INFORMATION

Just when you thought the race to reusable rockets was all wrapped up, a new competitor emerges from the shadows. Honda R&D Co (a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co) successfully tested their new experimental reusable rocket. The 6.3-meter rocket blasted off, reached an altitude of 271.4 m, and then landed within 37 cm of their touchdown point. The flight lasted for 56.6 seconds. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/bWDQ5CS via IFTTT

The early Universe was a busy place some 13 billion years ago. That's when countless young galaxies began to evolve and birthed stars at a prodigious rate. The hearts of those very distant galaxies show turbulent, lumpy disks studded with even thicker clumps of dust and gas that spawned huge batches of stars. Astronomers want to understand what's driving the clumping, so they've turned to recent surveys of closer galaxies in the "local Universe" that contain similar lumpy regions. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/frk68QW via IFTTT

More than one third of the regular matter in the Universe is missing (we're not talking about dark matter, just regular matter). It's needed to make the current cosmological models work, so astronomers continue to search for it, and have found many indirect examples of it. Now a team of astronomers has directly observed it as a huge filament of hot gas bridging four galaxy clusters and containing 10 times the mass of the Milky Way. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/cVdRzPx via IFTTT

Stephen Hawking has made a compelling case that black holes eventually evaporate, but the time scales are beyond our ability to detect it. A new paper suggests that primordial black holes passing through the Solar System could be releasing positron emissions that would be detectable when they pass up to 10 AU from Earth. If found, they would confirm Hawking's theories and provide an explanation for dark matter. Unfortunately, our best technology isn't quite sensitive enough. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/OW2sVIa via IFTTT

The Chinese Space Agency took a major step toward its 2030 lunar mission goals this week by successfully testing the escape system of its next-generation Mengzhou spacecraft. At the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, engineers conducted their first zero-altitude escape flight test at 12:30 PM when solid rocket engines ignited, propelling the spacecraft skyward for 20 seconds before the return capsule separated, deployed parachutes, and landed safely. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/pcywfZX via IFTTT

As different nations begin conducing operations on the lunar surface, humanity's penchant for geopolitical struggles will likely be along for the ride. Tension between nations and/or corporations could grow. There are few rules and treaties that can calm this potential rising tension. What kinds of conflict might erupt and how can it be prevented? from Universe Today https://ift.tt/wWKe5TM via IFTTT

You're probably aware that most of the matter of the Universe is "dark matter," and astronomers still don't know what it is. But 75% of the regular matter in the Universe is also hidden, located in the thin gas between galaxies. Probing this gas is difficult, but astronomers have used a new technique, analyzing the light from fast radio bursts as they pass through billions of light-years of gas. Longer, redder wavelengths are slowed down compared to shorter, bluer wavelengths, allowing the hidden material to be weighed. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Gc5D9zs via IFTTT

Black holes can accumulate planets and stars' worth of material, but even they have their limits. Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole which has reached that limit. Excess material is now being ejected from the vicinity around the black hole at nearly a third the speed of light. Astronomers found that about 10 Earth masses of material were added to the black hole's vicinity in 5 weeks, creating a ring of matter and feeding the outflow jets. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/ShD1uqK via IFTTT

The Vera C. Rubin is a game changing observatory that we've been keeping our eyes on. When it goes online, it'll begin a 10 year survey of the southern sky, capturing the entire sky every few nights, eventually building up a history of 800 images of each spot. It'll generate 20 terabytes of data every day, collecting 60 petabytes of raw image data. And it's almost ready to begin operations. On June 23 at 15:00 UTC, operators are going to release the first images from the telescope live to the internet, and you'll be able to watch. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/ThxSVZy via IFTTT

When the Apollo astronauts returned to Earth, they complained that the gritty lunar dust got into everything, including their lungs. There have been decades of research into its toxicity, and a recent study has shown that it might actually be less hazardous than regular Earth-based air pollution. Sure, it can cause irritation to lung tissue, but not that kind of severe cellular damage or inflammation seen from urban Earth dust. It doesn't seem to cause long-term diseases like silicosis. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/PCKlqFS via IFTTT

The early Solar System was filled with both hydrogen and oxygen that can chemically bond into water. But did we create all the water, or was some of it inherited from the earlier times, already present in the protostellar nebula? Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to study a newly-forming protoplanetary system called L1527 IRS, which will eventually become a star like our Sun. They found evidence that water from interstellar space is preserved when it becomes part of a new star system. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/2SJkg0n via IFTTT

With over 5,000 exoplanets now identified, astronomers have found that our Solar System isn't the only model of planetary formation. There are super-Earths, sub-Neptunes, hot-Jupiters, and Earth-sized worlds orbiting around red dwarf stars. In a new paper, researchers propose how the search for life could adapt to these bizarre environments, expanding the definition of a habitable world. Life could exist without a surface, or using different kinds of solvents than water. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/kBCVPu6 via IFTTT

Great, another potential long-term risk of spaceflight. Researchers have studied the effects of simulated microgravity on mice and found that it could lead to periodontitis, where the gums become inflamed and the bones supporting teeth start to break down. This was compared to mice who experienced normal gravity. This could be limited to just the teeth or a larger indicator of inflammation in the body caused by weightlessness, which could have other health impacts. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/TeBgVoy via IFTTT

If our Solar System seems stable, it's because our short lifespans make it seem that way. Earth revolves, night follows day, the Moon moves through light and shadow, and the Sun hangs in the sky. But in reality, everything is moving and influencing everything else, and the fine balance we observe can easily be disrupted. Could passing stars have disrupted Earth's orbit and ushered in dramatic climatic changes in our planet's past? from Universe Today https://ift.tt/HE8aKez via IFTTT

In 1912, astronomer Victor Hess discovered strange, high-energy particles called "cosmic rays." Since then, researchers have hunted for their birthplaces. Today, we know about some of the cosmic ray "launch pads", ranging from the Sun and supernova explosions to black holes and distant active galactic nuclei. What astronomers are now searching are sources of cosmic rays within the Milky Way Galaxy. One such source is a pulsar wind nebula sending high-energy particles out to space. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/pTv16ek via IFTTT

Shortly after astronomers detected asteroid 2024 YR4 on December 27th, 2024, they realized it posed no threat to Earth. But it still might impact the Moon in 2032. The impact debris could threaten satellites and trigger an extraordinarily stunning meteor shower. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/uwSspME via IFTTT

During its commissioning phase, NASA's [*Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere*](https://ift.tt/b7tiCXI) (PUNCH) mission captured high-resolution images of a [Coronal Mass Ejection](https://ift.tt/DnGxFL3) (CME) in greater detail than was previously possible. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/jAyDOLB via IFTTT

Solar sails are space's ultimate free ride, they get their propulsion from the Sun, so they don't need to carry propellant, but they come with their own challenges. A sail has a large surface area but a low mass, which creates a huge moment of inertia and makes it difficult to control, especially with reaction wheels. A team of engineers have cracked it though with "smart mirrors" that can instantly switch their reflectivity on command, transforming sunlight from an unruly force into a precision steering tool. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/t4VMz5J via IFTTT

The early universe was shrouded in darkness. Just hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, a thick fog of hydrogen gas choked the cosmos, blocking light from traveling far. At some point, this gas became ionized, stripped of its electrons. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have identified the culprit: low-mass starburst galaxies emitting huge amounts of ultraviolet light. In just one patch of sky. They discovered 83 of these galactic powerhouses in one part of the sky at a time when the Universe was only 800 million years old. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/rJ31v7P via IFTTT

An international team of astronomers using the [*Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor*](https://ift.tt/bRIVJ4h) (CLASS) [reported the first-ever measurement](https://ift.tt/57dQPZz) announced the first-ever detection of radiation from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) interacting with the first stars in the Universe. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/0VtnimX via IFTTT

We don't know what dark matter is, but that doesn't stop astronomers from using it to their advantage. Dark matter is part of what makes gravitational lensing so effective. Astronomers expect the Roman Space Telescope to find 160,000 gravitational lenses, and dark matter makes a crucial contribution to these lenses. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/NOZ5jVS via IFTTT

The ecliptic is the apparent path that the Sun follows during a year. It's an imaginary line that the planets follow, with some small deviations, around the Sun. Spacecraft find it easier to follow the ecliptic because it's generally more energy efficient. However, the Solar Orbiter isn't on the ecliptic and it's giving us our first up-close looks at the Sun's poles. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Th0ZOYA via IFTTT

For most of us, dust is just something we have to clean up. For astronomers, interstellar dust is a hindrance when they want to study distant objects. However, recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of a distant galaxy are changing that. This infrared-sensitive observatory is letting them find a way to use dust to understand the evolution of early galaxies. In addition, it uncovered a special property of that galaxy's ice-covered dust, indicating it could be similar to the materials that formed our Solar System. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/cUXW5jR via IFTTT

Most scientists agree that supernova explosions have affected Earth's climate, though the details are not all clear. They likely cooled the climate several times in the last several thousand years, just as humanity was becoming established around the world. The evidence is in telescopes and tree rings. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/RpyQr3M via IFTTT

Astronomers have used JWST to study a fascinating planetary system that's only 16.7 million years old, with two bizarre giant exoplanets. Designated YSES-1, its closer planet, YSES-1b seems to be surrounded by a disk of material that could be the birthplace of moons, similar to what might have happened at Jupiter billions of years ago. The other, YSES-1c, has a layer of silicate particles in its upper atmosphere—clouds of sand. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/jLTR6YZ via IFTTT

Astronomers have discovered the site of a newly forming exoplanet, probably with several times the mass of Jupiter. The image was captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope, seeing the young star system 2MASS 1612 in infrared light. The disk extends about 130 astronomical units from the star, but you can see a bright ring followed by a gap at about 50 AU. It's believed there's a new planet forming in that gap, pulling in material from the disk of gas and dust around it. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/SZNYXju via IFTTT

As worldwide temperatures continue to rise and conventional solutions aren't working fast enough, governments may turn to geoengineering solutions. One idea is to place a giant sunshade somewhat like an umbrella between the Earth and the Sun to block some of the sunlight that reaches our planet. A new mission proposes sending an 81 m² sail to Earth-Sun L1 to measure the effect of blocking a tiny fraction of solar energy. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/3XnGSY2 via IFTTT

When the Sun rages and storms in Earth's direction, it changes our planet's atmosphere. The atmosphere puffs up, meaning satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) meet more resistance. This resistance creates orbital decay, dragging satellites to lower altitudes. One researcher says we can change the design of satellites to decrease their susceptibility. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/8S03OXi via IFTTT

Gas clouds in the Milky Way's Galactic Center contain copious amounts of star-forming gas. But for some reason, few massive stars form there, even though similar gas clouds elsewhere in the galaxy easily form massive stars. The clouds also form fewer stars overall. Are they a new type of molecular cloud? from Universe Today https://ift.tt/nlyXvD8 via IFTTT

The Sun's surface has unveiled a new secret: ultra fine magnetic "curtains" that create striking patterns of bright and dark stripes across the solar photosphere. Thanks to groundbreaking observations from the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, scientists have captured the sharpest ever images of these previously unseen structures, revealing magnetic field variations at scales as small as 20 kilometres. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/QuhRbBZ via IFTTT

Astronomers recently used a pair of powerful telescopes to zero in on a cosmic battle going on some 11 billion light-years away from us. The combatants are a pair of galaxies charging at each other over and over again, at velocities upwards of 500 kilometers per second. According to one of the scientists studying the scene, one galaxy is cutting into the heart of the other with a blast of radiation. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/mXZbNJ3 via IFTTT

The Earth's atmosphere is protected by a magnetosphere, but Mars lacks this protective shield and lost its atmosphere to space long ago through interactions with the solar wind. In a new paper, scientists report that they have directly observed this process of "atmospheric sputtering," watching how incoming ions from the solar wind directly cause neutral atmospheric particles to escape. They found the process is stronger than anticipated, especially in solar storms. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/b39C2wN via IFTTT

Now I know this sounds like a low-budget knockoff of Five Nights at Freddy's, but it's the real deal from Universe Today https://ift.tt/fyZmuMY via IFTTT

Whilst NASA funding has been slashed by the Trump administration with no allocation for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion or and Nuclear Electric Propulsion, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have been studying nuclear propulsion. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/DmSWCt6 via IFTTT

The COSMOS scientific collaboration has released the largest map of the Universe ever created. It contains almost 800,000 galaxies, some from the Universe's earliest times. The map challenges some of our ideas about the early Universe. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Vj0ius4 via IFTTT

What we have now just…isn't going to cut it. Right now if you want power in space you essentially have two options: solar panels, and a kind of nuclear power called radioisotope thermoelectric generators. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/4UQEir9 via IFTTT

Computers have been involved in spaceflight since almost the very beginning. Just like on the Earth, computers aid in a variety of tasks, like navigation and communication. But unfortunately, space is really, really unkind to electronics. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/o61dp9v via IFTTT

But in space, like on the Moon or Mars, we have…none of that. Zero. No GPS satellites, no globe-spanning networks. Just radio broadcasts from command centers here on Earth to tell our robots and crews what to do. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/FwglkB0 via IFTTT

Space is hard. There's no doubt about that. It's completely unlike any environment we have ever faced on the Earth. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/B7OkMdo via IFTTT

The Large Hadron Collider has changed particle physics, and now scientists are dreaming up even bigger supercolliders. But humanity can't match the raw particle-colliding power of a supermassive black hole. In a new paper, researchers describe how supermassive black holes create a dense environment where particles are spinning at relativistic speeds and crashing into each other, releasing other particles that could be detectable on Earth. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/AkNIcEm via IFTTT

Japan's private space company ispace experienced another setback on Thursday 5th June when its Resilience lunar lander crashed into the surface of the Moon, marking the company's second consecutive failed landing attempt in just over two years. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Q26Ttus via IFTTT

The discovery of a Saturn-sized gas giant orbiting a small red dwarf is urging astronomers to reconsider their theories of planet formation. Core accretion theory is the most widely accepted explanation for planetary formation. It describes how planet formation begins with tiny dust grains gathering together and forming planetary cores that grow larger through accretion. It explains much of what we see in our Solar System and others. This discovery introduces some doubt. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/jwLQME0 via IFTTT

from Universe Today https://ift.tt/JfYuoCw via IFTTT

Titan has no liquid water whatsoever on its surface. But it does have liquids. Seas, lakes, streams, rivers…of methane and ethane. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/FiK18ma via IFTTT

Across the universe, some of the most dramatic events occur when a black hole meets a neutron star. A neutron star is the ultra-dense remains of a massive star that exploded—imagine all the mass of our Sun compressed into a sphere just a few tens of kilometres wide. When a black hole and neutron star spiral toward each other, the result is one of nature's most violent spectacles. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/d4GNgFE via IFTTT

For years, scientists have been scratching their heads over the "Hubble Tension,” the mismatch between how fast the cosmos expanded in its youth versus how fast it's expanding today. But now, armed with the most precise data ever captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found the perceived gap is staring to narrow!I n fact, the expansion rate measured by Cepheid variables versus the cosmic background has overlapping error bars again. Will the tension mystery finally be resolved? from Universe Today https://ift.tt/vYhOmcE via IFTTT

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken over the space of a week, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/cGJwR9X via IFTTT

As the years go by the chances of Europa hosting life seem to keep going down. But it's not out of contention yet. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/iX5lhdQ via IFTTT

The idea that the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) will collide emerged after decades of observations by a host of astronomers. The Hubble played a decisive role in the determination during the early 2000s. It was a triumph of precision astronomy and space telescopes. Now, the Hubble has played an equally important role in cancelling the collision. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/3bqlEtC via IFTTT

Chinese rocket startup Space Epoch put on a show recently, with a demonstration test launch of their reusable Yanxinghe-1 rocket booster. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/a1eoSnv via IFTTT