INFORMATION

It turns out that you don’t need the Men in Black to spot unidentified anomalous phenomena, which are also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs. Researchers have shown how the task of detecting aerial objects in motion could be done by analyzing Earth imagery from commercial satellites. They say they demonstrated the technique using one of the most notorious UAP incidents of recent times: last year’s flight of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. , which ended in a shootdown by an Air Force fighter jet above the Atlantic Ocean. They also analyzed imagery of a different spy balloon that passed over Colombia at about the same time. “Our proposed method appears to be successful and allows the measurement of the apparent velocity of moving objects,” the researchers report. In a 2023 video, CBS News recaps lessons learned from the Chinese spy balloon’s flight: The demonstration is described in a research paper written by Harvard University’s Eric Keto and Wellesley Co

Earth releases about as much energy out into space as it absorbs, arriving at a thermal equilibrium. This means it will reach an average temperature as is the case with most planets. Saturn however, is a little different as recent observations show the planet’s energy is out of balance. It seems that in addition to the energy it receives from the Sun, there must also be an internal source of heat, perhaps driven by its highly elliptical orbit.  Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is most well known for its stunning ring system. It was the first celestial object I saw through a telescope and like many others, captured my imagination. Of all the planets Jupiter is the largest followed by Saturn which has an equatorial diameter (not including the rings) of 116,460 kilometres.  The Cassini spacecraft began its journey to Saturn in 1997. After a seven year journey it arrived in 2004 and until 2017 studied the ringed planet. It carried an array of scientific instruments including

Collecting material from an asteroid seems like a simple task. In reality, it isn’t. Low gravity, high rotational speeds, lack of air, and other constraints make collecting material from any asteroid difficult. But that won’t stop engineers from trying. A team from Beijing Spacecrafts and the Guangdong University of Technology recently published a paper that described a novel system for doing so – using an ultrasonic drill and gas “conveyor belt.” So far, three missions have successfully taken samples from an asteroid: Hayabusa-1 and -2 and OSIRIS-REx. Both Hayabusa missions used a projectile to impact the asteroid and collected the debris from that impact. OSIRIS-REx used a system called the Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), which touched down briefly on Bennu, the mission’s target asteroid, and then pulled away with a sample of its regolith. Another mission, Rosetta, attempted a more involved sample collection process that involved anchoring to the asteroid itsel

When stars reach the end of their life cycle, they shed their outer layers in a supernova. What is left behind is a neutron star, a stellar remnant that is incredibly dense despite being relatively small and cold. When this happens in binary systems, the resulting neutron stars will eventually spiral inward and collide. When they finally merge, the process triggers the release of gravitational waves and can lead to the formation of a black hole. But what happens as the neutron stars begin merging, right down to the quantum level, is something scientists are eager to learn more about. When the stars begin to merge, very high temperatures are generated, creating “hot neutrinos” that remain out of equilibrium with the cold cores of the merging stars. Ordinarily, these tiny, massless particles only interact with normal matter via weak nuclear forces and possibly gravity. However, according to new simulations led by Penn State University (PSU) physicists, these neutrinos can weakly inter

First looks would tell most observers that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and very young stars have nothing in common. But that’s not true. Astronomers have detected a supermassive black hole (SMBH) whose growth is regulated the same way a baby star’s is: by magnetic winds. Supermassive Black Holes are so massive that comprehending them is difficult. They can be billions of times more massive than our Sun, a number so easy to say that it trivializes their true magnitude. They grow so large through two mechanisms: mergers and accretion. Black holes can’t be seen directly, but their existence is confirmed by observing how they alter their surroundings. SMBHs are so massive that they alter the orbits and velocities of nearby stars , a phenomenon astronomers have clearly observed. SMBHs are also visible as active galactic nuclei when they’re actively accreting material. Lastly, when black holes merge, they release gravitational waves that we can detect with facilities like LIGO/Virg

After helium leaks and thruster problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, NASA has been pushing back the return date from the International Space Station. On Friday, the agency announced they no longer had a planned return date. Instead, they will keep testing the capsule, trying to understand its issues, and seeing if they can make any fixes. Plenty of supplies are on the station, so there’s no urgent need to bring the two astronauts back to Earth. NASA decided to cancel the planned departure of Wednesday, June 26 because of conflicting timelines with a series of planned spacewalks on the ISS, set for today (Monday, June 24), and Tuesday, July 2. The delay also allows mission teams time to review propulsion and system data. Boeing’s CTS-100 Starliner taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5th, 2024. Credit: NASA After years of delays and two recent scrubbed launch attempts, Starliner finally launched on June 5, 2024 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams

NASA has long been interested in building bigger and better space telescopes. Its Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has funded several methods for building and deploying novel types of telescopes for various purposes. Back in 2019, one of the projects they funded was the Dual Use Exoplanet Telescope (DUET), which would use an advanced form of optics to track down a potential Earth 2.0. So far, the largest telescope launched into space is JWST, with a 6.5m primary mirror. However, even with that big of a mirror, it is difficult to differentiate exoplanets from their stars, which may be only a few milliarcseconds away from each other. Larger telescopes on the ground have slightly higher resolutions, but they suffer from other limitations, such as atmospheric distortion and cloud cover. A larger telescope in space would solve many of those problems, but launching one that is simply a larger version of JWST is prohibitively expensive or just plain prohibited, depending on whether i

We are all too aware of the pollution on planet Earth. There are increased amounts of plastic and garbage on the world’s beaches and debris littering the oceans. Until now, it was thought that satellites weren’t capable of tracking marine debris but a supercomputer algorithm challenges that. 300,000 images were taken every three days at a resolution of 10 metres and were able to identify large concentrations of debris.  Upper estimates of plastic in our oceans peak at around 200 million tons! Every day it is believed another 8 million pieces of plastic make their way into the marine environment. Now, a study led by a team at the Institut de Ciencies del Mar at the University of Cadiz believe it may be possible to study and track the surface debris in the oceans. Using supercomputers and advanced algorithms, the team have shown that satellites can indeed be used.  Using data from the European Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, a total of 300,000 images of the Mediterranean Sea were ana

Astronauts are considered by many to be an elite bunch of people; healthy, fit and capable in many disciplines. Went they travel into space they can face health issues related to weightlessness from reduction in bone density to issues with their eyesight. These are people at the peak of physical fitness but what will happen to the rest of us when space tourism really kicks off. It is likely that anyone with underlying health issues could worsen in space. A new study suggests those with cardiovascular issues may suffer heart failure in space! Space travel and automatic intelligence (AI) are two fabulously interesting topics. Combine them and you have a fascinating story. Dr Lex Van Loon from the Australian National University has been using AI and mathematical models to explore human physiology and the impact of space exploration. In a recent study he created digitally identical AI twins, one with an underlying heart condition.  The interest driving the study is the advancement towar

Four years ago, the supermassive black hole hidden in the heart of galaxy SDSS1335+0728 roared awake and announced its presence with a blast of radiation. It marks the first time astronomers witnessed a sudden activation of a supermassive black hole in real time. “Imagine you’ve been observing a distant galaxy for years, and it always seemed calm and inactive,” said Paula Sánchez Sáez, an astronomer at ESO in Germany and lead author of the study of this object. “Suddenly, its [core] starts showing dramatic changes in brightness, unlike any typical events we’ve seen before.” This is what happened to SDSS1335+0728, which is now officially classified as having an active galactic nucleus (AGN). It experienced what’s called a “nuclear transient.” Essentially, that means the galaxy now has a very bright compact region. However, it wasn’t always that bright and astronomers want to understand what caused it to wake up. This artist’s impression shows two stages in the formation of a disc o

Watching meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere and streak across the sky as the visual spectacle known as meteors, it is one of the most awe-inspiring spectacles on Earth, often exhibiting multiple colors as they blaze through the atmosphere, which often reveals their mineral compositions. But what if we could detect and observe meteors streaking through the atmospheres of other planets that possess atmospheres, like Venus, and use this to better determine meteoroid compositions and sizes? This is what a recently accepted study to Icarus hopes to address as a pair of international researchers investigate how a future Venus orbiter could be used to study meteors streaking through the planet’s thick atmosphere. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand meteoroids throughout the solar system. Here, Universe Today discusses this study with Dr. Apostolos Christou, who is an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, regarding the motivation b

Does proton decay exist and how do we search for it? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigate a concept of using samples from the Moon to search for evidence of proton decay , which remains a hypothetical type of particle decay that has yet to be observed and continues to elude particle physicists. This study holds the potential to help solve one of the longstanding mysteries in all of physics, as it could enable new studies into deep-level and the laws of nature, overall. Here, Universe Today discusses this research with Dr. Patrick Stengel , who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Cosmology Group at INFN Ferrara Division, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant results, significance of searching for proton decay, implications for confirming the existence of proton decay, and turning their concept into reality. Therefore, what is the motivation behind the study? Dr. Stengel tells Universe Today this