[ad_1] The MMX spacecraft is expected to launch in Japan’s fiscal 2024 and reach Mars by fiscal 2025. It’ll be longer still before the return capsule arrives. It could be worth the wait. MMX should not only provide highly detailed photography of Mars from above the surface, but land on Phobos and collect surface material. […]
Category: astronomy
Hitting the Books: Volcanoes, mortal enemy of the mighty telescope
[ad_1] Every observer who’s spent any time in Chile has been through at least one small earthquake. Telescopes actually have something of an interesting quirk when it comes to these tremors: they’re pointed so incredibly carefully and kept so incredibly still that even the tiniest and earliest shake of an earthquake can show up dramatically […]
Astronomers find the first known exposed core of a gas giant
[ad_1] It’s not certain just what led to the ‘naked’ jovian world, but there are two theories. TOI-849b is so close to its star that it completes an orbit in 18 hours, raising the possibility that tidal disruptions or a planetary collision stripped it of gas. Evaporation due to starlight is a possibility, but wouldn’t […]
Astronomers may have spotted light from colliding black holes
[ad_1] Black hole collisions tend not to produce light by their very nature — you may catch gravitational waves, but that’s about it. However, scientists might have just found one of those rare instances where a collision was visible. A team using May 2019 data from both the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Europe’s […]
Astronomers find the first known regular pattern of fast radio bursts
[ad_1] Just what’s causing the bursts isn’t certain. The scientsists know that it’s coming from a “star-churning” area on the outskirts of a giant spiral galaxy, but not what it is. Neutron stars are believed to be a frequent source, but there are a number of possible explanations. They may be coming from a single […]
Scientists locate the first fast radio burst in the Milky Way
[ad_1] The discovery could shed much more light on the nature of the bursts. This burst’s proximity to Earth made it possible to detect bursts in other wavelengths, like X-rays, that weren’t practical with more distant examples. It might be possible to determine the cause, whether it’s the product of the magnetic fields themselves or […]
Scientists find a likely Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star
[ad_1] Astronomers have found Earth-like planets before, but usually around red dwarf stars. That’s a rather large problem when their flares and radiation could make orbiting planets uninhabitable. Thankfully, there may be a much more viable candidate in the pipeline. Researchers have found (via MIT Technology Review) a likely exoplanet, KOI-456.04, that’s less than twice […]
SpaceX’s latest batch of internet satellites includes one with a sun shield
[ad_1] SpaceX is launching another pack of Starlink satellites into orbit at 9:25PM Eastern (weather permitting), but this won’t be a typical mission. As TechCrunch explains, one of the 60 internet satellites in the bunch will test a sun visor that should make the vehicles less of a nuisance in the night sky. If the […]
Astronomers spot a strange, first-of-its-kind asteroid near Jupiter
[ad_1] There’s still plenty of opportunity for astronomers to discover strange new objects. Researchers using the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) have found (via Gizmodo) a Trojan asteroid, 2019 LD2, that not only follows an odd orbit ahead of Jupiter but also sports an icy tail — it’s a unique “crossover” […]
Astronomers may have witnessed a planet’s birth
[ad_1] Scientists believe they have observed a planet being formed for the first time. In a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics today, a team of astronomers explain how they captured images of a young star, AB Aurigae, 520 light-years from Earth. In a massive disc of swirling gas and dust around the star, they […]