https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Universe Today A recent study published in Nature Geoscience uses supercomputer climate models to examine how a supercontinent, dubbed Pangea Ultima (also called Pangea Proxima), that will form 250 million years from now will result in extreme temperatures, making this new supercontinent uninhabitable for life, specifically mammals. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-million-years-supercontinent-mammals.html Earth Sciences Environment Sat, 21 Oct 2023 14:10:01 EDT news616676987 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 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 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 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 When stars are born, they do it inside a molecular cloud. Astronomers long assumed that the "crèche" supplied all the nutrients that protostars needed to form. However, it turns out they get help from outside the nest. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-protostars-siphon-material.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:04:03 EDT news616770241 The Kuiper Belt, the vast region at the edge of our solar system populated by countless icy objects, is a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. The detection and characterization of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), sometimes referred to as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), has led to a new understanding of the history of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-jwst-kuiper-belt-sedna-gonggong.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:37:04 EDT news616682221 Ah, dark matter particles, what could you be? The answer still eludes us, and astronomers keep trying new ideas to find them. A new paper in Physical Review Letters suggests that if dark matter is made of axions, we might see their remnant glow near pulsars. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-pulsars-key-dark.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:09:38 EDT news616676975 Modern astronomy holds that all major galaxies (with the Milky Way as no exception) are the accumulation of numerous small mergers. Thus, it should be expected that some of the globular clusters that are now part of our galaxy are likely inherited from other galaxies which have been cannibalized by the Milky Way, or even stolen from intact companion galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-milky-stolen-globular-clusters.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:20:04 EDT news616674002 China is building a new neutrino detector named TRIDENT, the Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope. They're building it in the South China Sea, near the equator. This next-generation neutrino telescope will feature improved sensitivity and should help clear up the mystery around cosmic rays and their origins. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-china-site-trident-neutrino-detector.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:12:56 EDT news616669969 Throughout the 20th century, multiple proposals have been made for the crewed exploration of Mars. These include the famed "Mars Project" by Werner von Braun, the "Mars Direct" mission architecture by Robert Zubrin and David Baker, NASA's Mars Design Reference Mission studies, and SpaceX's Mars & Beyond plan. By 2033, two space agencies (NASA and the CNSA) plan to commence sending crews and payloads to the Red Planet. These and other space agencies envision building bases there that could eventually lead to permanent settlements and the first "Martians." https://phys.org/news/2023-10-comprehensive-blueprint-settlement-mars.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:49:06 EDT news616423741 There's a common pattern in science. We develop some new process or tool that allows us to gather all kinds of data we've never had before, the data threatens to overturn all we've assumed about some long-established theory, and then the dust settles. Unfortunately, the early stage of this process generates a lot of sensationalism in the press. Early results from the JWST are a good example of this. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-jwst-early-massive-galaxies.html Astronomy Fri, 13 Oct 2023 12:02:03 EDT news616417321 The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) recently disclosed a prototype radio telescope antennae for its next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) to a group of press, scientists, engineers, and government and business leaders from the United States and Germany at the end of a workshop held at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-peek-generation-large-array-antennae.html Astronomy Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:34:03 EDT news616336441 The International Space Station (ISS) will be retired in 2030 after more than 32 years of continuous service. Naturally, there are questions regarding what will replace this station, which has served as a bastion for vital research and inter-agency cooperation in space. In the past, China has indicated that their Tiangong ("heavenly palace") space station will be a successor and rival to the ISS, offering astronauts from other nations an alternative platform to conduct research in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). As part of this plan, China recently announced plans to double the size of Tiangong in the coming years. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-china-size-space-station.html Space Exploration Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:28:23 EDT news616336100 The Hyades star cluster is only about 153 light-years away. At that short distance away, it's visible with the unaided eye in the constellation Taurus. Its proximity gives professional astronomers an easier time observing it than many other objects of interest. Hyades contains hundreds of stars with similar ages—about 625 million years—similar metallicities and similar motions through space. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-extremely-massive-white-dwarf-hyades.html Astronomy Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:16:04 EDT news616331761 Even with the clearest image from the best telescope in the world, astronomers still won't know what they're looking at. It takes a fundamental understanding of physics, particularly how light works, to glean scientific data from the images that telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) capture. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-exoplanet-volcanoes.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:13:03 EDT news616331581 Recently, much attention has been given to massive, active galaxies discovered by the JWST in the early universe. But in contrast to these active galaxies, some galaxies that the JWST has discovered have been unusually quiet with little to no active star formation. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-quenched-galaxies-early-universe.html Astronomy Wed, 11 Oct 2023 13:35:03 EDT news616250101 The upcoming solar eclipses and the current high sunspot activity means it's a great time to observe the sun. Eclipses also mean that large groups of people will be together to view these events. However, rule #1 for astronomy is to never look at the sun with unprotected eyes, especially with a telescope or binoculars. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sun-safely-large-group-disco.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:44:03 EDT news616164242 Aerobraking is commonly used to slow down spacecraft when they arrive at various planetary systems. It requires a spacecraft to dip into the atmosphere of a celestial body in the planetary system, such as a moon or the planet itself, and use the resistance from that atmosphere to shed some of its velocity. That slow-down would then allow it to enter an orbit in the planetary system without carrying the extra fuel required to do the maneuvers through powered flight, thereby saving weight on the mission and reducing its cost. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-explore-neptune-triton-atmosphere.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:16:21 EDT news616162579 Radio astronomy and satellite communication have a long common history. Advances made in one field have benefitted the other, and our modern era of spacecraft and mobile internet is a product of this partnership. But there are times when the goals of radio astronomy and the goals of communication satellites are in opposition. This is most clearly seen in the development of satellite constellations such as Starlink. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-starlinks-easily-radio-telescopes.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Oct 2023 14:08:03 EDT news616079281 Everyone loves a good mystery, and astronomers have just uncovered a new one in a nearby supermassive galaxy called M87. Like most galaxies, M87 regularly plays host to a smattering of stellar explosions called novae, each the result of a star stealing material from a neighbor. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronomers-m87-jet-triggering-novae.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Oct 2023 14:06:03 EDT news616079161 Supermassive black holes are elusive creatures. Massive gravitational beasts that can power immensely bright quasars, or can lurk quietly among the bright stars of a galactic core. We mostly study them indirectly through their bright accretion disks or powerful jets of plasma they create, but we have been able to observe them more directly, such as our images of M87* and Sag A*. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-black-hole-photon.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Oct 2023 14:04:03 EDT news616079041 It's getting crowded up there. An increase in military, commercial and scientific launches, coupled with a lower cost for rideshare cubesat launches, means lots more space junk to deal with in coming years. And we're not just talking about low Earth orbit; the moon and cis-lunar (near lunar space) is about to become busy as well. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-space-junk-moon.html Space Exploration Sun, 08 Oct 2023 09:00:02 EDT news615823226 Solar panel technology has advanced significantly in recent years, to the point where solar energy is the fastest-growing renewable power source. The solar panels we have today are a by-product of those used in space. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-solar-panels-proxima-centauri.html Space Exploration Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:52:03 EDT news615815521 Missions to the moon, missions to Mars, robotic explorers to the outer solar system, a mission to the nearest star, and maybe even a spacecraft to catch up to interstellar objects passing through our system. If you think this sounds like a description of the coming age of space exploration, then you'd be correct. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnetic-fusion-plasma-solar-interstellar.html Space Exploration Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:48:06 EDT news615815281 As of October 2023, astronomers have discovered 5,506 exoplanets orbiting other stars. That number is growing daily, and astronomers are hoping, among other things, to find Earth-like worlds. But will we know one when we see it? How might we be able to tell an Earth-like garden from a Venus-like pressure cooker from upwards of 40 light years away? Is JWST up to the challenge? https://phys.org/news/2023-10-jwst-difference-exoearth-exovenus.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:46:03 EDT news615815161 The Parker Solar Probe is the little engine that just keeps going and going by the sun. On September 27th, it made its 17th close approach and skimmed just 7.26 million kilometers (4.51 million miles) above the sun's "surface" layer (called the photosphere). https://phys.org/news/2023-10-parker-closest-fastest-solar-flyby.html Astronomy Space Exploration Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:44:03 EDT news615815042 As we began to discover hundreds, then thousands of exoplanets, we found that there were two types of worlds unlike anything in our solar system. The first are super-Earths. These worlds straddle the line between large rocky worlds like Earth and small gas planets like Neptune. The second are hot Jupiters. Large gas giants that orbit their star in a matter of days. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-stars-dont-hot-jupiters.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:38:03 EDT news615724682