https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. India successfully carried out Saturday the first of a series of key test flights after overcoming a technical glitch ahead of its planned mission to take astronauts into space by 2025, the space agency said. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-india-space-flight-mission-astronauts.html Space Exploration Sat, 21 Oct 2023 02:23:31 EDT news617073801 Engineers for NASA's Voyager mission are taking steps to help make sure both spacecraft, launched in 1977, continue to explore interstellar space for years to come. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-voyager-team-focuses-software.html Astronomy Space Exploration Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:12:03 EDT news617026321 Jupiter's ocean moons capture most of our attention because of their potential habitability. But Io, Jupiter's bad-boy volcanic moon, is in a class of its own. There's nothing else like it in the solar system, and NASA's Juno spacecraft captured new images of the volcanic satellite during its closest approach yet. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-juno-closest-flyby-io.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:10:07 EDT news617026201 Everyone likes a cool infographic, right? Does that statement hold even if the infographic points out a gap in our knowledge that could kill millions of people? Because that's what a cool-looking infographic NASA released on October 16th does. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-potentially-hazardous-city-killing-asteroids-left.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:08:03 EDT news617026081 NASA recently built and tested an additively-manufactured—or 3D printed—rocket engine nozzle made of aluminum, making it lighter than conventional nozzles and setting the course for deep space flights that can carry more payloads. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-rocket-nozzle-paves-deep.html Space Exploration Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:03:19 EDT news617025797 NASA's Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by asteroid Dinkinesh and test its instruments in preparation for visits in the next decade to multiple Trojan asteroids that circle the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-asteroid-flyby.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:25:03 EDT news616955101 The Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace company, Blue Origin, recently announced its new and upcoming Swiss army knife-style spacecraft platform, Blue Ring, which comes after very little public discussion by Blue Origin regarding this project. For example, a January 2023 story broke when Blue Origin briefly announced a job posting for Blue Ring Senior Program Manager on its Careers page, but the job was pulled less than 24 hours later. Overall, Blue Origin has been quite mum about Blue Ring. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-blue-reveals-orbital-maneuvering-vehicle.html Space Exploration Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:24:03 EDT news616947842 An international team has spotted a remote blast of cosmic radio waves lasting less than a millisecond. This 'fast radio burst' (FRB) is the most distant ever detected. Its source was pinned down by the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in a galaxy so far away that its light took 8 billion years to reach us. The FRB is also one of the most energetic ever observed; in a tiny fraction of a second it released the equivalent of our sun's total emission over 30 years. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronomers-distant-fast-radio-date.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:00:01 EDT news616926269 As NASA plans missions to the moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crew members during their weeks, months, and even years in space. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:30:38 EDT news616941029 In searching for life in the universe, a field known as astrobiology, scientists rely on Earth as a template for biological and evolutionary processes. This includes searching for Earth analogs, rocky planets that orbit within their parent star's habitable zone (HZ) and have atmospheres composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. However, Earth's atmosphere has evolved considerably over time from a toxic plume of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and traces of volcanic gas. Over time, the emergence of photosynthetic organisms caused a transition, leading to the atmosphere we see today. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-combination-oxygen-methane-reveal-presence.html Astrobiology Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:05:04 EDT news616939501 The birth of a star is a spectacular event that plays out behind a veil of gas and dust. It's a detailed process that takes millions of years to play out. Once a star leaves its protostar stage behind and begins its life of fusion, the star's powerful radiative output blows the veil away. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-dark-nebula-enormous-star.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:02:03 EDT news616939321 Jupiter has some of the most conspicuous atmospheric features in our solar system. The planet's Great Red Spot, large enough to envelop Earth, is nearly as well known as some of the various rivers and mountains on the planet we call home. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-webb-feature-jupiter-atmosphere.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:13:04 EDT news616936382 An international team of researchers led by Dutch Ph.D. candidate Mark Snelders (ASTRON and University of Amsterdam) has discovered radio pulses from the distant universe that last only millionths of a second. They found these microsecond bursts after a meticulous examination of archival data from a known millisecond source. It's unclear how the ultrafast bursts are created. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronomers-telescope-archive-microsecond-duration.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:00:02 EDT news616670681 New observations have confirmed a key step in the process of star formation: a rotating "cosmic wind" made of molecules, which is vitally important for collapsing gas clouds to contract sufficiently so as to form a hot, dense young star. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-important-star-formation.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:47:04 EDT news616931220 Using various spacecraft and ground-based observatories, an international team of astronomers has performed a multi-wavelength study of a cataclysmic variable system known as Swift J0503.7-2819. Results of the study, published October 11 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver important insights into the nature of this system. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cataclysmic-variable-swift-j05037-.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:30:01 EDT news616929620 Astronomers have created a detailed atlas of almost 400,000 galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood. The Siena Galaxy Atlas was compiled using data from NSF's NOIRLab telescopes, and is designed to be the preeminent digital galaxy atlas for large galaxies. It's a treasure trove of information for researchers investigating everything from galaxy formation and evolution to dark matter and gravitational waves. It's also freely available online for the public to explore. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-space-precisely-nearby-galaxies.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:59:28 EDT news616863564 October and November are always great months to watch for meteors, and 2023 is no exception. This year provides a special reason to be vigilant, as the source of the November Taurid Fireballs Comet 2P Encke reaches perihelion for 2023 on October 22nd, at 0.34 Astronomical Units (AU) from the sun. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-comet-encke-halloween-fireballs.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 13:29:03 EDT news616854542 If life exists elsewhere in the solar system, it may well reside in the ocean of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-europa-clipper-survive-jupiter.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:17:03 EDT news616850221 Psyche was the Greek goddess of the soul, born a mere mortal and later married to Eros, the God of love. Who knows why the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis gave her name to a celestial object he observed one night in 1852? https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-psyche-asteroid-mission-billion.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:11:03 EDT news616849861 A team of astronomers and astrophysicists from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, Universidad Diego Portales, the University of Exeter and Sorbonne Université has found evidence that gas giants may be more common than thought in some parts of the galaxy. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the group analyzed the mass and movement of 30 stars in the Beta Pictoris Moving Group. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-gas-giants-common-thought-galaxy.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:50:01 EDT news616844198 Using India's AstroSat spacecraft, astronomers have observed a magnetar known as SGR J1830–0645 during its recent bursting activity. Results of the observational campaign, published October 6 on the preprint server arXiv and accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, shed more light on the properties and behavior of this object. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnetar-sgr-j18300645-astrosat.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:40:01 EDT news616844167 An advanced new three-dimensional (3D) computer simulation of the light emitted following a merger of two neutron stars has produced a similar sequence of spectroscopic features to an observed kilonova. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-simulating-three-dimensional-morphology-kilonovae.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:38:51 EDT news616844328 Astronomers are one step closer to understanding one of the most enduring solar mysteries, having captured unprecedented data from the sun's magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-patterns-sun-layers-scientists-solar.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:36:47 EDT news616844204 A small team of political scientists and astronomers at the University of British Columbia has conducted a study of the number of filings to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by entities wishing to send satellites into low orbit and has found the numbers growing so fast that soon there will not be room for new satellite deployments. In their paper is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-itu-tighten-orbit-satellites.html Space Exploration Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:35:51 EDT news616844137 A landmark discovery by a collaborative team led by the Planetary Science Institute's Alexis Rodriguez has unveiled evidence of sedimentary plains created by aquifer drainage within Martian collapse formations termed chaotic terrains. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-biosignatures-ancient-mars-mud-lake.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:29:03 EDT news616843741 Spider pulsars are a subclass of millisecond pulsar binary systems with low mass companions in short-period orbits. In spider pulsars, the pulsar wind and electromagnetic emission ablate and may destroy the companion. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnetic-field-eclipse-medium-spider.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Oct 2023 08:29:30 EDT news616836568 A SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday night marked the Space Coast's 57th launch of the year, equaling the record total seen in 2022. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-spacex-equals-space-coast-year.html Space Exploration Wed, 18 Oct 2023 06:49:08 EDT news616830544 India plans to send a man to the moon and set up a space station by 2040, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as the country ramps up its space program. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-india-moon-mission-space-station.html Space Exploration Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:04:35 EDT news616820668 A planned SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday would mark the Space Coast's 57th launch of the year equaling the record total seen in 2022. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-spacex-today-equal-space-coast.html Space Exploration Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:19:02 EDT news616778341 Since NASA's Lucy spacecraft first imaged the asteroid Dinkinesh on Sept. 3, 2023, Lucy has traveled over 33 million miles (54 million km) and is now 4.7 million miles (7.6 million km) away from the small asteroid. However, as Dinkinesh continues on its orbit around the sun, Lucy still has another almost 16 million miles (25 million km) to travel to its meet-up with the asteroid on Nov. 1. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-approach-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:21:54 EDT news616771313