the star tens of thousands of years before the supernova occurred, according to a Space Telescope Science Institute release, which took on bright spots as the supernova’s shock wave expanded outward.

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-eye-shaped-supernova-dusty-core-1850793342

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday November 14, 2023 07:30PM

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:

On Oct. 9, 2022, telescopes in space picked up a jet of high energy photons careening through the cosmos toward Earth, evidence of a supernova exploding 1.9 billion light-years away. Such events are known as gamma ray bursts, and astronomers who have continued studying this one said it was the “brightest of all time.” Now, a team of scientists have discovered that this burst caused a measurable change in the number of ionized particles found in Earth's upper atmosphere, including ozone molecules, which readily absorb harmful solar radiation.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/11/14/2336229/a-supernova-destroyed-some-of-earths-ozone-for-a-few-minutes-in-2022

Marianne Guenot - Mar 18, 2024, 5:36 AM PDT

A nearby exploding star is due to offer a spectacular show that could outshine our North Star this year.

The star, which is 3,000 light-years from Earth, is expected to burst in a gigantic explosion — known as a nova — in the coming months.

NASA said in a statement that the once-a-lifetime event could be so big that it can be seen by the naked eye. It should be visible for up to a week.

It will be “fun and exciting upcoming cataclysm,” Bradley Schaefer, an astrophysicist at Louisiana State University, told The New York Times.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-exploding-star-nova-nasa-says-expect-soon-2024-3

But astronomers are puzzled by the lack of signatures of expected heavy elements.

Jennifer Ouellette - 4/12/2024, 2:00 AM

In October 2022, several space-based detectors picked up a powerful gamma-ray burst so energetic that astronomers nicknamed it the BOAT (Brightest Of All Time). Now they've confirmed that the GRB came from a supernova, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy. However, they did not find evidence of heavy elements like platinum and gold one would expect from a supernova explosion, which bears on the longstanding question of the origin of such elements in the universe.

As we've reported previously, gamma-ray bursts are extremely high-energy explosions in distant galaxies lasting between mere milliseconds to several hours. There are two classes of gamma-ray bursts. Most (70 percent) are long bursts lasting more than two seconds, often with a bright afterglow. These are usually linked to galaxies with rapid star formation. Astronomers think that long bursts are tied to the deaths of massive stars collapsing to form a neutron star or black hole (or, alternatively, a newly formed magnetar). The baby black hole would produce jets of highly energetic particles moving near the speed of light, powerful enough to pierce through the remains of the progenitor star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays.

Those gamma-ray bursts lasting less than two seconds (about 30 percent) are deemed short bursts, usually emitting from regions with very little star formation. Astronomers think these gamma-ray bursts are the result of mergers between two neutron stars, or a neutron star merging with a black hole, comprising a “kilonova.” That hypothesis was confirmed in 2017 when the LIGO collaboration picked up the gravitational wave signal of two neutron stars merging, accompanied by the powerful gamma-ray bursts associated with a kilonova.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/a-supernova-caused-the-boat-gamma-ray-burst-jwst-data-confirms/

25 July 2022 - Bad Astronomy Newsletter Issue #447

I recently wrote about the Cartwheel galaxy, a weird ring-shaped galaxy that suffered a massive collision that gave it its distinctive shape.

I also mentioned it had a supernova in it, called SN2021 afdx. And I have to say, when I first saw that designation I actually muttered an obscenity or two under my breath.

Why? Because it’s all in the name.

Way back when, supernovae — exploding stars — were named after the year they were seen, or maybe given the name of the astronomer who described them. That’s how we get Tycho’s Supernova, and Kepler’s Supernova, which are also called SN 1572 and SN 1604 since that was the year they were seen.

That was fine when naked eye supernovae occurred once a century or so. But then we did something irritating: We invented telescopes.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/ban-447-wait-how-many-supernova-explode

It may be possible to blow up a white dwarf before it reaches a critical mass.

John Timmer – Jul 2, 2025 1:39 PM

Type Ia supernovae are critical tools in astronomy, since they all appear to explode with the same intensity, allowing us to use their brightness as a measure of distance. The distance measures they've given us have been critical to tracking the expansion of the Universe, which led to the recognition that there's some sort of dark energy hastening the Universe's expansion. Yet there are ongoing arguments over exactly how these events are triggered.

There's widespread agreement that type Ia supernovae are the explosions of white dwarf stars. Normally, these stars are composed primarily of moderately heavy elements like carbon and oxygen, and lack the mass to trigger additional fusion. But if some additional material is added, the white dwarf can reach a critical mass and reignite a runaway fusion reaction, blowing the star apart. But the source of the additional mass has been somewhat controversial.

But there's an additional hypothesis that doesn't require as much mass: a relatively small explosion on a white dwarf's surface can compress the interior enough to restart fusion in stars that haven't yet reached a critical mass. Now, observations of the remains of a supernova provide some evidence of the existence of these so-called “double detonation” supernovae.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/new-evidence-that-some-supernovae-may-be-a-double-detonation/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday July 03, 2025 03:00AM

New evidence from a 300-year-old supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud suggests that some Type Ia supernovae may result from a “double detonation” – where a helium shell ignites first, triggering a second core explosion in a white dwarf before it reaches critical mass. “While the physics of the process itself are interesting, the key question this raises is whether type Ia supernovae really are all equally bright,” writes Ars Technica's John Timmer. “If they can detonate with substantially less mass than is needed for direct ignition of the core, then it's possible that some of them could be considerably less bright.” However, the research team notes that additional factors – such as the influence of binary systems or secondary detonations – could further complicate the picture. Ars Technica reports:

“The detonations in the carbon-oxygen core and the helium-rich shell result in qualitatively different yield products,” the researchers behind the new work write in a paper describing it. In the paper, they focus on calcium, which there are two ways of producing. One is from the outer shell of helium, via fusion before the detonation dilutes the material. A second batch of calcium is produced through the fusion of the core material as it's ejected in the supernova, which prevents further fusion events from converting it to even heavier elements. (Material deeper in the core does end up getting fused into heavier material.) Because it's produced by both of the detonations, models predict that the expanding sphere of debris will contain two different shells of calcium, with some space in between them. To find evidence for these shells, the researchers checked an older supernova remnant, which allows enough time for the movement of material to separate the shells by enough distance that they can be resolved from Earth.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/03/0051240/new-evidence-that-some-supernovae-may-be-a-double-detonation

Lucy in the sky with calcium

Iain Thomson - Mon 7 Jul 2025 15:21 UTC

Astroboffins have found the first evidence of a double-detonated Type Ia supernova, which could explain why we have enough bright points of reference in the skies to plot our place in the universe.

Data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) on SNR 0509-67.5 – a supernova 160,000 light-years from Earth, caused when a white dwarf star hit critical mass and exploded – reveals that the elements created suggest something may have triggered the star to explode ahead of time.

Supernovae like these are very luminous and referred to as “standard candles” in astronomy. As fixed points, they are used to measure the expansion of the universe, but there are a lot more of them than current theories would predict, and new data could explain why.

“The explosions of white dwarfs play a crucial role in astronomy,” said Priyam Das, a PhD student at the University of New South Wales Canberra, Australia, who led the study on SNR 0509-67.5 published [PDF] in Nature Astronomy. “Yet, despite their importance, the long-standing puzzle of the exact mechanism triggering their explosion remains unsolved.”

Type Ia explosions are thought to be caused when two white dwarf stars orbit closely and one accretes mass from another and grows to about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. This is the Chandrasekhar limit, named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and represents the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. However, spectrographic data from the VLT shows signatures indicating the white dwarf could have detonated earlier due to an elemental collision.

If a white dwarf collects enough helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, this can form a shell around the star and ignite, compressing it and causing an early eruption before the Chandrasekhar limit is reached. That could explain why we have so many points of reference.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/doubledetonation_supernova/

A new discovery offers fresh insights into the life cycle of massive stars and their imminent death.

Passant Rabie - August 20, 2025

On September 6, 2021, Steve Schulze, a researcher at Northwestern University, was on the lookout for fresh supernovas when he came across a strange explosion that left behind an extremely exposed corpse. The dying star had a rather stressful death, stripping down to its stellar bone and exposing its inner layers. “We quickly noticed that this supernova was unlike anything we had seen before,” Schulze told Gizmodo.

As massive stars approach their death, they develop a structure of shells made up of different elements. Those shells are hard to observe, however, since the star’s explosive death mixes the layers together. For the first time, astronomers have been able to see the distinct layers that make up a star through a recently discovered supernova, dubbed 2021yfj—and it is unlike anything they expected. The discovery, detailed in a new paper in the journal Nature, challenges existing models of stellar life cycles and the processes that lead to their explosive deaths.

When stars are born, they’re shiny balls of hydrogen. Due to the pressure and temperature at a star’s core, the hydrogen fuses into helium, which then turns to carbon and so on until it produces iron at its core. “This transforms the star into a layered structure,” Schulze said. A layer rich in oxygen, silicon, and sulfur is buried under many other materials and forms just months before the star explodes, making it impossible to observe directly—until now.

https://gizmodo.com/rare-supernova-rips-open-a-star-revealing-its-hidden-anatomy-2000645510

It's only an estimated six miles wide.

Will Shanklin - Tue, August 19, 2025 at 11:29 AM PDT

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to bear fruit. Images captured by the floating watchtower revealed a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus. The discovery, made on February 2, increases the planet's moon tally to 29.

The moon was easy to miss: It's only an estimated six miles wide. It's located about 35,000 miles from Uranus' center, orbiting the planet's equatorial plane. The moon has a nearly circular orbit, suggesting it could have formed near its current location.

NASA's short video below shows the faint speck orbiting its ringed host.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/webb-telescope-spots-a-new-moon-orbiting-uranus-182932627.html

Designated S/2025 U1, the newly discovered moon is so small and faint that astronomers are wondering if Uranus might be hiding even more moons.

Gayoung Lee - August 20, 2025

Astronomers spotted a never-before-seen, bite-sized moon orbiting Uranus, bringing the ice giant’s follower count to 29. The moon is so small and faint—well below the detection threshold of NASA’s Voyager 2 probe—that scientists believe Uranus may host many more undiscovered, tiny moons.

The moon, provisionally named S/2025 U1, first entered the view of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on February 2, 2025. Further imaging led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) shows that it sits at the edge of Uranus’s inner rings, about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from its center in the planet’s equatorial plane.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of S/2025 U1 is its tiny size. Assuming it has a similar reflectivity to Uranus’s other moons, the object measures only about 6 miles (10 kilometers) across—roughly a quarter the length of a marathon.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-discover-a-previously-hidden-moon-orbiting-uranus-2000645669

“I don't remember ever being so nervous or upset about something as I was then.”

Eric Berger - 11/23/2020, 4:45 AM

The phone call from the “Mountain” to Mission Control in Houston came at just about the worst possible time. It was the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning in 1991. Up in space, the crew members on board space shuttle Atlantis were sleeping. Now all of a sudden, Lead Flight Director Milt Heflin faced a crisis.

The flight dynamics officer in Mission Control informed Heflin that the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which tracked orbital traffic, had called to warn that a dormant Turkish satellite had a potential conjunction with the space shuttle in only 15 minutes. Moreover, this potential debris strike was due to occur in the middle of a communications blackout with the crew, as the spacecraft passed over the southern tip of Africa.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/11/that-time-on-thanksgiving-when-debris-threatened-the-space-shuttle/

A review of the upcoming Psyche mission found a host of issues with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, resulting in the delay of a completely unrelated mission.

Passant Rabie - 8 November 2022 9:45AM

NASA’s JPL is struggling with issues related to budget, staffing, and poor communications, forcing the space agency to delay a highly anticipated mission to Venus.

During the annual meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group on Monday, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division Lori Glaze described the mission delay as “the most painful thing I’ve ever had to do probably in my whole life.” However, Glaze said that in trying to address challenges highlighted by an independent review board, “there were zero good options.”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-venus-mission-delay-jpl-1849752202

An independent review board highlighted challenges related to budget, staffing, and poor communications.

Passant Rabie - 7 March 2023

Following the release of an independent review examining the delay of NASA’s Psyche mission, the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) says it’s making progress in addressing the broader issues at the institution that went beyond its delayed asteroid mission.

During the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group last week, JPL Director Laurie Leshin highlighted changes that were made in an effort to fix some of the lingering problems at the research institute, SpaceNews reported. “The hybrid work environment was a really big one,” Leshin is quoted as saying. “We have changed our policy around remote work. I had 5,000 JPLers on lab last Wednesday, so we are back.”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-jpl-making-changes-after-delayed-asteroid-mission-1850199539

The Artemis missions will spend the rest of the decade setting up humanity's first extraterrestrial outpost.

Andrew Tarantola| - December 15, 2022 9:30 AM

Amid the pantheon of Greek gods, few are more revered than Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, chastity, and the moon; Mistress of Animals, Daughter of Zeus and twin sister to Apollo. Famed for her pledge to never marry, feared from that time she turned the peeping Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs upon him, Artemis has stood as a feminist icon for millenia. It seems only fitting then that NASA names after her a trailblazing mission that will see both the first woman and first person of color set foot on the moon, ahead of humanity’s first off-planet colony.

In fact, NASA has been naming its missions after Zeus’ progeny since the advent of spaceflight. There was the Mercury Program (the Roman spelling of Hermes) in 1958, then Gemini in ‘68 followed by Apollo in ‘73. NASA took a quick break on the naming convention during the Shuttle era but revived it when it formally established the Artemis program in 2017. Working with the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and a slew of private corporations, NASA’s goal for Artemis is simple: to re-establish a human foothold on the moon for the first time since 1972, and stay there.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-artemis-program-explained-moon-mars-colonization-video-143013129.html

Aims to look at the universe's dark ages without interference from Earth

Katyanna Quach - Tue 14 Mar 2023 00:33 UTC

NASA and the US Department of Energy hope to build a lunar telescope on the far side of the Moon that will hunt for ancient radio waves, emitted just 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Studying the origins of the universe is difficult – there isn't much data and astronomers form hypotheses by piecing together bits of evidence from astronomical observations. The best proof supporting the Big Bang – which describes how the universe formed and rapidly expanded roughly 13.8 billion years ago – is the cosmic microwave background.

Before the first stars formed, the universe was in the so-called Dark Ages. Atoms were just starting to form and emitting photons. The energy from these photons has stretched as the universe has expanded over time to become a hypothetical source of radio energy known as the Dark Ages Signal.

Now, NASA and the DoE have launched a project – named the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) – in hopes of finding this ancient signal left over from the Big Bang.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/14/nasa_moon_telescope/

3D-printed melted regolith may be the way to build on the Moon and Mars.

Khari Johnson, wired.com - 5/24/2023, 7:17 AM

In June a four-person crew will enter a hangar at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and spend one year inside a 3D-printed building. Made of a slurry that—before it dried—looked like neatly laid lines of soft-serve ice cream, Mars Dune Alpha has crew quarters, shared living space, and dedicated areas for administering medical care and growing food. The 1,700-square-foot space, which is the color of Martian soil, was designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printed by Icon Technology.

Experiments inside the structure will focus on the physical and behavioral health challenges people will encounter during long-term residencies in space. But it’s also the first structure built for a NASA mission by the Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology (MMPACT) team, which is preparing now for the first construction projects on a planetary body beyond Earth.

When humanity returns to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, astronauts will first live in places like an orbiting space station, on a lunar lander, or in inflatable surface habitats. But the MMPACT team is preparing for the construction of sustainable, long-lasting structures. To avoid the high cost of shipping material from Earth, which would require massive rockets and fuel expenditures, that means using the regolith that’s already there, turning it into a paste that can be 3D printed into thin layers or different shapes.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/how-nasa-plans-to-melt-the-moon-and-build-on-mars/

China is going. NASA is talking about going. What gives?

Eric Berger - 5/3/2024, 1:16 PM

China is going back to the Moon for more samples.

On Friday the country launched its largest rocket, the Long March 5, carrying an orbiter, lander, ascent vehicle, and a return spacecraft. The combined mass of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft is about 8 metric tons, and it will attempt to return rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon—something scientists have never been able to study before in-depth.

The mission's goal is to bring about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of rocks back to Earth a little more than a month from now.

Chang'e-6 builds upon the Chinese space program's successful lunar program. In 2019, the Chang'e-4 mission made a soft landing on the far side of the Moon, the first time this had ever been done by a spacecraft. The far side is more challenging than the near side, because line-of-sight communications are not possible with Earth.

Then, in late 2020, the Chang'e-5 mission landed on the near side of the Moon and successfully collected 1.7 kg of rocks. These were subsequently blasted off the surface of the Moon and returned to China where they have been studied since. It marked the first time in half a century, since efforts by the United States and Soviet Union, that samples were returned from the Moon.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/china-just-launched-another-ambitious-lunar-mission-is-nasa-falling-behind/

Ice, ice maybe – water-seeking lunar trundlebot overcomes iffy connectors

Richard Speed - Tue 2 Jan 2024 14:00 UTC

NASA's much-delayed Moon rover, VIPER, is progressing toward a 2024 launch, with its project manager declaring the trundlebot half-built.

The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will spend 100 days at the Moon's South Pole to search for ice and other potential resources. It has three instruments and a one-meter-long drill to retrieve samples beneath the surface.

NASA plans to use data from the rover to create its first resource maps of the Moon – an essential step in the long-held dream of establishing a long-term presence on the lunar surface.

However, VIPER must first get to the Moon, and the announcement that the team is halfway through the build of the flight rover is an important milestone.

According to VIPER project manager Dan Andrews, most of the key pieces of hardware have now been delivered, and all but one of the science and instrument payloads are installed. Andrews also noted challenges in the supply chain due to pandemic-era hold-ups and technical and design problems.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/02/nasas_viper_is_halfbuilt/

The already-built rover could now be scrapped for parts.

Alix Soliman - 18 July 2024

NASA has terminated an ambitious mission intended to map ice and then drill into it at the Moon’s south pole. The space agency announced the cancellation of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) yesterday, citing budget woes, rising costs and several delays in construction on the rover and its lander. Now, it is seeking partners interested in using the rover — which is already assembled — or components of it, for future lunar missions.

The agency has already sunk US$450 million into building VIPER, and reports that it would need to spend millions more to complete testing. This would threaten funding for other launches it is planning as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, in which the agency partners with private US aerospace companies to transport scientific instruments to the lunar surface. Before the mission delays, VIPER was intended to be the first-ever mission to scout for ice on the ground at the Moon’s south pole.

“This has been a really tough decision, which we make in an uncertain budget environment,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate when announcing the cancellation. “But we do believe that this is a way for us to continue to support the entire CLPS portfolio.” The US Congress reduced NASA’s budget for 2024 compared with 2023, and the budget proposed for 2025 by the US House of Representatives is only about a 1% increase from this year, which is lower than the current rate of inflation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02361-1

“It would have been revolutionary. Other missions don’t replace what is lost here.”

Stephen Clark - 7/18/2024, 11:29 AM

NASA has spent $450 million designing and building a first-of-its-kind robot to drive into eternally dark craters at the Moon's south pole, but the agency announced Wednesday it will cancel the rover due to delays and cost overruns.

“NASA intends to discontinue the VIPER mission,” said Nicky Fox, head of the agency's science mission directorate. “Decisions like this are never easy, and we haven’t made this one, in any way, lightly. In this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in either having to cancel or disrupt many other missions in our Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) line.”

NASA has terminated science missions after development delays and cost overruns before, but it's rare to cancel a mission with a spacecraft that is already built.

The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission was supposed to be a robotic scout for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface in the next few years. VIPER was originally planned to launch in late 2023 and was slated to fly to the Moon aboard a commercial lander provided by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, which won a contract from NASA in 2020 to deliver the VIPER rover to the lunar surface. Astrobotic is one of 14 companies in the pool of contractors for NASA's CLPS program, with the goal of transporting government-sponsored science payloads to the Moon.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/07/lights-out-nasa-cancels-rover-to-search-for-ice-in-dark-lunar-craters/

Aria Alamalhodaei - 7:21 AM PDT July 18, 2024

NASA has canceled a $450 million program to map water ice deposits on the moon after cost overruns and scheduling delays.

That program, called Viper — the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — was scheduled to fly on Astrobotic’s second lunar lander mission next year. The mobile robot was due to conduct a 100-day mission to map lunar ice and use a 1-meter drill to detect and analyze these ice deposits. It would’ve been NASA’s first resource-mapping mission off planet Earth.

Water will be vital to any human expansion beyond earth. Other NASA missions have helped scientists confirm the presence of water on the moon, but we still don’t have a good understanding of where the most water-rich areas are, or what form the ice is in, like ice crystals or water molecules bonded to soil. The agency said it would use Viper’s findings to inform future landing sites for crewed missions to the moon under its flagship Artemis program.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/18/nasa-cancels-450m-viper-moon-mission-dashing-ice-prospecting-dreams/

Posted by msmash on Thursday July 18, 2024 07:41AM

Following a comprehensive internal review, NASA announced Wednesday its intent to discontinue development of its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project. NASA:

NASA stated cost increases, delays to the launch date, and the risks of future cost growth as the reasons to stand down on the mission. The rover was originally planned to launch in late 2023, but in 2022, NASA requested a launch delay to late 2024 to provide more time for preflight testing of the Astrobotic lander. Since that time, additional schedule and supply chain delays pushed VIPER's readiness date to September 2025, and independently its CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) launch aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander also has been delayed to a similar time. Continuation of VIPER would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other CLPS missions. NASA has notified Congress of the agency's intent.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/18/1418256/nasa-ends-viper-project

But the launch it was supposed to be on will still push through.

Mariella Moon - Thu, Jul 18, 2024, 4:00 AM PDT

NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER was going to look for water ice at the moon's south pole. The agency was hoping that it could help answer important questions, such as where water is on the moon and how much there is for future spacefarers to use. But now NASA has decided to cancel the project and discontinue the rover's development, citing “cost increases, delays to the launch date and the risks of future cost growth.”

The agency has already spent $450 million developing VIPER, according to The New York Times — it's even done assembling the rover and installing its scientific instruments. That said, it still has to subject the rover to a series of tests to ensure that it can endure a rocket launch and the harsh conditions of outer space. Joel Kearns, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, told the publication that the cancelation would save the agency at least $84 million, because it would no longer have to pay for those tests and for the rover's operations.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-scraps-its-viper-project-that-aimed-to-look-for-ice-on-the-moon-110005343.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday August 10, 2024 09:35PM

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Observer:

Thousands of scientists have protested to the US Congress over the “unprecedented and indefensible” decision by Nasa to cancel its Viper lunar rover mission. In an open letter to Capitol Hill, they have denounced the move, which was revealed last month, and heavily criticised the space agency over a decision that has shocked astronomers and astrophysicists across the globe.

The car-sized rover has already been constructed at a cost of $450 million and was scheduled to be sent to the moon next year, when it would have used a one-metre drill to prospect for ice below the lunar surface in soil at the moon's south pole. Ice is considered to be vital to plans to build a lunar colony, not just to supply astronauts with water but also to provide them with hydrogen and oxygen that could be used as fuels… “Quite frankly, the agency's decision beggars belief,” said Prof Clive Neal, a lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana. “Viper is a fundamental mission on so many fronts and its cancellation basically undermines Nasa's entire lunar exploration programme for the next decade. It is as straightforward as that. Cancelling Viper makes no sense whatsoever.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/11/0428253/scientists-slam-indefensible-axing-of-nasas-450-million-viper-moon-rover

Intuitive Machines tosses hat into the ring for NASA's canceled trundlebot

Richard Speed - Wed 14 Aug 2024 15:59 UTC

Intuitive Machines has submitted a bid to save NASA's VIPER rover, describing the $84 million savings claimed by the US space agency when cutting it as “a government number.”

NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) at the end of last week to seek interest from US companies keen to conduct a mission with the canceled trundlebot.

This RFI came in the wake of the US space agency's decision to axe the project in light of rising costs. The rover itself was complete, but NASA warned that the project required more money and reckoned it could save a minimum of $84 million by removing VIPER from the budget.

The agency invited expressions of interest, and on August 9, NASA issued an RFI to obtain more details from interested parties, with the proviso that the plans would incur “minimal to no cost to the government.”

Enter Intuitive Machines, which made the first successful commercial landing on the Moon earlier this year.

Admittedly, “successful” is doing a bit of work there – the Odysseus lander made it down intact, but ended up on its side. However, it was still able to generate power via its solar panels and perform science.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/nasas_viper_moon_rover_might/

Darrell Etherington / 12:59 PM PST•December 22, 2020

NASA has finished work on a new launchpad at its Kennedy Space Center in Florida — Launch Complex 48 (LC-48), a pad that will be able to support smaller launch vehicles than either LC-39A or B, or SLC-41, which currently host SpaceX, SLS and ULA launches, respectively. It’s designed to be able to be used by multiple providers, with an absence of permanent structures that allows for flexible configuration depending on who’s using it.

The purpose of LC-48 is very explicitly to fill “a need for new, low-cost launch systems with very fast turnaround cycles,” according to KSC senior project manager Keith Britton speaking to NASASpaceflight.com. That sounds an awful lot like some of the forthcoming launch models being developed and tested by companies including Astra, a small launcher that designed its business around the now-ended DARPA competition for a responsive launch demonstration.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/22/nasa-opens-new-launchpad-at-kennedy-space-center-meant-to-serve-multiple-commercial-launch-customers/

Managers will assess the scope of work to perform while in the VAB.

Eric Berger - 9/30/2022, 3:06 PM

Hurricane Ian cut a devastating swath across Florida this week, and its core passed directly over Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral on Thursday.

However, by then, Ian had weakened to become a moderately strong tropical storm, with the bulk of its heaviest rainfall to the north of the launchpads along the Atlantic coast. As a result, damage to NASA's launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center, and the Space Force launchpads at Cape Canaveral, was minimal.

Accordingly, by Friday, work was already underway at facilities along Florida's “Space Coast” for a rapid-fire succession of three launches in three days.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/floridas-space-coast-on-track-after-ian-set-for-3-launches-in-3-days/

The organization says it has over 400 accounts across 15 different platforms.

Ian Carlos Campbell - Wed, Jun 11, 2025, 12:20 PM PDT

NASA is shutting down several social media accounts run by the Science Mission Directorate, including the official Mars Curiosity Rover account on X. The organization says it made the decision in order to “make its work more accessible to the public, avoiding the potential for oversaturation or confusion.”

The “social media consolidation project” is concentrated in part on X, where there are dozens NASA accounts affiliated with specific missions and areas of research. So far 29 accounts are being archived or consolidated with other accounts, including @MarsCuriosity and @NASAPersevere, the two accounts for the organization's Mars rovers. Posts about both missions will now come from the more general @NASAMars. Some social media accounts will also “rebranded to better align with the new strategic framework,” NASA says, “reflecting a broader scope or a more direct connection to core NASA initiatives.”

With “over 400 individual accounts across 15 platforms” it's not exactly unreasonable that NASA is trying to streamline things, but there is some much appreciated specificity lost when news and information is coming from a more general account. NASA's Curiosity is beloved and the agency's research into Mars was likely more well-known because the social media account made identifying with the rover easier.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-is-shutting-down-some-official-social-media-accounts-including-the-curiosity-rovers-handle-192016918.html

All about consolidation as mission mouthpieces archived in pursuit of 'improving the experience'

Richard Speed - Wed 11 Jun 2025 16:03 UTC

NASA is shutting down many of its social media accounts, including those dedicated to the Voyager mission and the Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.

It announced that posts would be coming to an end this week, with affected accounts, such as Voyager, pinning text along the lines of “Important Update: As part of @NASA's effort to streamline communications, this account will be archived in the coming weeks” to the top of their feeds.

To be clear, the Voyager mission itself is not affected, just the mission's social media presence.

While the archiving of some accounts, such as @NASASLS and @NASAOrion, has a certain logic, mothballing Voyager and the Mars rovers makes less sense.

After all, the current US administration is determined to cancel NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) unless certain US lawmakers have their way. However, Voyager will continue its mission, and the Mars rovers will keep on trundling regardless. In addition, the @MarsCuriosity feed currently has approximately four million followers, considerably more than the one and a half million of the @NASAMars account.

The @NASANewHorizons account, for the probe that flew past Pluto, was axed a few weeks ago, with users directed to the @NASASolarSystem account. @NASAVoyager will shortly be joining it.

According to space agency, this is all about “Improving the experience of NASA followers.”

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/11/nasa_to_silence_voyagers_social/

Former NASA astronauts tested Collins Aerospace’s new spacesuits on a parabolic flight, simulating the weightlessness of space.

George Dvorsky - 2 February 2024

NASA’s current batch of ISS spacesuits are getting long in the tooth, having been in service for over four decades. The space agency is keen to acquire spacesuits fit for the 21st century, and recent zero-gravity tests performed by Collins Aerospace are a step in the right direction.

North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, in partnership with ILC Dover and Oceaneering, completed a key milestone in the development of a new generation spacesuit meant for use aboard the International Space Station. This progress comes under NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract, valued at $97.2 million and awarded to Collins in December 2022.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-s-next-generation-iss-spacesuit-passes-zero-gravit-1851220352

Morale at the space agency is absurdly low, sources say.

Eric Berger - Feb 3, 2025 3:13 PM

Like a lot of the rest of the federal government right now, NASA is reeling during the first turbulent days of the Trump administration.

The last two weeks have brought a change in leadership in the form of interim administrator Janet Petro, whose ascension was a surprise. Her first act was to tell agency employees to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility contracts and to “report” on anyone who did not carry out this order. Soon, civil servants began receiving emails from the US Office of Personnel Management that some perceived as an effort to push them to resign.

Then there are the actions of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Last week he sowed doubt by claiming NASA had “stranded” astronauts on the space station. (The astronauts are perfectly safe and have a ride home.) Perhaps more importantly, he owns the space agency's most important contractor and, in recent weeks, has become deeply enmeshed in operating the US government through his Department of Government Efficiency. For some NASA employees, whether or not it is true, there is now an uncomfortable sense that they are working for Musk and to dole out contracts to SpaceX.

This concern was heightened late Friday when Petro announced that a longtime SpaceX employee named Michael Altenhofen had joined the agency “as a senior advisor to the NASA Administrator.” Altenhofen is an accomplished engineer who interned at NASA in 2005 but has spent the last 15 years at SpaceX, most recently as a leader of human spaceflight programs. He certainly brings expertise, but his hiring also raises concerns about SpaceX's influence over NASA operations. Petro did not respond to a request for comment on Monday about potential conflicts of interest and the scope of Altenhofen's involvement.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/as-nasa-flies-into-turbulence-the-agency-could-use-a-steady-hand/

We have no explanations for this sort of slow repeat.

John Timmer - 7/19/2023, 12:09 PM

On Wednesday, researchers announced the discovery of a new astronomical enigma. The new object, GPM J1839–10, behaves a bit like a pulsar, sending out regular bursts of radio energy. But the physics that drives pulsars means that they'd stop emitting if they slowed down too much, and almost every pulsar we know of blinks at least once per minute.

GPM J1839–10 takes 22 minutes between pulses. We have no idea what kind of physics or what kind of objects can power that.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/07/new-slow-repeating-radio-source-we-have-no-idea-what-it-is/

Astronomers puzzled over what is powering GPM J1839−10

Katyanna Quach - Thu 20 Jul 2023 22:26 UTC

Astronomers believe they may have discovered a new type of stellar object after spotting something that has been beaming radio pulses every 22 minutes for more than three decades.

The oddity, code named GPM J1839−10, lies about 15,000 light-years away, and was detected by an international team of researchers. They were searching the skies for objects that periodically emitted bright beams of electromagnetic energy after they came across something that would flash three times an hour before going quiet.

“We were stumped,” Natasha Hurley-Walker, first author of the new research published in Nature and a senior lecturer at Curtin University in Australia, said in a statement. “So we started searching for similar objects to find out if it was an isolated event or just the tip of the iceberg.”

The team spotted GPM J1839−10 with the Murchison Widefield Array, a radio telescope made up of a 4,094 ground-based antenna system in Wajarri Yamaji Country in outback Western Australia. It releases a burst of radio waves lasting from 30 seconds to five minutes, every 22 minutes, a signal five times longer compared to the initial object reported in a previous study in Nature.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/20/magnetars/

An apparent magnetized neutron star is exhibiting a remarkably long period, emitting radio waves once every 22 minutes.

Isaac Schultz - 20 July 2023

An intensely magnetic neutron star roughly 15,000 light-years from Earth is stumping astronomers with its ultra long periods, unleashing radio waves into the cosmos every 22 minutes.

Neutron stars with intense magnetic fields are called magnetars. Now, 22-minute periods may sound relatively frequent in Earthly time scales, but most magnetars have periods between a few seconds and a few minutes. The team’s research describing the object was published this week in Nature.

“This remarkable object challenges our understanding of neutron stars and magnetars, which are some of the most exotic and extreme objects in the Universe,” said Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astronomer at Curtin University’s International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and the study’s lead author, in an ICRAR release.

https://gizmodo.com/mysterious-space-object-magnetar-radio-waves-1850660319

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday July 20, 2023 12:00AM

Researchers have announced the discovery of an astronomical object called GPM J1839-10, which emits regular bursts of radio energy similar to a pulsar but with a much longer interval between pulses of 21 minutes. The nature and physics behind this behavior remain unknown, as it does not fit into any existing astronomical categories or explanations, making it a unique and enigmatic phenomenon that requires further study and observation. Ars Technica reports:

GPM J1839-10 was discovered in a search of the galactic plane for transient objects – something that's not there when you first look, but appears the next time you check. The typical explanation for a transient object is something like a supernova, where a major event gives something an immense boost in brightness. They're found at the radio end of the spectrum, fast radio bursts, but are also very brief and, so, fairly difficult to spot. In any case, GPM J1839-10 showed up in the search in a rather unusual way: It showed up as a transient item twice in the same night of observation. Rather than delivering a short burst of immense energy, such as a fast radio burst, GPM J1839-10 was much lower energy and spread out over a 30-second-long burst.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/07/19/2130208/something-in-space-has-been-lighting-up-every-20-minutes-since-1988

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday July 22, 2023 10:34AM

In 2018 a doctoral student spotted “a spinning celestial space object,” reports CNN. “The unfamiliar object released giant bursts of energy and beamed out radiation three times per hour.”

But that was just the beginning…

In those moments, it became the brightest source of radio waves viewable from Earth through radio telescopes, acting like a celestial lighthouse. Researchers thought the phenomenon might be a remnant of a collapsed star — either a dense neutron star or a dead white dwarf star — with a strong magnetic field. Or perhaps the object was something else entirely… “We were stumped,” said Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker, senior lecturer at the Curtin University node of ICRAR, in a statement. “So we started searching for similar objects to find out if it was an isolated event or just the tip of the iceberg.” The team observed the sky using the Murchison Widefield Array, a radio telescope on Wajarri Yamaji Country in outback Western Australia, between July and September 2022. The scientists discovered an object 15,000 light-years from Earth in the Scutum constellation. The object, dubbed GPM J1839-10, released radio waves every 22 minutes. The bursts of energy lasted up to five minutes.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/07/22/0332245/how-astronomers-discovered-an-unusual-object-pulsing-radio-waves-in-space-for-decades

Noelle Alejandra Salmi - Aug 3, 2022

The United States is packed with astronomical observatories — located on high mountain tops or splayed across a desolate desert. Beyond their beautiful terrestrial settings, many of these observatories have fueled the most important astronomical discoveries of the last century.

The world’s largest on-land optical telescope is at the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Hawaii’s nearly 14,000-foot Mauna Kea peak. However, this US observatory is neither open to visitors nor easy to work into a continental road trip. Rather, this road trip begins in California — where the Big Bang Theory was developed — and takes you across several western states, where a dry climate and tall elevations provide the best observing conditions.

The road trip also includes a handful of eastern observatories. These can be part of your cross-country astro road trip, or you can split your travel into a western and eastern tour. However you choose to explore, these are the best US observatories you can visit on a trip across the country.

https://matadornetwork.com/read/us-observatories/

by Laura Arenschield, The Ohio State University - August 21, 2020

An upcoming NASA mission could find that there are more rogue planets—planets that float in space without orbiting a sun—than there are stars in the Milky Way, a new study theorizes.

“This gives us a window into these worlds that we would otherwise not have,” said Samson Johnson, an astronomy graduate student at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. “Imagine our little rocky planet just floating freely in space—that's what this mission will help us find.”

The study was published today in he Astronomical Journal.

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-rogue-planets-outnumber-stars.html

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday December 08, 2021 11:00PM

fahrbot-bot shares a report from Gizmodo:

Scientists have spotted an unusually large exoplanet in orbit around b Centauri, a massive two-star system that is visible to the unaided eye. With a combined weight of roughly 10 Suns, it's now the heaviest star system known to host a planet. The details of this discovery were published today in Nature. The newly discovered planet, called “b Cen (AB)b,” is likely a gas giant and is heavier than 10 Jupiters combined, making it one of the most massive planets ever discovered. It orbits the b Centauri binary system, which is located 325 light-years from Earth and has a combined mass of nearly 10 Suns. At 52 billion miles from its host stars, this planet has one of the widest orbits ever detected. By comparison, Pluto orbits the Sun at around 3.3 billion miles, so yeah, that's an unbelievable separation. Until now, planets had not been found in orbit around star systems weighing more than three solar masses. Astronomers didn't think planets could form around systems like this, so it's forcing a major rethink of what's possible in terms of planetary architectures and the conditions under which planets can form.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/12/09/0016222/this-massive-planet-shouldnt-exist

If confirmed, the exoplanet would be among the lightest ever detected.

George Dvorsky - 10 February 2022 8:00AM

Proxima Centauri, a tiny star located a mere 4.25 light-years from Earth, may host a third planet, according to new research.

The nearest star to Earth is a surprisingly busy place, or at least it’s looking that way. Astronomers have announced the discovery of a candidate planet around Proxima Centauri, adding to the two already known to orbit the star. Astronomer João Faria from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal is the lead author of the new paper, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Finding Proxima d, as the exoplanet is called, wasn’t easy owing to its exceptionally low mass. At one-quarter the mass of Earth, it the lightest of the three planets and also the lowest-mass planet ever detected by astronomers. Prior to this, the record for lightest exoplanet belonged to L 98-59 b, an exoplanet with roughly half the mass of Venus.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-spot-third-possible-planet-orbiting-nearest-1848508061

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday February 27, 2022 12:34AM

Slashdot reader Tangential shares what he describes as “an interesting article on Gizmodo discussing how we could easily contaminate other planets/moons as we explore them.”

“Based on our recently demonstrated vulnerability to locally evolved bacteria and viruses, what will other worlds's pathogens do to us (and what will ours do to them?) What I also find interesting is what a small percentage of SciFi actually addresses this.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/02/26/0614216/are-we-prepared-for-contamination-between-worlds

They call it Planet Nine—but whether the mystery object is actually a planet or exists at all remains to be proven.

Artem Golub - 26 April 2022 11:35AM

https://gizmodo.com/what-is-planet-nine-and-why-can-t-we-find-it-script-1848842768

Salle de presse - 08/24/2022

An international team of researchers led by Charles Cadieux, a Ph.D. student at the Université de Montréal and member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), has announced the discovery of TOI-1452 b, an exoplanet orbiting one of two small stars in a binary system located in the Draco constellation about 100 light-years from Earth.

The exoplanet is slightly greater in size and mass than Earth and is located at a distance from its star where its temperature would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. The astronomers believe it could be an “ocean planet,” a planet completely covered by a thick layer of water, similar to some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons.

https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2022/08/24/an-extrasolar-world-covered-in-water/

The floor is lava. Literally. But at least there might be water

Katyanna Quach - Thu 18 May 2023 07:28 UTC

Astronomers have discovered a rocky Earth-sized exoplanet they believe is “likely carpeted with volcanoes” and may be capable of supporting an atmosphere and liquid water, according to a paper published in Nature on Wednesday.

The strange new world, romantically dubbed LP 791-18d, has radius and a mass similar to Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star about 86 light years away in the southern constellation Crater. Scientists previously spotted two planets around the star, and now a team of researchers led by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets based at the University of Montreal have found a third.

LP 791-18d lies very close to its parent star, and completes an orbit every 2.8 days. On that journey it sometimes passes within just 1.5 million kilometers of its neighboring planet, LP 791-18c. That's such a close pass that LP 791-18c exerts a gravitational pull on d, forcing its orbit to become stretched and elliptical.

As LP 791-18d is also gravitationally influenced by its host star, tidal forces deform its shape. The strain causes internal friction and huge amounts of heat, powering geologically active regions and that carpet of volcanoes.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/astronomers_spot_new_earthsized_exoplanet/

What if we’ve been looking for worlds like ours in the wrong places?

Isaac Schultz - 26 May 2023 1:00PM

A team of astronomers has proposed peering into the inconspicuous region between host stars and their soot lines to find habitable worlds beyond our solar system.

There are few known habitable worlds—planets that reside in the so-called Goldilocks Zone of their star systems—compared to the number of exoplanets known to science. But there may be as many as 300 million habitable worlds in our galaxy alone, according to the SETI Institute.

Habitable worlds are of importance not just to planetary scientists and those who hope to get humankind extraplanetary, but for those involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or SETI). Habitable worlds clue researchers into how unique Earth’s situation might be, and the sorts of conditions needed to foster life in the universe.

https://gizmodo.com/habitable-worlds-may-lurk-sooty-areas-star-systems-1850479366

An international team of astronomers has discovered a late-stage star that harbors a planet it should have devoured.

Daniel Huber, The Conversation - 4 July 2023

The search for planets outside our Solar System – exoplanets – is one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy. Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected and astronomers now estimate that on average there is at least one planet per star in our galaxy.

Many current research efforts aim at detecting Earth-like planets suitable for life. These endeavours focus on so-called “main sequence” stars like our Sun – stars which are powered by fusing hydrogen atoms into helium in their cores, and remain stable for billions of years. More than 90% of all known exoplanets so far have been detected around main-sequence stars.

As part of an international team of astronomers, we studied a star that looks much like our Sun will in billions of years’ time, and found it has a planet which by all rights it should have devoured. In research published today in Nature, we lay out the puzzle of this planet’s existence – and propose some possible solutions.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-baffled-by-planet-that-shouldn-t-exist-1850590452

Astronomers say it's the first piece of evidence to suggest that a pair of planets can share the same orbit.

Passant Rabie - 20 July 2023

A group of radio telescopes in the Chilean desert was aimed at a young star system 400 light years away when it detected something unusual: a cloud of debris chasing a planet along the same orbit. The debris could be a planet in the midst of being born or the remains of one that already exists, making this the first observable case of orbital planetary twins.

The PDS 70 star system hosts two giant Jupiter-like planets known as PDS 70b and PDS 70c. By analyzing archival data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which is located in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, an international team of astronomers spotted a cloud of debris that’s sharing the same orbit as PDS 70b.

https://gizmodo.com/trojan-planet-suspected-sharing-same-orbit-sibling-1850660567

Neptune-sized planet has a density similar to pure silver.

John Timmer - 8/30/2023, 8:55 AM

Scientists have been working on models of planet formation since before we knew exoplanets existed. Originally guided by the properties of the planets in our Solar System, these models turned out to be remarkably good at also accounting for exoplanets without an equivalent in our Solar System, like super Earths and hot Neptunes. Add in the ability of planets to move around thanks to gravitational interactions, and the properties of exoplanets could usually be accounted for.

Today, a large international team of researchers is announcing the discovery of something our models can't explain. It's roughly Neptune's size but four times more massive. Its density—well above that of iron—is compatible with either the entire planet being almost entirely solid or it having an ocean deep enough to drown entire planets. While the people who discovered it offer a couple of theories for its formation, neither is especially likely.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/we-dont-understand-how-a-freakishly-heavy-exoplanet-could-have-formed/

Welcome to a new installment in the Building the Ultimate Solar System series. Be prepared: this is a far-reaching post with a big conclusion.

May 3, 2017 - Sean Raymond

Sometimes it feels good to find out you were wrong. I had one of those moments a few weeks ago.

I was thinking about how to pack the orbits of planets as tightly as possible (who doesn’t spend their free time thinking about that?). I was thinking about more than one planet sitting on the same orbit. This is a co-orbital setup. I always thought that co-orbital planets were just a neat trick. The Trojan points 60 degrees in front and behind a planet can be stable — and that is awesome. But there’s nowhere else to go.

Then I had my mind blown.

Let’s start at the beginning. Imagine two planets orbiting a star. The planets’ orbits can’t be too close together because it’s not stable. The planets feel the star’s gravity but also each other’s gravity. If the two planets’ orbits are too close together, the repeated gravitational kicks cause their orbits to slowly stretch out. Eventually their orbits cross. Then the two planets can be in the same place at the same time. Then boom, the planets might collide or one might get ejected into interstellar space. In any case, the planets’ orbital setup changes completely.

https://planetplanet.net/2017/05/03/the-ultimate-engineered-solar-system/

Orbiting the brightest star ever found to host more than four planets, all have rocky or icy cores and extended atmospheres.

Alison Klesman - November 29, 2023

A newly discovered system of six planets circling a nearby Sun-like star may be the key to unlocking how planetary systems form. All between the size of Earth and Neptune, the worlds are orbiting in a so-called resonant chain — a configuration that it’s relatively rare to observe in nature, making the system a valuable find that offers a window into a uniquely “gentle” history.
The discovery was published today in Nature.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/astronomers-find-six-planets-orbiting-in-resonance/

Posted by msmash on Thursday November 30, 2023 10:02AM

Astronomers have discovered six planets orbiting a bright star in perfect resonance. The star system, 100 light-years from Earth, was described on Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature. From a report:

The discovery of the system could give astronomers a unique opportunity to trace the evolution of these worlds to when they first formed, and potentially offer insights into how our solar system got to be the way it is today. “It's like looking at a fossil,” said Rafael Luque, an astronomer at the University of Chicago who led the study. “The orbits of the planets today are the same as they were a billion years ago.”

Researchers think that when planets first form, their orbits around a star are in sync. That is, the time it takes for one planet to waltz around its host star might be the same amount of time it takes for a second planet to circle exactly twice, or exactly three times. Systems that line up like this are known as orbital resonances. But, despite the theory, finding resonances in the Milky Way is rare. Only 1 percent of planetary systems still preserve this symmetry.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/11/30/1654236/a-star-with-six-planets-that-orbit-perfectly-in-sync

Stars this small shouldn't make planets this big.

John Timmer - 12/1/2023, 9:38 AM

You win some, you lose some. Earlier this week, observations made by the Webb Space Telescope provided new data that supports what we thought we understood about planet formation. On Thursday, word came that astronomers spotted a large planet orbiting close to a tiny star—a star that's too small to have had enough material around it to form a planet that large.

This doesn't mean that the planet is “impossible.” But it does mean that we may not fully understand some aspects of planet formation.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/neptune-sized-exoplanet-is-too-big-for-its-host-star/

Posted by BeauHD on Friday March 01, 2024 11:00PM

The desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune is plausible, says Alexander Farnsworth, a climate modeler at the University of Bristol in England. According to Science News, the world would be a harsh place for humans to live, and they probably wouldn't have to worry about getting eaten by extraterrestrial helminths. From the report:

For their Arrakis climate simulation, which you can explore at the website Climate Archive, Farnsworth and colleagues started with the well-known physics that drive weather and climate on Earth. Using our planet as a starting point makes sense, Farnsworth says, partly because Herbert drew inspiration for Arrakis from “some sort of semi-science of looking at dune systems on the Earth itself.” The team then added nuggets of information about the planet from details in Herbert's novels and in the Dune Encyclopedia. According to that intel, the fictional planet's atmosphere is similar to Earth's with a couple of notable differences. Arrakis has less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than Earth – about 350 parts per million on the desert planet compared with 417 parts per million on Earth. But Dune has far more ozone in its lower atmosphere: 0.5 percent of the gases in the atmosphere compared to Earth's 0.000001 percent.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/03/01/2328228/the-desert-planet-in-dune-is-plausible-according-to-science

Posted by msmash on Friday March 08, 2024 12:01PM

Astronomers have observed a distant planet that could be entirely covered in a deep water ocean, in findings that advance the search for habitable conditions beyond Earth. From a report:

The observations, by Nasa's James Webb space telescope (JWST), revealed water vapour and chemical signatures of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is twice Earth's radius and about 70 light years away. This chemical mix is consistent with a water world where the ocean would span the entire surface, and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge, although they do not envisage a balmy, inviting seascape. “The ocean could be upwards of 100 degrees [Celsius] or more,” said Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, who led the analysis. At high atmospheric pressure, an ocean this hot could still be liquid, “but it's not clear if it would be habitable,” he added.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/03/08/181202/astronomers-detect-waterworld-with-a-boiling-ocean-in-deep-space

Too much water on exoplanet surfaces would mean high pressure ices, not life.

Jacek Krywko - 9/5/2024, 9:23 AM

The possibility that there is liquid water on an exoplanet’s surface usually flags it as “potentially habitable,” but the reality is that too much water might prevent life from taking hold.

“On Earth, the ocean is in contact with some rock. If we have too much water, it creates high-pressure ice underneath the ocean, which separates it from the planet’s rocky interior,” said Caroline Dorn, a geophysicist at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, who led new research in exoplanet interiors.

This high-pressure ice prevents minerals and chemical compounds from being exchanged between the rocks and the water. In theory, that should make the ocean barren and lifeless. But Dorn’s team argues that even exoplanets that have enough water to form such high-pressure ice can host life if the majority of the water is not stored in the surface oceans but is held much deeper in the planet’s core. The water in the core can’t sustain life—it’s not even in its molecular form there. But it means that a substantial fraction of a planet’s water isn’t on the surface, which makes the surface oceans a little more shallow and prevents high-pressure ice from forming at their bottom.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/more-water-worlds-than-we-thought-might-support-life/

Researchers may have discovered a gas giant orbiting the star Alpha Centauri A, and it appears to be in the star's habitable zone.

Margherita Bassi - August 7, 2025

Exoplanet hunters have had an eye on Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth at just four light-years away, for decades. We know that it consists of two Sun-like stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, as well as a faint red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. But while researchers have previously discovered three exoplanets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the search for more worlds orbiting the system’s other two stars has proven difficult. Until now: New evidence from the James Webb Space Telescope indicates there is a gas giant planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri A. And what’s more, it is likely in the star’s habitable zone.

Researchers described this tantalizing candidate planet in two studies published today on the preprint server arXiv, with the papers forthcoming in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

If the planet is confirmed, it would break numerous records. It would be the first exoplanet ever observed around a star about the same age and temperature as our Sun, and the nearest exoplanet to Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. It would also be the closest planet to its host star ever to be imaged directly—it is likely just two astronomical units, or twice the distance between the Sun and the Earth, from its host star—rather than observed using indirect means.

https://gizmodo.com/if-this-planet-is-real-it-would-break-so-many-records-2000639772

At that distance, the ring should condense into a moon. Why hasn't it?

John Timmer - 2/8/2023, 11:16 AM

Many bodies in the Solar System have rings—gas giants, dwarf planets, even an asteroid. These examples have allowed us to get a good picture of their physics, leading to models for how rings form and what keeps the material there from falling into the planet or condensing into a moon.

But a discovery described in a paper released today suggests we've gotten something (or maybe more than one something) seriously wrong. A dwarf planet called 50000 Quaoar that orbits beyond Neptune appears to have a ring that shouldn't be there, at 7.4 times more distant than the planet's radius. There are a couple of ideas about why the ring might survive in this location, but nothing definitive at this point.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/dwarf-planet-hosts-a-ring-thats-unexpectedly-far-from-the-planet/

The Webb Space Telescope has uncovered a nearby rocky planet with a volatile atmosphere.

Isaac Schultz - 8 May 2024

Scientists have spotted a rocky exoplanet with a possible atmosphere, which they believe may be burbling out from a magma ocean on the distant world.

The planet is called 55 Cancri e. It’s located about 41 light-years from Earth and, per the team’s observations, has a layer of gases above its surface that may constitute an atmosphere. 55 Cancri e is a super-Earth, a rocky body roughly 8.8 times the size of our world with an equilibrium temperature of about 2,000 Kelvin, or 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit. The team’s findings were published today in Nature.

“55 Cancri e is one of the most enigmatic exoplanets,” said Brice-Olivier Demory, an astrophysicist at the University of Bern and co-author of the study, in a university release. “Despite enormous amounts of observing time obtained with a dozen of ground and space facilities in the past decade, its very nature has remained elusive, until today, when parts of the puzzle could finally be put together thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).”

Webb has been conducting scientific operations from a point about one million miles from Earth for nearly two years, yielding plenty of insights into galaxy formation, ancient light sources, distant exoplanets, and even the other worlds in our own solar system. The team studied the exoplanet using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), its two main imagers. “The measurements rule out the scenario where the planet is a lava world shrouded by a tenuous atmosphere made of vaporized rock,” the researchers wrote in their study, “and indicate a bona fide volatile atmosphere likely rich in [carbon dioxide] or [carbon monoxide].”

https://gizmodo.com/webb-spots-nearby-rocky-super-earth-atmosphere-1851461827

Why is a planet orbiting a star that should have gone through a giant phase?

John Timmer - 6/28/2023, 10:05 AM

The exoplanet 8 Ursae Minoris b should not exist. It orbits its host star at just half the Earth-Sun distance, and by all indications, the star should have gone through a phase in which it bloated up enough to engulf that entire orbit and then some. Yet 8 Ursae Minoris b definitely appears to exist.

There is a handful of potential explanations, none of them especially likely. The people who discovered the planet suggest it survived because its host star got distracted by swallowing a white dwarf instead.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/planet-that-should-have-been-swallowed-by-its-star-somehow-still-orbits/

Posted by msmash on Wednesday June 28, 2023 10:28AM

The exoplanet 8 Ursae Minoris b should not exist. It orbits its host star at just half the Earth-Sun distance, and by all indications, the star should have gone through a phase in which it bloated up enough to engulf that entire orbit and then some. Yet 8 Ursae Minoris b definitely appears to exist. From a report:

There is a handful of potential explanations, none of them especially likely. The people who discovered the planet are suggesting that it survived because its host star got distracted by swallowing a white dwarf instead. 8 Ursae Minoris b was discovered using the radial velocity method, which watches for changes in a star's light that occur as planets tug the star back and forth as they orbit. This tugging creates a blue shift in the light when the planet is pulling the star in the direction of Earth and a red shift when the star is pulled away from Earth.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/28/1728230/planet-that-shouldnt-exist-found

The discovery of the new planet BEBOP-1c confirms the 2nd-ever known planetary system orbiting twin stars.

Charles Q. Choi - 13 June 2023

For decades, astronomers wondered if planets with twin suns like Luke Skywalker's fictional home world of Tatooine were only science fiction. Now, scientists have now discovered a new Tatooine-like system that is home to multiple worlds.

Binary stars, or two stars orbiting each other, are very common — about half of the sun-like stars in the Milky Way galaxy are in binary systems. Up to now, astronomers had confirmed the detection of 14 circumbinary planets — ones that whirl around both stars of a binary system at once.

“Circumbinary planets were originally thought not to exist, since the binary stars stir up the planet-forming disks, creating a harsh environment for planets to form,” study lead author Matthew Standing, an astrophysicist at the Open University in England, told Space.com. “This all changed with the discovery of Kepler-16b in 2011 by the Kepler space telescope. This discovery showed that it must be possible for these planets to form.”

https://www.space.com/tatooine-exoplanet-binary-systeim-twin-suns

Andrei Ionescu - 01-25-2024

Earth.com staff writer

Scientists have identified 85 new exoplanets, a major advancement in the search for extraterrestrial life. The study was led by Faith Hawthorn, a PhD student in the University of Warwick‘s Astronomy and Astrophysics department.

Utilizing data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the research team made significant discoveries about these planets outside our solar system.

https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-have-identified-85-new-exoplanets-that-could-harbor-life/

The discovery of this rare world offers a glimpse into the distant future when our Sun swells up into a red giant star.

Passant Rabie - 5 June 2024

In his search for giant stars hosting large worlds, Samuel Grunblatt, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, came across a strangely puffy planet that’s smaller, hotter, and older than it’s supposed to be. “We didn’t expect to find any planet that looks like this,” he told Gizmodo.

The newly discovered planet had somehow persevered against its host star’s intense radiation, growing a puffy atmosphere rather than being stripped down to its core from being so close to such a large star. The discovery suggests that Earth and the rest of the planets in our solar system may evolve differently as the Sun becomes a dying star. The new findings are detailed in a study published Wednesday in The Astronomical Journal.

https://gizmodo.com/exoplanet-atmosphere-persists-dying-red-giant-star-1851519396

Tomasz Nowakowski , Phys.org - JUNE 14, 2024

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits an ultracool dwarf star located just 54.6 light years away. The newfound alien world, designated SPECULOOS-3 b, is slightly smaller but much hotter than our planet. The finding was reported in a paper published May 15 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The Search for Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS) project aims to find potentially habitable exoplanets around some of the smallest and coldest stars of the solar neighborhood. It employs a network of six robotic 1-m-aperture telescopes: the four telescopes of the SPECULOOS-South Observatory (SSO) in Chile, Artemis, the first telescope of the SPECULOOS-North Observatory (SNO) in Tenerife, and the SAINT-EX telescope in San Pedro Martir Observatory in Mexico.

One of the stars observed as part of the SPECULOOS program is SPECULOOS-3 (also known as LSPM J2049+3336)—an ultracool dwarf of spectral type M6.5, about eight-times smaller and 10-times less massive than the sun. The star is estimated to be 6.6 billion years old and has an effective temperature of 2,800 K.

A group of astronomers led by Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège in Belgium has recently detected a transit-like signal in the light curves of SPECULOOS-3. Follow-up observations of this star found that this signal is caused by an Earth-sized extrasolar planet.

https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-earth-sized-exoplanet-orbiting.html#google_vignette

The cold super-Jupiter's mass rivals that of some of the largest-known exoplanets.

Isaac Schultz - September 16, 2024

Astronomers in Poland have discovered a nearby exoplanet more than 11 times the mass of Jupiter, comfortably putting it in the pantheon of the most massive known worlds.

The object is a cold super-Jupiter; simply put, that means it is cold and larger than Jupiter, the measuring stick by which the largest planets are measured. The characteristics of the oversized exoplanet—as well as the star system in which it resides—were described in a paper published last month in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The huge world sits in a multi-planet system a little over 300 light-years from Earth in the Great Bear constellation. The host star in the system, HD 118203, is about 20 percent more massive and twice as large as our Sun, but is older than our star. One of the other planets in the system—a hot Jupiter just twice the size of Earth—was spotted by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS) back in 2005.

“Doppler observations, however, indicated that this was not the end of the story, that there might be another planet out there,” said Andrzej Niedzielski, an astronomer at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, in a university release. “Therefore, we immediately included this system in our observational programs.”

https://gizmodo.com/colossal-exoplanet-11-times-the-mass-of-jupiter-is-just-300-light-years-away-2000499122

A new study finally sheds light on our mysterious cosmic neighbors and sets a planet-hunting record.

Margherita Bassi - March 12, 2025

Astronomers have identified four exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf star just 6 light-years away from Earth.

No, really, this time it’s for real! We have to emphasize this because astronomers have been “discovering” exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s Star—and then discovering they were wrong—for a century. “Exoplanet” is the technical term for planet-like bodies beyond our solar system, but some scholars use “planet” for simplicity.

Now, however, an international research team has confirmed the existence of Barnard b, a previously identified exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s Star. They also found evidence of three additional exoplanets, which had been tentatively identified in the same earlier study—enough to confirm one as a bona fide planet. As detailed in a study published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the research sets a new record in humanity’s hunt for exoplanets.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-confirm-4-rocky-exoplanets-in-earths-backyard-just-6-light-years-away-2000574818

Gliese 12 b, a Venus-sized world located just 40 light-years away, presents a promising target for studying planetary atmospheres and potential habitability.

George Dvorsky - 23 May 2024

A newly discovered exoplanet, with its surface temperature estimated to be remarkably temperate, is suddenly one of the most intriguing objects in our immediate celestial neighborhood. This rocky Venus-sized world transits a red dwarf star, offering astronomers the rare opportunity to study whether such planets can retain their atmospheres and potentially support life.

Gliese 12 b, comparable in size to Venus but slightly smaller than Earth, orbits its cool red dwarf host star, Gliese 12, at just 7% of the distance between Earth and the Sun. This unnervingly close proximity results in a year lasting just 12.8 days and the planet receiving 1.6 times more energy from its star than Earth does from the Sun. Despite this, Gliese 12 b maintains an estimated surface temperature of 107 degrees F (42 degrees C), making it a temperate world and one of the cooler exoplanets discovered so far, according to new research published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. By comparison, Earth has an average surface temperature of 59 degrees F (15 degrees C), but it’s rising due to human-induced climate change.

https://gizmodo.com/gliese12b-exo-venus-moderate-temperature-habitability-1851495866

Kevin Hurler - 26 September 2022 10:26AM

Some odd storms on Jupiter discovered back in 2017 by a NASA spacecraft are particularly intriguing to scientists. New research attempted to figure out how the nine cyclones spinning at Jupiter’s north pole remain so organized.

Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is actually a mass of swirling storm clouds called an anticyclone, and it’s only one of many storms on the gas giant. At Jupiter’s north pole, there is a family of nine cyclones—one large storm surrounded by eight smaller ones—that was first noticed in 2017 by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which orbits the planet. A study published in Nature Astronomy examined why this configuration has stayed stable for the last few years, if not long before its discovery.

https://gizmodo.com/jupiter-cyclones-north-pole-1849573949

40 years of data show seemingly related temperature fluctuations thousands of miles apart in the planet's troposphere.

Kevin Hurler - 20 December 2022

A four-decade-long study documenting temperatures in Jupiter’s atmosphere using NASA spacecraft has revealed unexpected behavior in the gas giant’s weather over time. NASA says the study is the longest ever to track temperatures in Jupiter’s troposphere.

According to NASA, Jupiter’s troposphere—the lowest region of an atmosphere—is a bit like Earth’s, in that this is the layer where most weather on the planet occurs. To research Jupiter’s troposphere, scientists observed the planet’s infrared glow, which is brighter for warmer areas in the atmosphere. The study began in 1978 and continued over the next four decades. Previous studies on Jupiter’s atmosphere typically covered periods shorter than the planet’s 12 year orbit; the long duration of the new work allowed researchers to weed out any possible seasonal variability. The research is published in Nature Astronomy.

https://gizmodo.com/jupiter-temperature-weather-nasa-1849914124

An amateur astronomer spotted a bright flash of light on the gas giant, indicating a small impact.

Passant Rabie - 1 September 2023

As the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter is not one to play with. That doesn’t stop wandering comets or asteroids from testing the gas giant, occasionally crashing into Jupiter due to its enormous size and immense gravitational pull.

An amateur astronomer caught a brief impact on Jupiter this week, appearing as a bright burst of light left behind by a small object.

https://gizmodo.com/ouch-jupiter-just-got-smacked-by-an-unidentified-celes-1850797667

This gas giant regularly absorbs hits from comets and asteroids, protecting inner solar system worlds.

Andrew Jones - 31 August 2023

Jupiter just got smacked by a small celestial body, according to amateur astronomers.

The impact occurred at 1:45 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Aug. 29 (1645 GMT on Aug. 28). An account affiliated with the Organized Autotelescopes for Serendipitous Event Survey (OASES) project and Planetary Observation Camera for Optical Transient Surveys (PONCOTS) system posted about the event on X, formerly known as Twitter, alerting of a flash observed in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The post also called on observers to check their own footage.

MASA Planetary Log later shared footage showing a brief burst of light coming from Jupiter that was associated with an apparent comet or asteroid impact. Another independent observation was made by a Chinese amateur astronomer in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, showing a flash in the same spot on Jupiter’s dense, turbulent atmosphere.

https://www.space.com/amateur-astronomers-jupiter-cosmic-collision

With the discovery of several more moons around the gas giant, Jupiter has narrowly beat out Saturn as the moon king. For now, at least.

Kevin Hurler - 3 February 2023

Jupiter is a superstar in our solar system. It’s the biggest, it’s wonderfully gassy, and it now has the most documented moons, clocking in at 92 natural satellites. Its new count became official on January 20, 2023, when the Minor Planet Center recognized the last of a batch of 10 newly identified moons. Jupiter is stealing the title from Saturn, which only has 83 documented moons.

Until 2017, Jupiter had just 67 moons on record. But in 2017 and 2018, astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and his team identified a dozen previously unknown moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing its total to 79—just shy of Saturn’s 83. In 2021 and 2022, they found three more. Now, Sheppard and his research team have identified 10 more moons that have been recognized by the Minor Planet Center, the International Astronomical Union’s body studying minor planets.

https://gizmodo.com/jupiter-most-moons-in-the-solar-system-saturn-1850070379

Posted by msmash on Thursday February 09, 2023 08:41AM

Scientists have spotted 12 more moons around Jupiter, adding to an already-huge number that just seems to grow and grow. From a report:

There's so many moons around this gas giant planet that astronomer Scott Sheppard struggles to keep track. “With this new haul, we're up to, I believe, 92 … actually, I have to check that,” he says, leaning over to type into his computer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, DC. ” Yeah, so 92 is the number that we have right now.” His team is currently tracking some more moons that, once confirmed over the next year or two, should put Jupiter over 100.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/02/09/1549237/why-jupiters-tally-of-moons-keeps-going-up-and-up

Hey, ESA: Can Juice get there any faster?

Brandon Vigliarolo - Fri 22 Sep 2023 18:45 UTC

The search for alien life in our Solar System has heated up with the discovery of carbon dioxide on the surface of Europa, the Jupiter moon that is believed to house a massive, salty liquid water ocean beneath its frozen surface.

That's pretty interesting because if there's CO2 in that ocean, that would mean there's salty water, carbon, and oxygen – building blocks for life as we know it – potentially.

The discovery, as described in a pair of scientific papers published yesterday, was made thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared spectrograph. The find points to carbon dioxide not arriving from external sources, such as meteorites, but rather being raised to the surface of Europa from its internal ocean on a relatively recent timescale, geologically speaking.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/europas_subsurface_ocean_responsible_for/

Jupiter's Europa produces 1,000 tons of oxygen per day, according to new research.

Isaac Schultz - 5 March 2024

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa produces plenty of oxygen every day, according to new findings based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The moon has long been of interest to astrobiologists because of the possibility that life could exist in its subsurface ocean.

The research, published this week in Nature Astronomy, focused on data from Juno’s Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment, or JADE. The scientists estimated oxygen production from the moon based on the amount of hydrogen outgassing from its surface. Their conclusion? Europa generates about 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours, enough for a million (breathing) humans.

https://gizmodo.com/europa-moon-oxygen-jupiter-nasa-juno-1851309382

JUNO has spotted salt deposits that may have percolated up from a sub-surface ocean.

Elizabeth Rayne - 11/14/2023, 8:54 AM

With Europa and Enceladus getting most of the attention for their subsurface oceans and potential to host life, other frozen worlds have been left in the shadows—but the mysterious Jovian moon Ganymede is now making headlines.

While Ganymede hasn’t yet been observed spewing plumes of water vapor like Saturn’s moon Enceladus, Jupiter’s largest moon is most likely hiding an enormous saltwater ocean. Hubble observations suggest that the ocean—thought to sit under 150 km (95 miles) of ice—could be up to 100 km (60 miles) deep. That’s 10 times deeper than the ocean on Earth.

Ganymede is having a moment because NASA’s Juno mission observed salts and organic compounds on its surface, possibly from an ocean that lies beneath its crust of ice. While Juno’s observations can't provide decisive evidence that this moon has an ocean that makes Earth look like a kiddie pool, the Juno findings are the strongest evidence yet of salts and other chemicals making it to the exterior of Ganymede.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/jupiters-moon-ganymede-is-telling-us-more-about-its-alien-ocean/

The impact event happened 4 billion years ago and can be further investigated by an upcoming mission.

Isaac Schultz - September 3, 2024

A gargantuan asteroid impact on Ganymede, the solar system’s largest moon, significantly altered the body’s axis, according to a new study in Scientific Reports.

Ganymede is a Jovian moon that is larger than Mercury. It’s a compelling venue for scientific (and specifically astrobiological) research because the moon is suspected to harbor an ocean of liquid water under its icy surface. But the new research affirms another interesting chapter in Ganymede’s story, one posited as early as the 1980s: that about 4 billion years ago, the moon was impacted by a massive asteroid, which left arcing furrows on the moon’s surface.

https://gizmodo.com/solar-systems-largest-moon-was-shifted-by-giant-asteroid-impact-study-says-2000494089

Data gathered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft has confirmed evidence of hydrogen cyanide on Enceladus—a molecule tied to the origin of life as we know it.

Passant Rabie - 14 December 2023

Good news, everyone! Scientists discovered additional evidence suggesting the potential habitability of a peculiar icy moon orbiting Saturn, one of the planet’s 146 moons.

Although tiny, Enceladus is one of the most likely places in the solar system to host life. Over the years of research, Enceladus has stacked up plenty of data to back up this claim as the moon spews organic compounds that are essential ingredients for life. Now, scientists have found more reason to root for Enceladus, discovering strong evidence for a molecule that is key to the origin of life, as well as a source of energy to charge it. The team’s findings were published Thursday in Nature Astronomy.

Using data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft (NASA’s trusty Saturn probe), a team of researchers confirmed hydrogen cyanide on Enceladus. “The discovery of hydrogen cyanide was particularly exciting, because it’s the starting point for most theories on the origin of life,” Jonah Peter, a doctoral student at Harvard University, and lead author of the new study, said in a statement.

https://gizmodo.com/key-ingredient-for-life-spotted-on-saturn-s-ocean-moon-1851100070

Europa's outer ice shell is not where it used to be, but instead may be free floating across the moon.

Passant Rabie - 16 May 2024

On September 29, 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made its closest flyby of Europa, coming to within 220 miles (355 kilometers) of the Jovian moon’s frozen surface. The closeup view of Europa revealed incredible details of the moon’s chaotic terrain, which suggest that its icy crust is not where it used to be. The images also showed a newly discovered feature that was nicknamed “Platypus” for its odd shape.

The findings, made possible by the JunoCam images, were recently published in the Planetary Science Journal, while the results derived from the spacecraft’s high-resolution images, captured by its Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), were published in the journal JGR Planets.

Europa is believed to harbor a salty ocean beneath its icy crust that holds twice as much water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, according to NASA. The moon’s rough terrain features intricate networks of ridges and dark stains, suggesting possible plumes of water vapor that may be venting into space.

https://gizmodo.com/europa-icy-crust-free-floating-juno-images-nasa-1851481413

The area, which has lava flows that stretch for dozens of miles, was barren as recently as 1997.

Adam Kovac - September 11, 2024

Change can be scary. Luckily, nobody is particularly close to a very big change on Jupiter’s moon Io, where a massive new volcano has been spotted in a previously flat area.

The volcano has multiple lava flows and volcanic deposits which cover an area of over 110 square miles (285 square kilometers). Manhattan, for the sake of comparison, is a bit under 23 square miles (60 square kilometers), and is only slightly less hot than magma during a typical NYC summer. It was spotted by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during a February 2024 flyby from a distance of 1,572 miles (2,530 kilometers).

The images were first presented at the Europlanet Science Congress in Berlin earlier this week. They were taken by Juno’s Junocam, which captures images using light in the spectrum visible to human eyes. Although Io is the most volcanically active entity so far discovered anywhere in the universe, this particular region on the moon looked featureless in previous images, taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1997.

https://gizmodo.com/jupiters-moon-io-just-sprouted-an-enormous-new-volcano-2000497602

“We’re interested in whether Europa could support simple life—single-celled organisms.”

Stephen Clark – Oct 14, 2024 7:25 PM

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft lifted off Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, kicking off a $5.2 billion robotic mission to explore one of the most promising locations in the Solar System for finding extraterrestrial life.

The Falcon Heavy rocket fired its 27 kerosene-fueled engines and vaulted away from Launch Complex 39A at 12:06 pm EDT (16:06 UTC) Monday. Delayed several days due to Hurricane Milton, which passed through Central Florida late last week, the launch of Europa Clipper signaled the start of a five-and-a-half year journey to Jupiter, where the spacecraft will settle into an orbit taking it repeatedly by one the giant planet's numerous moons.

The moon of Jupiter that has most captured scientists' interest, Europa, is sheathed in ice. There's strong evidence of a global ocean of liquid water below Europa's frozen crust, and Europa Clipper is going there to determine if it has the ingredients for life.

“This is an epic mission,” said Curt Niebur, Europa Clipper's program scientist at NASA Headquarters. “It’s a chance for us not to explore a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today, right now.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/10/nasa-launches-mission-to-explore-the-frozen-frontier-of-jupiters-moon-europa/

The spacecraft will investigate whether the Jovian moon truly has habitable conditions.

Mariella Moon - Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 4:00 AM PDT

NASA has launched its Europa Clipper spacecraft, the biggest one it has ever built for a mission heading to another planet, on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Mission controllers at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have confirmed that the Europa Clipper successfully separated from the rocket's second stage and has already deployed the two solar arrays flanking its main body. Now, the spacecraft has started its 1.8 billion-million journey Europa, one of Jupiter's moons and one of the most promising habitable worlds outside our own planet, which will take it five-and-a-half years to reach.

The Europa Clipper will not be heading straight to Jupiter — it will instead fly by Mars and, in 2026, by Earth to use the planets' gravity to boost its momentum. NASA's plan is to use that momentum to slingshot the spacecraft towards the outer solar system. Europa has a thick icy shell that's estimated to be around 10 to 15 miles thick, covering a saltwater ocean that could have twice the water in our planet's oceans combined. Since scientists believe that life on our planet originated from the ocean, Europa's could also host organic compounds and contain energy sources.

“Scientists believe Europa has suitable conditions below its icy surface to support life. Its conditions are water, energy, chemistry and stability,” said Sandra Connelly, the Deputy Associate Administrator in the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-europa-clipper-mission-is-on-its-way-to-jupiter-110041120.html

But first stop is Mars for a speed boost, then back to Earth for the final push

Iain Thomson - Sat 19 Oct 2024 05:38 UTC

The Europa Clipper has unfurled its solar panels and is on its way to Jupiter, but it's taking a circuitous route by way of Mars.

The launch itself went off without a hitch, much to the relief of the assembled scientists, engineers, and mission specialists. Millions of hours of work could have been blotted out in an instant if the Falcon Heavy hadn't kept its 100 percent success rate.

“It's highly stressful, I never enjoy the launches,” Dr Sascha Kempf, principal investigator for one of the nine instruments on board, told The Register. Kempf has spent the last 20 years on the team and is acutely aware that all that time could be in vain.

This is NASA's largest and best equipped interplanetary probe yet. Even with the initial boost from Falcon Heavy's thrusters, it'll take over five years for the circa 6,000 kg (13,000 lb) Clipper to reach Jupiter, by way of gravity slingshots from Mars and the spacecraft's home planet. Once at Jupiter, the surveyor will begin a four-year mission to map, sniff, and probe the ice moon of Europa, considered one of the best prospects for harboring the conditions necessary for life in the Solar System.

Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, about 90 percent the size of our own, is entirely covered by a thick shell of ice (believed to be 15 to 25 kilometers deep), which hides a vast ocean of liquid water beneath. This ocean is kept warm by the constant gravitational tugging and kneading from its close orbit around the largest planet in the Solar System. Plumes of liquid erupt from its surface, which could provide evidence about whether Europa's ocean has the conditions necessary to support life.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/19/europa_clipper_juniper_support_life/

New research suggests there may be a narrow window of possibility for life to persist on the icy moons of the outer solar system.

Paul Sutter- 3 June 2025

Can life survive in the solar system once the sun dies and becomes a red giant star? New research suggests there may be a narrow window of possibility for life to persist on the icy moons of the outer solar system.

It's not exactly clear where the habitable zone of the red giant sun will be, but it could possibly reach the orbit of Jupiter. Although the planet itself won't be habitable because it will still be a giant ball of hydrogen and helium gas, Jupiter's moons might become promising homes for life.

That's according to researchers at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, who reported the theory in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/when-the-sun-dies-could-life-survive-on-the-jupiter-ocean-moon-europa

Scientists undecided about possible flavor

Laura Dobberstein - Fri 11 Oct 2024 06:30 UTC

After observing Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) with the Hubble Space Telescope for 90 days, scientists have determined that it behaves like a “bowl of gelatin.”

That finding, which challenges conventional wisdom that the extraterrestrial anticyclone is relatively stable, appeared in a paper published on Wednesday and summarized by NASA on the same day.

Ninety days is considered a single oscillation cycle for the GRS. Eight dates were chosen during the cycle in which scientists measured various of the storm's characteristics, including longitudinal position, size and shape.

“While we knew its motion varies slightly in its longitude, we didn't expect to see the size oscillate. As far as we know, it's not been identified before,” explained Amy Simon, who leads NASA's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL) and authored the study.

“This is really the first time we've had the proper imaging cadence of the GRS. With Hubble's high resolution we can say that the GRS is definitively squeezing in and out at the same time as it moves faster and slower. That was very unexpected, and at present there are no hydrodynamic explanations,” she noted.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/11/jupiter_grs_wobbles/

Dimethyl sulfide is cool—and a potential biosignature—but scientists are urging caution before we declare a plankton party some 120 light-years away.

Isaac Schultz - April 23, 2025

Last week, researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) announced they had found something intriguing on a distant exoplanet called K2-18 b: a potential whiff of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a molecule that, on Earth, is produced almost exclusively by microscopic marine life. The exoplanet, located about 120 light-years away, orbits within the habitable zone of a red dwarf star and may be a Hycean world: a steamy, ocean-covered planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

While the detection came with a statistical confidence of 3-sigma (very promising, but not definitive), headlines around the world buzzed with speculation about the first detection of life beyond Earth. But not everyone’s convinced. Scientists across disciplines are now weighing in—some are cautiously optimistic about the latest research, while others are deeply skeptical. Could DMS be a sign of life, or is it just weird, abiotic chemistry happening under extreme conditions?

https://gizmodo.com/did-scientists-detect-life-on-another-planet-experts-weigh-in-on-bombshell-biosignature-report-2000592296

April 25, 20256:00 AM ET - Nell Greenfieldboyce

Astronomers have been poring over last week's claim of the detection of life-associated gases in the atmosphere of a distant planet named K2-18b — “the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system,” as a University of Cambridge press release put it.

But already, one independent check suggests the announcement was overhyped.

Jake Taylor of the University of Oxford, who studies the atmospheres of far-away planets with the James Webb Space Telescope, did a quick reanalysis of the starlight filtering through K2-18b's atmosphere. He used a simple method to look for the tell-tale signals of gas molecules of any kind.

He was “agnostic” in his approach, and did not look specifically for the exciting sulfur-based gases that, on Earth, are primarily associated with life-forms such as marine microbes.

“I wanted to not 'assume' what molecules would be in the atmosphere,” Taylor told NPR in an email. “I directly analysed the transmission spectrum that they analysed, in order to have a similar comparison.”

The results he got suggested that there's too much noise in the data to draw any conclusions.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/g-s1-62610/biosignatures-k2-18b-james-webb-exoplanet-doubt

It's nearly 10 times as long as the Grand Canyon, and three times as deep. But how did it form?

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer - 4 January 2021

About 87 million miles (140 million kilometers) above the Grand Canyon, an even larger, grander abyss cuts through the gut of the Red Planet. Known as Valles Marineris, this system of deep, vast canyons runs more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) along the Martian equator, spanning nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. This gash in the bedrock of Mars is nearly 10 times as long as Earth's Grand Canyon and three times deeper, making it the single largest canyon in the solar system — and, according to ongoing research from the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, one of the most mysterious.

Using an incredibly high-resolution camera called HiRISE (short for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, UA scientists have been taking close-up shots of the planet's strangest features since 2006. Despite some truly breathtaking images of Valles Marineris — like the one below, posted to the HiRISE website on Dec. 26, 2020 — scientists still aren't sure how the gargantuan canyon complex formed.

https://www.livescience.com/mars-deepest-canyon-in-solar-system.html

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday December 15, 2021 02:25PM

Scientists have discovered a world-historic discovery on Mars: “significant amounts of water” are hiding inside the Red Planet's Valles Marineris, its version of our grand canyon system, according to a recent press release from the European Space Agency (ESA). And up to 40% of material near the surface of the canyon could be water molecules. Interesting Engineering reports:

The newly discovered volume of water is hiding under the surface of Mars, and was detected by the Trace Gas Orbiter, a mission in its first stage under the guidance of the ESA-Roscosmos project dubbed ExoMars. Signs of water were picked up by the orbiter's Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) instrument, which is designed to survey the Red Planet's landscape and map the presence and concentration of hydrogen hiding in Mars' soil. It works like this: while high-energy cosmic rays plunge into the surface, the soil emits neutrons. And wet soil emits fewer neutrons than dry soil, which enables scientists to analyze and assess the water content of soil, hidden beneath its ancient surface. “FREND revealed an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the colossal Valles Marineris canyon system: assuming the hydrogen we see is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in this region appears to be water,” said Igor Mitrofanov, the Russian Academy of Science's lead investigator of the Space Research Institute, in the ESA press release.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/12/15/2220242/scientists-just-found-a-significant-volume-of-water-inside-mars-grand-canyon

The all-private mission aims to launch a Mars-bound spacecraft and lander atop a 3D-printed rocket which could launch to the Red Planet as soon as 2024.

Kevin Hurler - 19 July 2022 5:15PM

Private space companies Impulse Space and Relativity Space have announced an ambitious joint venture poised to be the first commercial mission to Mars, which will feature the launch of a payload as soon as 2024.

A revived interest in space has private companies shifting their attention to Mars, and a new collaboration announced Tuesday between Impulse Space and Relativity Space could be the first commercial landing on the red planet. Impulse Space is a company founded by Tom Mueller, a SpaceX alum, that specializes in getting payloads into and around space. Relativity Space, meanwhile, focuses on the production of spacecrafts using 3D metal printing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous robotics. Impulse will contribute their Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander to Relativity’s Terran R, which is a completely 3D printed launch vehicle. The launch will occur from Florida’s Cape Canaveral as early as 2024, and the companies have an exclusive agreement to launch there until 2029.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-space-impulse-space-relativity-space-1849196084

The canyon system, much larger than Earth's Grand Canyon, probably formed from the drifting of tectonic plates.

Isaac Schultz - 21 July 2022 3:29PM

The Mars Express Orbiter recently imaged a canyon system on the Red Planet that is nearly 10 times longer, 20 times wider, and five times deeper than Earth’s Grand Canyon.

The massive feature is called Valles Marineris (Mariner Valleys) and it’s the largest canyon system in the solar system. According to an ESA release, if it were on Earth, the canyon system would stretch from the northern tip of Norway to the bottom of Sicily.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-express-orbiter-sees-a-massive-canyon-system-1849315622

NASA announced an overhaul of its ambitious plan to bring samples of Mars to Earth.

George Dvorsky - 27 July 2022 3:47PM

NASA press conferences are almost always interesting, but today’s media event truly blew my mind. Instead of using a proposed sample fetch rover to collect surface samples left by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the space agency intends to send two Ingenuity-class helicopters to Jezero Crater on Mars, where they’ll fly to the sample tubes, scoop them up, and bring them to a lander waiting nearby.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are still in the conceptual design phase of the Mars Sample Return Program, so changes are to be expected. But the alterations announced today were fairly substantial. The two space agencies have finished the systems requirements review of the upcoming mission, in which some elements were removed and others added.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-mars-sample-return-mission-helicopters-1849338967

Maps of the Martian surface suggest something big hit the planet 3.4 billion years ago.

Isaac Schultz - 1 December 2022

The Viking 1 lander arrived on the Martian surface 46 years ago to investigate the planet. It dropped down into what was thought to be an ancient outflow channel. Now, a team of researchers believes they’ve found evidence of an ancient megatsunami that swept across the planet billions of years ago, less than 600 miles from where Viking landed.

In a new paper published today in Scientific Reports, a team identified a 68-mile-wide impact crater in Mars’ northern lowlands that they suspect is leftover from an asteroid strike in the planet’s ancient past.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-megatsunami-asteroid-impact-1849840566

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday December 01, 2022 11:00PM

The Viking 1 lander arrived on the Martian surface 46 years ago to investigate the planet. It dropped down into what was thought to be an ancient outflow channel. Now, a team of researchers believes they've found evidence of an ancient megatsunami that swept across the planet billions of years ago, less than 600 miles from where Viking landed. Gizmodo reports:

In a new paper published today in Scientific Reports, a team identified a 68-mile-wide impact crater in Mars' northern lowlands that they suspect is leftover from an asteroid strike in the planet's ancient past. “The simulation clearly shows that the megatsunami was enormous, with an initial height of approximately 250 meters, and highly turbulent,” said Alexis Rodriguez, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute and lead author of the paper, in an email to Gizmodo. “Furthermore, our modeling shows some radically different behavior of the megatsunami to what we are accustomed to imagining.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/12/01/238204/an-ancient-asteroid-impact-may-have-caused-a-megatsunami-on-mars

A Mars satellite snapped this uncanny image of a rock formation.

Isaac Schultz - 25 January 2023

On December 12, from 156 miles above the surface of Mars, the HiRise camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a peculiar sight: the face of a bear, peering up from the crust of the Red Planet.

Okay, it’s just a natural rock formation, but it bears a strong resemblance to an ursine face. A circular fracture outline’s the head, while two small twin craters are the eyes.

https://gizmodo.com/bear-face-on-mars-craters-1850030293

Scientists estimate just two dozen pleasant people could be the minimum number of astronauts it could take to build an otherworldly residence.

Passant Rabie - 21 August 2023

It might only take 22 people to establish a colony on Mars, though that small group of cosmic inhabitants should have agreeable personality types to survive on the Red Planet, according to new research.

Mars has been home to robotic explorers for nearly 60 years, but when it comes to landing humans on the Red Planet, things get a little more complicated. In a recent study uploaded to the preprint arXiv server, a group of scientists decided to look into the behavioral and psychological interactions among future Mars colonists and came up with a surprisingly small population size they say could build and sustain the colony: 22 would-be-Martians.

The scientists created a model to simulate a Mars colony based on high performing teams of people in isolated, high-stress environments such as Arctic exploration or the International Space Station. The simulation played out interactions between people with varying levels of skill, resilience, stress and one of four psychological traits: neurotic, reactive, social, or agreeable, in addition to the environmental factors on Mars.

https://gizmodo.com/how-many-astronauts-to-start-mars-colony-study-1850758977

A layer of molten rock above the core led to confusing seismic signals.

Elizabeth Rayne - 10/25/2023, 10:21 AM

If the explorers from Journey to the Center of the Earth were to journey to the center of Mars instead, they definitely wouldn’t come across the subterranean oceans or live dinosaurs they encountered in the movie, but they would probably see something different from our planet’s core.

Earth has a mantle of rock that moves like a sluggish liquid. Beneath the mantle is a liquid iron outer core and solid iron inner core. Because Earth and Mars are both rocky planets, and might have even had similar surface conditions billions of years ago, does that mean we should expect the same interior on Mars? Not exactly.

When two teams of researchers used data from NASA’s InSight lander and other spacecraft to get as close to the core of Mars as they could in a lab, they found that the red planet is not much like Earth on the inside. Data from NASA’s InSight lander’s SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) project had previously suggested that Mars has a large core that is not very dense. But the new analysis, which included additional seismic signals, indicates that what was once thought to be the surface of the Martian core is actually a thick molten rock layer. The actual core of Mars is most likely much smaller.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/mars-hides-a-core-of-molten-iron-deep-inside/

The space agency is waiting out a phenomenon known as a solar conjunction, in which Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun.

Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor - Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 1:30 PM PST

NASA’s Mars exploration robots will be on their own for the next two weeks while the space agency waits out a natural phenomenon that will prevent normal communications. Mars and Earth have reached positions in their orbits that put them on opposite sides of the sun, in an alignment known as solar conjunction. During this time, NASA says it’s risky to try and send commands to its instruments on Mars because interference from the sun could have a detrimental effect.

To prevent any issues, NASA is taking a planned break from giving orders until the planets move into more suitable positions. The pause started on Saturday and will go on until November 25. A Mars solar conjunction occurs every two years, and while the rovers will be able to send basic health updates home throughout most of the period, they’ll go completely silent for the two days when the sun blocks Mars entirely.

https://www.engadget.com/nasa-cant-talk-to-its-mars-robots-for-two-weeks-because-the-sun-is-in-the-way-213022922.html

Posted by msmash on Friday February 02, 2024 07:20AM

NASA is starting to take its first steps toward opening a commercial pathway to Mars. From a report:

This week, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued a new solicitation to the industry titled “Exploring Mars Together: Commercial Services Studies.” This is a request for proposals from the US space industry to tell NASA how they would complete one of four private missions to Mars, including delivering small satellites into orbit or providing imaging services around the red planet.

“The Mars Exploration Program Draft Plan through the next two decades would utilize more frequent lower cost missions to achieve compelling science and exploration for a larger community,” the document states. “To realize the goals of the plan, government and US industry would partner to leverage current and emerging Earth and lunar products and commercial services to substantially lower the overall cost and accelerate leadership in deep space exploration.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/02/02/1437234/for-the-first-time-nasa-has-asked-industry-about-private-missions-to-mars

The clearly defined videos will help researchers understand Mars' moons and the planet’s interior.

Isaac Schultz - 13 February 2024

Typically, the Perseverance rover is looking down, scouring the Martian terrain for rocks that may reveal aspects of the planet’s ancient past. But over the last several weeks, the intrepid robot looked up and caught two remarkable views: solar eclipses on the Red Planet, as the moons Phobos and Deimos passed in front of the Sun.

Full solar eclipses don’t happen on Mars. The planet’s moons are too small to fully block out the Sun as they pass in front of it. When they do pass, though, their movements can clue researchers into the moons’ orbits, as well as how the moons’ movements affect the Martian interior.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-eclipses-phobos-deimos-perseverance-nasa-1851252098

Pervasive volcanoes and distinct rock types may hint at key geological processes.

John Timmer - 2/14/2024, 7:46 AM

Early in Earth's history, the heat left over from the collision that formed the Moon left its surface an ocean of magma. As it cooled, its crust was frequently shattered by massive impacts that dwarfed the one that did in the dinosaurs. Somewhere in between that and the onset of plate tectonics, it's thought that a distinct process caused parts of the crust to sink, while volcanism brought material to the surface that would later form the continental crust.

While we can model this period, we can't really search for evidence to back our models since any of this early crust has been eroded or transformed by the plate tectonics that eventually ensued. However, a team of researchers suggests that there might be a way to see what this process looked like, and it doesn't involve a time machine. Instead, it involves studying the surface of Mars.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/mars-experienced-a-precursor-to-plate-tectonics/

The space agency is investing in the development of a propulsion system that uses nuclear power to create plasma bursts.

Passant Rabie - May 8, 2024

The future of space travel depends on our ability to reach celestial pit stops faster and more efficiently. As such, NASA is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could drop off humans on Mars in a relatively speedy two months’ time rather than the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet.

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to graduate to the second stage of development. The new “science fiction-like concepts,” as described by John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA, include a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.

The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high velocities within a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission—the release of energy from atoms splitting apart—to generate packets of plasma for thrust.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-pulsed-plasma-rocket-advanced-concept-mars-1851463831

Posted by BeauHD on Friday May 10, 2024 12:00AM

Last week, NASA announced it is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could transport humans to Mars in only two months – down from the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet. Gizmodo reports:

NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to graduate to the second stage of development. The new “science fiction-like concepts,” as described by John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA, include a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.

The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high velocities within a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission – the release of energy from atoms splitting apart – to generate packets of plasma for thrust. It would essentially produce a controlled jet of plasma to help propel the rocket through space. Using the new propulsion system, and in terms of thrust, the rocket could potentially generate up to 22,481 pounds of force (100,000 Newtons) with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds, for remarkably high fuel efficiency. […]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/05/09/2152221/nasas-proposed-plasma-rocket-would-get-us-to-mars-in-2-months

Engineers developed an engine prototype which could reach unprecedented speeds, cutting down interplanetary travel time.

Passant Rabie - February 12, 2025

A trip to Mars may be in the books for future astronauts, but current propulsion technology will have them floating in a spacecraft bound for the Red Planet for roughly six to nine months. Considering how spaceflight affects the human body, that’s not ideal. A rocket company in Russia may have developed a solution to travel through the cosmos at much faster speeds using a new type of rocket engine.

Scientists at Russia’s state-owned Rosatom corporation have developed a prototype of a plasma electric rocket engine that could reach Mars in just 30 to 60 days, Russian media reported. The rocket, which uses hydrogen as fuel, has the potential to revolutionize spaceflight, but it is very early in its development phase and will likely take several years before it can be used for a human mission to Mars. Still, this new kind of technology may be what’s needed to leave dusty footprints on the Martian surface.

In most rocket engines, liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer are pumped into a combustion chamber, where they ignite and produce hot exhaust to propel the rocket. A plasma rocket, on the other hand, is a type of electric propulsion system that uses two electrodes. When charged particles are moved between the electrodes, and a high voltage is applied, the current creates a magnetic field that pushes the particles out of the engine. The plasma receives a directed motion and creates thrust as a result, Egor Biriulin, a junior researcher at Rosatom’s scientific institute in Troitsk, told Russian newspaper Izvestia.

https://gizmodo.com/russia-claims-new-plasma-based-engine-could-cut-mars-travel-to-just-30-days-2000562451

Chemical changes inside Mars’s core caused it to lose its magnetic field. This, in turn, caused it to lose its oceans. But how?

Elizabeth Fernandez - October 12, 2023

The surface of Mars is barren and dry, with what little water there is tied up in icecaps or perhaps existing below the surface. But if you look closely at the surface, you will see what looks like shorelines or canyons where massive floods once took place.

Billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Mars may have been denser and the air slightly warmer. By looking at deltas present on Mars, similar to river deltas on Earth, some have suggested that oceans used to partially cover the planet. (See Strange Map #1043.) Others have looked at the composition of Mars meteorites, which can show how the chemistry of Mars today compares to what the planet looked like billions of years ago. Both lines of evidence suggest that about four billion years ago, Mars’s northern hemisphere was covered with a massive ocean.

https://daily.jstor.org/how-mars-lost-its-magnetic-field-and-then-its-oceans/

We're getting closer to bioregenerative life-support systems for astronauts.

Jacek Krywko - 9/13/2023, 4:00 AM

In 1829, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, a doctor living near Wellclose Square in London, dropped a few seeds of fern and grass into a bottle partially filled with soil. Soon, he witnessed tiny blades of grass and one little fern sprouting from the soil, despite the bottle having been sealed. It turned out that plants, cycling through whatever water, minerals, nutrients, and atmosphere they had in their bottle, could live and grow almost completely isolated from the outside world, using sunlight as their only energy source.

Today, after over six decades of researching bioregenerative life-support systems, we’re edging closer to pulling off the same trick in habitats designed to support astronauts on alien worlds.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/what-would-it-take-to-build-a-self-sustaining-astronaut-ecosystem-on-mars/

Tests suggest the fermented drink can survive the harsh conditions of space, with the bacteria able to repair itself from damage caused by cosmic radiation.

Passant Rabie - 13 September 2023

If there’s one drink you should pack with you on a future trip to space, let it be kombucha. The fizzy, fermented drink has not only taken over trendy spots in Brooklyn, but it can also be found in low Earth orbit as part of an ongoing experiment of its resilience in the harsh space environment.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is testing kombucha cultures on board the International Space Station (ISS) to see how well the bacteria survives in space and in simulated Martian conditions.

Although kombucha rose to fame in recent years, its origins date back to around 220 BCE in ancient China. In order to make kombucha, bacteria and yeast grow together to create a culture.

https://gizmodo.com/space-kombucha-sustain-future-colonies-mars-1850833435

Scientists have identified surprising weather patterns underlying Mars' notorious dust storms.

Passant Rabie - December 10, 2024

In 1971, NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft arrived at Mars only to find the planet’s surface entirely obscured from view, hiding beneath a blanket of dust that had been kicked up by a massive storm. Mars’ infamous dust storms periodically engulf the entire planet, with tiny particles spreading across the surface at a howling pace.

The other worldly storms threaten missions to Mars as the dust sticks onto the surface of robotic explorers of the Red Planet, sometimes leading to their untimely deaths. A team of planetary scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder may have figured out the factors that lead to a giant dust storm on Mars, which can often begin with a seemingly pleasant Martian day. The findings were presented on Tuesday at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, and could have major implications for future human missions on Mars.

Using observations from NASA’s Reconnaissance Orbiter, the scientists behind the new findings were able to identify the weather patterns that may underlie roughly two-thirds of major dust storms on Mars. The team discovered that warm and sunny weather may help trigger the dust storms.

https://gizmodo.com/warm-and-sunny-weather-on-mars-could-mean-disaster-for-future-missions-2000536572

A “whimsical” arch shows the variety of natural textures on Mars.

Isaac Schultz - 3 August 2021 1:30PM

Not to be outdone by the young upstart Perseverance, NASA’s Curiosity rover has spent recent days imaging interesting rocks at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars, near which the rover landed in August 2012. One of those features is an arch, similar to some of the towering geology present on parts of Earth—but this arch is only about 6.5 inches tall.

Raw images of the arch taken late last week were recently made available on Curiosity’s image portal. The structure is located in Mars’ Gale Crater, which is a nearly 4-billion-year-old meteor impact site that likely held water at some point in its ancient history, based on the clay and sulfate mineral deposits located in it.

At the Martian mountain’s base, Curiosity came across a formation unique enough to pique the interest of NASA scientists. They had the rover inspect the rock up close using the Chemistry and Camera tool, or ChemCam, which can image rocks and unpack their chemical composition, and its Mast Camera, which takes pictures of the terrain.

https://gizmodo.com/curiosity-rover-sees-a-weird-martian-rock-formation-1847414397

Though it looks like the entrance to an alien tomb, mission scientists say it's a natural feature.

Kevin Hurler - 13 May 2022 5:00PM

NASA’s Curiosity rover took a photo of a Lovecraftian feature on the surface of Mars last week: a seemingly rectangular and shadowy opening in the planet’s exposed rock that looks as if it leads into the Martian underground.

The image was captured on May 7 by the Curiosity rover’s Mastcam while it ascended Mount Sharp. While the grainy black-and-white image may have conspiracy theorists over the moon, it almost definitely doesn’t show the entrance to an underground alien society.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-mars-curiosity-rover-doorway-1848922393

A rippled rocky ridge suggests the presence of lakes and waves, all at a higher elevation than expected

Brandon Vigliarolo - Thu 9 Feb 2023 17:30 UTC

The Mars Curiosity rover has discovered what NASA said is its clearest evidence yet that the red planet used to be anything but dusty and dry - and it found that evidence in a place it didn't expect.

The discovery comes in the form of rocks covered in rippled patterns that Curiosity scientists discovered in photos the rover snapped in December of an area of incredibly dense, hard rock known as “Marker Band Valley.”

Those ripples, NASA said, were formed as waves lapped the shores of an ancient shallow lake in the area. “Billions of years ago, waves on the surface … stirred up sediment at the lake bottom, over time creating rippled textures left in rock.”

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/curiosity_finds_clearest_evidence_yet/

This is some of the best confirmation yet that the NASA robot is exploring a former lakebed.

Isaac Schultz - 10 February 2023 1:02PM

NASA’s Curiosity rover recently spotted some of the most compelling evidence yet of ancient water on Mars, in the form of rippled rocks shaped by waves.

The ripples formed billions of years ago, when liquid water still covered the Martian surface. Across Mars, from the Curiosity rover near Gale Crater to Perseverance in Jezero Crater, probes are exploring these ancient waterbeds for intel on Mars’ geological history and its potential for astrobiology. Might there be fossilized microbes among all the red rocks and dust?

https://gizmodo.com/curiosity-rover-evidence-water-on-mars-nasa-1850098588

The Mars rover’s shot of Marker Band Valley is given a colorful makeover in the new image.

Isaac Schultz - 14 June 2023

The Curiosity rover took two shots of a valley on Mars at different times of day; the images were then colorized and combined by NASA scientists to produce a picturesque panorama of the planet.

Curiosity took the images at Marker Band Valley, a feature in the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain in Mars’ Gale Crater. Curiosity’s been trekking around Mount Sharp since September 2014. It’s documented remarkable sights, from a Martian ‘doorway’ to whimsical rock formations.

The most recent sight was Marker Band Valley, named for a dark, thin rock layer in the area that was first spotted from space. The valley hosts signs that an ancient river once ran through the area.

https://gizmodo.com/curiosity-rover-sends-panoramic-postcard-from-mars-1850538662

It's an exciting find because wet/dry cycles may be central to pre-life chemistry.

John Timmer - 8/9/2023, 12:34 PM

The prodigious evidence for water on Mars has eliminated scientific debate about whether Mars had a watery past. It clearly did. But it has left us with an awkward question: What exactly did that past look like? Some results argue that there were long-lived oceans and lakes on Mars. Others argue that the water largely consisted of ice-covered bodies that only allowed water to burst out onto the surface on occasions.

The picture is further confused by the fact that some or all of these may have been true at different times or in different locations. Creating a clear picture would help shape our understanding of an environment that might have been far more conducive to life than anything that exists on present-day Mars.

A new paper describes evidence that at least one part of Mars went through many wet/dry cycles, which may be critical for the natural production of molecules essential to life on Earth—though they don't necessarily mean conditions in which life itself could thrive.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/mars-rover-finds-signs-of-seasonal-floods/

Trundlebot has trundled 32km across 'punishingly cold environment bathed in dust and radiation'

Richard Speed - Tue 7 Nov 2023 16:45 UTC

NASA's Curiosity Rover has notched up 4,000 days on Mars as the trundlebot continues its fourth extended mission despite showing signs of wear and tear.

The nuclear-powered rover touched down in Gale Crater in 2012 and has since been studying the Red Planet to determine if ancient Mars could have supported microbial life. It has drilled 39 samples over the years and is currently making its way up the base of the 3-mile-tall Mount Sharp to allow geologists to take a closer look at rock layers showing how Mars' climate has changed.

It's not always been plain sailing for the rover. Across the decade-and-a-bit Curiosity has spent trundling over the surface of the planet, it has covered almost 20 miles (32km) through what NASA describes as “a punishingly cold environment bathed in dust and radiation,” yet the Agency says “Curiosity remains strong.”

The conditions have, however, taken their toll. One of the rover's “eyes” - the 34mm focal left camera of the Mast Camera – has a filter wheel stuck between filter positions. Wear and tear was also noticed on the rover's drill system and arm joints, and, of course, the wheels have famously incurred some impressive damage while rolling over Mars.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/4000_days_of_curiosity/

While parked ahead of a pause in duties for the Mars solar conjunction, Curiosity put its Hazcams to another use.

Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor - Sun, Dec 31, 2023, 9:57 AM PST

A few weeks ago, NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off from hard work while the agency waited out Mars solar conjunction, a natural phenomenon that could interfere with their communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. In a first for the rover, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, capturing its own shifting shadow on the landscape as the sun moves from dawn to dusk. It held onto the images until after the conjunction ended on November 25.

https://www.engadget.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-snapped-this-dreamy-timelapse-of-a-martian-day-175701537.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 21, 2024 08:34AM

12 years on Mars — and NASA's Curiosity rover “has made its most unusual find to date,” reports CNN — rocks made of pure sulfur.

“And it all began when the 1-ton rover happened to drive over a rock and crack it open, revealing yellowish-green crystals never spotted before on the red planet.”

“I think it's the strangest find of the whole mission and the most unexpected,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “I have to say, there's a lot of luck involved here. Not every rock has something interesting inside….” White stones had been visible in the distance, and the mission scientists wanted a closer look. The rover drivers at JPL, who send instructions to Curiosity, did a 90-degree turn to put the robotic explorer in the right position for its cameras to capture a mosaic of the surrounding landscape. On the morning of May 30, Vasavada and his team looked at Curiosity's mosaic and saw a crushed rock lying amid the rover's wheel tracks. A closer picture of the rock made clear the “mind-blowing” find, he said…

“No one had pure sulfur on their bingo card,” Vasavada said…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/21/0220236/after-12-years-mars-rover-curiosity-makes-most-unusual-find-to-date

An unexpected splash of yellow on the red planet

Simon Sharwood - Mon 22 Jul 2024 05:30 UTC

The Curiosity rover has found something surprising: rocks made of pure sulfur.

NASA revealed the find in a post last week, recounting how the rover was trundling up the Gediz Vallis channel – a formation it's thought was carved by a river around three billion years ago. The channel is of interest as the ridges offer a good look at plenty of layers of Martian rock.

The channel is a known source of sulfates: salty stuff that forms when water evaporates. The presence of sulfates is another reason we're visiting Gediz Vallis channel.

As Curiosity went about its business, the rolling lab crushed a rock that, upon further inspection, was found to be composed entirely of pure sulfur.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/22/curiosty_rover_sulfur/

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday November 21, 2024 12:00AM

Space.com's Julian Dossett writes:

For twelve years, we've watched Curiosity crawl its way over the rocky surface of Mars, decoding mysteries of the Red Planet and broadcasting back home pictures and data from the strange Martian environment. The Mars rover, built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has slowly scaled Mount Sharp since 2014. This mountain, officially monikered “Aeolis Mons,” was discovered in the 1970s; cut into its alien landscape is the boulder-packed Gediz Vallis channel, which some scientists believe to be an ancient river bed.

Curiosity crossed into Gediz Vallis earlier this year – and, yesterday, JPL released a real treat for Mars lovers: a 360-degree panorama view of the Gediz Vallis channel. You can play the YouTube video and move your phone around for the nifty interactive feature. Or, if you're using a desktop PC, you can shift the video around with a mouse.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/11/21/0515223/nasas-curiosity-rover-captures-360-degree-view-of-mars

University of Calgary - April 17, 2025

Research from NASA's Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the red planet was ever capable of supporting life.

Lead author Dr. Ben Tutolo, Ph.D., an associate professor with the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team.

The team is working to understand climate transitions and habitability on ancient Mars as Curiosity explores Gale Crater.

The paper, published in the journal Science, reveals that data from three of Curiosity's drill sites had siderite, an iron carbonate material, within sulfate-rich layers of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater.

“The discovery of large carbon deposits in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars,” says Tutolo.

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-curiosity-rover-large-carbon-deposits.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday April 19, 2025 02:34PM

Billions of years ago Mars “had a warm, habitable climate with liquid water in lakes and flowing rivers,” writes Ars Technica.

But “In order for Mars to be warm enough to host liquid water, there must have been a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” says Benjamin Tutolo, a researcher at the University of Calgary. “The question we've been asking for at least 30 years was where the record of all this carbon is.”

Tutolo led a new study of rock samples collected by the Curiosity rover that might have answered this question…

Curiosity rover was called Mars Science Laboratory for a reason. It went to the red planet fitted with a suite of instruments, some of which even the newer Perseverance was lacking. These enabled it to analyze the collected Martian rocks on the spot and beam the results back to Earth. “To get the most bang for the buck, NASA decided to send it to the place on Mars called the Gale Crater, because it was the tallest stack of sediments on the planet,” Tutolo says. The central peak of Gale Crater was about 5 kilometers tall, created by the ancient meteorite impact… The idea then was to climb up Mount Sharp and collect samples from later and later geological periods at increasing elevations, tracing the history of habitability and the great drying up of Mars.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/2119207/curiosity-rover-finds-hints-of-a-carbon-cycle-on-ancient-mars

It's thought to be 'the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive.'

Cheyenne MacDonald - Sat, Apr 26, 2025, 2:14 PM PDT

The Curiosity Mars rover covers a lot of ground for a robot that only moves at a max speed of .1 mph. A photo snapped recently by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides a pretty cool visualization of what the rover has been up to so far this year, showing the tracks Curiosity left behind as it journeyed from its previous science target — an area called the Gediz Vallis channel — to its next destination. The rover itself is just a tiny speck at the front of the roughly 1,050-foot-long trail, and according to NASA, this snap “is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the Red Planet.”

The image was captured on February 28 by the orbiter’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, and shows Curiosity’s movement over 11 drives starting at the beginning of that month. While a few weeks might seem like a long time for tire tracks to stick around in the dirt, this is normal for Mars. The tracks are “[l]ikely to last for months before being erased by wind,” NASA says. Curiosity is expected to reach its next science destination, which is home to formations thought to have been created long ago by groundwater, in the coming weeks.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-mars-orbiter-snapped-this-image-of-curiosity-trucking-along-down-at-the-surface-211404950.html

by Lucie Aubourg - September 5, 2021

It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA's helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn't ready to retire.

Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity's mission indefinitely.

The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars.

“Everything is working so well,” said Josh Ravich, the head of Ingenuity's mechanical engineering team. “We're doing better on the surface than we had expected.”

Hundreds of people contributed to the project, though only about a dozen currently retain day-to-day roles.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-months-mars-nasa-tiny-copter.html

Posted by BeauHD on Friday July 29, 2022 12:00AM

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) hope to take custody of the samples Perseverance has been patiently collecting and return them safely to Earth, and they'll need the help of two more helicopters. IFLScience reports:

NASA and the ESA are collaborating on putting a lander on Mars that is capable of taking off again and making a rendezvous with an orbiter which will then bring the cargo back to Earth. Rather than collect its own samples, the return mission will take over those collected by Perseverance, and the biggest change to the plans lies in how that transfer will occur. The project has not got funding yet but the space agencies are refining their plans. In a quest for the backing they need new details have been announced, along with a return date – 2033 – only slightly further off than 1969 was when Kennedy promised a Moon landing “before this decade is out.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/07/29/005248/nasa-to-send-two-more-helicopters-to-mars-for-2033-sample-return

Previously, the Ingenuity helicopter ended its 53rd flight early due to an apparent glitch with its navigation camera.

Passant Rabie - 9 August 2023

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has had a rough few months, first losing communication with its home planet and later suffering a glitch that interrupted its flight. But you can’t keep a good chopper down. Ingenuity soared above the Martian terrain once again as its team on Earth tries to figure out what went wrong with its previous flight.

The Mars helicopter briefly flew for a 25-second hop on August 3, logging in its 54th flight above the planet’s surface to provide data that could help determine why its 53rd flight ended prematurely, NASA revealed this week.

https://gizmodo.com/nasas-mars-helicopter-just-wont-quit-resuming-flights-1850720589

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday August 09, 2023 12:00AM

During its 54th flight on Mars, NASA's helicopter Ingenuity captured an image of the space agency's Perseverance rover. Space.com reports:

Perseverance is nearly out of frame at the top of the photo, which Ingenuity took when it was about 16 feet (5 meters) above the red dirt. Unlike previous sorties, the Aug. 3 flight wasn't a scouting run to aid Perseverance's science activities. It lasted just 24 seconds, reached a maximum altitude of 16 feet and covered no ground laterally, according to Ingenuity's flight log. The mission team designed this short and simple hop in an attempt to help understand what happened during Ingenuity's previous flight, which was cut short unexpectedly.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/08/09/020206/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-spies-perseverance-rover-during-54th-red-planet-flight

Simon Fearn - 15:49, 17 December 2023 GMT / Last updated 13:23, 19 December 2023 GMT

A NASA helicopter flying over Mars captured photographs of mysterious wreckage on the Red Planet's surface.

The extraordinary pictures were captured in April last year on the 26th flight of NASA's ingenuity helicopter, dubbed the 'marscopter'.

It was the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet - and what's more, it's still out there collecting data.

Ingenuity has completed 67 flights, and is gearing up for its longest one yet.

One of it's most memorable expeditions, however, had to be when it captured eerie, 'otherworldly' debris on the surface of Mars in striking color images.

https://www.unilad.com/technology/nasa/nasa-mars-helicopter-ingenuity-perseverance-079241-20231217

NASA are hoping to land humans on Mars in a matter of years

Emily Brown - Mar 20, 2024, 12:55:36 GMT / Last updated Mar 20, 2024, 12:56:13 GM

Astronomers have high hopes to get humans to Mars, but since the planet has been declared unsafe for us to live on, we'll have to settle for a quick visit.

After successfully landing robots on the red planet, NASA is now continuing its plans to send humans up to join them.

The space agency has explained that Mars is 'one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system', so exploring it could help offer insights to the past and future of our own planet.

NASA has suggested that the technology to take humans to Mars could be available as early as the 2030s - but don't start dreaming about life in outer space just yet.

Last year, researchers combined studies from the likes of UCLA, MIT, Moscow’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, and GFZ Potsdam to look into the potential impacts of life on Mars.

https://www.unilad.com/technology/space/mars-declared-unsafe-humans-survive-four-years-356854-20240320

In scientific terms, each crash sounds like a “bloop.”

Kevin Hurler - 20 September 2022 10:20AM

NASA’s InSight Lander has recorded some exciting new data: The sounds of meteoroids impacting the surface of Mars. This is the first time that InSight has caught such an event, and the sound of a space rock slamming into the Red Planet is not quite what you’d expect.

The InSight Lander has quite literally kept its ear to the ground since landing on Mars in November 2018, as it records the Martian subsurface for any rumblings in the form of seismic waves. While InSight has been hard at work detecting marsquakes, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program announced yesterday that the lander had detected its first meteoroid impacts, in the form of four rocks that slammed into Mars’ Elysium Planitia between 2020 and 2021.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-meteoroid-impact-sound-1849557035

But they need to bring the materials back to Earth to confirm their origin.

Will Shanklin - July 12, 2023 1:49 PM

The Perseverance Rover has found evidence of organic compounds in the Jezero Crater on Mars. Although this isn’t the smoking gun proving once and for all that Mars once hosted life — these compounds could have also developed in nonbiological ways — the results hint at surprisingly complex organic conditions for the “key building blocks for life” on Earth’s neighbor. The study was published in Nature.

The Perseverance Rover, the first to explore the Jezero Crater, has been investigating the area since February 2021. Researchers believe the basin once housed an ancient lake, including a delta from a river that once flowed into it. It’s one of the most likely regions to reveal leftover signs of life on Mars.

Organic molecules like those observed in the Jezero Crater contain carbon and often hydrogen atoms. They’re the core components of life as we know it on Earth, although they can also develop abiologically. “They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists since they are often thought of as building blocks of life,” paper co-author Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral fellow at London’s Natural History Museum, said to Newsweek. “Importantly, they can be created by processes not related to life as we know it, and so organic molecules are not evidence of life on their own without sufficient extra evidence that cannot be explained by nonbiological — or abiotic — processes.”

https://www.engadget.com/researchers-find-evidence-of-organic-matter-on-mars-174950850.html

In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch - August 17, 2023

Recently, I was invited to speak at a symposium organized by the Amsterdam Royal Palace Foundation, who, twice a year, brings in experts to discuss some big topic like the COVID pandemic or the future of work. This summer’s meeting was about the search for extraterrestrial life. While I focused on the search in our own Solar System, Sara Seager of MIT presented her ideas on how to look for life on planets circling other stars.

During our talks and the discussions that followed, I dropped a suggestion that some people surely will find provocative: that we already did find life on Mars nearly 50 years ago—but that we inadvertently killed it.

https://daily.jstor.org/we-might-have-accidentally-killed-the-only-life-we-ever-found-on-mars/

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday July 03, 2024 12:00AM

Scientists in China have found a species of moss that is able to withstand Mars-like conditions. The species is called Syntrichia caninervis and it's found in regions including Antarctica and the Mojave desert. The Guardian reports:

“The unique insights obtained in our study lay the foundation for outer space colonization using naturally selected plants adapted to extreme stress conditions,” the team write. […] Writing in the journal The Innovation, researchers in China describe how the desert moss not only survived but rapidly recovered from almost complete dehydration. It was also able to regenerate under normal growth conditions after spending up to five years at -80C and up to 30 days at -196C, and after exposure to gamma rays, with doses of around 500Gy even promoting new growth.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/02/2348205/scientists-find-desert-moss-that-can-survive-on-mars

“These spots are a big surprise.”

Eric Berger - 7/25/2024, 11:44 AM

NASA's Perseverance rover has found a very intriguing rock on the surface of Mars.

An arrowhead-shaped rock observed by the rover has chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by ancient microbial life. To be absolutely clear, this is not irrefutable evidence of past life on Mars, when the red planet was more amenable to water-based life billions of years ago. But discovering these colored spots on this rock is darn intriguing and has Mars scientists bubbling with excitement.

“These spots are a big surprise,” said David Flannery, an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance science team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, in a NASA news release. “On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/07/no-nasa-hasnt-found-life-on-mars-yet-but-the-latest-discovery-is-intriguing/

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday October 15, 2025 12:00AM

A new study shows that common baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) can survive Mars-like conditions, including meteorite shock waves and toxic perchlorate salts found in Martian soil. Phys.org reports:

Published in PNAS Nexus, Purusharth I. Rajyaguru and colleagues subjected Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a widely used model yeast, to shock waves and perchlorates. The authors chose the yeast in part because it has already been studied in space. When stressed, yeast, humans, and many other organisms form ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates, structures made of RNA and proteins that protect RNA and affect the fates of mRNAs. When the stressor passes, the RNP condensates, which include subtypes known as stress granules and P-bodies, disassemble.

The authors simulated Martian shock waves at the High-Intensity Shock Tube for Astrochemistry (HISTA) housed in the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. Yeast exposed to 5.6 Mach intensity shock waves survived with slowed growth, as did yeast subjected to 100 mM sodium salt of perchlorate (NaClO4) – a concentration similar to that in Martian soils. Yeast cells also survived exposure to the combined stress of shock waves and perchlorate stress. In both cases, the yeast assembled RNP condensates. Shock waves induced the assembly of stress granules and P-bodies; perchlorate caused yeast to make P-bodies but not stress granules. Mutants incapable of assembling RNP condensates were poor at surviving the Martian stress condition. Transcriptome analysis identified specific RNA transcripts perturbed by Mars-like conditions.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/10/15/032207/common-yeast-can-survive-martian-conditions

Posted by msmash on Wednesday October 18, 2023 08:20AM

An anonymous reader shares a report:

On May 4, 2022, NASA's InSight lander detected the largest quake yet recorded on Mars, one with a 4.7 magnitude – fairly modest by Earth standards but strong for our planetary neighbor. Given Mars lacks the geological process called plate tectonics that generates earthquakes on our planet, scientists suspected a meteorite impact had caused this marsquake. But a search for an impact crater came up empty, leading scientists to conclude that this quake was caused by tectonic activity – rumbling in the planet's interior – and giving them a deeper understanding about what makes Mars shake, rattle and roll.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/10/18/1427242/scientists-surprised-by-source-of-largest-quake-detected-on-mars

Fresh investigations find that the red planet’s liquid-metal core is smaller than scientists thought.

Alexandra Witze - 25 October 2023

A meteorite that slammed into Mars in September 2021 has rewritten what scientists know about the planet’s interior.

By analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after the impact, researchers have discovered a layer of molten rock that envelops Mars’s liquid-metal core. The finding, reported today in two papers in Nature1,2, means that the Martian core is smaller than previously thought. It also resolves some lingering questions about how the red planet formed and evolved over billions of years.

The discovery comes from NASA’s InSight mission, which landed a craft with a seismometer on Mars’s surface. Between 2018 and 2022, that instrument detected hundreds of ‘marsquakes’ shaking the planet. Seismic waves produced by quakes or impacts can slow down or speed up depending on what types of material they are travelling through, so seismologists can measure the waves’ passage to deduce what the interior of a planet looks like. On Earth, researchers have used information from earthquakes to discover the planet’s layers: a brittle outer crust, a mostly solid mantle, and a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. Finding out whether other planets have similar layers is key to understanding their geological history, including whether they were ever suitable for life.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03271-4

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday October 26, 2023 @12:00AM from the what's-inside dept.

Alexandra Witze reports via Nature:

A meteorite that slammed into Mars in September 2021 has rewritten what scientists know about the planet's interior. By analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after the impact, researchers have discovered a layer of molten rock that envelops Mars's liquid-metal core. The finding, reported today in two papers in Nature, means that the Martian core is smaller than previously thought. It also resolves some lingering questions about how the red planet formed and evolved over billions of years.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/10/25/2243240/mars-has-a-surprise-layer-of-molten-rock-inside

Seismic information now allows us to make a planet-wide estimate of impact rates.

Elizabeth Rayne - 7/16/2024, 11:32 AM

Mars trembles with marsquakes, but not all of them are driven by phenomena that occur beneath the surface—many are the aftermath of meteorite strikes.

Meteorites crash down to Mars every day. After analyzing data from NASA’s InSight lander, an international team of researchers noticed that its seismometer, SEIS, detected six nearby seismic events. These were linked to the same acoustic atmospheric signal that meteorites generate when whizzing through the atmosphere of Mars. Further investigation identified all six as part of an entirely new class of quakes known as VF (very high frequency) events.

The collisions that generate VF marsquakes occur in fractions of a second, much less time than the few seconds it takes tectonic processes to cause quakes similar in size. This is some of the key seismological data that has helped us understand the occurrence of earthquakes caused by meteoric impacts on Mars. This is also the first time seismic data was used to determine how frequently impact craters are formed.

“Although a non-impact origin cannot be definitively excluded for each VF event, we show that the VF class as a whole is plausibly caused by meteorite impacts,” the researchers said in a study recently published in Nature.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/seismic-data-shows-mars-is-often-pummeled-by-planet-shaking-meteorites/

July 18, 2024 - NASA

Among several recent findings, the rover has found rocks made of pure sulfur — a first on the Red Planet.

Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals.

Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a region of Mars rich with sulfates, a kind of salt that contains sulfur and forms as water evaporates. But where past detections have been of sulfur-based minerals — in other words, a mix of sulfur and other materials — the rock Curiosity recently cracked open is made of elemental, or pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what relationship, if any, the elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the area.

While people associate sulfur with the odor from rotten eggs (the result of hydrogen sulfide gas), elemental sulfur is odorless. It forms in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven’t associated with the history of this location. And Curiosity found a lot of it — an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-rover-discovers-a-surprise-in-a-martian-rock

Narrowing down the location of buried ice on Mars could help the space agency decided where to land its astronauts on future missions.

Passant Rabie - 27 October 2023 4:55PM

A new map of subsurface water on Mars just dropped, and it reveals regions on the Red Planet where ice may be buried beneath the surface for future astronauts to use.

This week, the NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project (SWIM) released its fourth set of maps, which the space agency is calling the “most detailed” since the project first began in 2017.

Using data from several NASA missions, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Global Surveyor, SWIM identifies the possible locations of subsurface ice on Mars. For the latest SWIM map, scientists relied on two higher resolution cameras on board MRO, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006 in search of water. As a result, the new map has a much more detailed view of subsurface water than previous iterations which relied on lower-resolution imagers, radar, thermal mappers and spectrometers.

https://gizmodo.com/detailed-nasa-mars-water-map-land-future-explorers-1850968086

University of California, Los Angeles - January 26, 2024

If life ever existed on Mars, the Perseverance rover's verification of lake sediments at the base of the Jezero crater reinforces the hope that traces might be found in the crater.

In new research published in the journal Science Advances, a team led by UCLA and The University of Oslo shows that at some point, the crater filled with water, depositing layers of sediments on the crater floor. The lake subsequently shrank and sediments carried by the river that fed it formed an enormous delta. As the lake dissipated over time, the sediments in the crater were eroded, forming the geologic features visible on the surface today.

The periods of deposition and erosion took place over eons of environmental changes, the radar indicates, confirming that inferences about the Jezero crater's geologic history based on Mars images obtained from space are accurate.

https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-lake-mars-perseverance-rover.html

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 27, 2024 04:05PM

UPI reports:

New research published Friday offers hope that the sediment samples picked up by the Mars rover Perseverance could reveal traces of life — if it ever existed on the Red Planet.

The rover already has confirmed an ancient lake on Mars. The new research published in Science Advances shows the Jezero Crater, where Perseverance verified lake sediments, is theorized to have been filled with water that deposited layers of sediments on the crater floor. “The delta deposits in Jezero Crater contain sedimentary records of potentially habitable conditions on Mars,” the research article's abstract stated. “NASA's Perseverance rover is exploring the Jezero western delta with a suite of instruments that include the RIMFAX ground penetrating radar, which provides continuous subsurface images that probe up to 20 meters below the rover.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/28/004200/did-a-lake-on-mars-once-contain-life

Posted by BeauHD on Monday August 12, 2024 07:02PM

Slashdot contributors Tablizer, radaos, fjo3, and dbialac highlighted a major discovery by scientists: a reservoir of liquid water hidden deep beneath Mars' rocky outer crust. The BBC reports:

The findings come from a new analysis of data from Nasa's Mars Insight Lander, which touched down on the planet back in 2018. The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years' of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet. Analyzing those quakes – and exactly how the planet moves – revealed “seismic signals” of liquid water… The Insight probe was only able to record directly from the crust beneath its feet, but the researchers expect that there will be similar reservoirs across the planet. If that is the case, they estimate that there is enough liquid water on Mars to form a layer across the surface that would be more than half a mile deep.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/12/2355248/reservoir-of-liquid-water-found-deep-in-martian-rocks

And it may be too deep to reach.

Mariella Moon - Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 5:00 AM PDT

Water exists on Mars, according to a team of geophysicists, and not just as ice on its poles or as vapor in its atmosphere. The scientists have found evidence of liquid water deep in its outer crust, based on their analysis of data provided by NASA's Mars Insight Lander. Specifically, they analyzed four years' worth of ground motions recorded by the lander's seismometer. By looking at seismic velocities, or how fast seismic waves travel on the planet, they were able to determine the materials that the waves moved through. What they found was that Mars' mid-crust has fractured igneous rocks saturated with liquid water.

One of the scientists involved in the study, Prof Michael Manga from the University of California, Berkeley, told the BBC that they implemented the same techniques used “to prospect for water on Earth, or to look for oil and gas.” He said his group's findings can answer the question of where all the water on Mars had gone, because features on the planet's surface showed that it had lakes and rivers around three billion years ago. While there's a theory that most of that water was lost to space, scientists have challenged that idea in recent years. One study by Caltech and NASA JPL published in 2021 found data that most of that water is still trapped in the planet's crust.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/scientists-find-evidence-of-liquid-water-deep-underneath-the-martian-surface-120054729.html

The structure was found alongside possible glacier ice, which has implications for Martian habitability.

Isaac Schultz - 14 March 2024

A giant volcano has been found in Mars’ Tharsis plateau, making it the fourth known volcano in the region. Heavily eroded, the 29,600-foot (9,022-meter) volcano has been hiding in plain sight, sneaking its mug into images of the Tharsis region but never actually being seen. Until now.

The volcano’s discovery was announced this week at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas. Abutting the maze-like geology of Noctis Labyrinthus, the giant volcano has been provisionally named Noctis Mons. You can read the paper initially describing the discovery here. The volcano was found with data from multiple Mars orbiters, including NASA’s Viking orbiters and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and ESA’s Mars Express orbiter.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-giant-volcano-discovery-potential-life-exploration-1851335951

The two robots, working alone and far apart from one another, are struggling on their respective treks along the Red Planet's rough terrain.

Passant Rabie - November 12, 2024

NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers have been roaming Mars for years, exploring different parts of the Red Planet hundreds of miles apart. Over the past few months, however, both robots have been struggling to complete a crucial part of their respective missions.

As Perseverance sets on its fifth scientific campaign, the rover is having trouble reaching the rim of an ancient crater, often taking twice as long to complete a drive along the Martian terrain. As for Curiosity, it’s also encountering hurdles; the rover was recently forced to turn away from exploring a dried-up channel after its wheels got stuck on a rock.

For nearly three months, the Perseverance rover has been climbing the rim of Jezero Crater to investigate whether life ever existed on Mars. This is the six-wheeled robot’s toughest terrain yet, and it’s proving to be more challenging than the mission’s team had anticipated.

https://gizmodo.com/mars-is-hard-nasas-rovers-have-had-a-rough-go-lately-2000523629

Tiny rods made from martian ingredients could trap heat and warm planet

7 Aug 2024 2:00 pm ET - Hannah Richter

One of the classic tropes of science fiction is terraforming Mars: warming up our cold neighbor so it could support human civilization. The idea might not be so far-fetched, research published today in Science Advances suggests.

Injecting tiny particles into Mars’s atmosphere could warm the planet by more than 10°C in a matter of months, researchers find—enough to sustain liquid water. Although the scheme would require about 2 million tons of particles per year, they could be manufactured from readily available ingredients found in martian dust.

“It’s not that often you get some really quite new, innovative idea for terraforming,” says Colin McInnes, a space engineer at the University of Glasgow not involved with the work. “The gap between where Mars is and where Mars could be for habitability is narrower than we might think.”

https://www.science.org/content/article/terraforming-mars-could-be-easier-scientists-thought

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday August 10, 2024 02:46PM

Slashdot reader sciencehabit shared this report from Science magazine:

One of the classic tropes of science fiction is terraforming Mars: warming up our cold neighbor so it could support human civilization. The idea might not be so far-fetched, research published today in Science Advances suggests…

Samaneh Ansari [a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University and lead author on the new study] and her colleagues wanted to test the heat-trapping abilities of a substance Mars holds in abundance: dust. Martian dust is rich in iron and aluminum, which give it its characteristic red hue. But its microscopic size and roughly spherical shape are not conducive to absorbing radiation or reflecting it back to the surface. So the researchers brainstormed a different particle: using the iron and aluminum in the dust to manufacture 9-micrometer-long rods, about twice as big as a speck of martian dust and smaller than commercially available glitter. Ansari designed a simulation to test how these theoretical particles would interact with light. She found “unexpectedly huge effects” in how they absorbed infrared radiation from the surface and how they scattered that radiation back down to Mars — key factors that determine whether an aerosol particle creates a greenhouse effect.

The mission team is hoping BepiColombo can make it to its next gravity assist so that it can arrive at the planet in 2025.

Passant Rabie - 15 May 2024

For more than five years, a pair of spacecraft have been traveling through the solar system to reach the innermost planet Mercury and observe its extreme conditions. During its complex journey, the BepiColombo mission ran into a problem that’s preventing its thrusters from operating at full power, potentially jeopardizing the mission.

BepiColombo launched in October 2018 as a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), each providing an orbiter to explore Mercury’s surface and interior, and the planet’s magnetic field. The two probes, consisting of ESA’s Mercury Planet Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO), launched together on a single spacecraft, and each will enter its respective orbit around Mercury in December 2025. The recent issue with BepiColombo’s propulsion system could risk its ability to complete its upcoming gravity assist.

https://gizmodo.com/bepicolombo-twin-probes-thruster-glitch-mercury-1851479330

ESA/JAXA mission running on reduced thrust as engineers work to resolve the issue

Richard Speed - Thu 16 May 2024 11:45 UTC

Updated Thruster problems with BepiColombo, the joint ESA and JAXA mission to Mercury, could cause headaches for managers plotting the spacecraft's trajectory and insertion into Mercury's orbit.

On April 26, as the spacecraft was scheduled to begin its next maneuver, the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) “failed to deliver enough electrical power to the spacecraft's thrusters.”

BepiColombo is supposed to enter Mercury orbit in December 2025.

According to former ESA Senior Science Advisor Mark McCaughrean, the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) system has been “glitchy” for a while.

BepiColombo has three components – a pair of scientific probes and the MTM. During the cruise to Mercury, the MTM provides power for the probes and also the SEP. While the SEP is not particularly high-thrust, the plan calls for it to run for extended periods on the way to Mercury orbit insertion.

The SEP is therefore a critical component, and while the mission team managed to restore thrust to 90 percent of its previous level by May 7, the reduction could require a rethink of the mission plan.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/16/bepicolombo_thruster_problems/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday August 03, 2024 12:34PM

The planet Mercury could have “a layer of diamonds,” reports CNN, citing new research suggesting that about 310 miles (500 kilometers) below the surface…could be a layer of diamonds 11 miles (18 kilometers) thick.

And the study's co-author believes lava might carry some of those diamonds up to the surface:

The diamonds might have formed soon after Mercury itself coalesced into a planet about 4.5 billion years ago from a swirling cloud of dust and gas, in the crucible of a high-pressure, high-temperature environment. At this time, the fledgling planet is believed to have had a crust of graphite, floating over a deep magma ocean.

A team of researchers recreated that searing environment in an experiment, with a machine called an anvil press that's normally used to study how materials behave under extreme pressure but also for the production of synthetic diamonds. “It's a huge press, which enables us to subject tiny samples at the same high pressure and high temperature that we would expect deep inside the mantle of Mercury, at the boundary between the mantle and the core,” said Bernard Charlier, head of the department of geology at the University of Liège in Belgium and a coauthor of a study reporting the findings.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/02/2225203/are-there-diamonds-on-mercury

Ground teams cannot restore the spacecraft's full thrust, forcing it to take a different trajectory on its way to the innermost planet.

Passant Rabie - September 3, 2024

The European Space Agency (ESA) is having to delay the arrival of its BepiColombo mission to Mercury after the twin probes suffered a glitch that prevented it from operating at full power. The spacecraft will have to perform an unexpected maneuver as a result, delaying its arrival at Mercury by nearly a year.

BepiColombo will follow a different trajectory on its way to Mercury, delaying the spacecraft’s insertion into orbit around the innermost planet from December 2025 to November 2026, ESA announced. The spacecraft had been on a journey towards Mercury for over five years before it experienced an issue with its propulsion system, resulting in less power available for the remainder of its trip. To help BepiColombo reach its destination, ESA engineers developed a clever workaround that will allow the spacecraft to use lower thrust during its cruise phase.

https://gizmodo.com/spacecraft-headed-to-mercury-will-take-unexpected-detour-due-to-thruster-glitch-2000494085

BepiColombo is on a new trajectory to the innermost planet after suffering a thruster glitch.

Passant Rabie - September 5, 2024

A pair of still-attached probes just completed the closest flyby of the solar system’s least explored planet, capturing the first clear view of Mercury’s impact craters.

BepiColombo pulled off its fourth gravity assist of Mercury on Wednesday, approaching the planet’s cratered surface at the closest distance of 102 miles (165 kilometers) at 5:48 p.m. ET. During its flyby, the spacecraft captured a series of stunning images that reveal Mercury’s unique features.

https://gizmodo.com/closest-flyby-of-mercury-reveals-the-planets-mysterious-craters-in-unprecedented-detail-2000495161

BepiColombo captured stunning views of the innermost planet on its way to explore its magnetic field.

Passant Rabie - September 13, 2024

A pair of Mercury probes got up close and personal with the solar system’s underdog planet, revealing its cratered surface in a newly released video of the otherworldly encounter.

The European Space Agency (ESA) released a 90-second video of BepiColombo’s recent flyby of Mercury, which marked the closest approach to the innermost planet. The footage is made up of 128 images, stitched together to produce a cinematic timelapse of the spacecraft’s recent rendezvous.

https://gizmodo.com/dramatic-video-shows-the-closest-flyby-ever-of-mercury-2000498505

The BepiColombo mission successfully completed its sixth flyby of the innermost planet, moving closer to its final goal of entering its orbit.

Passant Rabie - January 11, 2025

Europe and Japan’s BepiColombo beamed back close-up images of the solar system’s innermost planet, flying through Mercury’s shadow to peer directly onto craters that are permanently hidden in the shadows.

BepiColombo, consisting of two conjoined spacecraft, flew past Mercury for the sixth and final time on Wednesday, using the planet’s gravitational pull to adjust its trajectory for an eventual orbital insertion in 2026. The mission launched in October 2018 as a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), each providing an orbiter to explore Mercury. During its latest flyby, the twin spacecraft flew above the surface of Mercury at a distance of around 180 miles (295 kilometers), according to ESA.

From this close distance, BepiColombo captured images of Mercury’s cratered surface, starting with the planet’s cold, permanently dark night side near the north pole before moving toward its sunlit northern regions.

https://gizmodo.com/spacecraft-captures-spectacularly-detailed-images-of-mercurys-hidden-surface-2000548169

Posted by BeauHD on Friday January 10, 2025 11:00PM from the outer-worldly-imagery dept.

SysEngineer shares a report from the Associated Press:

A spacecraft has beamed back some of the best close-up photos yet of Mercury's north pole. The European and Japanese robotic explorer swooped as close as 183 miles (295 kilometers) above Mercury's night side before passing directly over the planet's north pole. The European Space Agency released the stunning snapshots Thursday, showing the permanently shadowed craters at the top of of our solar system's smallest, innermost planet. Cameras also captured views of neighboring volcanic plains and Mercury's largest impact crater, which spans more than 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/01/11/0419232/spacecraft-buzzes-mercurys-north-pole-and-beams-back-stunning-photos

The three new moons include the first to be discovered around Uranus in more than 20 years.

Passant Rabie - 23 February 2024

Astronomers found a new moon orbiting Uranus, as well as two around Neptune. The tiny satellites appeared as faint specks in the outer reaches of the solar system following hours of ground-based observations.

Using observatories in Chile and Hawaii, Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, first spotted the Uranian moon on November 4, 2023 and the two previously unknown Neptunian moons in September 2021. “The three newly discovered moons are the faintest ever found around these two ice giant planets using ground-based telescopes,” Sheppard said in a statement. “It took special image processing to reveal such faint objects.”

https://gizmodo.com/new-moons-discovered-around-uranus-and-neptune-1851282795

Bob Yirka - September 13, 2024

A pair of asteroid dynamics researchers from Universidad Complutense de Madrid Ciudad Universitaria have found that a small asteroid will make one orbit around the Earth starting this month before departing back into other parts of the solar system.

In their paper published in the journal Research Notes of the AAS, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos describe how the Earth tends to capture asteroids on a regular basis and outline their calculations showing the path of 2024 PT5 as it comes close to Earth.

Prior research has shown that many asteroids fall into partial or full elliptical paths around the Earth before eventually being flung away. Back in 2006, for example, a small asteroid circled the Earth for approximately a year—and another one did so for several years before leaving in 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-earth-mini-moon-months.html

“These are the kinds of things that America needs to do to remain a leader in space.”

Eric Berger - 1/21/2022, 10:06 AM

In recent years, much has been said about mining water ice in shadowed craters at the Moon's South Pole for use as rocket propellant. Enthusiasm for this idea has led NASA to begin planning the first human missions of its Artemis Program to land near the South Pole instead of the mid-latitudes.

However, a Houston-based company says there is value in the gray, dusty regolith spread across the entire lunar surface. The firm, Lunar Resources, is developing technology to extract iron, aluminum, magnesium, and silicon from the Moon's regolith. These materials, in turn, would be used to manufacture goods on the Moon.

“There are all of these valuable metals on the Moon, just there for the taking,” said Elliot Carol, chief executive officer of Lunar Resources.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/machine-to-melt-moon-rocks-and-derive-metals-may-launch-in-2024/

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds.

Jonathan O'Callaghan, Contributing Writer - April 28, 2022

On October 9, 2009, a two-ton rocket smashed into the moon traveling at 9,000 kilometers per hour. As it exploded in a shower of dust and heated the lunar surface to hundreds of degrees, the jet-black crater into which it plummeted, called Cabeus, briefly filled with light for the first time in billions of years.

The crash was no accident. NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission aimed to see what would be kicked up from the lunar shadows by the impact. A spacecraft trailing the rocket flew through the dust plume to sample it, while NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter observed from afar. The results of the experiment were astonishing: Scientists detected 155 kilograms of water vapor mixed into the dust plume. They had, for the first time, found water on the moon. “It was absolutely definitive,” said Anthony Colaprete of NASA’s Ames Research Center, the principal investigator of LCROSS.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/secrets-of-the-moons-permanent-shadows-are-coming-to-light-20220428/

The groundbreaking lunar experiment could result in more accurate and safer navigation during trips to the Moon.

Passant Rabie - 2 June 2022

In December 1968, the Apollo 8 mission carried three astronauts on a trip around the Moon— further than anyone had ever gone before. For a mission that far, navigation was the biggest unknown factor. Had the spacecraft’s velocity been even a bit off, it would’ve crashed onto the far side of the Moon.

Fast forward to today, and in consideration of NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, the space agency is once again thinking about navigation and the issue of safety. To that end, NASA is looking to test a new lunar navigation system that uses signals from Earth’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), but in the vicinity of the Moon. That’s never been done before. NASA is preparing to send this experimental payload to the Moon, which will be delivered by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander no earlier than 2024, according to NASA.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-moon-gps-navigation-1849009849

The proposed 1,300-foot-tall lunar structure would spin three times every minute, generating Earth-like gravity for its inhabitants.

Kevin Hurler - 11 July 2022 12:20PM

Interest in the Moon has been reignited recently, and Japan is looking to get in on the fun. Researchers and engineers from Kyoto University and the Kajima Corporation have released their joint proposal for a three-pronged approach to sustainable human life on the Moon and beyond.

The future of space exploration will likely include longer stays in low gravity environments, whether in orbit or on the surface of another planet. Problem is, long stays in space can wreak havoc on our physiology; recent research shows that astronauts can suffer a decade of bone loss during months in space, and that their bones never return to normal. Thankfully, researchers from Kyoto University and the Kajima Corporation are seeking to engineer a potential solution.

https://gizmodo.com/japan-wants-to-bring-artificial-gravity-to-the-moon-1849163831

Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth’s mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.

10.08.2022 - Marianne Lucien

Humankind has maintained an enduring fascination with the Moon. It was not until Galileo’s time, however, that scientists really began study it. Over the course of nearly five centuries, researchers put forward numerous, much debated theories as to how the Moon was formed. Now, geochemists, cosmochemists, and petrologists at ETH Zurich shed new light on the Moon’s origin story. In a study just published in the journal, Science Advances, the research team reports findings that show that the Moon inherited the indigenous noble gases of helium and neon from Earth’s mantle. The discovery adds to the already strong constraints on the currently favoured “Giant Impact” theory that hypothesizes the Moon was formed by a massive collision between Earth and another celestial body.

https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/08/one-more-clue-to-the-moons-origin.html

Extra parts from the Mars InSight mission will be used to detect Moonquakes.

Dhananjay Khadilkar - 10/26/2022, 10:51 AM

On May 5, 2022, the seismometer on board the InSight lander recorded a quake of magnitude 4.7 on the Martian surface, despite the epicenter being 2,250 km from the lander. It was one of the largest quakes recorded on Mars and the largest recorded by the Insight mission. In September, in the first measurement of its kind, the instrument registered a quake generated by a meteorite impact on Mars.

InSight’s seismometer is called the Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure (or SEIS), and it has recorded these and 20 odd additional quakes. Now, an instrument based on the same design will measure ground vibrations on the far side of the Moon, the first seismographs on our neighbor since the Apollo era.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/first-seismograph-destined-for-the-moons-far-side-built-using-spare-parts/

China's upcoming Chang'e 6 mission will include four international projects, including tools to measure solar winds and a noble gas leaking from the surface.

Passant Rabie - 21 December 2022

Two years ago, China’s Chang’e 5 mission made history by returning lunar samples to Earth for the first time in more than 40 years. The mission’s successor, Chang’e 6, is not only designed to return a second batch of samples from the far side of the Moon—a feat never attempted before—it will also be bringing four payloads along for the ride.

The Chang’e 6 mission is scheduled to launch from China’s coastal Wenchang spaceport in 2025 on board a Long March 5 rocket. Unlike its predecessor, which landed on the near side of the Moon, Chang’e 6 will head to the lunar south pole region on the far side (the side of the Moon that never faces Earth) for its sample collection duties.

https://gizmodo.com/china-change-6-moon-mission-international-payloads-1849916964

Researchers found that the Moon's inner core is about 310 miles wide, which is about 15% the diameter of the Moon.

Kevin Hurler - 4 May 2023

Scientists may have just unlocked another of the Moon’s secrets. They found evidence to suggest that the Moon’s inner core is solid, like Earth’s.

Researchers from the Côte d’Azur University and the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculations in France developed models of the Moon’s interior, hoping to shed light on our natural satellite’s internal geologic structure. They determined that, not only is the Moon’s inner core solid like Earth’s, but it is also made up of a metal with a density close to that of iron. They also found that the core is about 310 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter—about 15% of the Moon’s total width. Arthur Briaud and his collaborators published their work this week in the journal Nature.

The new analysis also yielded evidence of lunar mantle overturn, or movement of material in the Moon’s mantle prior to this layer cooling into a mainly solid mass. The scientists argue that this mantle overturn could explain why there is iron on the lunar surface. As warmer material rose through the mantle, volcanic activity on the Moon deposited iron on the surface, where it eventually cooled and broke down into soil.

https://gizmodo.com/the-moon-has-a-solid-earth-like-core-study-finds-1850400200

An increasing number of lunar landers are expected to reach the Moon in the coming years, but scientists are worried about their impact on orbiting spacecraft.

Passant Rabie - 6 June 2023 12:05PM

When it comes to the future of spaceflight, the Moon is the place to be. Several missions are set to land on the Moon in the next few years in an effort to establish a human presence on the lunar surface. Although they’re meant to bolster lunar activity, those landings, however, could in turn have a negative effect on spacecraft orbiting the Moon.

A recent study, newly uploaded to the preprint arXiv, examined the potential damage caused by lunar landers, which can eject dust from the surface of the Moon and send it into orbit as they land on the surface. With enough Moon landings in the future, a cloud of pesky lunar dust particles could get in the way of orbiting spacecraft.

https://gizmodo.com/future-moon-landings-jeopardize-spacecraft-dust-1850509129

The Luna-10 project aims to establish a lunar infrastructure to allow for commercial activities on the Moon.

Passant Rabie - 17 August 2023

The Moon is so hot right now, metaphorically speaking. Several US government agencies, private space ventures, and foreign governments like China are plotting for mankind’s return to the lunar surface over the next decade. Unlike the days of Apollo, the modern-day race to the Moon involves establishing a sustainable presence and a thriving economy on and around Earth’s natural satellite.

In an attempt to guide ongoing efforts in establishing a lunar infrastructure, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) kicked off a seven-month study dedicated to developing an analytical framework for scientific and commercial activity on the Moon. Through the 10-Year Lunar Architecture, or LunA-10, study, DARPA is seeking ideas for technology and infrastructure concepts that could help build a Moon-based economy within the next decade.

https://gizmodo.com/darpa-moon-study-lunar-economy-10-years-1850747663

'I don't want China to get to the south pole with humans and then say: this is ours, stay out'

Katyanna Quach - Wed 9 Aug 2023 01:37 UTC

NASA boss Bill Nelson says America is “in a space race with China” and wants its astronauts back on the Moon before anyone else – to make sure foreign states don't take control of water and other resources on Earth's natural satellite.

On Tuesday, in a news briefing updating journos on the progress of the Artemis II mission, the US space agency's administrator outlined plans to establish a long-term lunar base in the “for all mankind” spirit of the Apollo missions half a century ago, from which astronauts can explore the Solar System further out to Mars and beyond.

One goal is to land on the Moon's south pole, where scientists suspect there is water and ice – a vital resource for human survival. “I don't want China to get to the south pole first with humans and then say: this is ours, stay out … If indeed we find water in abundance there that could be utilized for future crews and spacecraft, we want to make sure that's available to all, not just the one that's claiming it,” Nelson said.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/09/nasa_artemis_2_update/

Dark rocks spotted on the Moon could be magnetized, according to new research.

Isaac Schultz - 20 January 2024

Scientists scrutinizing the fine dust covering the Moon have identified a handful of boulders on the lunar surface that they believe may be covered with uniquely magnetized dust.

The team used artificial intelligence to review around a million images of the lunar surface, all taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The AI turned up 130,000 images of rocks with compelling features, half of which the researchers reviewed. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

On the Moon—a rocky satellite devoid of winds and erosion—dust is not just a powdery irritant. The crushed rock is still minuscule, like the stuff that causes our Earthly sneezes, but Moon dust is sharp and electrostatically charged. Poring over the images of boulders on the Moon, the researchers hoped to find a superlative rock that revealed newfound properties.

“We recognized a boulder with distinctive dark areas on just one image,” said Ottaviano Rüsch, a researcher at Westfälische Wilhelm Universität Münster, and the study’s lead author, in a university release. “This rock was very different from all the others, as it scatters less light back towards the sun than other rocks. We suspect that this is due to the particular dust structure, such as the density and grain size of the dust.”

https://gizmodo.com/boulders-covered-in-weird-dust-found-on-the-moon-1851180881

Potential Artemis landing sites aren’t on the steadiest of ground, as recent research suggests these areas may be prone to moonquakes.

Isaac Schultz - 26 January 2024

Do not scratch your eyes: the Moon is slowly shrinking, causing quakes on its surface that complicate NASA’s plans for landing Artemis 3, the first Artemis mission that will make a crewed landing on the Moon, and more ambitious missions geared towards maintaining a prolonged human lunar presence.

Yes, there are plenty of tremors on other bodies in our solar system. On the Moon, they’re moonquakes. On Mars, they’re marsquakes, over 1,300 of which were detected by NASA’s InSight lander before the mission ended in December 2022. These quakes aren’t always caused by natural processes: a team that recently scrutinized moonquake data from 1972 found that the seismic activity actually came from the Apollo 17 lunar lander, not the rocky satellite on which it alighted.

https://gizmodo.com/moonquakes-moon-shrinking-nasa-artemis-risks-1851200324

https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1761467904737067456

Loren Grush, Bloomberg News - February 24, 2024

For the first time since 1972, the United States is back on the moon.

At 6:23 p.m. Eastern time Thursday Feb 22, Intuitive Machines Inc. landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon, becoming the first private firm to place a vehicle intact on the lunar surface.

NASA, which paid nearly $118 million for this mission, posted congratulations on the X social media platform: “Your order was delivered … to the moon!” Intuitive Machines will eventually send two additional landers to the moon in partnership with NASA.

As national space ambitions grow and the business of space expands, firms have raced to claim the title of landing the first private craft in one piece on the moon. None was successful until now. An Israeli nonprofit, SpaceIL, tried in 2019, but its craft came in too fast and crashed on the surface. Last year, Tokyo-based Ispace Inc. lost contact with its lander. And in January, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic's lander suffered engine failure just after reaching space.

Since the U.S. successfully put people on the moon half a century ago, why did it prove so difficult for companies—even countries—to do it again?

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-years-moon.html

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, aiming for a Moon landing next year, has established an ambitious schedule that could leapfrog Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

George Dvorsky - 5 March 2024

Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, is finally setting some ambitious timelines, saying it plans to conduct an uncrewed Moon landing in as little as a year from now, deploying a demonstration version of its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) cargo lander. This ramps up the space rivalry big time, putting Bezos head-to-head with Musk in a potential lunar showdown.

John Couluris, senior vice president for lunar permanence at Blue Origin, discussed these plans during an interview on CBC’s 60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday, March 3. “We’re expecting to land on the Moon between 12 and 16 months from today,” he said. “I understand I’m saying that publicly, but that’s what our team is aiming towards.”

https://gizmodo.com/could-blue-origin-beat-spacex-to-the-moon-nasa-artemis-1851308542

23 April 2024 - Michelle Starr

Well, the verdict is in. The Moon is not made of green cheese after all.

A thorough investigation published in May 2023 found that the inner core of the Moon is, in fact, a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. This, researchers hope, will help settle a long debate about whether the Moon's inner heart is solid or molten, and lead to a more accurate understanding of the Moon's history – and, by extension, that of the Solar System.

“Our results,” wrote a team led by astronomer Arthur Briaud of the French National Centre for Scientific Research in France, “question the evolution of the Moon magnetic field thanks to its demonstration of the existence of the inner core and support a global mantle overturn scenario that brings substantial insights on the timeline of the lunar bombardment in the first billion years of the Solar System.”

Probing the interior composition of objects in the Solar System is most effectively accomplished through seismic data. The way acoustic waves generated by quakes move through and reflect from material inside a planet or moon can help scientists create a detailed map of the object's interior.

https://www.sciencealert.com/its-official-scientists-finally-confirmed-whats-inside-the-moon

NASA's Artemis moon program faces challenges the Apollo missions never did

Sarah Scoles - September 17, 2024

When the Apollo 17 astronauts returned from the moon in 1972, they couldn’t have known that they would be the last humans to travel deep into outer space for more than 50 years. But no astronauts have ventured be­­yond Earth orbit since, even as Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have all planned lunar missions. Finally, NASA is preparing to send people back to the moon on the Artemis II flight, scheduled to lift off in the fall of 2025. Why has it been so difficult?

This new mission is similar to the Apollo 8 flight of 1968, when three people circled the moon without landing and then traveled back to Earth. Artemis II will send four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon on the first crewed test of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion space capsule. Although the U.S. has had decades to get better at such journeys, the upcoming trip resembles its mid-century cousin in that it will be far from easy.

Choosing to do things “not because they are easy but because they are hard” is part of the rationale President John F. Kennedy gave in a famous 1962 speech trying to galvanize support for the Apollo program. And what was true then remains so today—in fact, reaching the moon may be even more difficult than it was decades ago.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-it-so-much-harder-for-nasa-to-send-people-to-the-moon-now-than-it-was-during-the-apollo-era/

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the landers on Wednesday at 1:11 a.m. ET. You can catch the action live right here.

Passant Rabie - January 14, 2025

The Moon is about to get busy. A pair of landers are riding on board a SpaceX rocket this week, aiming to touchdown on the lunar surface and unpack a host of science instruments. The two missions are part of a commercial push to explore the Moon, marking the start of a new era for private spaceflight.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and ispace’s Resilience lander are set for launch on Wednesday, January 15 at 1:11 a.m. ET. The missions will liftoff from Launch Complex-39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, riding aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. NASA will livestream the launch on its website and NASA+, with the broadcast beginning at 12:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. You can also tune in to the live feed below.

https://gizmodo.com/two-private-moon-landers-are-launching-wednesday-heres-what-you-should-know-2000549597

MARCIA DUNN - Updated 8:00 AM PDT, April 9, 2025

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Soil and rocks returned from the moon’s mysterious far side suggest it may be drier than the side constantly facing Earth, Chinese scientists reported Wednesday.

But they cautioned more samples are needed for a clearer picture.

A better understanding of the abundance of water in the lunar mantle can help explain how the moon evolved, the researchers noted. But it could also be all the more reason for astronauts to stick close to the near side of the moon as currently planned.

China became the first country to land on the moon’s far side last year. The Chang’e 6 spacecraft scooped up the volcanic rock and dirt from the ancient, sprawling South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Sen Hu said he and his team received 5 grams of soil samples, then selected 578 particles for detailed analysis using electron microscopes.

They estimated the water abundance at less than 1.5 micrograms per gram, on the dry end of what’s been found in samples gathered over past decades from the moon’s near side. Measurements on samples from the near side have ranged between 1 microgram and 200 micrograms per gram.

https://apnews.com/article/moon-far-side-near-side-water-18081418600ea93bac69ac6af86a761b

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday June 22, 2025 09:34AM

“When Apollo astronauts stumbled across shimmering orange beads on the moon, they had no idea they were gazing at ancient relics of violent volcanic activity,” writes ScienceDaily.

These glass spheres, tiny yet mesmerizing, formed billions of years ago during fiery eruptions that launched molten droplets skyward, instantly freezing in space. Now, using advanced instruments that didn't exist in the 1970s, scientists have examined the beads in unprecedented detail. The result is a remarkable window into the moon's dynamic geological history, revealing how eruption styles evolved and how lunar conditions once mirrored explosive events we see on Earth today…

Analyses of orange and black lunar beads have shown that the style of volcanic eruptions changed over time. “It's like reading the journal of an ancient lunar volcanologist,” said Ryan Ogliore [an associate professor of physics at Missouri's Washington University, which has a large repository of lunar samples that were returned to Earth].

“The beads are tiny, pristine capsules of the lunar interior…” says Ogliore. “We've had these samples for 50 years, but we now have the technology to fully understand them…”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/22/0358233/tiny-orange-beads-found-by-apollo-astronauts-reveal-moons-volcanic-past

Under a bilateral NASA agreement, the Italian Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space are collaborating to create the first permanent human habitat on the Moon.

George Dvorsky - 28 November 2023

Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) are embarking on a pioneering venture to construct the first permanent human outpost on the Moon, a critical component of NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions, and the Cold War space race in general, understandably expanded the horizons of science fiction writers, who began to portray futures in which the Moon wasn’t just a celestial body to visit but a place to inhabit. This vision, as vividly portrayed in various TV shows and movies, showcased lunar bases as standard fixtures of the future. The classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey serves as a prime example, depicting the Moon as the site of an advanced research facility, illustrating a future where high-tech living extends beyond Earth. Likewise, the 1975 British series, Space: 1999, depicted a fully operational Moon base—Moonbase Alpha—as a hub of scientific advancement and space exploration.

https://gizmodo.com/thales-alenia-space-first-lunar-base-moon-asi-1851052777

Georgina Rannard, Science reporter - 15 July 2024

Scientists have for the first time discovered a cave on the Moon.

At least 100m deep, it could be an ideal place for humans to build a permanent base, they say.

It is just one in probably hundreds of caves hidden in an “underground, undiscovered world”, according to the researchers.

Countries are racing to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but they will need to protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather.

Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, told BBC News that the newly-discovered cave looked like a good place for a base, and suggested humans could potentially be living in lunar pits in 20-30 years.

But, she said, this cave is so deep that astronauts might need to abseil in and use “jet packs or a lift” to get out.

Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento in Italy found the cave by using radar to penetrate the opening of a pit on a rocky plain called the Mare Tranquillitatis.

It is visible to the naked eye from Earth, and is also where Apollo 11 landed in 1969.

The cave has a skylight on the Moon’s surface, leading down to vertical and overhanging walls, and a sloping floor that might extend further underground.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce784r9njz0o

An expert explains why this will be enormously bad for the United States.

Eric Berger – Aug 18, 2025 10:18 AM

In recent weeks, the secretive Chinese space program has reported some significant milestones in developing its program to land astronauts on the lunar surface by the year 2030.

On August 6, the China Manned Space Agency successfully tested a high-fidelity mockup of its 26-ton “Lanyue” lunar lander. The test, conducted outside of Beijing, used giant tethers to simulate lunar gravity as the vehicle fired main engines and fine control thrusters to land on a cratered surface and take off from there.

“The test,” said the agency in an official statement, “represents a key step in the development of China's manned lunar exploration program, and also marks the first time that China has carried out a test of extraterrestrial landing and takeoff capabilities of a manned spacecraft.”

As part of the statement, the space agency reconfirmed that it plans to land its astronauts on the Moon “before” 2030.

Then, last Friday, the space agency and its state-operated rocket developer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, successfully conducted a 30-second test firing of the Long March 10 rocket's center core with its seven YF-100K engines that burn kerosene and liquid oxygen. The primary variant of the rocket will combine three of these cores to lift about 70 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

These successful efforts followed a launch escape system test of the new Mengzhou spacecraft in June. A version of this spacecraft is planned for lunar missions.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/08/after-recent-tests-china-appears-likely-to-beat-the-united-states-back-to-the-moon/

Posted by msmash on Tuesday February 18, 2025 08:50AM

An anonymous reader shares a report:

Later this month, Intuitive Machines, the private company behind the first commercial lander that touched down on the moon, will launch a second lunar mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The plan is to deploy a lander, a rover, and hopper to explore a site near the lunar south pole that could harbor water ice, and to put a communications satellite on lunar orbit. But the mission will also bring something that's never been installed on the moon or anywhere else in space before – a fully functional 4G cellular network.

Point-to-point radio communications, which need a clear line of sight between transmitting and receiving antennas, have always been a backbone of both surface communications and the link back to Earth, starting with the Apollo program. Using point-to-point radio in space wasn't much of an issue in the past because there never have been that many points to connect. Usually, it was just a single spacecraft, a lander, or a rover talking to Earth. And they didn't need to send much data either. “They were based on [ultra high frequency] or [very high frequency] technologies connecting a small number of devices with relatively low data throughput,” says Thierry Klein, president of Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, which was contracted by NASA to design a cellular network for the moon back in 2020.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/18/1616239/nokia-is-putting-the-first-cellular-network-on-the-moon

Qian Yuan, Mingming Li, Steven J. Desch, Byeongkwan Ko, Hongping Deng, Edward J. Garnero, Travis S. J. Gabriel, Jacob A. Kegerreis, Yoshinori Miyazaki, Vincent Eke & Paul D. Asimow - 01 November 2023

Seismic images of Earth’s interior have revealed two continent-sized anomalies with low seismic velocities, known as the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), in the lowermost mantle1. The LLVPs are often interpreted as intrinsically dense heterogeneities that are compositionally distinct from the surrounding mantle2. Here we show that LLVPs may represent buried relics of Theia mantle material (TMM) that was preserved in proto-Earth’s mantle after the Moon-forming giant impact3. Our canonical giant-impact simulations show that a fraction of Theia’s mantle could have been delivered to proto-Earth’s solid lower mantle. We find that TMM is intrinsically 2.0–3.5% denser than proto-Earth’s mantle based on models of Theia’s mantle and the observed higher FeO content of the Moon. Our mantle convection models show that dense TMM blobs with a size of tens of kilometres after the impact can later sink and accumulate into LLVP-like thermochemical piles atop Earth’s core and survive to the present day. The LLVPs may, thus, be a natural consequence of the Moon-forming giant impact. Because giant impacts are common at the end stages of planet accretion, similar mantle heterogeneities caused by impacts may also exist in the interiors of other planetary bodies.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06589-1

High-density material in the mantle may be remains of a Mars-sized planet.

John Timmer - 11/1/2023, 11:19 AM

Seismic waves created by earthquakes as they travel through the planet's interior change speed and direction as they move through different materials. Things like rock type, density, and temperature all alter the travel of these waves, allowing scientists to gradually build up a picture of the Earth's crust and mantle, spotting things like the rise of plumes of hot mantle material, as well as the colder remains of tectonic plates that dropped off the surface of the Earth long ago.

There are some things that show up in these images, however, that aren't easy to explain. Deep in the Earth's mantle there are two regions where seismic waves slow down, termed large low-velocity provinces. This slowdown is consistent with the materials being higher density, so it's not really a surprise that they're sitting near the core. But that doesn't explain why there are two distinct regions of them or why they appear to contain material that has been there since the formation of the Solar System.

Now, a team of scientists has tied the two regions' existence back to a catastrophic event that happened early in our Solar System's history: a giant collision with a Mars-sized planet that ultimately created our Moon.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/remains-of-planet-that-formed-the-moon-may-be-hiding-near-earths-core/

Meanwhile, NASA signs off on Artemis software upgrade

Simon Sharwood - Fri 20 Dec 2024 05:27 UTC

Chinese scientists think it's time to rewrite the Moon's history after analyzing samples returned to Earth by the Chang'e 6 mission.

Their opinion appears in a paper titled “A reinforced lunar dynamo recorded by Chang'e 6 farside basalt” that appeared in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Penned by 18 researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the paper assesses the paleointensity – a measure of historical magnetic field strength – exhibited in samples Chang'e 6 returned to Earth in June after making the first safe landing on the far side of the Moon.

Those samples included basalt thought to be 2.8 billion years old. Analysis of them suggested the Moon's magnetic field has increased in strength, compared to measurements from older samples from other sources.

That matters, because it's thought that the Moon once possessed a strong “dynamo” – the term for forces that create celestial bodies' magnetic fields – but that it weakened dramatically around 3.1 billion years ago and eventually shut down around a billion years back.

The paper suggests the Chang'e 6 samples represent a hint of a hitherto unsuspected resurgence in the dynamo's power, and speculates Luna may have somehow found some extra energy. Such as hypothesis challenges the prevailing view of a long downward slide to the current senescent state of Earth's sole permanent natural satellite.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/20/chinese_moon_samples_analysis/

Ashley Strickland - 7:32 AM EST, Wed February 5, 2025

About 3.8 billion years ago, two massive canyons likely formed on the moon in a span of less than 10 minutes, according to new research.

The extraordinary formations, each comparable in size to Earth’s Grand Canyon, are hidden on the far side of the moon — the side that always faces away from Earth — near the lunar south pole, where NASA’s Artemis III mission aims to land humans in late 2026.

The lunar canyons are both part of the larger Schrödinger impact basin, where an object yet to be identified slammed into the moon billions of years ago. The colossal impact likely also led to the creation of the canyons as well, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The energy unleashed that created the canyons was 1,200 to 2,200 times more powerful than the nuclear explosion energy once planned to excavate a second Panama Canal, the study authors estimate.

Future missions could visit the basin and take rock samples to help scientists better understand the murky origins and history of the moon. Studying the moon also could reveal what conditions were like early on in the solar system as asteroids and other rocky debris collided with planets and moons.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/05/science/lunar-grand-canyons-far-side-moon/index.html

“There are so many investments that we could be making, but there are also Moonshots.”

Eric Berger - 3/13/2024, 7:02 AM

Two of Blue Origin's earliest employees, former President Rob Meyerson and Chief Architect Gary Lai, have started a company that seeks to extract helium-3 from the lunar surface, return it to Earth, and sell it for applications here.

The company has been operating in stealth since its founding in 2022, but it emerged on Wednesday by announcing it has raised $15 million, adding to previous rounds of angel investments.

This is a notable announcement because, while the funding is small, the implications are potentially large. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion of a 'lunar economy' in spaceflight but precious little clarity on what that means. Most firms that have announced business plans to launch rockets to the Moon, land on the Moon, or perform other activities there have been doing so with the intent of selling services or lunar water to NASA or other parties fulfilling government contracts. Put another way, there has been no wealth creation, and ultimately, NASA is the customer.

The present lunar rush is rather like a California gold rush without the gold.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/mining-helium-3-on-the-moon-has-been-talked-about-forever-now-a-company-will-try/

The company's founders, including an Apollo 17 astronaut, just rounded up $15 million to fund their venture.

Passant Rabie - 17 March 2024

Over billions of years, the surface of the Moon has been bombarded by solar wind, carrying high-energy particles that include a highly coveted resource, helium-3. Although the element is scarce on Earth, it has recently become in demand by several industries, including those working on quantum computing and nuclear fusion reactors.

Helium-3 has been deemed so precious that one company is willing to go all the way to the Moon to get it. Seattle-based startup Interlune recently announced that it raised $15 million in funding as part of its plan to harvest and sell natural resources from the Moon. The company wants to initially focus on harvesting helium-3, which it can sell to government and commercial customers in the national security, quantum computing, medical imaging, and fusion energy industries, according to Interlune.

https://gizmodo.com/interlune-moon-harvesting-minerals-helium-3-blue-origin-1851340501

Just melt it with lasers, say researchers in Germany

Lindsay Clark - Thu 12 Oct 2023 15:37 UTC

Researchers in Germany's proof-of-concept study shows solar energy could be harnessed to turn lunar dust into paving for landing pads and roads.

The engineers conducted experiments using a substitute for regolith and powerful carbon dioxide lasers to melt the compound into a more solid form capable of supporting structures.

In a paper published in Nature Scientific Reports today, the authors gave a detailed breakdown of the concept. “The next steps for the expansion of the human presence in the solar system will be taken on the Moon. However, due to the low lunar gravity, the suspended dust generated when lunar rovers move across the lunar soil is a significant risk for lunar missions as it can affect the systems of the exploration vehicles. One solution to mitigate this problem is the construction of roads and landing pads on the Moon.”

The researchers then point out that to sustain Moon habitability, we can assume it might be difficult to bring road-building materials from Earth. Therefore, engineers must use what they find around them, so-called in situ resource utilization (ISRU) techniques.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/12/lunar_roads_material/

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday May 11, 2024 11:34AM

“Does a levitating robot train on the moon sound far-fetched?” asks LiveScience.

“NASA doesn't seem to think so, as the agency has just greenlit further funding for a study looking into the concept.”

The project, called “Flexible Levitation on a Track” (FLOAT), has been moved to phase two of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) , which aims to develop “science fiction-like” projects for future space exploration. The FLOAT project could result in materials being transported across the moon's surface as soon as the 2030s, according to the agency… According to NASA's initial design, FLOAT will consist of magnetic robots levitating over a three-layer film track to reduce abrasion from dust on the lunar surface. Carts will be mounted on these robots and will move at roughly 1 mph (1.61 km/h). They could transport roughly 100 tons (90 metric tons) of material a day to and from NASA's future lunar base.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/05/11/0421237/nasas-plan-to-build-a-levitating-robot-train-on-the-moon

A reexamination of post-Apollo era moonquakes suggests they weren't caused by natural processes.

Passant Rabie - 11 September 2023

Sensors placed on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission picked up a mysterious tremor, one that regularly occurred as the Sun rose to its peak position over the lunar surface. Unlike regular moonquakes that are triggered by the varying temperatures of the lunar environment, however, this one had a rather peculiar, human-made source.

During the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, astronauts placed seismometers on the lunar surface to measure moonquakes. More than 50 years later, a group of scientists reanalyzed the data collected by the last crewed mission to the Moon using new techniques such as machine learning. The reanalysis revealed a new kind of seismic activity that took place at the same time during the lunar mornings, which turned out to be coming from the Apollo 17 lunar lander.

https://gizmodo.com/moonquakes-seismology-apollo-lunar-lander-ai-1850825950

Humans just can't leave anything alone, huh

Katyanna Quach - Wed 13 Sep 2023 06:27 UTC

The leftover lunar descent module, which carried the Apollo 17 crew to the surface of the Moon in 1972, triggers tiny artificial moonquakes that rumble through Earth's natural satellite every lunar morning, according to research.

Despite having no tectonic plates or volcanic activity, the Moon is still geologically active. Its surface expands and contracts due to extreme temperature fluctuations that can range from 250 degrees Fahrenheit (~121.1°C) during the day to -208 degrees Fahrenheit (-133.3°C) at night. It's worth noting that the lunar day-night cycle equates to roughly 30 days on Earth.

These changes can cause thermal moonquakes, or measurable surface vibrations. Other events – such as meteoroids crashing, or gravitational interaction with the Earth, which can squeeze and stretch its interior – can lead to moonquakes too.

Academics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA have found a third source of lunar rumbling: the Apollo 17 lunar module itself.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/13/moonquakes_apollo_17_lander/

It's not as crazy as it sounds.

Igor Bonifacic - Updated Fri, August 15, 2025 at 8:37 AM PDT

“Duffy to announce nuclear reactor on the moon” is not a headline I imagined reading before last week. Sure, as a sci-fi loving nerd, I could see a future where nuclear power played a role in permanent Moon settlements. But the idea of NASA building a 100-kilowatt microreactor there in the next five years seemed ridiculous. Not so, according to scientists.

“I have no idea why this is getting so much play,” Professor Bhavya Lal tells me over the phone, with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Lal's response makes sense once you understand the arc of her career; she has spent much of her professional life thinking about how the US should use nuclear power to explore space. At NASA, she served as the acting chief technologist, and was awarded the agency's Distinguished Service Medal. Among her other qualifications, she also testified before Congress on the subject of nuclear propulsion, and even helped rewrite the rules governing launches involving radioactive materials.

Most recently, she wrote a paper titled Weighing the Future: Strategic Options for US Space Nuclear Leadership where she and her co-author, Dr. Roger Myers, examine the past failures of US policy as it relates to nuclear power in space and argue the country should test a small nuclear system on the Moon by 2030. The way Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society — a nonprofit that advocates for the exploration and study of space — tells it, many aspects of Secretary Duffy's plan are “pretty much straight out” of that report.

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/why-on-earth-would-nasa-build-a-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon-153741891.html

You have until Thursday August 21 to respond if you do

Richard Speed - Fri 15 Aug 2025 15:53 UTC

NASA's plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon have moved on – the agency has now put out a Request For Information (RFI) to gauge industry interest in the project.

An RFI is not an invitation to bid for the work. Interested parties need to register their interest by 21 August, and only later, there's a chance that they could be used to “finalize a potential opportunity later this year.” It comes after a directive from NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy that called for the US to be the first to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon.

Things will need to move fast if the agency is to meet the goal of being ready to launch by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.

Dubbed the Fission Surface Power System, the reactor must have a mass of less than 15 metric tons, have a minimum power output of 100 kWe, and utilize a closed Brayton cycle power conversion system.

NASA is no stranger to nuclear power. It had rovers and spacecraft powered by the technology and has looked into Brayton cycle power conversion for nuclear electric propulsion on Mars missions [PDF].

The Apollo missions used Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) to power experiments to be left on the lunar surface. These contained plutonium-238, and one returned to Earth on Apollo 13, remaining on the lunar module. The container for the plutonium is now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and no release of radiation has been detected.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/nuclear_moon/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday September 21, 2025 05:40PM

“Astronomers have spotted a quasi-moon near Earth,” reports CNN, “and the small space rock has likely been hanging out near our planet unseen by telescopes for about 60 years, according to new research.”

The newly discovered celestial object, named 2025 PN7, is a type of near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun but sticks close to our planet. Like our world, 2025 PN7 takes one year to complete an orbit around the sun…

The newly found 2025 PN7 is just one of a handful of known quasi-moons with orbits near our planet, including Kamo'oalewa, which is also thought to be an ancient lunar fragment. Kamo'oalewa is one of the destinations of China's Tianwen-2 mission launched in May, which aims to collect and return samples from the space rock in 2027. The Pan-STARRS observatory located on the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii captured observations of 2025 PN7 on August 29. Archival data revealed that the object has been in an Earth-like orbit for decades.

The quasi-moon managed to escape the notice of astronomers for so long because it is small and faint, said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a researcher on the faculty of mathematical sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid who recently authored a paper about the space rock. The paper was published on September 2 in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, which is for timely non-peer-reviewed astronomical observations. The space rock swings within 186,000 miles (299,337 kilometers) of us during its closest pass of our planet, de la Fuente Marcos said…. “It can only be detected by currently available telescopes when it gets close to our planet as it did this summer,” de la Fuente Marcos explained. “Its visibility windows are few and far between. It is a challenging object….”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/22/0034204/astronomers-discover-previously-unknown-quasi-moon-near-earth

Dubbed Light Bender, the system will employ a series of mirrors to reflect sunlight onto solar panels stationed in dark lunar environments.

Passant Rabie - 21 June 2023

As humanity looks to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, we might need a team of robots to redirect incoming sunlight to shadowed regions that would otherwise never see the light of day.

With the help of NASA, Maxar Technologies is developing a system to bounce incoming sunlight to solar panels located in the dark, thereby providing an assortment of applications with much-needed solar power, the company announced on Monday.

The system, called Light Bender, would have to be built by robots operating autonomously in the lunar environment. The receiving solar panels could be mounted onto rovers, robots, communications systems, habitats, scientific instruments, or anything else requiring power. It’s an ingenious idea—one that could provide solar power to regions or spots (such as impact craters) that would otherwise never receive sunlight.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-scheme-solar-power-moon-shadowed-regions-1850557620

It's probable that the impact object comes from a Chinese rocket launched in 2014.

Eric Berger - 2/12/2022, 6:10 PM

About three weeks ago Ars Technica first reported that astronomers were tracking the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, and were increasingly confident that it would strike the Moon on March 4.

This story set off a firestorm of media activity. Much of this coverage criticized SpaceX for failing to properly dispose of the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket after the launch of NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory mission, or DSCOVR, in 2015. The British tabloids, in particular, had a field day. Even the genteel European Space Agency tut-tutted, noting that it takes care to preserve enough fuel to put spent rocket stages into stable orbits around the Sun. Further Reading After 7 years, a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage is on course to hit the Moon

However, it turns out we were all wrong. A Falcon 9 rocket is not going to, in fact, strike the Moon next month. Instead, it's probably a Chinese rocket.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/actually-a-falcon-9-rocket-is-not-going-to-hit-the-moon/

It's a cosmic case of mistaken identity, and we can thank a NASA scientist for noticing that the Moon-bound booster wasn't from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

George Dvorsky - 14 February 2022 10:59AM

A fresh look at the available evidence suggests a Chinese booster will smash into the Moon in early March—and not a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage as was previously believed. Experts say it’s an “honest mistake” and a sign that better processes are needed to track our junk in space.

We first reported on this story in late January, as did many other media outlets. That a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster was on a collision course with the Moon attracted widespread attention, including a live webcast to capture our final view of the discarded booster. A safety expert with the European Space Agency also chimed in, saying the “upcoming Falcon 9 lunar impact illustrates well the need for a comprehensive regulatory regime in space.”

https://gizmodo.com/plot-twist-a-different-rogue-rocket-is-going-to-hit-th-1848533067

An email from NASA prompted astronomer Bill Gray to look at the data again.

Igor Bonifacic - February 13th, 2022

This past January, astronomer Bill Gray said that the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would collide with the Moon sometime in early March. As you might expect, the prediction set off a flurry of media coverage, much of it critical of Elon Musk and his private space firm. After all, the event would be a rare misstep for SpaceX.

But it turns out Elon and company are not about to lose face. Instead, it’s more likely that fate will befall China. That’s because Gray now says he made a mistake in his initial identification of a piece of space debris he and other astronomers dubbed WE0913A in 2015.

When Gray and his colleagues first spotted the object, several clues led them to believe it was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that carried the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s DSCOVR satellite into deep orbit that same year. The object’s identification would have probably gone unreported in mainstream media if astronomers didn’t subsequently discover it was about to collide with the Moon.

https://www.engadget.com/spacex-moon-rocket-bill-gray-195744394.html

China suggests it doesn't own the rocket debris poised to collide with the Moon

There's some confusion over the debris' origin.

Jon Fingas - February 22nd, 2022

Don't expect China to readily accept blame for the rocket debris expected to collide with the Moon on March 4th. SpaceNews and The Verge report Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied that the debris came from the 2014 Chang'e-5 T1 Moon mission. The upper stage of that rocket burned up “completely” in Earth's atmosphere, Wang said. He maintained that China's aerospace efforts were always in line with international laws, and that the country was determined to protect the “long-term sustainability” of outer space.

It's not clear China has the right rocket in mind, however. Astronomer Bill Gray, who pinned the expected collision on the Chang'e-5 T1 mission (after initially blaming SpaceX), believes Wang may have confused that with the 2020 Chang'e 5 mission. A US Space Force squadron claimed the T1 upper stage burned up in October 2015, but Gray noted that the squadron offered only one trajectory update for that rocket. The burn-up may have been assumed, not confirmed. NASA's JPL also believes the T1 booster is involved.

https://www.engadget.com/china-denies-rocket-debris-on-moon-collision-course-205934462.html

By MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press - March 2, 2022 3:24 PM PT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater big enough to fit several semitractor-trailers.

The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of the moon Friday while traveling at 5,800 miles per hour. The impact will occur away from telescopes’ prying eyes, and it may take weeks — even months — to confirm it through satellite images.

Experts say the rocket has been tumbling haphazardly through space since China launched it nearly a decade ago. But Chinese officials are dubious it’s theirs.

No matter whose it is, scientists expect the object to carve out a hole 33 feet to 66 feet across and send moon dust flying hundreds of miles across the barren, pockmarked surface.

Low-orbiting space junk is relatively easy to track. Objects launching deeper into space are unlikely to hit anything and these far-flung pieces are usually forgotten, except by a handful of observers who enjoy playing celestial detective on the side.

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-03-02/space-junk-on-a-5-800-mph-collision-course-with-moon-on-friday

Posted by msmash on Friday March 04, 2022 11:22AM

After years of zooming through deep space, a presumed leftover piece of a Chinese rocket slammed into the Moon today, just as space tracking experts expected it would. From a report:

At least, it should have hit the Moon around 7:30AM ET this morning, as long as the law of gravity has not changed. The collision brings an end to the rocket's life in space and likely leaves a fresh new crater on the Moon that may be up to 65 feet wide. The now-expired rocket has caused quite a buzz this past month. First of all, the vehicle was never intended to crash into the Moon, making it a rare piece of space debris to find its way to the lunar surface by accident. Additionally, there was some confusion over its identity, with various groups trying to nail down exactly where the rocket came from.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/03/04/1839225/after-mistaken-identity-and-confusion-a-piece-of-space-junk-slams-into-the-moon

An unidentified object hit the lunar surface earlier this year, forming a perplexing double crater.

George Dvorsky - 24 June 2022 10:32AM

Observations made by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have allowed scientists to identify the spot where a mystery object—likely a discarded rocket body—smashed into the Moon several months ago.

The crash site is located near Hertzsprung Crater on the far side of the Moon, which is exactly where astronomers thought it might be. Before-and-after images gathered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) allowed scientists to spot two newly formed craters generated by the impact, which happened on March 4, according to a NASA press release. That two craters were formed from an apparent single object is now a question in need of an answer.

https://gizmodo.com/moon-crash-site-double-crater-nasa-1849104489

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday June 25, 2022 12:00AM

The grave of a rocket body that slammed into the moon more than three months ago has been found. Space.com reports:

Early this year, astronomers determined that a mysterious rocket body was on course to crash into the lunar surface on March 4. Their calculations suggested that the impact would occur inside Hertzsprung Crater, a 354-mile-wide (570 kilometers) feature on the far side of the moon. Their math was on the money, it turns out. Researchers with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission announced last night (June 23) that the spacecraft had spotted a new crater in Hertzsprung – almost certainly the resting place of the rogue rocket.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/06/24/2220231/rogue-rockets-moon-crash-site-spotted-by-nasa-probe

NASA probe reveals strange hole created by suspected Chinese junk

Katyanna Quach - Sat 25 Jun 2022 02:33 UTC

When space junk crashed into the Moon earlier this year, it made not one but two craters on the lunar surface, judging from images revealed by NASA on Friday.

Astronomers predicted a mysterious object would hit the Moon on March 4 after tracking the debris for months. The object was large, and believed to be a spent rocket booster from the Chinese National Space Administration's Long March 3C vehicle that launched the Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft in 2014.

The details are fuzzy. Space agencies tend to monitor junk closer to home, and don't really keep an eye on what might be littering other planetary objects. It was difficult to confirm the nature of the crash; experts reckoned it would probably leave behind a crater. Now, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has spied telltale signs of an impact at the surface. Pictures taken by the probe reveal an odd hole shaped like a peanut shell on the surface of the Moon, presumably caused by the Chinese junk.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/25/chinese_rocket_moon_crash_pic/

Posted by msmash on Friday July 01, 2022 07:40AM from the closer-look dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report:

The short version of this story is that skywatchers led by Bill Gray had been tracking an object for months that, based on their calculations, would soon impact the moon. It was obviously a piece of rocket trash (rockets produce a ton of trash), but no one stepped up to say “yes, that's ours, sorry about that.” Based on their observations and discussions, these self-appointed (though by no means lacking in expertise) object trackers determined that it was likely a piece of a SpaceX launch vehicle from 2015. But SpaceX didn't cop to it, and after a while Gray and others, including NASA, decided it was more likely to be the 2014 Chang'e 5-T1 launch out of China. China denied this is the case, saying the launch vehicle in question burned up on reentry.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/07/01/1430200/whose-rocket-hit-the-moon

The Moon still has much to tell us about the early solar system. Encouragingly, it also has scientific value as a platform for observational astronomy.

Ian Crawford, The Conversation - 19 April 2023

Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organised by multiple space agencies—and increasingly by commercial companies—are set to visit the Moon by the end of this decade. Most of these will involve small robotic spacecraft, but NASA’s ambitious Artemis program, aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade.

There are various reasons for all this activity, including geopolitical posturing and the search for lunar resources, such as water-ice at the lunar poles, which can be extracted and turned into hydrogen and oxygen propellant for rockets. However, science is also sure to be a major beneficiary.

https://gizmodo.com/telescopes-moon-achievable-goal-astronomy-1850352064

Published: April 18, 2023 12.12pm EDT - Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology, Birkbeck, University of London, Honorary Associate Professor, UCL

Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organised by multiple space agencies – and increasingly by commercial companies – are set to visit the Moon by the end of this decade. Most of these will involve small robotic spacecraft, but NASA’s ambitious Artemis programme, aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade.

There are various reasons for all this activity, including geopolitical posturing and the search for lunar resources, such as water-ice at the lunar poles, which can be extracted and turned into hydrogen and oxygen propellant for rockets. However, science is also sure to be a major beneficiary.

https://theconversation.com/building-telescopes-on-the-moon-could-transform-astronomy-and-its-becoming-an-achievable-goal-203308

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday August 07, 2024 03:00AM

Chinese scientists discovered water molecules in lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e 5 moon probe, marking the first time whole H2O molecules were found in lunar material. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy. Smithsonian Magazine reports:

The team used X-ray diffraction to analyze the grains of moon soil, in which they found a lunar mineral dubbed ULM-1 whose mass is made up of more than 40 percent water and also includes ammonia. “This is a new form of water stored on the moon,” Xiaolong Chen, co-author of the study and physics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, tells New Scientist's Alex Wilkins.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/07/0041230/scientists-find-water-molecules-in-lunar-rock-sample-for-the-first-time

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday April 26, 2025 03:34PM

“Future moon astronauts may find water more accessible than previously thought,” writes Space.com, citing a new NASA-led experiment:

Because the moon lacks a magnetic field like Earth's, the barren lunar surface is constantly bombarded by energetic particles from the sun… Li Hsia Yeo, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, led a lab experiment observing the effects of simulated solar wind on two samples of loose regolith brought to Earth by the Apollo 17 mission… To mimic conditions on the moon, the researchers built a custom apparatus that included a vacuum chamber, where the samples were placed, and a tiny particle accelerator, which the scientists used to bombard the samples with hydrogen ions for several days.

“The exciting thing here is that with only lunar soil and a basic ingredient from the sun — which is always spitting out hydrogen — there's a possibility of creating water,” Yeo said in a statement. “That's incredible to think about.” Supporting this idea, observations from previous moon missions have revealed an abundance of hydrogen gas in the moon's tenuous atmosphere. Scientists suspect that solar-wind-driven heating facilitates the combination of hydrogen atoms on the surface into hydrogen gas, which then escapes into space. This process also has a surprising upside, the new study suggests. Leftover oxygen atoms are free to bond with new hydrogen atoms formed by repeated bombardment of the solar wind, prepping the moon for more water formation on a renewable basis.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/26/2217249/can-solar-wind-make-water-on-the-moon-a-nasa-experiment-shows-maybe

Webb Telescope spotted objects that are roughly the size of Jupiter—but they don’t orbit any parent star.

Isaac Schultz - 3 October 2023

A team of astronomers have detected over 500 planet-like objects in the inner Orion Nebula and the Trapezium Cluster that they believe could shake up the very definition of a planet.

The 4-light-year-wide Trapezium Cluster sits at the heart of the Orion Nebula, or Messier 42, about 1,400 light-years from Earth. The cluster is filled with young stars, which make their surrounding gas and dust glow with infrared light.

The Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) observed the nebula at short and long wavelengths for nearly 35 hours between September 26, 2022, and October 2, 2022, giving researchers a remarkably sharp look at relatively small (meaning Jupiter-sized and smaller) isolated objects in the nebula. These NIRCam images are some of the largest mosaics from the telescope to date, according to a European Space Agency release. Though they cannot be hosted in all their resolved glory on this site, you can check them out on the ESASky application.

https://gizmodo.com/quasi-planets-called-jumbos-are-bopping-around-in-space-1850896708

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 06, 2024 02:45PM

Long-time Slashdot readers necro81 writes:

The popular vision of Neptune is azure blue. This comes mostly from the publicly released images from Voyager 2's flyby in 1989 — humanity's only visit to this icy giant at the edge of the solar system. But it turns out that view is a bit distorted — the result of color-enhancing choices made by NASA at the time. A new report from Oxford depicts Neptune's blue color as more muted, with a touch of green, not much different than Uranus. The truer-to-life view comes from re-analyzing the Voyager data, combined with ground-based observations going back decades. (Add'l links here, here, and here.)

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/06/2022236/neptune-is-much-less-blue-than-depictions

The planet may have formed from material transferred between the stars.

John Timmer – May 22, 2025 11:24 AM

While our Sun prefers to go solo, many other stars are parts of binary systems, with a pair of stars gravitationally bound to each other. In some cases, the stars are far enough apart that planets can form around each of them. But there are also plenty of tight binary systems, where the stars orbit each other at a radius that would place them both comfortably inside our Solar System. In these systems, exoplanets tend to be found at greater distances, in orbits that have them circling both stars.

On Wednesday, scientists described a system that seems to be neither of the above. It is a tight binary system, with a heavy central star that's orbited by a white dwarf at a distance two to three times larger than Earth's orbit. The lone planet confirmed to be in the system is squeezed in between the two, orbiting at a distance similar to Earth's distance from the Sun. And, as an added bonus, the planet is orbiting backward relative to the white dwarf.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/05/planet-found-orbiting-backward-between-two-stars/

Posted by BeauHD on Friday May 23, 2025 12:00AM

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a bizarre planet in the Nu Octantis binary star system that orbits in reverse between two stars – one of which is now a white dwarf. This retrograde orbit, once thought impossible, defies traditional planetary formation models and may have resulted from dramatic shifts in the system's history. New Scientist reports:

The key observation was that the Nu Octantis planet is retrograde – the planet and one star both orbit the second star, but they do so in opposite directions, with the planet having the tighter orbit around the second star. [Man Hoi Lee at the University of Hong Kong] says this is unusual but makes the system's configuration stable – even though it means that the planet repeatedly moves through the narrow space between the two stars. His team was able to determine this with lots of certainty thanks to improved measuring devices, such as the HARPS spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile. The fact that the planet's signal persisted through years of observation helped too. “We are pretty sure [the planet] is real, because if it was something like stellar activity, it shouldn't be so consistent in years of data,” says Lee.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/23/006244/weird-planet-is-orbiting-backwards-between-two-stars

The surprisingly large world has a massive orbit—about 838 times Earth’s distance from the Sun.

Isaac Schultz - May 22, 2025

There’s a new frozen oddball orbiting the Sun, and it’s not your average space rock. It’s a planet—a minor one, to be fair—but one of the largest yet discovered and with an orbit around the Sun that puts our own planet’s orbit to shame.

The minor world is dubbed 2017 OF201; the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center added the object to its catalog on May 21. Despite its classification, the planet measures somewhere between 290 and 510 miles (470 and 820 kilometers) across. Its upper size limit would put the minor planet in the same wheelhouse as Ceres, the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, boasting a diameter of about 592 miles (952 km).

The team of astronomers—led by Sihao Cheng, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study—first spotted 2017 OF201 in archival images, but only now is the object officially recognized as a trans-Neptunian object, or TNO. TNOs are bodies in the solar system that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune, which is 30 times more distant from the Sun than the Earth. A preprint describing the discovery is hosted on the preprint server arXiv.

https://gizmodo.com/new-minor-planet-spotted-past-pluto-one-of-the-largest-distant-objects-in-the-solar-system-2000605924

February 17, 2024 - Laurence Tognetti

A recently submitted study to The Astronomical Journal continues to search for the elusive Planet Nine (also called Planet X), which is a hypothetical planet that potentially orbits in the outer reaches of the solar system and well beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet, Pluto. The goal of this study was to narrow down the possible locations of Planet Nine and holds the potential to help researchers better understand the makeup of our solar system, along with its formation and evolutionary processes. So, what was the motivation behind this study regarding narrowing down the location of a potential Planet Nine?

https://www.universetoday.com/165774/theres-one-last-place-planet-9-could-be-hiding/

New findings represent the ‘strongest statistical evidence yet’ that Planet 9 exists, researcher says

Andrew Griffin - 18 April 2024

Scientists say they have found new evidence that there is a hidden planet in our solar system.

For years, some astronomers have been suggesting that unusual behaviour on the edge of our solar system is best explained by another, undiscovered planet. That helps explain the orbits of objects that lie at the very far reaches of our solar system, more than 250 times away from the Sun than we are.

Now Konstantin Bogytin, an astronomer who helped popularise the theory, says that he and his team have found yet more evidence that suggests that planet exists. The new work represents “the strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is really out there”, he said.

In the new work, scientists looked at a set of trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, which is the technical term for those objects that sit out at the edge of the solar system, beyond Neptune

The new work looked at those objects that have their movement made unstable because they interact with the orbit of Neptune. That instability meant they were harder to understand, so typically astronomers looking at a possible Planet Nine have avoided using them in their analysis.

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/planet-9-nine-solar-system-b2530985.html

Bob Yirka , Phys.org - April 23, 2024

A small team of planetary scientists from the California Institute of Technology, Université Côte d'Azur and Southwest Research Institute reports possible new evidence of Planet 9. They have published their paper on the arXiv preprint server, and it has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

In 2015, a pair of astronomers at Caltech found several objects bunched together beyond Neptune's orbit, near the edge of the solar system. The bunching, they theorized, was due to the pull of gravity from an unknown planet—one that later came to be called Planet 9.

Since that time, researchers have found more evidence of the planet, all of it circumstantial. In this new paper, the research team reports what they describe as additional evidence supporting the existence of the planet.

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-evidence-planet.html

Using two infrared space telescopes and a 23-year gap, scientists may have spotted a mysterious, slow-moving object beyond Neptune.

Isaac Schultz - April 30, 2025

A team of astronomers says it has identified a single, slow-moving infrared object that checks all the right boxes for it being the long-theorized ninth planet lurking beyond Neptune.

The hunt for Planet Nine—the solar system’s ghostly gravitational troll—is longstanding, and is based on the peculiar clustering of rocky bodies in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune. This clustering suggests the presence of some faint, massive object. But the team behind the new study took a new approach to the search: investigating infrared data that’s been collecting dust for decades.

The research, posted this month to the preprint server arXiv and set to publish in the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, comes from a group of scientists in Taiwan, Japan, and Australia. The group pored over archival data from two infrared space telescopes, NASA’s IRAS mission from 1983, and Japan’s AKARI satellite from 2006 to 2007. Their goal: find any object that’s cold, faint, and slow enough to be Planet Nine.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-found-a-planet-nine-candidate-but-its-in-the-wrong-place-2000596416

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday May 03, 2025 12:00AM

Astronomers may have found the best candidate yet for the elusive Planet Nine: a mysterious object in infrared sky surveys taken 23 years apart that appears to be more massive than Neptune and about 700 times farther from the sun than Earth. Space.com reports:

[A] team led by astronomer Terry Long Phan of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan has delved into the archives of two far-infrared all-sky surveys in search of Planet Nine – and incredibly, they have found something that could possibly be Planet Nine. The Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS, launched in 1983 and surveyed the universe for almost a year before being decommissioned. Then, in 2006, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched AKARI, another infrared astronomy satellite that was active between 2006 and 2011. Phan's team were looking for objects that appeared in IRAS's database, then appeared to have moved by the time AKARI took a look. The amount of movement on the sky would be tiny – about three arcminutes per year at a distance of approximately 700 astronomical units (AU). One arcminute is 1/60 of an angular degree.

But there's an extra motion that Phan's team had to account for. As the Earth orbits the sun, our view of the position of very distant objects changes slightly in an effect called parallax. It is the same phenomenon as when you hold your index finger up to your face, close one eye and look at your finger, and then switch eyes – your finger appears to move as a result of you looking at it from a slightly different position. Planet Nine would appear to move on the sky because of parallax as Earth moves around the sun. On any particular day, it might seem to be in one position, then six months later when Earth is on the other side of the sun, it would shift to another position, perhaps by 10 to 15 arcminutes – then, six months after that, it would seem to shift back to its original position. To remove the effects of parallax, Phan's team searched for Planet Nine on the same date every year in the AKARI data, because on any given date it would appear in the same place, with zero parallax shift, every year. They then also scrutinized each candidate object that their search threw up on an hourly basis. If a candidate is a fast-moving, nearby object, then its motion would be detectable from hour to hour, and could therefore be ruled out. This careful search led Phan's team to a single object, a tiny dot in the infrared data.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/03/0118242/evidence-of-controversial-planet-9-uncovered-in-sky-surveys-taken-23-years-apart

Paul Gilster - May 6, 2025

It was Robert Browning who said “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” A rousing thought, but we don’t always know where we should reach. In terms of space exploration, a distant but feasible target is the solar gravitational lens distance beginning around 550 AU. So far the SGL definitely exceeds our grasp, but solid work in mission design by Slava Turyshev and team is ongoing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Targets need to tantalize, and maybe a target that we hadn’t previously considered is now emerging. Planet Nine, the hypothesized world that may lurk somewhere in our Solar System’s outer reaches, would be such an extraordinary discovery that it would tempt future mission designers in the same way.

This is interesting because right now our deep space targets need to be well defined. I love the idea of Interstellar Probe, the craft designed at JHU/APL, but it’s hard to excite the public with the idea of looking back at the heliosphere from the outside (although the science return would be fabulous). Pluto was hard enough to sell to the powers that be, but Allen Stern and team got the job done because they had a whole world that had never been seen up close. Will Planet Nine, if found, turn out to be the destination that some budget-strapped team finds a way to explore?

We have a lot to learn about planetary demographics given that our planet-finding technologies work best for larger worlds closer in to their stars. But a recent microlensing study suggests that as many as one out of every three stars in our galaxy should host a super-Earth in a Jupiter-like orbit (citation below). Microlensing is helpful because it can reveal planets at large distances from their parent stars. Super-Earths appear to be abundant. If it exists, Planet Nine isn’t in a Jovian orbit, but it’s probably smaller than Neptune.

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/05/06/is-planet-nine-alone-in-the-outer-system/

Named Ammonite, the distant object casts doubt on the existence of the elusive Planet Nine.

Passant Rabie - July 16, 2025

Astronomers in Japan have spotted a distant object orbiting the Sun far beyond Neptune, pointing to an extraordinary event that took place during the earliest years of the solar system.

Astronomers used the Subaru Telescope, perched atop a dormant volcano in Hawaii, to make the discovery. They observed a small object orbiting at a farthest distance of 252 AU from the Sun, in which one astronomical unit equals the average distance between the Sun and Earth. Scientists gave it the formal designation 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed it Ammonite, after an extinct group of marine animals—a nod to its status as an extreme relic of the early solar system.

For reference, Pluto’s average distance from the Sun is about 40 AU, so 2023 KQ14 is quite distant. At 23.4 billion miles (37.7 billion kilometers) away, light reflecting off Ammonite takes approximately 34 hours to reach Earth.

The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy on Tuesday, marks the fourth detection of a “Sednoid.” This group of distant, trans-Neptunian objects have extremely elongated orbits that stretch past the Kuiper Belt. Unlike other objects that orbit the Sun past Neptune, Sednoids are detached from the giant planet, meaning they are not influenced by its gravitational field. Astronomers discovered the first Sednoid, named Sedna, in 2003.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-discover-potential-dwarf-planet-lurking-way-beyond-pluto-2000630151

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 20, 2025 06:44PM

“The distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious,” writes ScienceAlert. “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.”

And now thanks to the giant 8.2-meter Subaru telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatory, astronomers have discovered “a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto,” reports Space.com.

The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if “Planet Nine” exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether.

The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed “Ammonite,” classifies it as a “sednoid.” Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or “perihelion.” The closest distance that 2023 KQ14 ever comes to our star is equivalent to 71 times the distance between Earth and the sun… This is just the fourth known sednoid, and its orbit is currently different from that of its siblings, though it seems to have been stable for 4.5 billion years.

However, the team behind the discovery, made using Subaru Telescope as part of the Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy (FOSSIL) survey, thinks that all four sednoids were on similar orbits around 4.2 billion years ago. That implies something dramatic happened out at the edge of the solar system around 400 million years after its birth. Not only does the fact that 2023 KQ14 now follows a unique orbit suggest that the outer solar system is more complex and varied than previously thought, but it also places limits on a hypothetical “Planet Nine” theorized to lurk at the edge of the solar system.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/21/0120233/fossil-discovered-beyond-pluto-implies-something-dramatic-happened-400m-years-ago

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday September 05, 2024 12:00AM

“Earth.com has an interesting article about the temporary “disappearance” of Saturn's rings in about six months,” writes longtime Slashdot reader YVRGeek. From the report:

Come March 2025, Saturn's majestic rings will become virtually invisible to earth-based observers. This phenomenon occurs due to the unique tilt of Saturn's axis, which will position the rings edge-on to our line of sight. […] Saturn's axial tilt, which is the angle its axis leans compared to its orbit around the Sun, is about 27 degrees. As Saturn moves during its 29.5 year orbit around the Sun, this tilt means different parts of its rings and moons get sunlight at different angles, changing how they look. So, the rings are not really disappearing but rather playing a celestial game of hide and seek. At their reappearance, we can also enjoy an accentuated view of Saturn's moons.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/05/0132246/saturns-rings-will-vanish-temporarily-in-six-months

Jeff Renaud, University of Western Ontario - February 14, 2024

A study led by Western astrobiologist Catherine Neish shows the subsurface ocean of Titan—the largest moon of Saturn—is most likely a non-habitable environment, meaning any hope of finding life in the icy world is dead in the water.

This discovery means it is far less likely that space scientists and astronauts will ever find life in the outer solar system, home to the four 'giant' planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

“Unfortunately, we will now need to be a little less optimistic when searching for extraterrestrial lifeforms within our own solar system,” said Neish, an Earth sciences professor. “The scientific community has been very excited about finding life in the icy worlds of the outer solar system, and this finding suggests that it may be less likely than we previously assumed.”

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-saturn-largest-moon-uninhabitable.html

Dragonfly will push the boundaries of engineering and science as it explores Titan.

Stephen Clark - 4/22/2024, 12:53 PM

NASA has formally approved the robotic Dragonfly mission for full development, committing to a revolutionary project to explore Saturn's largest moon with a quadcopter drone.

Agency officials announced the outcome of Dragonfly's confirmation review last week. This review is a checkpoint in the lifetime of most NASA projects and marks the moment when the agency formally commits to the final design, construction, and launch of a space mission. The outcome of each mission's confirmation review typically establishes a budgetary and schedule commitment.

“Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission,“ said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate. “Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.”

In the case of Dragonfly, NASA confirmed the mission with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date of July 2028. That is roughly twice the mission's original proposed cost and a delay of more than two years from when the mission was originally selected in 2019, according to NASA.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/04/nasa-officially-greenlights-3-35-billion-mission-to-saturns-moon-titan/

Sedna will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2076, giving us a rare opportunity to visit the planetoid before it drifts off for thousands of years.

Passant Rabie - July 1, 2025

On November 14, 2003, astronomers spotted what was at the time the most distant known object orbiting the Sun. They called it Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It’s a cold, reddish dwarf planet that drifts billions of miles away from the Sun during its 10,000-year orbit before coming in for a relatively close approach to our star. Its next perihelion is happening in July 2076, and astronomers want to take advantage of this rare encounter by flying a mission to the mysterious object.

A team of researchers from Italy suggests mission concepts that could reach Sedna in seven to 10 years using cutting-edge technology. In a paper available on the pre-print website arXiv, they illustrate two experimental propulsion concepts that involve a nuclear fusion rocket engine and a new take on solar sailing technology. The propulsion technologies could cut down travel time to Sedna by more than 50% compared to traditional methods of space travel, allowing scientists a unique opportunity to gather clues about the early formation of the solar system and probe the theoretical Oort Cloud.

https://gizmodo.com/experimental-propulsion-tech-could-reach-mysterious-planet-beyond-pluto-in-10-years-2000622774

November 1, 2023

In the 1980s, geophysicists made a startling discovery: Two continent-sized blobs of unusual material were found deep near the center of the Earth, one beneath the African continent and one beneath the Pacific Ocean.

Each blob is twice the size of the moon, and research over the last decade has shown that they are likely composed of different proportions of elements than the mantle surrounding it. An artistic illustration about Theia impacting the proto-Earth. Artwork by Hernan Canellas/image courtesy of ASU Download Full Image

Where did these strange blobs — formally known as large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs) — come from? A new study suggests that they are remnants of an ancient planet that violently collided with Earth billions of years ago, in the same giant impact that created our moon.

An interdisciplinary team including Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration scientists, was led by ASU alumnus Qian Yuan, currently an O.K. Earl Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech.The study, published in the journal Nature on Nov. 1, also proposes a solution for another planetary science mystery.

https://news.asu.edu/20231101-asu-researchers-discover-earths-blobs-are-remnants-ancient-planetary-collision

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday November 05, 2023 04:53PM

“Slabs of material from an ancient extraterrestrial planet are hidden deep within the Earth,” argues a new scientific theory (as described by CNN).

“Scientists widely agree that an ancient planet likely smashed into Earth as it was forming billions of years ago, spewing debris that coalesced into the moon that decorates our night sky today.” But then whatever happened to that planet? No leftover fragments from a hypothetical planet “Theia” have ever been found in our solar system.

But the new theory “suggests that remnants of the ancient planet remain partially intact, buried beneath our feet.”

If the theory is correct, it would not only provide additional details to fill out the giant-impact hypothesis but also answer a lingering question for geophysicists. They were already aware that there are two massive, distinct blobs that are embedded deep within the Earth. The masses — called large low-velocity provinces, or LLVPs — were first detected in the 1980s. One lies beneath Africa and another below the Pacific Ocean.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/11/06/0049251/scientists-think-theyve-found-blobs-from-planet-that-collided-with-earth-to-form-the-moon

Can we fix it back?

Tim Newcomb - Jul 26, 2025 7:30 AM EDT

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• When humans pump groundwater, it has a substantial impact on the tilt of Earth’s rotation.
• Additionally, a study documents just how much of an influence groundwater pumping has on climate change.
• Understanding this relatively recent data may provide a better understanding of how to help stave off sea-level rise.

Water has power. So much power, in fact, that pumping Earth’s groundwater can change the planet’s tilt and rotation. It can also impact sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change.

Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to .24 inches of sea level rise.

“Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University and study lead, says in a statement. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a65515974/why-earth-has-tilted-science/

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday September 14, 2025 @07:34AM from the twinkle-twinkle-little-earth dept. One of the worlds in the TRAPPIST-1 system, a mere 40 light-years away, just might be clad in a life-supporting atmosphere,” reports ScienceAlert.

“In exciting new JWST observations, the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e shows hints of a gaseous envelope similar to our own, one that could facilitate liquid water on the surface.”

Although the detection is ambiguous and needs extensive follow-up to find out what the deal is, it's the closest astronomers have come yet in their quest to find a second Earth… [T]he first step is finding exoplanets that are the right distance from their host star, occupying a zone where water neither freezes under extreme cold nor evaporates under extreme heat. Announced in 2016, the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system was immediately exciting for this reason. The red dwarf star hosts seven exoplanets that have a rocky composition (as opposed to gas or ice giants), several of which are bang in the star's habitable, liquid water zone…

Red dwarf stars are also much more active than Sun-like stars, rampant with flare activity that, scientists have speculated, may have stripped any planetary atmospheres in the vicinity. Closer inspections of TRAPPIST-1d, one of the other worlds in the star's habitable zone, have turned up no trace of an atmosphere. But TRAPPIST-1e is a little more comfortably located, at a slightly greater distance from the star… [T]he spectrum is consistent with an atmosphere rich in molecular nitrogen, with trace amounts of carbon dioxide and methane.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/13/0553219/most-earth-like-planet-yet-may-have-been-found-just-40-light-years-away

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday April 09, 2023 08:34AM

“The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new stunning image of ice giant Uranus, with almost all its faint dusty rings on display,” reports CNN:

The image is representative of the telescope's significant sensitivity, NASA said, as the fainter rings have only been captured previously by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii. Uranus has 13 known rings, with 11 of them visible in the new Webb image. Nine rings are classified as the main rings, while the other two are harder to capture due to their dusty makeup and were not discovered until the Voyager 2 mission's flyby in 1986.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/04/09/0418211/see-uranus-rings-in-stunning-new-image-from-the-webb-telescope

The latest portrait of Uranus showcases its rarely seen rings and moons.

Isaac Schultz - 18 December 2023

Yes, that’s Uranus. The giant icy orb looks more like an agatized dinosaur egg than a planet in this new image by the Webb Space Telescope.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, still holds plenty of secrets. We know it’s an ice giant, thought to be mostly (80% or more) icy water, ammonia, and methane surrounding a rocky core, and that it has skies rich with hydrogen sulfide. It also has a ring system, one that’s far less familiar to us than the circles around Saturn.

Though Uranus’ rings were imaged before—by Hubble in November 2014 and November 2022 and by Webb in April, the new, gorgeous image adds some detail. For one, this Webb image—taken by the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam)—captures the planet’s faint Zeta ring, the ring closest to the planet.

https://gizmodo.com/uranus-image-webb-telescope-rings-moons-1851107986

The icy moon Miranda is the latest satellite in our solar system to spark hope in the search for life beyond Earth.

Isaac Schultz - October 30, 2024

The Uranian moon Miranda may contain a liquid water ocean, according to a team of researchers that recently mapped the satellite’s surface and modeled tidal stress on it.

The team published its study earlier this month in The Planetary Science Journal, suggesting the “plausible existence” of an ocean at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) thick on Miranda within the past 100 to 500 million years. Though the researchers don’t think such a deep water body is still present, liquid water may remain under the moon’s surface, as one researcher told the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. If Miranda had frozen completely, the team believes there would be certain cracks on the moon’s surface—evidence of the frozen ocean’s expansion within. No such cracks are present, based on the researchers’ review of the available imagery.

“To find evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising,” said Tom Nordheim, a planetary scientist at the laboratory and co-author of the recent paper, in a lab release. “It helps build on the story that some of these moons at Uranus may be really interesting—that there may be several ocean worlds around one of the most distant planets in our solar system, which is both exciting and bizarre,” Nordheim added.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-found-something-cold-and-wet-near-uranus-2000518316

The icy planet is spinning more slowly than we thought.

Adam Kovac - April 8, 2025

Decades of data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope has given an international team of astronomers fresh insight into what’s going on with Uranus. A new analysis, published in Nature Astronomy, calculates the spin of one of our solar system’s most understudied planets with unprecedented precision.

A human-made object has visited the seventh planet from the Sun just once. On January 24, 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft conducted a flyby, gathering some of the most comprehensive data scientists have had access to when it comes to Earth’s distant neighbor. That included some oddities, such as the fact that Uranus’ magnetic field was both highly tilted and offset. By comparing measurements of that field, astronomers were able to estimate the planet’s rotation at 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 24 seconds.

https://gizmodo.com/a-long-held-assumption-about-uranus-just-got-upended-2000586293

The discovery challenges findings made by Voyager 2, which collected data suggesting Uranus, unlike other giant planets in the solar system, didn’t have an internal heat source.

Gayoung Lee - July 15, 2025

When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, the spacecraft detected a surprisingly low level of internal heat from the planet. Since then, scientists believed Uranus to be the odd one out in our solar system’s family of giant planets—the others being Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune—who all tend to emit more heat than they absorb from sunlight.

Now, a new study suggests that scientists may have had the wrong idea about Voyager 2’s data: Uranus does have an internal heat source similar to its planetary siblings. For the study, published Monday in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers analyzed decades of archival data available on the ice giant, finding that Uranus emits 12.5% more internal heat than it absorbs from the Sun.

That’s still considerably less heat than the other three giant planets, which emit more than 100% of the solar energy they receive. Nevertheless, the study demonstrates that Uranus doesn’t stray too far from scientists’ general understanding of how giant planets form and evolve.

https://gizmodo.com/uranus-leaks-more-heat-than-we-thought-2000629628

Our planetary neighbor Venus becomes a brilliant beacon in the sky each time it reaches its greatest orbital distance from the sun

Phil Plait - June 2, 2023

Why Venus Is So Bright Right Now

If you’ve ventured outside after sunset recently and happened to glance to the west, you may have noticed an astonishingly bright “star” glaring down on you, seemingly hovering in the sky. Is it a helicopter, a supernova, a—gasp—UFO?

Nope. That’s Venus, the second rock from the sun, Earth’s evil twin and frequent UFO impersonator.

If you haven’t seen the planet before, right now is the best time to take a gander. It’s not hard to spot: go out when the sky is getting dark and look west and then up. Venus is incredibly bright, shockingly so, which is why it’s commonly mistaken for a UFO. I get e-mails pretty often from slightly panicked people about it. They can’t believe it’s real.

It’s not only real, it’s a whole planet, and it orbits the sun closer than Earth does. Venus is 110 million kilometers from the sun, compared with our 150 million km. It moves faster around our home star, too, so its year is shorter than ours, lasting only about 225 Earth days.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-venus-is-so-bright-right-now/

Venus likely started off with the same amount of water as Earth, but today the hellish world has 100,000 times less water than its sister planet.

Passant Rabie - 7 May 2024

Around 4.5 billion years ago, Earth and Venus were born in the midst of a chaotic star system. With the neighboring worlds being of the same size and similar structure, it’s believed that both planets likely began with similar amounts of water. Today, however, Venus is a hellish world with intense heat and crushing pressure, and most of its water is gone.

Scientists aren’t sure how it became an intense desert-like planet, but new research suggests the culprit may be a particular type of molecule escaping to space and draining Venus of the last of its water.

A group of planetary scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder probed the chemical reactions that take place in Venus’ atmosphere using computer models and found that a molecule called HCO+ (an ion made up of one atom each of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen) is likely responsible for Venus’ arid conditions. The findings were published this week in the journal Nature.

https://gizmodo.com/how-water-escaped-venus-1851461728

A team of scientists has investigated how Earth’s twin became so inhospitable, and whether the same will happen to our planet.

Robin George Andrews - September 15, 2025

Venus is arguably the worst place in the solar system. A cloak of carbon dioxide suffocates the planet, subjecting its surface to skull-crushing pressure. Sulfuric acid rains down through the sickly yellow sky but never reaches the lava-licked ground. Venus is so hot — hot enough to melt lead — that the acid rain evaporates as it’s falling.

The planet’s extreme inhospitality is at the heart of one of the most beguiling mysteries in planetary science. Venus and Earth formed at the same time, from the same geologic building blocks, in pretty much the same part of the solar system. They’re even the same size. So why is Venus a hellscape, and Earth a garden?

A common refrain in the scientific community is that Venus is just several steps ahead — that it represents the end state of all large rocky planets, including Earth. The hypothesis is that these planets eventually lose the ability to sequester planet-warming greenhouse gases in their geologic underbelly. When those gases then accumulate in the atmosphere, the world enters a runaway greenhouse state — like the boiling hot Venusian climate. “Over the years, we’d always heard about Venus being a preview into Earth’s future,” said Stephen Kane (opens a new tab), a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-venus-hell-and-earth-an-eden-20250915/

A new study suggests the planet’s iconic domes owe their strange shape to both thick lava and a flexible surface.

Isaac Schultz - May 29, 2025

Venus is home to some of the weirdest volcanoes in the solar system—massive, flattened domes that look like planetary pancakes left to cool on the world’s blistering surface. Scientists have long suspected these “pancake domes” formed from thick, slow-moving lava. But a new study suggests that Venus’ bendy crust may be crucial to the formation of the circular mounts.

The research, published earlier this month in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, focused on one particularly enormous dome, Narina Tholus, which stretches nearly 90 miles (145 kilometers) across.

Using old radar data from NASA’s 1990s Magellan mission, researchers built a virtual model of the dome and tested what kind of lava—and what kind of crust—could produce such a geological flapjack.

Turns out, lava alone doesn’t explain the domes’ strange shape. “Our models show that flexure influences dome shape,” the researchers wrote, “in the presence of more flexure, dome tops become flatter and sides steeper.”

https://gizmodo.com/the-strange-secret-behind-venus-pancake-volcanoes-2000608733

Scientists rallied to save the mission when the space agency indefinitely delayed its 2027 launch.

Passant Rabie - 14 March 2024

A long overdue mission to Venus is finally back on track after being put on hold due to budgeting and staffing issues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

VERITAS, Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy, made its way back onto NASA’s budget and is on schedule to launch in 2031, according to mission team members. The mission was originally slated for launch in 2027, but NASA’s plan to send a spacecraft to Venus was derailed when the space agency cut funds to VERITAS in its budget request for 2024.

This week, the release of NASA’s final budget saw an unexpected return of VERITAS, granting the mission adequate funds to be able to set a launch date. “The nightmare is over,” Darby Dyar, the deputy principal investigator of the VERITAS mission, told Gizmodo in an email. “To hear…that we have a launch date and a real budget is, honestly, hard to believe. I walked around last night asking people to pinch me to make sure I wasn’t dreaming!”

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-veritas-venus-mission-revived-budget-1851336323

The Small Bodies Nomenclature Working Group has just given 29 space rocks names

Simon Sharwood - Tue 13 Feb 2024 07:57 UTC

The Small Bodies Nomenclature Working Group (WGSBN) – the folks responsible for assigning names to minor planets and comets – last week published a bulletin in which it gave 29 small celestial bodies their very own names.

One of the newly named bodies has been given the moniker “Zoozve” and it is remarkable – for several reasons.

One is that it's the first identified quasi-satellite of a major planet.

Zoozve is an asteroid that, as described by its discoverers in a 2005 paper, has an orbit that “takes it quite far afield from Venus – it dives in towards the Sun, passing within the orbit of Mercury, and travelling outwards just beyond the orbit of the Earth at its furthest from the Sun.” That path traces a shape that resembles a butterfly shape that comes about because the asteroid and Venus are travelling around the Sun nearly in lock-step.

“This means that VE68 has a very special property as seen from Venus,” the paper states. “It appears to travel around the Venusian sky about once every Venus year. If you didn't know that VE68 is really travelling around the Sun, you might declare that Venus has a moon (or satellite) of its own.”

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/venusian_quasi_moon_named_zoozve/

Lichen survived 18 months attached to outside of International Space Station and raises prospect life could exist on Mars

Paul Simons - Wed 17 Jan 2024 01.00 EST

Lichens are strange organisms, a partnership between a fungus that offers shelter, water and minerals, and an alga or cyanobacterium that supplies food from their photosynthesis. And even though lichens tend to be modest to look at, they are so incredibly tough that some can even survive the harsh environment of space.

When lichens were attached to the outside of the International Space Station for 18 months they survived the vacuum of space, no water, extreme temperatures and the full onslaught of radiation and ultraviolet rays from the sun, and carried on photosynthesising.

Lichens that were kept in a simulated Martian environment on Earth survived and were active, raising the prospect that life could exist on Mars, where the environment is intensely dry and cold, with low atmospheric pressure and radiation bombardment. In fact, lichens can cope with radiation 12,000 times the lethal dose for humans and still carry on photosynthesising, although their reproduction can be harmed. However, bacteria given the same treatment died. There is even a thought that life on Earth, or any other planet, could conceivably have been spread through space by lichens hitching a ride on meteorites, comets or asteroids.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/17/plantwatch-the-strange-organism-so-tough-it-can-survive-in-space

Jocelyn Bell-Burnell: “He happened to be a very observant person.”

Jennifer Ouellette - 8/1/2023, 8:28 AM

Here's a bit of science history that genuinely surprised many of us here at Ars Technica. We all know the famous story of how Jocelyn Bell-Burnell discovered pulsars in 1967 as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge—and the longstanding debate about whether she should have shared the Nobel Prize awarded to her supervisor, Antony Hewish. But apparently, an Air Force staff sergeant manning an early warning radar station in Alaska arguably beat Bell-Burnell to the punch. He just couldn't come forward until 2007, after the instrument had been decommissioned. Nature reported the story at the time, but we most definitely missed it—and we probably weren't the only ones.

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that create pulsed emissions as their magnetic fields sweep across the line of sight with Earth. As previously reported, whenever a massive star runs out of fuel, it explodes into a supernova. If it's above a certain threshold in mass, it becomes a black hole. Below that threshold, it becomes an ultra-dense neutron star. Pulsars are unusual in that they spin rapidly and have very powerful magnetic fields, so they emit very high-energy beams of light. The star's rotation makes it seem like those beams are flashing on and off like a cosmic lighthouse.

Bell-Burnell was monitoring the new radio telescope at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, sifting through reams and reams of paper records to hunt for any unusual anomalies in the peaks of data representing incoming galactic radio waves. Three weeks in, on August 6, she spotted a faint signal coming from a particular area of the sky that disappeared, then reappeared, in 1.34-second intervals. The team quickly ruled out any known natural sources or other kinds of interference. She and Hewish even joked that it might be a signal from an alien civilization, dubbing the object “LGM-1” for “Little Green Men.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/that-time-an-air-force-sergeant-spotted-pulsars-months-before-astronomers/

The spinning, dead star was emitting radiation in two modes, and a team of scientists believes it knows why.

Isaac Schultz - 30 August 2023

A rapidly spinning dead star’s wacky fluctuations in brightness are due to the extreme environment surrounding the object, according to a team of astronomers who observed it.

Pulsars are fast-spinning magnetic star remains that spew electromagnetic radiation. They’re sometimes called “cosmic lighthouses,” because the jets of light they reliably emit can be precisely timed to understand other aspects of the cosmos, like the ripples in spacetime we call gravitational waves.

The pulsar recently scrutinized by a team of astronomers is named PSR J1023+0038, or J1023. It sits about 4,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sextans, where it spins around and yanks material from its companion star. The accreted material has formed a disc around the pulsar and slowly falls into it.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomy-pulsars-switching-modes-mystery-decoded-1850787441

The signal’s unique pattern could indicate a new kind of stellar object.

Isaac Schultz - 12 October 2021 4:35PM

Over the course of 2020, astronomers in Australia detected a mysterious batch of radio waves coming from somewhere near the center of the galaxy. But when the team trained a more sensitive instrument toward the source, they saw it only once more before it disappeared, behaving differently than it had before. The signal is described in a paper published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

“The strangest property of this new signal is that it has a very high polarisation. This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time,” said Ziteng Wang, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney and the lead author of the new study, in a university press release. In other words, the radio waves were intermittently corkscrewing to Earth, without any rhyme or reason. And since they were detected, the trail’s gone cold.

https://gizmodo.com/strange-radio-signal-from-galactic-center-has-astronome-1847849127

Posted by msmash on Wednesday January 10, 2024 12:00PM

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a rare event in an oddball place. NASA reports:

It's called a fast radio burst (FRB), a fleeting blast of energy that can – for a few milliseconds – outshine an entire galaxy. Hundreds of FRBs have been detected over the past few years. They pop off all over the sky like camera flashes at a stadium event, but the sources behind these intense bursts of radiation remain uncertain. This new FRB is particularly weird because it erupted halfway across the universe, making it the farthest and most powerful example detected to date.

And if that's not strange enough, it just got weirder based on the follow-up Hubble observations made after its discovery. The FRB flashed in what seems like an unlikely place: a collection of galaxies that existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. The large majority of previous FRBs have been found in isolated galaxies. FRB 20220610A was first detected on June 10, 2022, by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile confirmed that the FRB came from a distant place. The FRB was four times more energetic than closer FRBs.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/10/1732243/hubble-finds-weird-home-of-farthest-fast-radio-burst

Aria Alamalhodaei - 2:57 PM PDT April 19, 2024

CesiumAstro alleges in a newly filed lawsuit that a former executive disclosed trade secrets and confidential information about sensitive tech, investors and customers to a competing startup.

Austin-based Cesium develops active-phased array and software-defined radio systems for spacecraft, missiles and drones. While phased-array antenna systems have been used on satellites for decades, Cesium has considerably advanced and productized the tech over its seven years in operation. The startup has landed more than $100 million in venture and government funding, which it has used to develop a suite of products for commercial and defense customers.

The technology is niche: Only a handful of companies work at the cutting edge of space-based radio technology, and Cesium no doubt pays close attention to any new entrant in this field. AnySignal, a startup that came out of stealth last October but was formally incorporated in 2022, certainly caught the company’s eye, not least because it allegedly edged out Cesium in a sales bid to a major customer and by attempting to solicit the interest of one of Cesium’s early investors — both examples stated in the lawsuit.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/19/cesiumastro-claims-former-exec-spilled-trade-secrets-to-upstart-competitor-anysignal/

“Will it affect the coverage of Roscosmos? For sure it will.”

Eric Berger - 10/6/2021, 5:56 AM

It is safe to say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a fan of independent media. In the run-up to elections last month, Putin declared almost every independent media organization operating inside the country a “foreign agent” to stifle dissent and criticism. The intent seems to be to destroy independent media in Russia.

Now, this campaign has been extended to coverage of space activities in Russia.

The country already prohibits reporting on space activities containing classified information, but a new law extends to coverage of a variety of other space news. Essentially, any person in Russia who now reports on anything that might be even tangentially related to Russia's military activities or space activities will be labeled as a foreign agent.

News organizations and individuals will be required to put a disclaimer on every single article, social media post, or tweet, reading, “This Report (Material) has been created or distributed by Foreign Mass Media Channels executing the functions of a Foreign Agent, and/or a Russian legal entity executing the functions of a Foreign Agent.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/russia-tells-its-space-reporters-to-stop-reporting-on-the-space-program/

This cannot be a comfortable position for a certain Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin.

Eric Berger - 10/8/2021, 9:02 AM

Russia plans to slash funding for spaceflight activities during the coming three-year period, from 2022 to 2024. The cuts will come to about 16 percent annually, several Russian publications, including Finanz.ru, report. (These Russian-language articles were translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell.)

For 2022, the state budget for space activities will be set at 210 billion rubles ($2.9 billion), a cut of 40.3 billion rubles ($557 million) from the previous year. Similar cuts will follow in subsequent years. The most significant decreases will be in areas such as “manufacturing-technological activities” and “cosmodrome development.” Funding for “scientific research and development” was zeroed out entirely.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/putin-slashes-russias-space-budget-and-says-he-expects-better-results/

The spacraft has imaged 'picoflare jets' for the first time.

Mariella Moon, Contributing Reporter - Fri, Aug 25, 2023, 4:45 AM PDT

We know the sun belches out solar winds, but the origin of these streams of charged particles remain a mystery and has been the subject of numerous studies over the past decades. The images captured last year by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument aboard ESA's and NASA's Solar Orbiter, however, may have finally given us the knowledge needed to explain what powers these winds. In a paper published in Science, a team of researchers described observing large numbers of jets coming out of a dark region of the sun called a “coronal hole” in the images taken by the spacecraft.

The team called them “picoflare jets,” because they contain around one-trillionth the energy of what the largest solar flares can generate. These picoflare jets measure a few hundred kilometers in length, reach speeds of around 100 kilometers per second and only last between 20 and 100 seconds. Still, the researchers believe they have the power to emit enough high-temperature plasma to be considered a substantial source of our system's solar winds. While Coronal holes have long been known as source regions for the phenomenon, scientists are still trying to figure out the mechanism of how plasma streams emerge from them exactly. This discovery could finally be the answer they'd been seeking for years.

https://www.engadget.com/the-solar-orbiter-spacecraft-may-have-discovered-what-powers-solar-winds-114504839.html

The history of spaceflight is the story of weirdos, explosions, and stacked odds.

areoform - Apr 21, 2023

Yesterday, some very lucky people got to play Kerbal Space Program in real-life. And luckily, we got to watch.

Their prototype was a 394’ (120m), 11 million lbs (~5,000t) behemoth that generated twice the thrust of the Saturn V at launch. Nominally, it’s going to consume somewhere between 44 thousand lbs (~19.7t ±0.4) to 46 thousand lbs (21.45t) of propellant (methane and liquid oxygen) per second.

For comparison, the Saturn V consumed around 28 thousand lbs per second (or, more precisely, 12,885kg/s). Using the international unit of African bush elephants, Starship will consume an extra ~51 bush elephant equivalents of propellant per minute, give or take some elephants (but what are a few elephants between friends?).

Their project is so massive that when they lit the candle, its infrared signature could be observed from Geostationary Orbit,

https://1517.substack.com/p/explosions-are-great-actually

Posted by msmash on Thursday September 23, 2021 01:45PM Is the FAA licensing spaceports that are doomed to fail? From a report:

The latest launch attempt out of Kodiak, Alaska's spaceport shows in vivid detail just how quickly things can go sideways. In the video, rocket maker Astra's 3.3 skids horizontally for hundreds of yards, then shoots some 20 miles upwards, listing off course. Ground crew terminates the flight, and the craft free falls back to Earth in pieces, landing in a fireball. None of Astra's six test flights from Kodiak's Pacific Spaceport Complex have made it into orbit, and five have exploded. But, as Jeff Bezos says, failure and innovation are inseparable twins.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/09/23/1929252/the-imaginary-rocket-driving-a-small-town-spaceport

Have containers, will travel

Tue 18 Aug 2020 / 11:14 UTC - Richard Speed

Interview Edinburgh-based Skyrora launched its two-stage Skylark Micro rocket from Iceland over the weekend. The Register spoke to business operations manager Derek Harris about the mission and what comes next.

We spoke to Skyrora almost exactly a year ago as the company was exhibiting its Skylark Nano at the Bayes Centre during 2019's Edinburgh Art Festival. Since then it has launched the Nano a third time and performed a static fire of its liquid-fuelled sub-orbital Skylark L.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/skyrora_skylark_micro/

Darrell Etherington / 5:11 am PDT•August 18, 2020

aunch startup Skyrora had a successful test launch of its Skylark Micro rocket from Iceland on Sunday, with the rocket achieving its highest-ever altitude at a height of 26.86 km (just under 17 miles). The four meter (13 foot) sub-orbital rocket took off from a mobile launch site at Iceland’s Langanes Peninsula that was set up in just a few days prior to the flight.

Skylark Micro is a vehicle that Skyrora is using to prepare the way for its eventual orbital small payload launch vehicle Skyrora XL, which it hopes to begin flying sometime in 2023. The purpose of this launch in Iceland, aside from demonstrating the flexibility of the company’s mobile launching model, was to test the electronics and communications on board the Skylark Micro, which will eventually be used for the company’s larger operational launch craft, as well.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/18/skyrora-launches-its-small-demonstration-rocket-from-mobile-launch-site-in-iceland/

Darrell Etherington / 7:03 am PDT•August 19, 2020

Scotland’s first proposed spaceport has been fully approved to proceed with construction and operation (via The Northern Times). The facility will be built in northern Sutherland on a peninsula that extends into the North Atlantic. This will be the future launch site for Orbex, a startup looking to develop the U.K.’s first reusable orbital launch vehicle.

This approval follows submission of all the necessary documents, including a full environmental assessment, to local regulators and the Scottish government. Full approval means that construction can proceed, paving the way for launches to begin taking off from the site sometime over the course of the next few years.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/19/scotland-spaceport-gets-full-approval-will-be-able-to-host-up-to-12-launches-per-year/

Also, China has launched its 30th rocket of the year.

Eric Berger - 10/16/2020, 4:00 AM

Welcome to Edition 3.20 of the Rocket Report! As usual, there is a lot of news this week in the world of lift. We also have the prospect of two Starlink launches in three days, beginning Sunday. Of course, we'll have to see what Scrubtober thinks about this.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/rocket-report-sweden-invests-in-launch-site-sls-hotfire-test-in-a-month/

SpaceX's Texas Starbase needs natural gas for a new power station and rocket fuel. But how will it get there? Mark Harris / 8:46 AM PDT•October 8, 2021

An environmental document that needs U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval before SpaceX can begin testing the world’s largest rockets is missing key details about where its fuel will come from, experts say.

The draft programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicles, which Elon Musk hopes will soon be shooting into orbit and then on to Mars, was issued last month by the FAA for public comment. The 142-page document covers construction and daily operations at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas, which Musk is hoping to incorporate as a city called Starbase. These include pre-flight operations, rocket tests, launches and landings, as well as fuel, water and electricity supplies.

A new pre-treatment system will purify and cool natural gas into liquid methane fuel for the Starship and Super Heavy rockets. Much more gas will be needed for a new 250-megawatt gas-fired power station. A power plant this big typically serves over 100,000 homes and can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But while rocket launches get a lot of coverage in the PEA, the new power plant receives only a cursory mention. In particular, it is unclear how the tens of millions of cubic feet of gas required daily will get to SpaceX’s remote facility near the Mexican border.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/08/the-mystery-of-elon-musks-missing-gas/

Aria Alamalhodaei - 8:30 AM PDT May 3, 2024

NASA is kicking off a formal environmental assessment of its facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia, to increase the number of authorized rocket launches at the site by almost 200%, according to slides and recordings of an April 29 internal meeting viewed by TechCrunch.

The proposed changes could help ease congestion at the country’s other spaceports, which have felt the strain of a rapid increase in launch capacity due primarily to SpaceX. That strain is projected to only worsen as companies, including Rocket Lab, Relativity, Blue Origin and others, aim to bring new rockets online in the next few years.

Wallops expansion has likely been on the minds of NASA officials for some time. After Rocket Lab conducted its first Electron launch from there in 2022, agency officials told the media that interest from private companies looking to launch from the site was “high.” And while these plans would eventually be made public as part of the EA process, this is the first time the scale of the proposed changes has been published.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/03/nasa-is-expanding-its-wallops-island-facility-to-support-three-times-as-many-launches/

No astronaut has been killed in the 57-year history of spacewalks, but there have been some close calls.

George Dvorsky - 9 June 2022 11:10AM

Hundreds of astronauts have dared to leave the cozy confines of their spaceships and enter into the cold nothingness of space with only their spacesuits to protect them. The spacewalks we present here are among the most memorable to date, though some not necessarily for good reasons.

Only a few things seem more dangerous to me than spacewalks. Now, I would very much like to spend time in space, but you couldn’t pay me enough to venture outside my chosen spacecraft. It takes tremendous courage to perform an extravehicular activity (EVA), and it’s for this reason that I salute the hundreds of astronauts who have done so over the years—these men and women in particular.

https://gizmodo.com/history-of-spacewalks-nasa-space-station-1849036189

The cosmonauts were a little over two hours into their spacewalk when a voltage fluctuation was detected.

Passant Rabie - 17 August 2022 3:30PM

Wednesday’s Russian spacewalk didn’t exactly go as planned, as one cosmonaut’s spacesuit malfunctioned, forcing him to head back inside the International Space Station (ISS) due to an unexpected drop in voltage.

About two hours into the spacewalk scheduled to install a giant robotic arm, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev reported that the voltage of his spacesuit battery was low. Mission control ordered Artemyev to return to the airlock and connect to the station’s power, while reassuring him, “Don’t worry, everything is fine. You are okay.” As Artemyev continued to fiddle with the crew lock bag before making his way back to the airlock, mission control forcefully told him to “drop everything and go back.”

https://gizmodo.com/russia-cosmonaut-spacewalk-iss-malfunction-1849424144

Oleg Artemyev was briefly ordered to head home.

Jon Fingas - August 17, 2022 1:25 PM

A Russian cosmonaut just dealt with a rare spacesuit problem. As CNN's Jackie Wattles observed, mission control ordered Oleg Artemyev back to the International Space Station's airlock after encountering a suit issue. While the exact nature of the trouble wasn't clear as of this writing, NASA commentators noted a “slight fluctuation” in the suit's battery power. Artemyev returned safely, plugged into the station's power supply and resumed operations.

We've asked NASA for comment. In a statement to Space.com, spokesperson Bob Navias said Artemyev “never was in any danger” when the anomaly occurred around 12PM Eastern. Artemyev and fellow Russian Denis Matveev were in the midst of outfitting the ESA's robotic arm with cameras and other equipment changes.

https://www.engadget.com/iss-spacewalk-russia-suit-malfunction-172557683.html

Imagine how much Apple would charge for a power lead that long

Richard Speed - Fri 19 Aug 2022 17:30 UTC

A spacewalk by a pair of cosmonauts working on the European robotic arm on the International Space Station ended prematurely due to battery power issues.

The purpose of the walk by Roscosmos astronauts Oleg Artemiev and Denis Matveev was to install cameras on the new arm, relocate an external control panel, remove launch restraints, and test a rigidizing mechanism. However, after the duo completed the camera work, “abnormal battery readings” showed up on Artemiev's Orlan spacesuit. Artemiev then quickly returned to the Poisk airlock so he could connect the ISS's power supply.

Matveev then followed his colleague after completing some clean-up activities outside the ISS while Sergey Korsakov, inside the station, placed the European robotic arm in a safe configuration.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/19/iss_spacewalk_power/

Long magnetic lull on star mimics the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun’s spots largely disappeared 400 years ago

10 Aug 20221:30 PM - Zack Savitsky

Soon after European astronomers developed the first telescopes at the start of the 17th century, they observed dark spots speckling the Sun’s surface. They also handed their modern successors a mystery. From about 1645 to 1715, the spots, now known to be indicators of solar activity, all but disappeared. Gathering sunspot counts and other historical observations, astronomer John Eddy concluded nearly 50 years ago that the Sun had essentially taken a 70-year nap, which he called the Maunder Minimum after an astronomer couple who had previously studied it.

Now, it appears the Sun is not the only star that takes long naps. By building a decades-long record of observations of a few dozen stars at specific wavelengths that trace stellar activity, a team of astronomers has identified another star going through its own Maunder Minimum period. “I am more convinced this is a Maunder Minimum star than anything else I’ve seen,” says Jennifer van Saders, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, who was not involved in the discovery.

https://www.science.org/content/article/nearby-star-midlife-crisis-suggests-our-own-sun-may-lose-its-spots-again-decades

Evidence of gamma-ray bursts emerging from the collisions of stars suggests a previously unknown trigger for stellar explosions.

Isaac Schultz - 26 June 2023

Gamma-ray bursts are extremely energetic explosions caused by some of the cosmos’ most remarkable objects: black holes, neutron stars, and the violent deaths of stars. Now, astronomers have found evidence of gamma-ray bursts emerging from the collisions of stars.

The evidence was found using observations made by the Gemini South telescope in Chile (which is operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab), the Nordic Optical Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The telescopes were following up on a gamma-ray burst spotted by NASA’s Swift Observatory in 2019; affectionately named GRB 191019A, the long gamma-ray burst lasted for a little over a minute, and using Gemini South a team of astronomers made longer term observations of it.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-uncover-entirely-new-way-stars-die-1850576965

The PIGS survey sought out—and found—a group of metal-poor stars staying close to the galaxy’s core.

Isaac Schultz - 5 July 2023

A group of astronomers comprising the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) just found a large group of ancient stars circling the galaxy’s center in surprisingly orderly fashion.

The astronomical team’s work is the largest set of detailed observations yet taken of these very old metal-poor stars orbiting near the core of the Milky Way. The research was presented this week at the National Astronomy Meeting 2023 at the University of Cardiff.

“It is exciting to think that we are seeing stars that formed in the earliest phases of the Milky Way, previously largely out of reach,” said Anke Arentsen, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the research, in a Royal Astronomical Society release. “These stars likely formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang, so are relics from the early Universe.”

https://gizmodo.com/old-stars-near-milky-way-center-unravel-galactic-evolut-1850606172

The object has a surface temperature 38% hotter than our host star.

Isaac Schultz - 14 August 2023

Astronomers recently spotted one of the most massive brown dwarfs known, an object between 75 and 90 times the mass of Jupiter with a beyond-scalding dayside temperature of 8,000 K (13,940° Fahrenheit.)

For comparison, the Sun’s surface is a mere 5,772 K (9,930° Fahrenheit). Astronomers observed the piping hot, supersized brown dwarf in 2019 and 2020 using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. Their findings were published today in Nature Astronomy.

Brown dwarfs sit at the awkward in-between that separates planets from stars. The objects are larger than gas giants like Jupiter, but teenier than small stars. Because brown dwarfs fall short of the masses necessary for stars to burn hydrogen for their nuclear fusion, the objects are sometimes called failed stars.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-spot-a-massive-brown-dwarf-hotter-than-the-1850734800

Astronomers have found a star that has a magnetic field rivaling the strongest magnet humans have ever built — and it might explain the origin of highly magnetic cinders known as magnetars.

Monica Young - August 17, 2023

There’s an odd star 3,300 light-years away in the southern constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. On the surface, it’s an unremarkable 10th-magnitude dot of light. But underneath, there’s a mess of contradictions.

“This star became a bit of an obsession of mine,” says Tomer Shenar (University of Amsterdam), who led a study on it published in Science.

The star, known as HD 45166, appears to be in the Wolf-Rayet class, which consist of helium-dominated stars blowing away massive winds. These winds leave a distinctive signature in the star’s spectrum. However, while most Wolf-Rayet stars hold more than eight Suns’ worth of mass, this one weighs in at much less than that. Moreover, it’s weirdly faint.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/astronomers-find-strange-star-is-a-powerful-magnet/

October 3, 2023 - Brian Koberlein

In 2009 a giant star 25 times more massive than the Sun simply…vanished. Okay, it wasn’t quite that simple. It underwent a period of brightening, increasing in luminosity to a million Suns, just as if it was ready to explode into a supernova. But then it faded rather than exploding. And when astronomers tried to see the star, using the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), Hubble, and the Spitzer space telescope, they couldn’t see anything.

The star, known as N6946-BH1, is now considered a failed supernova. The BH1 in its name is due to the fact that astronomers think the star collapsed to become a black hole rather than triggering a supernova. But that has been conjecture. All we’ve known for sure is that it brightened for a time then grew too dim for our telescopes to observe. But that has changed, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The new study, published on the arXiv, analyzes data gathered by JWST’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. It shows a bright infrared source that appears to be a remnant dust shell surrounding the position of the original star. This would be consistent with material ejected from the star as it brightened rapidly. It could also be an infrared glow from material infalling into the black hole, though that seems less likely.

https://www.universetoday.com/163473/astronomers-watched-a-massive-star-just-disappear-now-jwst-might-have-some-answers/

Neutron star winds, an accretion disk, and jets combine for complex interactions.

Elizabeth Rayne - 10/6/2023, 11:02 AM

Some stars never really die. Pulsars are the undead magnetized cores of massive stars that have met their end in a supernova. They rotate furiously, spewing jets of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles, which makes them appear to flash regularly when observed from Earth.

As if these zombies weren’t already bizarre enough, the behavior of one of them, pulsar PSR J1023+0038, has remained a mystery until now. PSR J1023 does have the usual compact jet of radiation at its poles. But it’s in a close binary system with another star, and, as it orbits this star, it has been observed blazing intensely before quickly dimming again. An international team of astronomers has finally made a breakthrough in understanding what causes the pulsar to switch from intensely bright “high mode” to dimmer “low mode” as it strips material from its companion star. Where that material goes has finally explained why it acts so erratically.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/zombie-stars-strange-behavior-ascribed-to-what-its-eating/

Brian Koberlein, Universe Today - October 23, 2023

On July 19, 1952, Palomar Observatory was undertaking a photographic survey of the night sky. Part of the project was to take multiple images of the same region of sky, to help identify things such as asteroids. At around 8:52 that evening a photographic plate captured the light of three stars clustered together. At a magnitude of 15, they were reasonably bright in the image. At 9:45 pm the same region of sky was captured again, but this time the three stars were nowhere to be seen. In less than an hour they had completely vanished.

Stars don't just vanish. They can explode, or experience a brief period of brightness, but they don't vanish. And yet, the photographic proof was there. The three stars are clearly in the first image, and clearly not in the second. The assumption then is that they must have suddenly dimmed, but even that is hard to accept.

Later observations found no evidence of the stars to dimmer than magnitude 24. This means they likely dimmed by a factor of 10,000 or more. What could possibly cause the stars to dim by such an astounding amount so quickly?

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-group-stars-vanishedastronomers.html

Explanations range from failed supernova to (much more unlikely) Dyson Spheres.

James Felton - 2 November 2023

Earlier this week we reported the story of three stars that back in July 1952 disappeared within an hour from the night sky forever, leaving behind a mystery with several possible explanations. But these are not the only stars that have gone missing, not by a long shot. In 2019, the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project attempted to catalog how many stars have disappeared from view in the last 70 years and found around 100 missing without a concrete explanation.

The VASCO project compared images taken by the US Naval Observatory from 1949 onwards with images from the Pan-STARRS sky survey between 2010 and 2014. The software used by the team came back with around 150,000 potential sources of light that had disappeared in the intervening years.

They then cross-referenced with other datasets to narrow it down further. This process left them with 24,000 candidates, which they then manually went through to exclude camera malfunctions and other errors. At the end of it, they had around 100 promising candidates for real sources of light that disappeared from our view.

https://www.iflscience.com/hundreds-of-stars-have-vanished-without-a-trace-where-did-they-go-71397

Posted by msmash on Friday January 26, 2024 08:10AM

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious group of giant elderly stars at the heart of the Milky Way that are emitting solar system-sized clouds of dust and gas. The stars, which have been named “old smokers,” sat quietly for many years, fading almost to invisibility, before suddenly puffing out vast clouds of smoke. The discovery was made during the monitoring of almost a billion stars in infrared light during a 10-year survey of the night sky. The Guardian:

The astronomers had set out to capture rarely seen newborn stars – known as protostars – while undergoing the equivalent of a stellar growth spurt. During these periods, young stars rapidly acquire mass by gorging on surrounding star-forming gas, leading to a sudden increase in luminosity. The team tracked hundreds of millions of stars and identified 32 erupting protostars that increased in brightness at least 40-fold and in some cases more than 300-fold.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/01/26/169253/astronomers-discover-giant-ancient-stars-in-milky-way

Three stars circling the Milky Way’s halo formed 12 to 13 billion years ago.

Jennifer Chu - May 14, 2024

MIT researchers, including several undergraduate students, have discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they happen to live in our own galactic neighborhood.

The team spotted the stars in the Milky Way’s “halo” — the cloud of stars that envelopes the entire main galactic disk. Based on the team’s analysis, the three stars formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, the time when the very first galaxies were taking shape.

The researchers have coined the stars “SASS,” for Small Accreted Stellar System stars, as they believe each star once belonged to its own small, primitive galaxy that was later absorbed by the larger but still growing Milky Way. Today, the three stars are all that are left of their respective galaxies. They circle the outskirts of the Milky Way, where the team suspects there may be more such ancient stellar survivors.

https://news.mit.edu/2024/mit-researchers-discover-universes-oldest-stars-in-galactic-backyard-0514

The newly identified three-body system has a problem, and it’s not aliens—it’s that in about 20 million years, the stars are expected to merge and explode.

Adam Kovac - October 3, 2024

If you’ve watched Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, or read the novels, the following might make you a tad nervous: NASA has discovered a distant trio of celestial objects locked in a complex orbital dance.

Thankfully, there doesn’t appear to be any genocidal aliens present; this system isn’t likely to foster intelligent life, or any life for that matter. Notably, however, the outermost of the three has shattered an astronomy record that stood for nearly 70 years.

An international group of astronomers, including NASA and a pair of citizen scientists, discovered the star system, designated TIC 290061484. In its findings published in The Astrophysical Journal, the team described the system as consisting of two inner stars that orbit each other every 1.8 days. The third star takes a while longer to circle the pair, completing an orbit once every 24.5 days. The previous record holder for an outer orbital period in a three-star system was discovered in 1956, with the star taking 33.03 days to complete an orbit.

https://gizmodo.com/three-star-system-shatters-astronomy-record-2000506583

A survey of Sun-like stars found that they produce a superflare roughly once per century.

Passant Rabie - December 12, 2024

Earlier this year, Earth experienced two geomagnetic storms caused by outbursts of radiation from the Sun, which had an impact on satellites in space and communication systems on the ground. As it turns out, the Sun may be capable of much more powerful solar flares.

The Sun is a giant glowing ball of plasma that keeps our solar system together, but there are billions of stars like it spread out across the cosmos. Although scientists have only been studying the Sun up close for the past 60 years or so, monitoring Sun-like stars in different stages of their lifetime can help predict the behavior of Earth’s host star. Hoping to find out whether the Sun is capable of producing superflares, which are thousands of times more powerful than a solar flare, a team of scientists pored over data of 56,000 Sun-like stars. The team identified 2,889 superflares on 2,527 of the stars, indicating that stars with similar temperatures and variability as our Sun produce superflares roughly once per century.

So far, scientists remain unsure about whether or not the Sun is capable of producing a superflare as no such event has been recorded on our host star. Extreme solar activity in the past has left its mark on Earth in the form of isotope spikes, but these events fall short of the energy levels expected from a superflare, according to the research. That said, the findings, published today in the journal Science, not only give scientists a better understanding of our host star, but could also help them better predict upcoming geomagnetic storms that mess with our technology on Earth.

https://gizmodo.com/stars-like-our-sun-explode-with-superflares-every-100-years-study-suggests-2000537838

Tomasz Nowakowski , Phys.org - 28 June 2023

Using the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT), astronomers Kathryn F. Neugent and Philip Massey, have observed the nearby Andromeda galaxy. In result, they detected 19 new Wolf-Rayet stars in this galaxy. The finding was reported in a paper published June 22 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are extremely hot and very luminous stars with strong, broad helium emission lines. Observations show that WRs are massive stars at an advanced stage of stellar evolution and losing mass at a very high rate. To date, only a few hundreds such stars have been discovered, mostly in the Milky Way.

Now, Kathryn F. Neugent from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and Philip Massey from the Lowell Observatory, report the detection of another batch of WR stars. They detected 19 new objects of this type in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (also known as Messier 31, or M31) using LDST's Large Monolithic Imager (LMI).

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-nineteen-wolf-rayet-stars-andromeda-galaxy.html

There's an exoplanet whipping around Barnard's star, and there may be up to three others yet to be detected.

Isaac Schultz - October 1, 2024

The single nearest star to the Sun—which is to say, the closest star moving independent from a star system—has at least one exoplanet, according to a team of astronomers that recently scrutinized the heavenly body.

The team’s research—published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics—describes conclusions made from five years of observational data taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at Chile’s Paranal Observatory.

The little world orbits Barnard’s star, a red dwarf about six light-years from Earth. Barnard’s star is a dim, cool star about one-seventh the mass of our Sun. Unlike the nearest star to the Sun (Proxima Centauri, a little over four light-years away in the Alpha Centauri star system), Barnard’s star zips through the cosmos alone. As EarthSky points out, Barnard’s star is much less powerful than the Sun; if we orbited that star instead of the Sun, life as we know it would not be possible.

https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-discover-planet-orbiting-nearest-single-star-to-the-sun-2000505287

Observations say that two main explanations for the star's fading are both right.

John Timmer - 5/31/2022, 12:10 PM

Over the last couple of years, Ars has dedicated a fair number of electrons to our local red supergiant, Betelgeuse. The massive star went through an odd uneven dimming, leaving the astronomy community scrambling for explanations and observation time. While a degree of consensus slowly emerged, the lack of some key details left a lot unexplained.

It turns out that some of the answers were accidentally captured by an Earth-facing Japanese weather satellite that had Betelgeuse in-frame across the entire process of its dimming.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/05/japanese-weather-satellite-accidentally-watched-betelgeuse-go-dim/

“We're watching stellar evolution in real time.”

Jennifer Ouellette - 8/12/2022, 10:28 AM

Astronomers are still making new discoveries about the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, which experienced a mysterious “dimming” a few years ago. That dimming was eventually attributed to a cold spot and a stellar “burp” that shrouded the star in interstellar dust. Now, new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories have revealed more about the event that preceded the dimming.

It seems Betelgeuse suffered a massive surface mass injection (SME) event in 2019, blasting off 400 times as much mass as our Sun does during coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The sheer scale of the event is unprecedented and suggests that CMEs and SMEs are distinctly different types of events, according to a new paper posted to the physics arXiv last week. (It has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.)

Betelgeuse is a bright red star in the Orion constellation—one of the closest massive stars to Earth, about 700 light-years away. It's an old star that has reached the stage where it glows a dull red and expands, with the hot core only having a tenuous gravitational grip on its outer layers. The star has something akin to a heartbeat, albeit an extremely slow and irregular one. Over time, the star cycles through periods when its surface expands and then contracts.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/betelgeuse-is-bouncing-back-after-blowing-its-top-in-2019/

In a rare cosmic event, an asteroid will eclipse Betelgeuse on December 11, causing a brief but significant disappearance of this bright, red star.

George Dvorsky - 7 December 2023

The bright star Betelgeuse, a prominent member of the Orion constellation, is set to be occulted by the asteroid Leona on December 11. This occurrence, expected to last no more than 10 seconds, will cause the star to temporarily vanish from sight, a phenomenon visible along a narrow path on Earth.

The fascinating event is expected in the night sky on Tuesday, December 11 at approximately 8:17 p.m. ET (Wednesday, December 12 at 00:17 UT). This rare occultation will render Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the sky, invisible or at least greatly dimmed for several seconds. Betelgeuse, also known as Alpha Orionis, is a significant component of the Orion constellation, marking the hunter’s red right shoulder.

https://gizmodo.com/betelgeuse-star-disappear-december-asteroid-eclipse-1851077552

December 10, 2023 - Dr.Tony Phillips

Dec. 10, 2023: (Spaceweather.com) For years, astronomers have worried that Betelgeuse might explode. Instead, it’s about to disappear. On Dec. 11th (USA) and 12th (Europe), main belt asteroid Leona will pass directly in front of Betelgeuse, a first-magnitude star in the shoulder of Orion. Millions of people in a narrow path stretching from South Florida to Italy and Greece can look up and see the red giant dim or even vanish.

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2023/12/10/an-extremely-rare-occultation-of-betelgeuse/

Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 11, 2023 11:00PM

Meghan Bartels reports via Scientific American:

Some sky watchers this month will witness Betelgeuse, one of the brightest and best-known stars in the sky, nearly disappear. Mere seconds later – despite astronomers' hopes that the star will meet its explosive end someday soon – it will return, shining just as brightly as ever. Betelgeuse's brief blip of obscurity will mark a cosmic coincidence: an asteroid will block the star from view over a thin strip of Earth's surface. Scientists are hailing this celestial alignment as a once-in-a-lifetime occasion that, they hope, will permit them to glimpse Betelgeuse's ever changing surface of hot and cold patches in the best resolution to date. The opportunity comes courtesy of a sizable asteroid called Leona, which astronomers first spotted in 1891. On its own, Leona is just another space rock cluttering up the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But at 8:17 P.M. ET on December 11 Leona will slip directly between Earth and Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star that, unlike the asteroid, has been recognized by countless generations of humans around the world. […]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/12/12/0142233/betelgeuse-will-briefly-disappear-in-once-in-a-lifetime-coincidence

We have more Betelbuddy news, and the little companion star to Betelgeuse is turning out to be an oddball.

Gayoung Lee - October 24, 2025

A couple months back, astronomers officially confirmed the existence of “Betelbuddy,” Betelgeuse’s long-suspected companion star. Since then, researchers have been toiling away at characterizing Betelbuddy—finding that with each observation, the star drifts further away from initial expectations.

A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal presents a thorough analysis of Betelbuddy using data gathered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. In the “deepest X-ray observations of Betelgeuse to date,” researchers found that Betelbuddy is most likely a young stellar object (YSO) about the size of our Sun.

This affirms a separate, earlier study that predicted Betelbuddy’s striking youth compared to Betelgeuse, a red supergiant nearing the end of its stellar lifespan. At the same time, the findings usurp several assumptions astronomers have made about the nature of Betelbuddy’s stellar composition.

https://gizmodo.com/betelgeuses-newfound-sidekick-is-weirder-than-we-thought-2000676681

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday July 07, 2025 12:36AM

“Citizen scientists have successfully located thousands of previously unknown pairs of 'eclipsing binary' stars,” reports the Washington Post, citing a recent announcement from NASA.

The ongoing initiative helps space researchers hunt for “eclipsing binary” stars, a rare phenomenon in which two stars orbit one another, periodically blocking each other's light. These star pairs offer important data to astrophysicists, who consider the many measurable properties of eclipsing binaries — and the information they bear about the history of star formation and destruction — as a foundation of the field…

The citizen science project in question, the Eclipsing Binary Patrol, validates images from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. The satellite, launched in 2018, is “exceptionally capable at detecting varying stars,” the researchers write in a preprint paper describing the initiative. The researchers used machine learning to identify about 1.2 million potential eclipsing star pairs. Citizen scientists then validated a subset of about 60,000… manually inspecting hundreds of thousands of images of eclipse-like events and weeding out actual binaries from images that tricked the algorithm. “Thankfully,” the researchers write, “to the rescue come volunteers from all walks of life that boost the capacity of bandwidth-limited professional astronomers many-fold and help tackle the ever-increasing volume of publicly available astronomical data.”

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/07/0140213/citizen-scientists-just-helped-discover-nearly-8000-new-eclipsing-binary-stars

Scientists hope studies into Boyajian’s star could lead to enhanced techniques for identifying distant planetary civilisations

Robin McKie - Sat 27 Apr 2024 07.00 EDT / Modified on Sat 27 Apr 2024 14.48 EDT

It is our galaxy’s strangest star, a flickering globe of light whose sporadic and unpredictable output has baffled astronomers for years. But now the study of Boyajian’s star is being promoted as a research model that could help in one of the most intriguing of all scientific quests: finding intelligent life on other worlds.

This is the argument that Oxford University astrophysicist Prof Chris Lintott will make at a public lecture – Is it Aliens? The Most Unusual Star in the Galaxy – at a Gresham College lecture in Conway Hall, central London on Monday. His prime target will be Boyajian’s star, sometimes nicknamed Tabby’s star after scientist Tabetha Boyajian, in the constellation Cygnus whose odd dimming and brightening has been the subject of intense study by space probes and observatories in recent years.

“Its behaviour is extraordinary,” Lintott told the Observer. “It has rapid, random bursts where its brightness drops dramatically and then returns. There is no pattern to it. It flickers as if somebody was playing with its dimmer switch. There is no other star like this in our galaxy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/27/is-it-aliens-how-a-mysterious-star-could-help-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life

Brown dwarfs are bigger than gas giants, but smaller than stars.

Mariella Moon - Thu, Oct 24, 2024, 5:00 AM PDT

The James Webb Space Telescope is making it possible to detect more celestial objects we previously wouldn't be able to, including ones that can further our knowledge on how our universe began. A team of astronomers, for instance, detected a “rich population of brown dwarf candidates” outside our own galaxy for the first time. The image above was captured using the telescope's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instrument.

We already know of the roughly 3,000 brown dwarfs inside the Milky Way, but Webb made it possible to find candidates 200,000 light years away from our planet. “Only with the incredible sensitivity and spatial resolution in the correct wavelength regime is it possible to detect these objects at such great distances,” said Peter Zeidler, the team leader from AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency. “This has never been possible before and also will remain impossible from the ground for the foreseeable future.”

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-webb-telescope-detects-the-first-potential-brown-dwarfs-outside-our-galaxy-120007295.html

Are the mysterious stars clues to one of the greatest mysteries in the universe?

Paul M. Sutter - April 4, 2025

In the mid 19th century, a strange idea was growing heavy in the ether: There might be dimensions beyond the three we experience. To some—including eminent scientists of the day—these were the realms of spirits and the supernatural, accessed through tabletop seances. To Charles Hinton, a British mathematician and science-fiction writer at the time, it was something that could be puzzled out, modeled in things like his “tesseract” four-dimensional cube.

In the intervening century and a half, spiritualism and mainstream science having parted ways, the serious search for these extra dimensions has only intensified. Lately, physicists have proposed a new way to “see” into a new dimension—by looking deep into the hearts of collapsed, dead stars that have been behaving strangely.

The concerted scientific journey into extra dimensions began with Hermann Minkowski, Einstein’s former teacher, who realized that “space by itself, and time by itself, have vanished into the merest shadows” and that only a unification of them, spacetime, exists. Spacetime means that the universe truly is four-dimensional, just that one of the dimensions is that of time, rather than an additional one of space. One extra dimension discovered.

https://nautil.us/neutron-stars-hint-at-another-dimension-1202180/

Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - October 20, 2024

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect ancient lonely quasars with murky origins. They appear to have few cosmic neighbors, raising questions about how they first emerged more than 13 billion years ago.

A quasar is an incredibly bright region at the center of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole. As this black hole pulls in gas and dust from its surroundings, it releases an immense amount of energy, making quasars some of the most luminous objects in the universe. Quasars have been detected from as early as a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, raising the question of how they could have become so massive and bright in such a short amount of cosmic time.

Scientists have suggested that the first quasars formed in areas of overly dense primordial matter, which likely also gave rise to smaller galaxies nearby. However, a recent MIT-led study has revealed that some of these ancient quasars seem to exist in isolation, without the dense galactic environments expected in the early universe.

https://scitechdaily.com/james-webb-telescope-discovers-quasars-where-they-shouldnt-exist/

This is about the Earth's Sun (aka Sol)

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday February 18, 2023 06:44PM

The CBC reports:

You may have seen stories over the past week or so with headlines like, “Part of the sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists,” or “Unbelievable moment a piece of the sun BREAKS OFF baffles scientists” or even “NASA captures piece of sun breaking off, baffles scientists.” It all started with a harmless, informative tweet. Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster and science communicator, just broke away from the main filament… Implications for understanding the sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55 degrees here cannot be overstated!“

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/02/19/0148239/no-a-piece-of-the-sun-didnt-just-break-off

The reversal could have a beneficial effect on Earth.

Daisy Dobrijevic - June 14, 2024

The sun is on the verge of a significant event: a magnetic field reversal.

This phenomenon happens roughly every 11 years and marks an important stage in the solar cycle. The shift in polarity indicates the halfway point of solar maximum, the height of solar activity, and the beginning of the shift toward solar minimum.

The last time the sun's magnetic field flipped was toward the end of 2013. But what causes this switch in polarity, and is it dangerous? Let's take a deep look at the sun's magnetic field reversal and investigate the effects it could have on Earth.

https://www.space.com/sun-magnetic-field-flip-solar-maximum-2024

Understanding solar switchbacks is key to understanding solar winds, and scientists think they've got it

Brandon Vigliarolo - Wed 14 Sep 2022 16:30 UTC

Our star harbors one less scientific mystery thanks to data from the Solar Orbiter probe showing how “solar switchbacks” that cause the Sun's magnetic field to flip are formed. By furthering astronomer's understanding of solar winds, they hope the discovery will protect astronauts and equipment.

Solar switchbacks were first spotted in 2019 when data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe showed that the events weren't a rare occurrence, but common in the Sun.

Prior to the Solar Orbiter, observations of the Sun were limited to in-situ observations, leaving the actual origin of switchbacks up for debate, but not any more since the craft passed the Sun in March.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/suns_magnetic_mystery_esa/

The small spacecraft stared straight at the source of solar wind, likely uncovering the process that drives the violent bursts of plasma.

Passant Rabie - 7 June 2023

Although the Sun fuels life on our planet, Earth’s host star is not to be messed with. The inflamed ball of hot gas can often times get violent, flinging streams of plasma in our direction in the form of solar wind. By the time this solar wind reaches us, it has already traveled 93 million miles and interacted with Earth’s own magnetic field. What scientists really needed, however, was to get a closer look at what’s driving solar wind from the Sun’s burning surface.

Luckily, a car-sized spacecraft has had several close encounters with the Sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is designed to reach a distance of around 4 million miles from the Sun’s surface, closer than any other spacecraft has gone before. During a recent solar encounter, the probe flew through jets of highly-energetic material with a specific, fixed pattern that was linked to the Sun’s magnetic field. By measuring the data, a team of scientists traced the origins of solar wind all the way down to the surface of the Sun.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-parker-solar-probe-solves-mystery-sun-1850514132

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday June 10, 2023 10:34AM

The New York Times defines the solar wind as “a million-miles-per-hour stream of electrons, protons and other charged particles rushing outward into the solar system.”

Now CNN reports that the Parker Solar Probe “has uncovered the source of solar wind.”

As the probe came within about 13 million miles (20.9 million kilometers) of the sun, its instruments detected fine structures of the solar wind where it generates near the photosphere, or the solar surface, and captured ephemeral details that disappear once the wind is blasted from the corona…A study detailing the solar findings was published Wednesday in the journal Nature…

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/10/033255/parker-solar-probe-discovers-source-of-solar-wind

And just in time for the solar maximum, when wind-generating coronal holes like to point right at Earth

Brandon Vigliarolo - Tue 13 Jun 2023 08:30 UTC

Earthlings have unraveled yet another solar mystery after NASA's Parker Solar Probe managed to detect what scientists believe to be structures inside coronal holes responsible for “fast” solar winds.

A team of researchers led by UC Berkeley's Stuart Bale and James Drake of the University of Maryland-College Park said they've detected streams of high-energy particles that match the supergranulation flows within the Sun's coronal holes.

On most of the Sun's surface the corona keeps magnetic field lines looping back onto the surface. Holes in the corona are spaces where the field lines don't loop back, instead ejecting high-energy particles into space at intense speeds. We already knew that, but to understand more we had to fly closer to the Sun than even the Parker probe had managed to make it until recently.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/parker_solar_probe_wind/

The intrepid little spacecraft flew through a coronal mass ejection, helping scientists understand space weather.

Isaac Schultz - 19 September 2023

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew through an ejection of coronal material as it passed by the Sun in September 2022, giving researchers new data to understand how the Sun’s superheated plasma interacts with the surrounding interplanetary dust.

The coronal mass ejection (CME) flown through by the probe is one of the most powerful ever recorded, according to a NASA release. The flythrough is also the first time Parker has observed how CMEs interact with interplanetary dust, the particulate matter that floats through space. Analysis of the data collected by Parker in the process was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-parker-solar-probe-plasma-burst-1850852798

The quest to “kiss the Sun” has led to unprecedented distance and speed records, as Parker continues its historic exploration of our host star.

George Dvorsky - 29 September 2023

NASA’s groundbreaking Parker Solar Probe continues to set new milestones, diving continuously deeper towards the Sun, and offering insights into the star’s enigmatic atmosphere and how it affects space weather.

On Wednesday, September 27, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe smashed its own record by approaching the Sun at a mere distance of 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers), according to a NASA press release. This 17th close approach, or perihelion, occurred at 7:28 p.m. ET, marking the midpoint of a solar encounter that spans from September 22 to October 3. Aided by a gravity boost from Venus this past August, the probe reached staggering speeds of 394,736 mph (635,266 km/hr), solidifying its status as the fastest human-made object relative to the Sun.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-parker-probe-shatters-records-latest-solar-swoop-1850886280

“Quite simply, we want to find the birthplace of the solar wind.”

Eric Berger - Dec 19, 2024 3:02 PM

Almost no one ever writes about the Parker Solar Probe anymore.

Sure, the spacecraft got some attention when it launched. It is, after all, the fastest moving object that humans have ever built. At its maximum speed, goosed by the gravitational pull of the Sun, the probe reaches a velocity of 430,000 miles per hour, or more than one-sixth of 1 percent the speed of light. That kind of speed would get you from New York City to Tokyo in less than a minute.

And the Parker Solar Probe also has the distinction of being the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. At the time of its launch, in August 2018, physicist Eugene Parker was 91 years old.

But in the six years since the probe has been zipping through outer space and flying by the Sun? Not so much. Let's face it, the astrophysical properties of the Sun and its complicated structure are not something that most people think about on a daily basis.

However, the smallish probe—it masses less than a metric ton, and its scientific payload is only about 110 pounds (50 kg)—is about to make its star turn. Quite literally. On Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun. It will come within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the solar surface, flying into the solar atmosphere for the first time.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/were-about-to-fly-a-spacecraft-into-the-sun-for-the-first-time/

Posted by msmash on Friday December 20, 2024 12:01PM

NASA's Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun on Christmas Eve, flying within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface and entering its atmosphere for the first time.

The spacecraft, which travels at speeds up to 430,000 miles per hour, aims to study the origins of solar wind – the stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun's corona. The probe's heat shield will endure temperatures exceeding 2,500-degree Fahrenheit during the flyby, requiring specialized materials like sapphire crystal tubes and niobium wiring to protect its instruments.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/20/1821229/were-about-to-fly-a-spacecraft-into-the-sun-for-the-first-time

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 11:00PM

NASA's Parker Solar Probe made a historic approach on Christmas Eve, flying within 3.8 million miles of the Sun at a record-breaking speed of 430,000 mph. It marks humanity's closest encounter with a star. Live Science reports:

<quoteblock> Mission control cannot communicate with the probe during this rendezvous due to its vicinity to the sun, and will only know how the spacecraft fared in the early hours of Dec. 27 after a beacon signal confirms both the flyby's success and the overall state of the spacecraft. Images gathered during the flyby will beam home in early January, followed by scientific data later in the month when the probe swoops further away from the sun, Nour Rawafi, who is the project scientist for the mission, told reporters at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) earlier this month. </quoteblock>

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/24/2211202/nasas-parker-solar-probe-completes-historic-christmas-eve-flyby-of-the-sun

Parker Solar Probe will break its silence on Friday—that is, if it survived its closest approach to the Sun.

Passant Rabie - December 26, 2024

This week, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe attempted to get closer to the Sun than any other human-made object. But due to a planned communications blackout, the team behind the mission won’t know if the spacecraft’s daring quest was a success for at least another day.

On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe was set to come within an uncomfortably close distance of 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface, during which time the spacecraft was supposed to be out of contact with mission control. According to NASA, the probe is scheduled to transmit a beacon on Friday to confirm whether or not it survived its record-breaking close encounter with the Sun.

“No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement. “We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun.”

If successful, Tuesday’s flyby will be the first of three encounters at the same distance. During its perihelion, the spacecraft will to zip past the Sun at a whopping 430,000 miles per hour, breaking its own record for the fastest any human-made object has traveled. At such a speed, the probe would be able to travel from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia in one second. During its approach, the spacecraft must withstand piping hot temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius), while keeping its internal temperatures a much cooler 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4 degrees Celsius). Parker does this with a several-inch-thick heat shield, which reflects the majority of the Sun’s heat.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-waits-with-bated-breath-for-signal-from-sun-exploring-spacecraft-2000543390

Sarah Frazier (NASA) - December 27, 2024

Following its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth indicating it’s in good health and operating normally.

The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland received the signal just before midnight EST, on the night of Dec. 26. The team was out of contact with the spacecraft during closest approach, which occurred on Dec. 24, with Parker Solar Probe zipping just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving about 430,000 miles per hour.

The spacecraft is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on Jan. 1.

This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed. Previous close passes have helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun’s atmosphere.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2024/12/27/nasas-parker-solar-probe-reports-successful-closest-approach-to-sun/

Posted by msmash on Friday December 27, 2024 08:40AM

Following its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth indicating it's in good health and operating normally. NASA:

The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland received the signal just before midnight EST, on the night of Dec. 26. The team was out of contact with the spacecraft during closest approach, which occurred on Dec. 24, with Parker Solar Probe zipping just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving about 430,000 miles per hour.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/27/1624225/nasas-parker-solar-probe-reports-successful-closest-approach-to-sun

The spacecraft survived scorching temperatures at a record proximity, and is expected to send details of its close call in the new year.

Passant Rabie - December 27, 2024

The Parker Solar Probe survived its super close encounter with the Sun, resuming communication with its mission operations team a few days after its scorching hot flyby.

NASA’s solar probe transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth just before midnight on Thursday, indicating that the spacecraft is in good health and operating normally, the space agency wrote in a blog update. Parker Solar Probe had gone quiet during its closest approach on Tuesday, an expected communications blackout that meant the mission operations team would not know whether or not the spacecraft survived its daring Christmas Eve feat.

The team can now rest easy knowing that the mission’s most daunting quest was successful. During its closest approach, Parker Solar Probe came within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the Sun’s surface. At that distance, the solar probe broke its own record for closest solar approach by a spacecraft. For perspective, Earth is 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) away from our host star—nearly 25 times farther from the Sun than Parker was on Tuesday.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-celebrates-as-sun-exploring-spacecraft-confirms-its-still-alive-2000543604

This was a triumph

Richard Speed - Fri 27 Dec 2024 14:08 UTC

There is good news for Sun botherers: the Parker Solar Probe appears to have survived its close encounter with our nearest star.

The probe was just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the Sun as it whipped past at 430,000 miles per hour on December 24. The operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) received a tone from the spacecraft just before midnight (EST) on December 26 to indicate the vehicle was in good health and operating normally.

More detailed telemetry data on the spacecraft's status is due to be sent back on Jan 1, along with precious observations that will help scientists better understand the origin of solar wind and how heating processes work in the region.

The flyby is the closest any human-made probe has passed the Sun. Or, as XKCD put it, “Congratulations to the Parker Solar Probe for setting a new record for 'Worst Job Avoiding The Sun.'”

While the Parker Solar Probe has made the closest approach to the Sun, it is not the only spacecraft studying the star. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter, launched in February 2020, is designed to help scientists understand the heating of the atmosphere and the formation of solar wind. According to ESA, the closest approach made by the spacecraft is 42 million km.

According to ESA, “Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe have each been designed and placed into a unique orbit to accomplish their different, if complementary, goals.”

https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/27/parker_solar_probe_sends_a/

NASA received the beacon confirming that the spacecraft is safe and will soon send home its data.

Cheyenne MacDonald - Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 10:03 AM PST

NASA said on Friday that it received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe confirming that the spacecraft had survived its closest ever flyby of the sun. The approach took it just 3.8 million miles from the surface, passing within the sun’s corona and allowing for unprecedented data collection in the vicinity of a star. A few million miles might seem like a pretty great distance, but to put things in perspective, NASA explains, “If the solar system was scaled down with the distance between the sun and Earth the length of a football field, Parker Solar Probe would be just four yards from the end zone.”

The probe’s current orbit takes it closest to the sun about every three months. It’ll swing back around for two more close flybys in 2025, on March 22 and June 19. The probe is expected to transmit the data from its latest close approach soon, once it’s in a better location to do so. “The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an amazing accomplishment.”

https://www.engadget.com/science/space/parker-solar-probe-survived-its-close-approach-to-the-sun-and-will-make-two-more-in-2025-180350510.html

Measuring nearly 12 Earth-widths across, the stellar phenomenon could unleash powerful solar flares, threatening satellites and power grids.

George Dvorsky - 9 February 2024

A striking set of gigantic sunspots, first spotted from Mars and now designated AR3576, is currently facing Earth, capturing the attention of astronomers, space enthusiasts, and concerned space weather forecasters.

The cluster, nicknamed the “Martian sunspots,” was first discovered by NASA’s Perseverance rover using its MastCam in the final week of January. Since this initial observation, these sunspots have significantly increased in size and are now facing our planet.

The entire group of sunspots stretches an impressive distance of over 93,200 miles (150,000 kilometers), with at least four of the dark cores being larger than the Earth itself, according to SpaceWeather. This immense size, equivalent to about 12 Earth widths, makes these sunspots visible from Earth with the aid of ISO-approved eclipse glasses.

https://gizmodo.com/a-mars-rover-saw-enormous-dark-patches-on-the-sun-and-1851243606

Europe’s Solar Orbiter has captured surreal video of the Sun’s atmosphere, revealing a slew of fascinating—and jaw dropping—stellar features.

George Dvorsky - 2 May 2024

The recent total solar eclipse on April 8 provided a rare glimpse of the Sun’s roiling corona, including some eye-grabbing prominences. Those views were neat, but a new video captured by Europe’s Sun-buzzing probe is providing some of the best close-up views of our host star that we’ve ever seen.

This incredible video, captured on September 27, 2023, by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, shows the Sun from an impressive close distance, as ESA explains in a press release.

At the time of recording, the spacecraft was positioned at approximately one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 0.33 AU. By comparison, Mercury averages around 0.39 AU from the Sun. That’s a close brush with the Sun, but Solar Orbiter is on a trajectory toward an even closer approach, set to reach a minimum distance of 43 million kilometers (0.287 AU) from the Sun on October 7.

https://gizmodo.com/new-close-up-video-shows-the-sun-s-surface-as-the-hells-1851451405

This could eventually improve solar storm forecasts, which is a very good thing.

Lawrence Bonk - Wed, May 22, 2024, 11:20 AM PDT

New research indicates the sun’s magnetic field originates close to the surface and not deep within the star, according to findings published in the journal Nature. This upends decades of prevailing scientific thought that placed the field more than 130,000 miles below the surface of the sun. It also brings us closer to understanding the nature of the sun’s magnetic field, which has been on scientist’s minds since Galileo.

The study, led by Northwestern University and a team of international researchers, suggests that the magnetic field actually generates 20,000 miles below the surface. This was discovered after the team ran a series of complex calculations on a NASA supercomputer. It’s worth noting that these are just initial findings and more research is required to confirm the data.

The sun’s magnetic field fluctuates in a cycle that lasts 11 years. During the strongest part of this cycle, powerful winds and sunspots form at the solar equator, along with plumes of material that cause the aurora borealis here on Earth. Previous theories that place the magnetic field deeper within the sun have had a difficult time connecting these various solar phenomena. Scientists hope that, given further study, they’ll be able to use this theory to not only explain the creation of solar events, but more accurately predict when they will occur.

https://www.engadget.com/new-research-places-the-suns-magnetic-field-close-to-the-surface-upending-decades-of-theories-182059055.html

A recent Venus flyby pushed the spacecraft out of Earth's orbital plane, allowing it to gaze at the solar poles.

Passant Rabie - June 11, 2025

For more than 60 years, various spacecraft and telescopes have journeyed through space to stare at the Sun, capturing haunting images of the giant ball of hot gas at the heart of our solar system. Our view of the star is limited, however, by Earth’s orbital plane, which allows us to observe the Sun’s equator head-on while its polar regions remain in a frustrating blind spot. Solar Orbiter is now the first to image the poles from outside the ecliptic plane, offering a rare look at its chaotic magnetic field.

On Wednesday, the European Space Agency (ESA) released the first clear images of the Sun’s south pole, revealing that both north and south magnetic polarities are currently present on the same side. The new images will help scientists better understand the Sun’s 11-year magnetic cycle and what governs its solar outbursts that sometimes result in geomagnetic storms on Earth.

https://gizmodo.com/solar-orbiter-captures-first-clear-views-of-suns-south-pole-and-its-a-hot-mess-2000614511

The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. The hidden culprit? Magnetic activity.

Thomas Zurbuchen, Contributing Columnist - April 29, 2024

Our sun is the best-observed star in the entire universe.

We see its light every day. For centuries, scientists have tracked the dark spots dappling its radiant face, while in recent decades, telescopes in space and on Earth have scrutinized sunbeams in wavelengths spanning the electromagnetic spectrum. Experiments have also sniffed the sun’s atmosphere, captured puffs of the solar wind, collected solar neutrinos and high-energy particles, and mapped our star’s magnetic field — or tried to, since we have yet to really observe the polar regions that are key to learning about the sun’s inner magnetic structure.

For all that scrutiny, however, one crucial question remained embarrassingly unsolved. At its surface, the sun is a toasty 6,000 degrees Celsius. But the outer layers of its atmosphere, called the corona, can be a blistering — and perplexing — 1 million degrees hotter.

You can see that searing sheath of gas during a total solar eclipse, as happened on April 8 above a swath of North America. If you were in the path of totality, you could see the corona as a glowing halo around the moon-shadowed sun.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-nasa-probe-solved-a-scorching-solar-mystery-20240429/

4 June 2025 - UCL

Astronomers at UCL and the University of Warwick, as part of a global collaboration including partners in Chile, USA and Europe, have discovered the smallest known star to host a transiting giant planet, which should not exist under leading planet formation theories.

Star TOI-6894 is just like many in our galaxy, a small red dwarf, and only ~20% of the mass of our Sun. Like many small stars, it is not expected to provide suitable conditions for the formation and hosting of a large planet.

However, as published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers have found the unmistakable signature of a giant planet, called TOI-6894b, orbiting this tiny star.

This system has been discovered as part of a large-scale investigation of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data, looking for giant planets around low-mass stars, led by Dr Edward Bryant, who completed this work at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the University of Warwick.

Dr Bryant said: “I was very excited by this discovery. I originally searched through TESS observations of more than 91,000 low-mass red-dwarf stars looking for giant planets.

“Then, using observations taken with one of the world’s largest telescopes, ESO’s VLT, I discovered TOI-6894b, a giant planet transiting the lowest mass star known to date to host such a planet. We did not expect planets like TOI-6894b to be able to form around stars this low-mass. This discovery will be a cornerstone for understanding the extremes of giant planet formation.”

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/jun/giant-planet-discovered-orbiting-tiny-star

The federal funding amounted to $3.5 million, with Rolls-Royce Holdings hoping to have the reactor ready for launch to the Moon by 2029.

Kevin Hurler - 17 March 2023 10:55AM

As humanity resets its gaze toward Moon, British aerospace company Rolls-Royce Holdings is continuing its work on developing nuclear power sources for spaceflight and exploration. Today, the company announced funding from the U.K. Space Agency to further research and develop a nuclear reactor that’s meant to power a future base on the Moon.

The U.K. Space Agency provided Rolls-Royce Holdings with £2.9 million, which is about $3.5 million USD, according to a press release from the agency. Rolls-Royce elaborated in its release that the funding will be to specifically study the fuel that the reactor will use to generate heat, study ways to transfer that heat, and evaluate the technologies needed to transform that heat into electricity. The reactor could be used to power rovers, communications systems, and science experiments on the lunar surface. Rolls-Royce hopes to have the nuclear reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.

https://gizmodo.com/uk-space-agency-funds-rolls-royce-nuclear-reactor-moon-1850236591

The president could sign the order by early next year.

Igor Bonifacic - December 10, 2022 12:23 PM

The Biden administration is reportedly drafting an executive order designed to modernize federal space regulations. According to Reuters, White House officials have hosted multiple “listening sessions” since November 14th. The goal of those meetings has been to hear from private space companies and the rules they would like to see introduced.

Reuters reports the White House wants to simplify licensing and approval procedures for more routine space activities, including things like rocket launches and satellite deployments. Among the measures the Biden administration is considering is an order that would task the Department of Commerce with creating an online tool that would guide companies through the licensing requirements from each federal agency. The team drafting the order is also looking for ways to push Congress to give certain federal agencies oversight of space activities that aren’t covered by current laws, including things like asteroid mining and space junk removal. The order could be ready for President Biden to sign by early next year.

https://www.engadget.com/biden-space-flight-executive-order-172339691.html

The Space Force and more than 450 aerospace companies are against the White House's proposal.

Stephen Clark – Jul 10, 2025 3:06 PM

The Trump administration's plan to gut the Office of Space Commerce and cancel the government's first civilian-run space traffic control program is gaining plenty of detractors.

Earlier this week, seven space industry trade groups representing more than 450 companies sent letters to House and Senate leaders urging them to counter the White House's proposal. A spokesperson for the military's Space Operations Command, which currently has overall responsibility for space traffic management, said it will “continue to advocate” for a civilian organization to take over the Space Force's role as orbital traffic cop.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/nearly-everyone-opposes-trumps-plan-to-kill-space-traffic-control-program/

TraCSS is like an FAA for space, and it's slated for the chopping block

Brandon Vigliarolo - Thu 10 Jul 2025 18:01 UTC

Space industry bigwigs have sent letters to Congressional leaders urging them not to eliminate funding for preventing space collisions, as requested in a budget proposal for FY 2026.

The problem, according to private space industry representatives, is a line in a budget request document that mentions (page 300) plans to reduce funding for the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) in the next budget year, slashing its budget from $65 million to just $10 million. That $55M cut is accomplished by eliminating the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program, and that doesn't leave the space industry feeling very confident in the state of orbital affairs.

“One of OSC's most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to US satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in air traffic control,” stated letters from space companies including SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and others.

The letters argue that safe space operations “in an increasingly congested space domain” are critical for modern services like broadband satellite internet and weather forecasting, but that's not all. “Likewise, a safe space operating environment is vital for continuity of national security space missions such as early warning of missile attacks on deployed US military forces,” the letters added.

Industry trade groups sent the letters to the Democratic and Republican leadership of the House and Senate budget subcommittees for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, claiming to represent more than 450 US companies in the space, satellite, and defense sectors.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/10/space_traffic_control_congress/

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday July 12, 2025 03:00AM

Major space industry players – including SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin – are urging Congress to maintain funding for the TraCSS space traffic coordination program, warning that eliminating it would endanger satellite safety and potentially drive companies abroad. Under the proposed FY 2026 budget, the Office of Space Commerce's funding would be cut from $65 million to just $10 million. “That $55M cut is accomplished by eliminating the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program,” reports The Register. From the report:

“One of OSC's most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to US satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in air traffic control,” stated letters from space companies including SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and others. The letters argue that safe space operations “in an increasingly congested space domain” are critical for modern services like broadband satellite internet and weather forecasting, but that's not all. “Likewise, a safe space operating environment is vital for continuity of national security space missions such as early warning of missile attacks on deployed US military forces,” the letters added.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/12/0052223/please-dont-cut-funds-for-space-traffic-control-industry-begs-congress

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday February 21, 2023 07:30PM

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

As part of the state's biennial budget process, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called on the state legislature to provide $350 million to create and fund a Texas Space Commission for the next two years. “With companies seeking to expand space travel in coming years, continued development of the space industry in the state will ensure Texas remains at the forefront not only in the United States, but the entire world,” Abbott stated in his budget document for the 88th Legislature. “Further investment will cement Texas as the preeminent location for innovation and development in this rapidly growing industry. Due to increased competition from other states and internationally, further planning and coordination is needed to keep Texas at the cutting edge.” Texas has a historic budget surplus this year due to oil prices, inflation, and other factors driving economic growth. The state is projected to have $188.2 billion available in general revenue for funding the business of the state over the 2024-2025 period, a surplus of $32.7 billion over spending during the previous two years.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/02/22/0121242/texas-is-planning-to-make-a-huge-public-investment-in-space

Boötes Void: What is This Patch of Space With Few Stars?

Meson Stars - ??? (Viewed 22 July 2022)

The universe is… gigantic. Experts assign it a diameter (if we can speak in those parameters) of about 93 billion light years, and the truth is that it continues to expand. But the universe is also home to incredible superstructures, and disturbing voids. One of them is the so-called Boötes Void. With an estimated diameter of 250 million light years, the Boötes Void only holds about 60 galaxies, so from a practical point of view… it has nothing.

The Milky Way is far from alone. Andromeda is heading here at full speed, and it will take another 4.5 billion years to get there. The latest evolutionary models suggest that the Large Magellanic Cloud will find us much earlier, about 2.4 billion years. The Local Group has more than 50 galaxies, and the Laniakea supercluster defined in 2014 is home to some 100,000 galaxies. Of course, the universe contains other superclusters, but if there is something as impressive as them, it is the voids.

One of those that has passed through the media with some frequency is the so-called Boötes Void. Located near the constellation of Boötes (or the Boyero), anyone who decides to “locate” it will have to aim in right ascension of 14 hrs. 20 m., And a decline of 26 degrees. One of the first things that stands out about a vacuum is that it has a much more spherical shape than expected. Current available data give it a diameter of 250 million light-years, although other sources put that number at 330 million. After its discovery in 1981, scientists were only able to detect eight galaxies in its interior, but with a series of observations made using more powerful instruments, the total number of galaxies rose to 60.

https://mesonstars.com/space/bootes-void-what-is-this-patch-of-space-with-few-stars/

Humans are one step closer to traveling at faster-than-light speeds.

By Caroline Delbert - Mar 4, 2021

In a surprising new paper, scientists say they’ve nailed down a physical model for a warp drive, which flies in the face of what we’ve long thought about the crazy concept of warp speed travel: that it requires exotic, negative forces.

To best understand what the breakthrough means, you’ll need a quick crash course on the far-out idea of traveling through folded space.

The colloquial term “warp drive” comes from science fiction, most famously Star Trek. The faster-​than-light warp drive of the Federation works by colliding matter and antimatter and converting the explosive energy to propulsion. Star Trek suggests that this extraordinary power alone pushes the ship at faster-than-light speeds.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a35728928/scientists-say-physical-warp-drive-is-possible/

Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 07, 2021 12:50PM

Reeses writes:

The Debrief just reported that DARPA just “accidentally” created the world's first warp bubble. From the article:

Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G “Sonny” White has reported the successful manifestation of an actual, real-world “Warp Bubble.” And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft.