Nostr notes by Universe Today (Unofficial)

Hera Probe Sees Asteroid Pair Separately for First Time Planetary ...

2026-10-31T02:36:56Z

Hera Probe Sees Asteroid Pair Separately for First Time

Planetary defense is a growing concern among the scientific community, as efforts have been made to design and implement missions meant to deflect incoming threats to the Earth well in advance. In 2022, NASA intentionally collided the Double Asteroid Redirection test (DART) planetary defense spacecraft into the smaller asteroid of the binary asteroid, Didymos and Dimorphos, with the latter being the smaller one. While the goal was to ascertain if deflecting an asteroid is feasible, how did this influence the geological characteristics of Dimorphos, and what can it teach us about planetary defense missions?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hera-probe-sees-asteroid-pair-separately-for-first-time

#asteroidredirection #doubleasteroid #dimorphos #dart #nasa

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Queen's University Belfast Students Find Neptune's ...

2026-10-30T23:18:39Z

Queen's University Belfast Students Find Neptune's Elusive Trojan Asteroids

Astronomers at Queen’s University Belfast have led an international team studying new solar system bodies near Neptune, helping to unravel the mysteries of our solar system’s evolution.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/queens-university-belfast-students-find-neptunes-elusive-trojan-asteroids

#universitybelfast #queen

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What Could Split a Black Hole in Two? We all know that black ...

2026-10-30T22:41:42Z

What Could Split a Black Hole in Two?

We all know that black holes can collide. It has happened since black holes began to form, early in cosmic time. The result is always a clash that gives off gravitational waves and a giant bang. Since black holes have such strong gravity, it's almost impossible to imagine a way that any force could break one apart. Yet, that's the task that a group of scientists in Europe set for themselves.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-could-split-a-black-hole-in-two

#two #split #europe #yet

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This Ancient Meteorite Hints at Mars' Warm, Wet Past Ancient ...

2026-10-30T20:06:14Z

This Ancient Meteorite Hints at Mars' Warm, Wet Past

Ancient Martian meteorites are like time-capsules from the planet's past. They're delivered to us by impacts that launch them into space, where some of them find their way to Earth. One recently discovered meteorite found in the Sahara desert adds weight to the idea that Mars was once warm and wet, and possibly habitable.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-ancient-meteorite-hints-at-mars-warm-wet-past

#past #wet #warm #earth #martian #mars

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Earth’s “Impenetrable” Space Radiation Shield Was Just ...

2026-10-30T18:07:15Z

Earth’s “Impenetrable” Space Radiation Shield Was Just Breached From Within

Remember the big solar storm back in May 2024? The one that caused auroras as far south as Florida and Mexico? Scientists are still parsing out the impacts that storm had on the local environment, and a new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters by Yoshizumi Miyoshi of Nagoya University and his co-authors shows it might have allowed some nearby electrons to accelerate to relativistic speeds using something called a chorus wave.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/earths-impenetrable-space-radiation-shield-was-just-breached-from-within

#nagoyauniversity #yoshizumimiyoshi #may #letters

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This Gamma-Ray Burst Wasn't Dim, It Was Just Misunderstood In ...

2026-10-30T17:24:55Z

This Gamma-Ray Burst Wasn't Dim, It Was Just Misunderstood

In March 2026, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a GRB with an unusual light signature. Its initial gamma radiation was dim, and the afterglow exhibited unusual, delayed peaks. As it turns out, we were seeing it from a side angle, and the GRB actually packed one billion years of the Sun’s energy output into a thin beam.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-gamma-ray-burst-wasnt-dim-it-was-just-misunderstood

#dim #spacetelescope #grb #march #nasa #fermi #sun

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How You Squeeze Planetary Minerals Changes Everything Studying ...

2026-10-30T03:32:18Z

How You Squeeze Planetary Minerals Changes Everything

Studying the interiors of planets is essential for understanding planetary formation, evolution, and their ability to potentially host life as we know it. To accomplish this, researchers use a combination of Earth as an analog, computer models, meteorites, and data collected from other planetary bodies for studying their interior compositions. As a result, scientists have determined that the elements of magnesium and silicon are the most abundant planetary building blocks. And, under extreme pressures like the interior mantle of our planet, it forms magnesium oxide (MgO) crystals. But how does this same process occur under different pressures and temperatures on other planets like gas giants and larger rocky exoplanets called super-Earths?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-you-squeeze-planetary-minerals-changes-everything

#earth #mgo

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Examining the Cat's Head Nebula with the Hubble and JWST Star ...

2026-10-30T00:48:03Z

Examining the Cat's Head Nebula with the Hubble and JWST

Star formation is a complicated process. It involves metallicity, gas temperature and density, dust grains, and stellar feedback from existing stars. Sometimes, studying all these factors and how they work means studying some of Nature's most beautiful structures, like the Cat's Head nebula in the Carina Nebula.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/examining-the-cats-head-nebula-with-the-hubble-and-jwst

#headnebula #cat #jwst #carinanebula #sometimes

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It's a Ghost! No, It's a Stellar Crèche! Astronomers ...

2026-10-30T00:10:01Z

It's a Ghost! No, It's a Stellar Crèche!

Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) zeroed in on a wispy-looking region of the Carina Nebula and found a ghostly looking cloud seemingly floating in isolation among the other clouds of gas and dust. Just in time for Hallowe'en, although, it turns out that little cloud isn't the soul of departed stars. Instead, it's a region of the nebula has been actively engaged in creating batches of hot, young new stars.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/its-a-ghost-no-its-a-stellar-crche

#stellarcreche #ghost #spacetelescope #jameswebb #carinanebula #cxo #jwst #observatory #instead

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A Brief-ish History of METI. Part II: From Interplanetary to ...

2026-10-29T20:55:05Z

A Brief-ish History of METI. Part II: From Interplanetary to Interstellar

The latter half of the 20th century saw a major expansion of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), accompanied by corresponding advances in Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). A key development was the first interstellar SETI and METI experiments: Project Ozma and the Arecibo Message.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-brief-ish-history-of-meti-part-ii-from-interplanetary-to-interstellar

#extraterrestrialintelligence #meti #history #interplanetary #interstellar #messagingextraterrestrial #arecibomessage #projectozma #part

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No Comets Required? How the Growing Earth May Have Created Its ...

2026-10-29T19:33:14Z

No Comets Required? How the Growing Earth May Have Created Its Own Water

Earth may not have needed comets and asteroids to deliver its water after it formed and cooled. Instead, water creation could have been part of the planet's formation process. New research explains how, and even shows that water creation could be a part of every rocky planet's formation.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/no-comets-required-how-the-growing-earth-may-have-created-its-own-water

#earthmay #water #comets #instead

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Colliding Dwarf Planets Created a 'Cat's Tail' 1,000 ...

2026-10-29T18:13:31Z

Colliding Dwarf Planets Created a 'Cat's Tail' 1,000 Astronomical Units Long

The Beta Pictoris system is only about 63 light years away. At only about 23 million years old, it's a sort of analogue for our Solar System when it was much younger. Observations show an elongated dust feature named the 'Cat's Tail' that has puzzled researchers. New research says it's the result of two colliding dwarf planets, something that was sure to have happened in our Solar System when it was young.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/colliding-dwarf-planets-created-a-cats-tail-1000-astronomical-units-long

#dwarfplanets #collidingdwarf #cat #tail #solarsystem #betapictoris #observations

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Astronomers Solve the Mystery of the Sun’s Spinning Plasma Jets ...

2026-10-29T13:28:22Z

Astronomers Solve the Mystery of the Sun’s Spinning Plasma Jets

The torrent of corona related discoveries keeps coming. Lately we’ve covered a variety of potential solutions to the “coronal heating problem” - why the Sun’s corona is so much hotter than its surface. Now, a paper led by a team of researchers from the University of Newcastle, Indian Institute for Astrophysics, and University of Sheffield, offers another answer - that we’ve been viewing the “spicules” that form in the lower solar atmosphere all wrong.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-solve-the-mystery-of-the-suns-spinning-plasma-jets

#plasmajets #spinningplasma #astronomerssolve #sun #mystery #indianinstitute #newcastle #sheffield

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Virgin Galactic Flies Next-Gen Space Plane to New Home With New ...

2026-10-29T04:27:15Z

Virgin Galactic Flies Next-Gen Space Plane to New Home With New Name

Virgin Galactic is back in the spaceflight spotlight with the unveiling of a shiny new object: an updated Delta-class suborbital space plane with an exotic name.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/virgin-galactic-flies-next-gen-space-plane-to-new-home-with-new-name

#virgingalactic #spaceplane #name

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Moon Habitats May Use Layered Mylar to Block Extreme Heat Living ...

2026-10-29T03:37:00Z

Moon Habitats May Use Layered Mylar to Block Extreme Heat

Living on the Moon, with either trained astronauts or regular civilians, could become a regular occurrence in the near future. However, it’s easier said than done, as scientists and engineers continue developing new and advanced ways for protecting humans in the harsh lunar environment, which contrasts the mild and habitable temperatures of the Earth. The most important aspect is focusing on keeping humans alive, and this includes temperature regulation within the habitats. However, how can you maintain temperature regulation while being flexible enough to withstand physical changes like moving, handling, and compression and expansion?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/moon-habitats-may-use-layered-mylar-to-block-extreme-heat

#moon #however #earth

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NASA's New UV Space Telescope Will Launch in 2031 NASA has ...

2026-10-28T23:02:28Z

NASA's New UV Space Telescope Will Launch in 2031

NASA has committed to launching a new, more powerful UV space telescope. Named UVEX, the UltraViolet EXplorer, it will launch in 2031. It's about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, GALEX, whose mission ended in 2013. UVEX will perform a survey in UV that will complement infrared surveys by other telescopes.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasas-new-uv-space-telescope-will-launch-in-2031

#spacetelescope #launch #galex #nameduvex #explorer #ultraviolet

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Betelgeuse Is Disturbed By Its Companion Star Betelgeuse has a ...

2026-10-28T19:45:01Z

Betelgeuse Is Disturbed By Its Companion Star

Betelgeuse has a close-orbiting companion that disturbs the red supergiant into an egg-like shape. New observations show how the two stars interact and how this could help explain the varying brightness of Betelgeuse.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/betelgeuse-is-disturbed-by-its-companion-star

#betelgeuse

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Glowing Salt Crystals Tracked Radiation Aboard Artemis I There ...

2026-10-28T19:04:43Z

Glowing Salt Crystals Tracked Radiation Aboard Artemis I

There weren’t any humans strapped into the bucket seats of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission. But there were two anthropomorphic mannequins made to mimic human bone and soft tissue, but also equipped with hundreds of radiation sensors spread throughout their body as part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment. A recent paper led by Paweł Bilski of the Institute for Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and published in the journal Radiation Measurements, reports on the results of that experiment, including the operation of a new type of long-term passive radiation monitor made of lithium.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/glowing-salt-crystals-tracked-radiation-aboard-artemis-i

#artemis #radiationexperiment #orion #astroradradiation #nuclearphysics #pawelbilski #polishacademy #matroshkaastrorad

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Ancient Comets Carried Organic Compounds, But They Didn't ...

2026-10-28T18:29:00Z

Ancient Comets Carried Organic Compounds, But They Didn't Survive Crashing Into Earth

Perhaps the biggest mystery we face is life on Earth started. One hypothesis says that comets, which are known to carry important chemicals in abiogenesis, delivered these compounds to Earth, leading to the appearance of life. But new research concludes that that is highly unlikely.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/ancient-comets-carried-organic-compounds-but-they-didnt-survive-crashing-into-earth

#earth #compounds

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The Leap Second is History. Long Live the 'Leap Hour' ...

2026-10-28T17:56:21Z

The Leap Second is History. Long Live the 'Leap Hour'

Time and time-keeping is a hot topic once again, as many of us ‘fall back’ to Standard Time this coming weekend. Another time-related dilemma was also addressed this month, when a key conference did away with the leap second and the alignment of Universal Time (UT1) with Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Somewhere off in the distant future, we’ll need to add minutes to the clock to come back into sync, up to and perhaps including a 'leap hour.' Accounting for time is fascinating (if a bit break-brain breaking) stuff to consider.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-leap-second-is-history-long-live-the-leap-hour

#leaphour #leapsecond #universalcoordinated #standardtime #utc #another #somewhere #accounting

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The Rubin Observatory Finds Its First Dwarf Planet Candidate The ...

2026-10-28T17:21:56Z

The Rubin Observatory Finds Its First Dwarf Planet Candidate

The Vera Rubin Observatory found a distant Solar System object before its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time even got started. The object is a dwarf planet candidate named 2026 ED138, and if confirmed, it will be one of the largest dwarf planets beyond Neptune. It may be up to 1500 km in diameter.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-rubin-observatory-finds-its-first-dwarf-planet-candidate

#rubinobservatory #dwarfplanet #planetcandidate #verarubin #legacysurvey #solarsystem #neptune

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NASA Systems Engineering Team Details HWO Mission Architecture ...

2026-10-28T04:07:33Z

NASA Systems Engineering Team Details HWO Mission Architecture

Finding an Earth-like world beyond the solar system is the Holy Grail of exoplanet research, and the field has experienced incredible technological advancements in searching for and identifying exoplanets since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1995. This includes both ground- and space-based telescopes, specifically the powerful James Webb Space Telescope. However, directly imaging exoplanets remains elusive, primarily due to the enormous technological challenge of imaging a point of light so far away.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-systems-engineering-team-details-hwo-mission-architecture

#nasa #hwo #holygrail #jameswebb #webbspace #spacetelescope

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Unveiling Starbirth Mysteries In 1985, the physicist Heinz R. ...

2026-10-28T01:50:59Z

Unveiling Starbirth Mysteries

In 1985, the physicist Heinz R. Pagels wrote, "Stars are like animals in the wild. We may see the youung, but never the actual birth, which is a veiled and secret event." In the decades since then, astronomers have drawn closer and closer to figuring out what actually goes in the veiled stellar nurseries throughout the Universe. The tale of starbirth we know today invokes collapse of clouds of gas and dust into prestellar cores, but it still has many unknowns, such as the role of magnetic fields in the clouds where stars are born.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/unveiling-starbirth-mysteries

#heinz #universe

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Dead Planets Orbiting a Dead Star When a star like our Sun ...

2026-10-27T22:55:04Z

Dead Planets Orbiting a Dead Star

When a star like our Sun reaches its end, it becomes a kind of zombie star called a white dwarf. These bodies have left fusion behind and will radiate only remnant heat for a long, long time. Before they become white dwarfs, they expand, engulf, and destroy any nearby planets. Astronomers have spotted a debris disk around a white dwarf, made from the dust of destroyed planets. Observations show that two new resurrected planets have formed in this disk, creating dead planets orbiting a dead star.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/dead-planets-orbiting-a-dead-star

#deadstar #planetsorbiting #sun

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Massive Stellar Collisions Could Explain Early Supermassive Black ...

2026-10-27T19:24:44Z

Massive Stellar Collisions Could Explain Early Supermassive Black Holes

Dense stellar environments were common in the early Universe. These environments fostered more numerous stellar collisions, and some of those would've been mergers that formed very massive stars. Those stars would've exploded as supernovae, becoming massive black holes, the potential seeds for today's supermassive black holes.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/massive-stellar-collisions-could-explain-early-supermassive-black-holes

#blackholes #supermassiveblack #stellarcollisions #early #universe

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This Oddbal Reflective Lava World is Challenging to Understand ...

2026-10-27T16:26:40Z

This Oddbal Reflective Lava World is Challenging to Understand

Exoplanets extremely close to their stars are expected to have lost their atmospheres. But one of them, TOI-561 b, seems to have a thick atmosphere. Understanding how this super-Earth has an atmosphere is challenging.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-oddbal-reflective-lava-world-is-challenging-to-understand

#challenging

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A Deep-Mantle Garnet Might Hold the Secret to Ancient Martian ...

2026-10-27T15:38:47Z

A Deep-Mantle Garnet Might Hold the Secret to Ancient Martian Magma

A history of a planet’s volcanic activity is contained in its rocks. And Mars’ rocks - or at least many of the meteorites that have made the journey from it to Earth - were telling a contradictory story. They appeared to be highly oxidized, but our understanding of the internal volcanic forces on Mars meant that they should have been formed in a reducing environment - the exact opposite of what the chemical makeup of the rocks themselves indicate. Now, a new paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth from planetary scientists Hideharu Kuwahara and Ryoichi Nakada of Ehime University provides an answer as to why - and it involves a gemstone.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-deep-mantle-garnet-might-hold-the-secret-to-ancient-martian-magma

#solidearth #ehimeuniversity #hideharukuwahara #ryoichinakada #mars

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Hubble Will Give the Roman Space Telescope a Helping Hand The ...

2026-10-27T15:06:31Z

Hubble Will Give the Roman Space Telescope a Helping Hand

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will use gravitational microlensing to study dark matter. But it's a wide-field survey telescope, and the venerable Hubble Space Telescope can do things it can't do. That's why the Hubble is lending a hand.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hubble-will-give-the-roman-space-telescope-a-helping-hand

#romanspace #spacetelescope #hand #graceroman #hubblespace #nancygrace

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Asymmetric space waves map pressure on Earth's magnetic ...

2026-10-27T01:44:37Z

Asymmetric space waves map pressure on Earth's magnetic shield

The Earth’s magnetic field is responsible for shielding us from harmful space weather, including solar radiation from the Sun but also cosmic rays originating from outside our solar system. Cosmic rays can include deep space supernovas, so the magnetic field takes the majority of the brunt from solar radiation. Without our magnetic field, the solar wind would slowly strip away our atmosphere, making life on our small, blue world impossible to exist. But where is the magnetic field doing the heaviest lifting regarding how it filters out incoming space radiation?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/asymmetric-space-waves-map-pressure-on-earths-magnetic-shield

#earth

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A Merger Solves a Puzzling Paradox in Orion Some of the Hubble ...

2026-10-26T23:57:51Z

A Merger Solves a Puzzling Paradox in Orion

Some of the Hubble Space Telescope's earliest observations were of the Orion Nebula. Those images showed proplyds, and subsequent observations uncovered a paradox centered on them. Given their rate of mass loss, those disks should have been destroyed long ago. Why weren't they?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-merger-solves-a-puzzling-paradox-in-orion

#mergersolves #puzzlingparadox #orionnebula #hubblespace #spacetelescope #given

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A Brief-ish History of METI. Part I: Early Ideas and Experiments ...

2026-10-26T23:24:39Z

A Brief-ish History of METI. Part I: Early Ideas and Experiments

For as long as scientists have conducted SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) experiments, parallel efforts in Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) have also been mounted. In this series, we'll take a look at the major milestones in this field of study.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-brief-ish-history-of-meti-part-i-early-ideas-and-experiments

#earlyideas #meti #extraterrestrialintelligence #history #part #messagingextraterrestrial #search

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Parker Solar Probe Spots Twisted Magnetic Braids Growing in the ...

2026-10-26T22:52:29Z

Parker Solar Probe Spots Twisted Magnetic Braids Growing in the Solar Wind

The magnetic environment around the Sun is a jumbled mess of chaotic fields and streams of charged particles. Recently we’ve been getting at least slightly better at mapping out its complexity, thanks in large part to data collected by missions like the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter. But there’s still a large grey area surrounding the interface between the large scale hydrodynamic properties of plasmas and the microscopic properties of individual ions, and scientists believe understanding large scale features of the Sun, such as why its corona is so much hotter than its surface, may rely on our knowledge of that interface. A new paper that directly tackles some of the outstanding questions about that interface was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by Masatomi Iizawa of the Technical University of Braunschweig and his co-authors.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/parker-solar-probe-spots-twisted-magnetic-braids-growing-in-the-solar-wind

#solarprobe #parkersolar #sun #astrophysicaljournal #journalletters #masatomiiizawa #technicaluniversity #recently

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Scientists Can Now Spot Hidden Sunspots on the Solar Far Side ...

2026-10-26T22:18:38Z

Scientists Can Now Spot Hidden Sunspots on the Solar Far Side

Unlike the Moon, the Sun is constantly rotating from our perspective - but we still only see half of it at any given time. Since it takes 27 days to complete a full rotation, that leaves plenty of time for changes to happen to the side we can’t see that could directly impact Earth’s own space weather a few weeks later. Now a team of physicists led by Bibhuti Kumar Jha of the Southwest Research Institute has published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series that uses probability to map out what might be happening on the far side of the Sun, even if we can’t see it directly.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/scientists-can-now-spot-hidden-sunspots-on-the-solar-far-side

#farside #sun #astrophysicaljournal #bibhutikumar #journalsupplement #kumarjha #supplementseries #moon #earth

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A Huge and Powerful New Simulation Helps Explain the ...

2026-10-26T21:44:41Z

A Huge and Powerful New Simulation Helps Explain the Universe's Reionization

Cosmologists have another powerful simulation to work with. Lumina is the one of the largest and most detailed cosmological simulations yet and runs on the Frontier supercomputer. It's larger and more detailed than Illustris TNG.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-huge-and-powerful-new-simulation-helps-explain-the-universes-reionization

#helpsexplain #powerfulnew #newsimulation #reionization #universe #illustristng #frontier #lumina

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Rare Lunar Meteorites Could Fill Gaps In Moon’s Evolution ...

2026-10-25T20:35:34Z

Rare Lunar Meteorites Could Fill Gaps In Moon’s Evolution

Almost all meteorites come from asteroids, not the Moon or Mars. But after decades of analysis of the Apollo samples, researchers still rely on lunar meteorites to better understand our anomalously large Moon.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/rare-lunar-meteorites-could-fill-gaps-in-moons-evolution

#lunarmeteorites #moon #mars

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White Dwarfs Are Actually…Yellow, Green, Pink, and Purple? The ...

2026-10-24T03:37:10Z

White Dwarfs Are Actually…Yellow, Green, Pink, and Purple?

The universe hosts a myriad of star types, including supergiants, giants, main sequence, red dwarfs, brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, and neutron stars. What makes these stars stand out are just their sizes, but their colors, as each one hosts a distinct color based on their surface temperature, specifically orange, red, blue, and white based on cooler to hotter temperatures. While the correlation between star colors and surface temperatures has long been known throughout astronomy, what if star colors could change based on specific criteria, including their atmosphere?

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/white-dwarfs-are-actuallyyellow-green-pink-and-purple

#whitedwarfs

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27 Exoplanet Targets for the World's First Private Space ...

2026-10-23T23:32:47Z

27 Exoplanet Targets for the World's First Private Space Telescope

Get ready for the age of private space telescopes. The Lazuli Space Telescope will launch in a few years and part of its mission is to observe exoplanets. New research presents a list of 27 exoplanet targets, some of which are very well-known and will certainly benefit from deeper observations.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/27-exoplanet-targets-for-the-worlds-first-private-space-telescope

#privatespace #firstprivate #spacetelescope #exoplanettargets #lazulispace

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Saudi Arabia Joins the Search for Alien Civilizations Saudi ...

2026-10-23T18:54:07Z

Saudi Arabia Joins the Search for Alien Civilizations

Saudi Arabia is joining the search for alien signals coming from the cosmos. They're collaborating with SETI in the endeavour. SETI has announced that two LaserSETI instruments will be positioned in Saudi Arabia, adding to a growing network of optical sensors designed to detect laser pulses that could come from alien technological civilizations.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/saudi-arabia-joins-the-search-for-alien-civilizations

#arabiajoins #saudiarabia #aliencivilizations #seti #laserseti

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Magnetic Field Reversals and Extinctions: The Correlation ...

2026-10-23T17:07:40Z

Magnetic Field Reversals and Extinctions: The Correlation Won't Go Away.

Scientists have wondered about a connection between Earth's geomagnetic reversals, or pole flips, and mass extinctions. They've found correlations, but nothing convincing enough to remove healthy doubts. But new research found a period of time with a concentrated number of reversals that coincides with and extinction and Large Igneous Provinces. It's likely not definitive proof, but it's certainly intriguing.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/magnetic-field-reversals-and-extinctions-the-correlation-wont-go-away

#reversals #extinctions #igneousprovinces #largeigneous #earth

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JWST Reveals a Lopsided Alien World with Blistering Evening Winds ...

2026-10-23T12:01:03Z

JWST Reveals a Lopsided Alien World with Blistering Evening Winds

Typically, when we think of exoplanets, we think of neat spheres floating directly in front of their star, which acts as a giant spotlight. From our vantage point, they would look more like two perfect two dimensional circles than spheres, though. But nature is almost never so clean-cut. A new paper published in Nature Astronomy from researchers at Cornell and the University of Bristol details the first-ever study of an exoplanet that is noticeably lopsided.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/jwst-reveals-a-lopsided-alien-world-with-blistering-evening-winds

#jwst #natureastronomy

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Supernova Explosions First Aided, Then Later Impeded, the Epoch ...

2026-10-23T00:33:25Z

Supernova Explosions First Aided, Then Later Impeded, the Epoch of Reionization

The Epoch of Reionization is when radiation from early galaxies and their stars reionized neutral hydrogen and let light travel freely through the cosmos. Some research shows that supernovae helped the process. But new research shows that, though they may have helped initially, supernovae eventually slowed reionization.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/supernova-explosions-first-aided-then-later-impeded-the-epoch-of-reionization

#epoch #reionization

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Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping ...

2026-10-23T00:00:36Z

Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping

Professor Erin Kara of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research is helping advance our understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe by analyzing X-ray reverberations and other astrophysical data.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/advancing-astronomy-at-mit-with-x-ray-reverberation-mapping

#reverberationmapping #advancingastronomy #mit #erinkara #kavliinstitute #professorerin #space #universe

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Autonomous Triangular Modules Could Build Tomorrow’s ...

2026-10-22T23:26:12Z

Autonomous Triangular Modules Could Build Tomorrow’s Mega-Observatories

Private companies are getting better and better at launching more and more mass into space with larger and larger rockets. But, there is still a major constraint on the size of objects we can get into orbit - fairing size. This places physical constraints on the overall shape of what we can launch, and severely limits the sizes of, say, a communications array or a power satellite. But a new paper from researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Beijing Institute of Technology offers a solution - a self-shaping, deployable module that can fine-tune both its positioning and its own dimensions.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/autonomous-triangular-modules-could-build-tomorrows-mega-observatories

#beijinginstitute #nanjinguniversity

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From Dusk, Towards Dawn: Venus Slides Past the Sun This Weekend ...

2026-10-22T22:50:35Z

From Dusk, Towards Dawn: Venus Slides Past the Sun This Weekend

Where have all the planets gone? Late October 2026 sees a decided dearth of planets in the dusk sky, with only bashful Mercury receding from view, and Saturn fresh off of opposition. Venus, the former lucida of the evening sky is now lost from view, taking the plunge sunward. But this vanishing act allows for a dramatic transformation this weekend, as our nearest planetary neighbor brushes past the Sun and transitions into the dawn sky.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/from-dusk-towards-dawn-venus-slides-past-the-sun-this-weekend

#sun #dawn #dusk #lateoctober

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Even the Rubin's Test Camera Produces Stunning Images The ...

2026-10-22T22:17:04Z

Even the Rubin's Test Camera Produces Stunning Images

The Vera Rubin Observatory's Commissioning Camera operated for about 7 weeks in 2024, before the observatory released its well-known first look images. It's an engineering camera, and its job was to test the VRO's equipment and procedures. Now, the VRO has released the ComCam's image of the Seagull nebula. It's a pretty stunning image for an engineering camera.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/even-the-rubins-test-camera-produces-stunning-images

#camera #verarubin #test #rubinobservatory #commissioningcamera #images #vro

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New Evidence for an Old Prediction: Recoiling Supermassive Black ...

2026-10-22T21:42:11Z

New Evidence for an Old Prediction: Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes

Theory says that during some SMBH mergers, the merger remnant receives a recoil kick from gravitational waves. Instead of sitting placidly in the galactic center, these recoiled SMBH are sent on a pendulum-like motion, back and forth through the galactic center. New research has found statistical evidence supporting their existence.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/new-evidence-for-an-old-prediction-recoiling-supermassive-black-holes

#smbh #instead

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Two Disks in One: How Accretion Disks Drive Black Hole Jets SMBH ...

2026-10-22T21:06:27Z

Two Disks in One: How Accretion Disks Drive Black Hole Jets

SMBH jets are driven by thick, hot accretion disks with powerful magnetic fields. But there's a bit of a paradox. Some SMBH produce jets, even though they appear to have thin, cold accretion disks. New research has solved this paradox, showing that disks can be truncated into an outer cold disk and an inner hot disk.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/two-disks-in-one-how-accretion-disks-drive-black-hole-jets

#accretiondisks #jets

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How Flare Ribbons Reveal Hidden Solar Explosions on the Sun Solar ...

2026-10-21T23:55:20Z

How Flare Ribbons Reveal Hidden Solar Explosions on the Sun

Solar flaring is complex behaviour triggered by reconnection, when magnetic field lines break and then snap back to the Sun's surface. The flaring is complex behaviour, and its details are difficult to observe. Researchers found a new way to study flaring behaviour.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-flare-ribbons-reveal-hidden-solar-explosions-on-the-sun

#sun #solar #researchers

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There Should Be Black Holes in our Neighbourhood. Can We Find ...

2026-10-21T21:25:03Z

There Should Be Black Holes in our Neighbourhood. Can We Find Them?

Stellar-mass black holes should be in our neighbourhood within about 50 light years of the Solar System. But they're likely isolated, without much to feed on, making them difficult to find. Gaia found some candidates, but confirming them is tough.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/there-should-be-black-holes-in-our-neighbourhood-can-we-find-them

#blackholes #neighbourhood #solarsystem #gaia

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Webb Captures Stars in the Early Stages of Life in a Nearby ...

2026-10-21T20:58:50Z

Webb Captures Stars in the Early Stages of Life in a Nearby Stellar Nursery

This Webb infrared image, released on October 6th, 2026, shows the star-forming region NGC 7129, about 3,300 light-years from Earth. The central star, LkHα 234, is a young star of 5–8 solar masses whose outflows have cleared a cavity about 3.5 light-years across. On the right side of the region, younger protostars shoot jets of very hot material that create shocks in the surrounding gas.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/webb-captures-stars-in-the-early-stages-of-life-in-a-nearby-stellar-nursery

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There Must Be Stellar-Mass Black Holes in our Stellar ...

2026-10-21T20:33:26Z

There Must Be Stellar-Mass Black Holes in our Stellar Neighbourhood. Can We Find Them?

Stellar-mass black holes should be in our neighbourhood within about 50 light years of the Solar System. But they're likely isolated, without much to feed on, making them difficult to find. Gaia found some candidates, but confirming them is tough.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/there-must-be-stellar-mass-black-holes-in-our-stellar-neighbourhood-can-we-find-them

#blackholes #stellar #neighbourhood #solarsystem #gaia

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A Stubborn Question Answered: New Research Reveals How the Milky ...

2026-10-21T18:00:45Z

A Stubborn Question Answered: New Research Reveals How the Milky Way's Disk Formed

Figuring out how the Milky Way's thin and thick disks formed is a tough question in astronomy. It relies on determining individual stellar ages accurately. Gaia was pretty good at that, and new research based on its data may have found the answer.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-stubborn-question-answered-new-research-reveals-how-the-milky-ways-disk-formed

#milkyway #formed #gaia

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Neutrinos May Be The Key To Why We Are Surrounded By Matter In ...

2026-10-21T17:35:27Z

Neutrinos May Be The Key To Why We Are Surrounded By Matter

In the early Universe, neutrinos interacted strongly with other matter before some of them "decoupled." The heaviest of these decoupled neutrinos may be the solution to the matter-antimatter cosmic mystery.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/neutrinos-may-be-the-key-to-why-we-are-surrounded-by-matter

#neutrinosmay #matter #universe

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Solar Orbiter Traces Giant Magnetic Switchbacks Directly Back to ...

2026-10-21T17:08:39Z

Solar Orbiter Traces Giant Magnetic Switchbacks Directly Back to the Sun

There has been a torrent of solar physics data lately, largely thanks to new spacecraft that have begun actively observing the Sun. One of those spacecraft, Solar Orbiter, happened to have a serendipitous encounter with a type of solar physics phenomenon known as a “switchback”. A new paper, available in Nature Astronomy from researcher Jesse T. Coburn and their co-authors, describes how that serendipitous encounter allowed them to track the switchback back to its birthplace in the solar corona for the first time.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/solar-orbiter-traces-giant-magnetic-switchbacks-directly-back-to-the-sun

#solarorbiter #sun #back #natureastronomy #jesse

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How Inversion and NASA Plan to Unlock Interplanetary Aerocapture ...

2026-10-21T16:43:21Z

How Inversion and NASA Plan to Unlock Interplanetary Aerocapture MB edits

Using a planet’s atmosphere to secure a satellite’s place in orbit, a process known as “aerocapture”, has been the dream of flight engineers for decades. The only problem? It’s really hard to actually do. It requires control systems, thermal management, and orbital mechanics to all coordinate in a dance that allows a spacecraft to not just slow down while passing by another planet (or moon in some cases) but to start to orbit it without the use of lots of additional propellant. For now, that remains a dream, but a recent NASA contract to a California start-up called Inversion is another step towards making it a reality.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-inversion-and-nasa-plan-to-unlock-interplanetary-aerocapture-mb-edits

#unlockinterplanetary #nasaplan #interplanetaryaerocapture

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Under Extreme Pressure on Ice Giants, Water Ice Gets Weird On ...

2026-10-21T15:52:51Z

Under Extreme Pressure on Ice Giants, Water Ice Gets Weird

On Earth, water ice is simply water ice. But under extreme pressure, it takes on an unusual asymmetric form. It stops being molecular and its atoms are forced into a strange asymmetry.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/under-extreme-pressure-on-ice-giants-water-ice-gets-weird

#extremepressure #waterice #earth

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Mars’s Most Mysterious Cloud Might Be Defying Textbook Cloud ...

2026-10-21T12:52:34Z

Mars’s Most Mysterious Cloud Might Be Defying Textbook Cloud Physics

It may not be as obvious, but just like Earth, Mars has seasons. And every day of every summer, an 1,800 kilometer long thin white cloud appears to the west of Arsia Mons, a 20 kilometer high extinct shield volcano. At least for a few hours, before it dissipates until it reappears the next morning. Scientists have known about this feature, which they call the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), for decades, but planetary scientists have been unable to explain it using traditional atmospheric models. But a new paper, published in Nature Geoscience by a research team led by Dr. Jorge Hernández-Bernal of the Sorbonne, suggests that the cloud could be the first documented real-world example of a cloud flash-freezing out of thin air.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/marss-most-mysterious-cloud-might-be-defying-textbook-cloud-physics

#arsiamons #mars #elongatedcloud #naturegeoscience #earth #amec #sorbonne #jorge

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Scientists Use Ancient Rains to Map the Possible Origin Life on ...

2026-10-21T00:05:34Z

Scientists Use Ancient Rains to Map the Possible Origin Life on Mars

Billions of years ago, rain may have helped shape where the chemistry of life could begin on Mars. A new study maps how formaldehyde, an important prebiotic molecule, may have reached the surface. This map could help guide future missions searching for signs of past life on Mars.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/scientists-use-ancient-rains-to-map-the-possible-origin-life-on-mars

#possibleorigin #useancient #ancientrains #originlife #mars

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JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration Mission is on its Way to ...

2026-10-20T20:42:57Z

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration Mission is on its Way to Mars and Phobos

JAXA successfully launched its Martian Moon eXplorer on its way to Mars and Phobos. It'll reach Mars in about six months, and will orbit the planet for about a month before transferring to an orbit around Phobos. It will deploy a small lander, which will help select a sample-gathering location for the main part of the mission. By 2031, the regolith sample from Phobos should be back on Earth.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/jaxas-martian-moons-exploration-mission-is-on-its-way-to-mars-and-phobos

#martianmoons #jaxa #way #mission #earth #explorer

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The Gas Near Sagittarius A-star is Enriched in Metals, Probably ...

2026-10-20T18:33:59Z

The Gas Near Sagittarius A-star is Enriched in Metals, Probably from Supernovae Explosions

The region near Sagittarius A-star, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, is enriched in metals, although only modestly. The likely cause is supernovae explosions, which synthesize elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Over time, this metal-rich gas found its way towards the SMBH. The increased metallicity and heat from the supernova affect how fast gas flows into the SMBH.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-gas-near-sagittarius-a-star-is-enriched-in-metals-probably-from-supernovae-explosions

#supernovaeexplosions #metals #enriched #gas #milkyway #smbh

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A Magnetar Can Be Born When Two Neutron Stars Touch Magnetars are ...

2026-10-20T17:16:44Z

A Magnetar Can Be Born When Two Neutron Stars Touch

Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields a thousand times stronger than normal. One way that magnetars might form is through the merger of two small neutron stars.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-magnetar-can-be-born-when-two-neutron-stars-touch

#neutronstars #two

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The Moon is Still Shrinking as it Cools. That Could Create a ...

2026-10-20T14:37:54Z

The Moon is Still Shrinking as it Cools. That Could Create a Hazard for Lunar Mission.

The Moon is slowly cooling and slowly shrinking. A study of its scarp faults calculates the rate of shrinkage, showing that it's extremely small. But the shrinking could still create landslides, a potential hazard for missions to the lunar surface.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-moon-is-still-shrinking-as-it-cools-that-could-create-a-hazard-for-lunar-mission

#stillshrinking #moon #cools #create #lunar

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JWST Tracks Shifting Water Clouds and Churning Gases on the ...

2026-10-20T12:22:48Z

JWST Tracks Shifting Water Clouds and Churning Gases on the Coldest Known Brown Dwarf

When picturing a star, typically people think of giant balls of burning gas in the sky that emit enough light they are hard to miss. Planets, on the other hand, come in one of two general categories - rocky worlds like Earth or gas giants similar to Jupiter. But there is a third category of astronomical object that doesn’t really fit either of those descriptions, and also doesn’t exist in our own solar system. Known as a brown dwarf, they are sometimes called a “failed star” as they form the same way stars do, but never reach the critical mass of material to create active fusion in the cores. They are also much too massive to be considered a regular planet. But a new paper from researchers led by Brittany Miles of the University of Arizona describes one similarity between the coldest known brown dwarf and some of the planets in our solar system - it has water-ice clouds.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/jwst-tracks-shifting-water-clouds-and-churning-gases-on-the-coldest-known-brown-dwarf

#coldestknown #browndwarf #jwst #brittanymiles #planets #jupiter #earth

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Achievement Unlocked: Microblazar Confirmed Researchers have ...

2026-10-20T07:11:42Z

Achievement Unlocked: Microblazar Confirmed

Researchers have confirmed the existence of the first microblazar. Unlike blazars, which are extragalctic and powered by supermassive black holes, microblazars are inside the Milky Way, and are powered by stellar mass black holes. The microblazar may be the source for the most energetic particles in the galaxy.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/achievement-unlocked-microblazar-confirmed

#confirmed #milkyway

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New Observations Show How Black Holes Stir Up Material ...

2026-10-20T06:45:35Z

New Observations Show How Black Holes Stir Up Material Surrounding A Galaxy

Supermassive black holes power tremendous jets that extend far beyond their galaxy. A new study finds how they can also warm material at the outer edge of a galaxy and reduce the rate of star production over time.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/new-observations-show-how-black-holes-stir-up-material-surrounding-a-galaxy

#blackholes #material #galaxy

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The ESA's Euclid Space Telescope Has Discovered A New Comet ...

2026-10-20T06:20:54Z

The ESA's Euclid Space Telescope Has Discovered A New Comet

The ESA's Euclid space telescope was launched in July, 2026, and its mission is to observe billions of galaxies. The goal is to measure their redshifts over 10 billion years of Universal expansion, to better understand dark matter and dark energy. Surprisingly, the telescope has discovered a brand new comet, now named C/2026 S1 (Euclid).

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-esas-euclid-space-telescope-has-discovered-a-new-comet

#euclidspace #newcomet #spacetelescope #esa #july #surprisingly

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Webb Captures This Golden Galaxy Cluster in All it's Glory ...

2026-10-20T05:55:28Z

Webb Captures This Golden Galaxy Cluster in All it's Glory

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features the brilliant golden galaxies belonging to the MACS J0454.1-0300 galaxy cluster.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/webb-captures-the-golden-galaxy-cluster-in-all-its-glory

#galaxycluster #goldengalaxy #webbcaptures #glory #csajames #spacetelescope #telescopepicture #esa #macs #nasa

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The Chemistry in Stellar Nurseries is Complex, and a New 3D Model ...

2026-10-20T05:29:49Z

The Chemistry in Stellar Nurseries is Complex, and a New 3D Model Highlights It

Young stars form in molecular clouds, and once they're turned on, they begin to shape their natal clouds with radiation. Researchers developed a new 3D model of one feature of the Orion Nebula star-forming region called the Orion Bar. Their model matches JWST observations, and explains how the uneven structure in stellar nurseries creates shadowed regions that alters the astrochemistry in the clouds.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-chemistry-in-stellar-nurseries-is-complex-and-a-new-3d-model-highlights-it

#stellarnurseries #modelhighlights #complex #orionbar #nebula #jwst

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New Research Reveals How Long Stays in Space Affects the Human ...

2026-10-18T03:39:04Z

New Research Reveals How Long Stays in Space Affects the Human Genome

A new study in Science Advances addresses the pressing questions about how long-duration exposure to microgravity affects the human genome.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/new-research-reveals-how-long-stays-in-space-affects-the-human-genome

#humangenome #long #scienceadvances

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Enigmatic Mercury Will Remain A Puzzle Until Someone Sends A ...

2026-10-17T11:01:57Z

Enigmatic Mercury Will Remain A Puzzle Until Someone Sends A Lander

Despite the upcoming Bepi Colombo visit to Mercury, we need a lander mission to fully understand our solar system’s innermost planet.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/enigmatic-mercury-will-remain-a-puzzle-until-someone-sends-a-lander

#lander #bepicolombo

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In the Search for Exoplanets, Some Failures Are A Success ...

2026-10-16T20:56:21Z

In the Search for Exoplanets, Some Failures Are A Success

Astronomers used decades of archival data and new radial velocity measurements to search for exoplanets around a neaby binary star, 70 Oph AB. They didn't find any, which can seem like a failure. But in this case, their work only ruled out large, Jupiter-mass planets at certain distances. There could still be Earth-sized planets there, and their precise findings will only fuel a deeper search with more powerful telescopes.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/in-the-search-for-exoplanets-some-failures-are-a-success

#oph

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A Distant Supercluster of Galaxies Points To Self-Interacting ...

2026-10-16T17:37:47Z

A Distant Supercluster of Galaxies Points To Self-Interacting Dark Matter

The El Gordo supercluster is unusually large given its distance. How could such a large galaxy cluster form so quickly? The answer could be that dark matter is self-interacting in an interesting two-state way.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-distant-supercluster-of-galaxies-points-to-self-interacting-dark-matter

#darkmatter #supercluster #gordo

A Radio Phoenix Beyond the Zone of Avoidance Years ago, ...

2026-10-16T17:01:39Z

A Radio Phoenix Beyond the Zone of Avoidance

Years ago, astronomers spotted a strange radio formation beyond the Zone of Avoidance. The formation resembles a treble clef, a symbol in musical notation, and the nickname has stuck. Determining what created it has been difficult, but new research has revealed that the Treble Clef is a radio phoenix.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-radio-phoenix-beyond-the-zone-of-avoidance

The Flavor of Neutrinos Could Determine How a Large Star Dies ...

2026-10-16T16:32:46Z

The Flavor of Neutrinos Could Determine How a Large Star Dies

Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role in whether a dying star becomes a supernova or collapses directly into a black hole.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-flavor-of-neutrinos-could-determine-how-a-large-star-dies

Scientists Detect Rare Type of Wood Alcohol in Space As part of ...

2026-10-15T23:04:31Z

Scientists Detect Rare Type of Wood Alcohol in Space

As part of the ALMA COMPASS Large program, an international research team has detected a rare form of methanol in space for the first time.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/scientists-detect-rare-type-of-wood-alcohol-in-space

Host Stars Shape Their Planetary Systems Into Two Families New ...

2026-10-15T18:07:45Z

Host Stars Shape Their Planetary Systems Into Two Families

New research draws a link between a host star and the characteristics of its planetary system. Higher mass stars create one family of systems, while lower mass stars create another. These results provide a new, more detailed template for understanding exoplanet systems.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/host-stars-shape-their-planetary-systems-into-two-families

Orionid, Taurid Meteors Haunt October Skies Fall meteor season ...

2026-10-15T15:26:53Z

Orionid, Taurid Meteors Haunt October Skies

Fall meteor season has begun. Late October not only sees dusk falling ever earlier as ghouls and goblins walk the Earth on Halloween, but it also sees the peak of two fine annual meteor showers kicking off Halloween season: the Orionid and Taurid meteor showers.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/orionid-taurid-meteors-haunt-october-skies

SPHEREx Just Took the Fingerprints of Failed Stars Across Our ...

2026-10-15T13:52:09Z

SPHEREx Just Took the Fingerprints of Failed Stars Across Our Cosmic Neighborhood

Brown dwarfs are the black (or brown?) sheep of astronomy. They’re too big to be considered a traditional gas planet, but they are too small to have started nuclear fusion and made the full transition to star-hood. They also change dramatically over time, cooling, shrinking, and spinning faster as they age. Or at least we think they do - our models of the atmospheres of these celestial objects aren’t the best, according to a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by a team led by Zafar Rustamkulov at Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spherex-just-took-the-fingerprints-of-failed-stars-across-our-cosmic-neighborhood

A Student Finds Three Galaxies and Possibly Solves a Mystery ...

2026-10-15T11:37:51Z

A Student Finds Three Galaxies and Possibly Solves a Mystery

It's not too often that a high school student-turned undergraduate gets three galaxies named after him, especially ones that are breaking the rules of star formation. Julian Shapiro, an astrophysics student at the University of California, Berkeley, found strange dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of the large spiral M101 while doing research into their star formation rates as a high school student. They're now known as Shapiro I, II, and III. In the process, he's become an inspiration to other students who might be interested in astrophysical research.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-student-finds-three-galaxies-and-possibly-solves-a-mystery

The Most Distant FRB Tells The Story Of Its Origin Astronomers ...

2026-10-15T10:39:05Z

The Most Distant FRB Tells The Story Of Its Origin

Astronomers use the Webb to study a distant fast radio burst and reveal clues as to the origin of these mysterious events.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-most-distant-frb-tells-the-story-of-its-origin

Stratospheric Balloon Telescope Peeks Above The Clouds At The Sun ...

2026-10-15T09:57:58Z

Stratospheric Balloon Telescope Peeks Above The Clouds At The Sun

There’s lots of things you can do with balloons. Children’s birthday parties come to mind, as do retirement parties. But you can also observe the Sun in unprecedented detail with one - or at least with a suite of equipment attached to a gondola floating beneath one. That’s what the SUNRISE III mission did back in 2024, and scientists have had time to compile a series of three scientific papers on the results from that mission, which have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/stratospheric-balloon-telescope-peeks-above-the-clouds-at-the-sun

Astronomers Detect Potential ‘Second Generation’ Planet ...

2026-10-15T09:16:47Z

Astronomers Detect Potential ‘Second Generation’ Planet Around Dying Stellar White Dwarf

Potential ‘Second generation’ planet detection around a dying stellar white dwarf opens a whole new chapter of exoplanetary science.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-detect-potential-second-generation-planet-around-dying-stellar-white-dwarf

The Preliminary Lunar Science Report for Artemis II is Out! ...

2026-10-15T08:36:50Z

The Preliminary Lunar Science Report for Artemis II is Out!

Through photographs, spoken observations, drawings, and annotations, the Artemis II crew created a unique scientific record—one that is now available to the science community and the public for further study. Explore highlights here, and find the full suite of reports and select data resources at the bottom of the page.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-preliminary-lunar-science-report-for-artemis-ii-is-out

Honda Wants to Put a Robotic Lab Assistant on Future Commercial ...

2026-10-15T07:26:35Z

Honda Wants to Put a Robotic Lab Assistant on Future Commercial Space Stations

As I’m writing this I’m able to stare out into my driveway at my trusty Honda Odyssey. Most of the public’s association with Honda is through their “mobility” products - i.e. their cars. But the company has an impressive track record of other technical achievements, not the least of which has been in robotics. Now, it’s teaming up with space infrastructure firm Redwire to develop an automated laboratory support system for use on future commercial space stations.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/honda-wants-to-put-a-robotic-lab-assistant-on-future-commercial-space-stations

How Will Water Flow on the Moon? Growing fresh food on the Moon ...

2026-10-15T07:00:01Z

How Will Water Flow on the Moon?

Growing fresh food on the Moon is going to be crucial if astronauts there are ever going to eat anything other than freeze-dried rations. Since husbanding animals on the lunar surface is…difficult (to put it mildly), most mission planners believe that plants are the solution. But we still don’t entirely understand how one of the most fundamental materials to plant growth, water, operates under partial gravity. A team of researchers, led by Karl Hasenstein of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and including John Kiss of the Florida Institute of Technology, and Christopher McKay of NASA’s Ames Research Center, recently published a paper in Microgravity Science and Technology that lays out the physics for how water behaves at lunar gravity.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-will-water-flow-on-the-moon

Primordial Helium Further Confirms Our Understanding Of The Big ...

2026-10-15T06:38:07Z

Primordial Helium Further Confirms Our Understanding Of The Big Bang

Most helium in the Universe is primordial helium, formed during the Big Bang. But a fraction of helium was formed by long-dead stars. Distinguishing between the two allows astronomers to further confirm our observations of the Big Bang.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/primordial-helium-further-confirms-our-understanding-of-the-big-bang

Hubble Spots a Suspected Second-Generation Planet Diligent ...

2026-10-15T06:26:29Z

Hubble Spots a Suspected Second-Generation Planet

Diligent sleuthing by astronomers has broken open a cold case in the data archive of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers report uncovering a surprising chemical clue that indicates the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hubble-spots-a-suspected-second-generation-planet

Tiny Gold Nanogaps Could Crack the Chirality Puzzle Looking for ...

2026-10-15T06:11:31Z

Tiny Gold Nanogaps Could Crack the Chirality Puzzle

Looking for biosignatures across the solar system requires looking for asymmetry. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are famously either “left-handed” (L) or “right-handed” (D). We know abiotic processes (i.e. those that create amino acids but don’t involve life) create a 50/50 mixture of the two types, which is called a racemic mixture. But life as we know it almost exclusively relies on left-handed amino acids to fold proteins and right-handed ones to construct nucleic acids. So if we find an imbalance in the types of amino acids we analyze from somewhere in the solar system, it's a good indication that life is behind that imbalance.
Differentiating between the two “chiralities”, as they’re called, is possible, but typically requires advanced equipment and chemical disposables that make them burdensome for spaceflight applications. But a new paper in Nature Communications from researchers led by Takahito Ohshiro and Masateru Taniguchi of Osaka University offers an alternative - a solid-state quantum tunneling sensor that can read the chirality of a single amino acid molecule using basically just some gold wire.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/tiny-gold-nanogaps-could-crack-the-chirality-puzzle

ESA's Hera Mission Targets Binary Asteroid Pair in November ...

2026-10-15T05:55:02Z

ESA's Hera Mission Targets Binary Asteroid Pair in November

In just one more month, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission will make history. Moving at 12 kilometers per second versus Earth, the mission is about to rendezvous with the binary Dimorphos-Didymos asteroid pair. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission slammed into Dimorphos in 2022, and now Hera will provide a follow up view of the mission’s resulting handiwork. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released a thought-provoking look at the perspectives of Hera, and what an astronaut might see from the surface of the asteroids as the mission speeds by.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/esas-hera-mission-targets-binary-asteroid-pair-in-november

A Red Dwarf is Taking its Time Eating a Brown Dwarf Astronomers ...

2026-10-15T05:16:10Z

A Red Dwarf is Taking its Time Eating a Brown Dwarf

Astronomers detected an unusual triangular light curve about 300 light years away. They were searching for Black Widow Binaries, where a dense neutron star eats its companion. But they found something different: an M dwarf slowly eating its binary companion brown dwarf.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-red-dwarf-is-taking-its-time-eating-a-brown-dwarf

Hypernovae May Be All Hype, No Nova Astrophysicists think that ...

2026-10-15T04:50:35Z

Hypernovae May Be All Hype, No Nova

Astrophysicists think that hypernovae are the most powerful stellar explosions in the Universe. They're the most explosive type of core-collapse supernova. But the evidence for them is not voluminous, and new research pokes holes in it, pointing out that hypernovae may not actually exist.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hypernovae-may-be-all-hype-no-nova

New Data from the Juno Spacecraft Reveals that Jupiter's Has ...

2026-10-15T04:37:24Z

New Data from the Juno Spacecraft Reveals that Jupiter's Has a Rippling, Wavy Magnetodisk

Using observations from NASA's Juno spacecraft, an international team led by Shandong University shows that Jupiter's magnetodisk is a rippling structure that rotates with the planet, contrary to what scientists previously thought.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/new-data-from-the-juno-spacecraft-reveals-that-jupiters-has-a-rippling-wavy-magnetodisk

A Trip to Mars Could Break Your Heart - Literally When astronauts ...

2026-10-15T04:12:28Z

A Trip to Mars Could Break Your Heart - Literally

When astronauts first travel to Mars, or anywhere else in deep space, they will have to contend with two problems that our planet itself protects us from on its surface - radiation and weightlessness. Scientists already know both can have a profound impact on the human body, but just how much of one, and how long that impact can last, remain a mystery. A new paper by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and published in PLoS One, tackles those questions, and unfortunately comes up with some less than ideal answers in terms of the long term implications of deep space exposure.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-trip-to-mars-could-break-your-heart-literally

Curiosity Greets a Spectacular Dawn Sky on Mars Mars is a ...

2026-10-15T03:51:12Z

Curiosity Greets a Spectacular Dawn Sky on Mars

Mars is a planetary geologist’s paradise. NASA’s Curiosity rover drove that home recently, with a captivating panorama seen from the slopes of Mount Sharp. The image shows a stunning vista, and was not white-balance adjusted during processing, to show just what a viewer might really see at sunrise standing of Mars.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/curiosity-greets-a-spectacular-dawn-sky-on-mars

Chandrasekhar Placed A Limit On White Dwarfs, But A New Study ...

2026-10-15T03:04:38Z

Chandrasekhar Placed A Limit On White Dwarfs, But A New Study Finds This Limit Is Not Absolute

The Chandrasekhar limit states that a white dwarf can be no larger than 1.4 solar masses. A new study demonstrates how highly magnetized white dwarfs could overcome that limit, and how such super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs could form.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/chandrasekhar-placed-a-limit-on-white-dwarfs-but-a-new-study-finds-this-limit-is-not-absolute

Astronomers Uncover More Intriguing Detail in an Ancient ...

2026-10-15T01:55:34Z

Astronomers Uncover More Intriguing Detail in an Ancient Supernova Remnant

When a supernova exploded in 1181, Chinese and Japanese sky-watchers recorded it. They couldn't have known what the object was, and why it appeared for six months then disappeared. But in our modern times, we know it was a supernova, and we've even, most likely, found its remnant. New observations reveal more detail than ever in the unusual and rare supernova remnant.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-uncover-more-intriguing-detail-in-an-ancient-supernova-remnant

Astronomers Observe The Limb Darkening Effect On Nearby Stars The ...

2026-10-15T01:42:47Z

Astronomers Observe The Limb Darkening Effect On Nearby Stars

The edge of the Sun appears darker than its central region. This effect is known as limb darkening and tells us about the solar atmosphere. This same limb darkening effect has now been observed on several nearby stars and could help us improve our understanding of stellar atmospheres.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-observe-the-limb-darkening-effect-on-nearby-stars

The Perseverance Rover Reaches Another Milestone NASA's ...

2026-10-15T01:32:39Z

The Perseverance Rover Reaches Another Milestone

NASA's Perseverance Rover has reached another milestone. It now holds the record for the longest distance travelled on another world, meaning Mars and Earth's Moon. It's all thanks the ingenuity behind AutoNav, it's hazard-detection driving system. It's a win for science, as more distance travelled means more scientific objectives are reached.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-perseverance-rover-reaches-another-milestone