The call was coming from inside our solar system all along. A strange radio signal once thought to be a possible sign of alien intelligence in a nearby star system was likely created by a broken piece of human technology, according to new research. On April 29, 2019, astronomers detectedContinue Reading
China has test fired a huge new solid rocket motor, creating more propulsion options for the country’s growing space activities. The rocket motor was ignited Tuesday (Oct. 19) at a site near Xi’an city in north China, firing for 115 seconds, creating a tremendous trail of flame and exhaust. TheContinue Reading
The planet appears to orbit a massive star circling a dead star in the Whirlpool galaxy Astronomers may have spotted the first known planet in another galaxy. The potential world, called M51-ULS-1b, orbits both a massive star and a dead star in the Whirlpool galaxy, about 28 million light-years fromContinue Reading
New simulations show one way the voids might lose their ‘hair’ Like a shaggy dog in springtime, some black holes have to shed. New computer simulations reveal how black holes might discard their magnetic fields. Unlike dogs with their varied fur coats, isolated black holes are mostly identical. They areContinue Reading
A new finding is some of the strongest evidence yet that planets around other stars have moons New telescope images may provide the first view of moons forming outside the solar system. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile glimpsed a dusty disk of potentially moon-forming material around a babyContinue Reading
The Event Horizon Telescope offers an unprecedented look at the streams of plasma The Event Horizon Telescope is expanding its portfolio of black hole images. In 2019, the telescope unveiled the first image of a black hole, revealing the supermassive beast 55 million light-years from Earth at the center ofContinue Reading
Analysis of a rare, ancient star suggests a new birthplace for elements like uranium and silver Violent explosions of massive, magnetized stars may forge most of the universe’s heavy elements, such as silver and uranium. These r-process elements, which include half of all elements heavier than iron, are also producedContinue Reading
Let’s dive into the science of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, one of hundreds of billions in the observable universe. It’s also our home. Like other galaxies, the Milky Way is an isolated collection of stars and other material bound togetherContinue Reading
China just successfully landed its first rover on Mars, becoming only the second nation to do so. The Tianwen-1 mission, China’s first interplanetary endeavor, reached the surface of the Red Planet Friday (May 14) at approximately 7:11 p.m. EDT (2311 GMT), though Chinese space officials have not yet confirmed theContinue Reading
Their size will be similar no matter what they’re made of or on which planet they fall. Raindrops behave much the same way across the Milky Way, a new analysis finds. This should hold whether we’re talking about a methane torrent on Saturn’s moon Titan or a drizzle of ironContinue Reading