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Tech - Universe Today - 7 hours ago

Self-Replicating Probes Could be Operating Right now in the Solar System. Here's How We Could Look for Them

A new study proposes how we could look for signs of self-replicating (Von Neumann) probes that would prove that the Solar System has been explored by an advanced extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI).

Tech - Universe Today - 13 hours ago

Repeated Impacts Could Regenerate Exoplanet Atmospheres Around Red Dwarfs

Rocky exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs are in a tough spot. Their stars are known for violent flaring that can destroy their atmospheres. But it's possible that asteroid impacts could later recreate their atmospheres.

Tech - Universe Today - 17 hours ago

Are the cosmic voids truly empty?

If we take out all the matter, neutrinos, dark matter, cosmic rays, and radiation from the deepest parts of the voids the only thing left is empty space.

Tech - Universe Today - 19 hours ago

The Early Universe Helps Black Holes Grow Big, But Not In The Long Run

Cosmic inflation helps black holes grow quickly, but it can't explain how supermassive black holes grew to billions of solar masses in less than 500 million years.

Tech - Universe Today - 20 hours ago

Should We Build An Optical Interferometer On The Moon?

A new report outlines the benefits and obstacles to a lunar telescope. It comes from the Keck Institute for Space Studies, and presents an idea for a lunar optical interferometer. The authors say it could outperform powerful space telescopes.

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

Taking The Moon's Temperature With Beeswax

Sometimes space exploration doesn’t go as planned. But even in failure, engineers can learn, adapt, and try again. One of the best ways to do that is to share the learning, and allow others to reproduce the work that might not have succeeded, allowing them to try again. A group from MIT’s Space Enabled Research Group, part of its Media Lab, recently released a paper in Space Science Reviews that describes the design and testing results of a pair of passive sensors sent to the Moon on the ill-fat...

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

Trying To Find Baby Planets Swaddled In Dust

With unprecedented detail, a team of astronomers led by MPE have imaged the youngest disks around new-born stars. Astronomers used to think that planet formation followed star formation. But these glowing, chaotic disks are hotter and heavier than expected, hinting that planets may start forming much earlier than previously thought.

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

A Red Dwarf Star with a Brown Dwarf Companion is Changing our Perception of How Stars and Planets Form

An international team of astronomers using the combined powers of space-based and ground-based observatories, including the W.M. Keck Observatory and Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have discovered a brown dwarf companion orbiting a nearby red dwarf star, providing key insight into how stars and planets form.

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

Want To Find More Supernovae? Follow The Light

Before a supernova finally explodes, its progenitor ejects massive amounts of gas into its surroundings. When the doomed star finally explodes, its blast wave slams into this material. This is one of a supernova's signatures, and researchers have figured out how to detect it.

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

What's it like to live inside a void?

The cosmic voids of the universe are empty of matter. But we all know there’s more to the universe than just matter.

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

Magnetic Forces Funnel Gas And Dust Into Young Stars

Star formation has a lot of complex physics that feed into it. Classical models used something equivalent to a “collapse” of a cloud of gas by gravity, with a star being birthed in the middle. More modern understandings show a feature called a “streamer”, which funnels gas and dust to proto-stars from the surrounding disc of material. But our understanding of those streamers is still in its early stages, like the stars they are forming. So a new paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters ...

Tech - Universe Today - 1 day ago

Modeling Black Holes Is Easier With A Flicker Of Light

Modeling supermassive black holes is hard, but it's a bit easier if you use a non-singular model.

Tech - Universe Today - 2 days ago

We Could Use Neutrino Detectors As Giant Particle Colliders

There is a limit to how big we can build particle colliders on Earth, whether that is because of limited space or limited economics. Since size is equivalent to energy output for particle colliders, that also means there’s a limit to how energetic we can make them. And again, since high energies are required to test theories that go Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) of particle physics, that means we will be limited in our ability to validate those theories until we build a collider big enough. Bu...

Tech - Universe Today - 2 days ago

What are the cosmic voids made of?

Now that we have tools to find vast numbers of voids in the universe, we can finally ask…well, if we crack em open, what do we find inside?

Tech - Universe Today - 3 days ago

Astronomers Spot a White Dwarf That's Still Consuming its Planets

Astronomers found a 3 billion-year-old white dwarf actively accreting material from its former planetary system. This discovery challenges assumptions about the late stages of stellar remnant evolution.

Tech - Universe Today - 3 days ago

Chang'e-6 Samples Indicate Water was Delivered to the Earth and Moon by Ancient Meteorites

A research team with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) examined samples returned by the Chang'e-6 mission from the far side of the Moon. They identified minerals that appear to be from a carbonaceous chondrite meteor, which are known to contain water and organic molecules. These findings support the theory that water and the ingredients for life were delivered by asteroids and comets to Earth billions of years ago.

Tech - Universe Today - 3 days ago

How do we find cosmic voids?

To answer that question of what’s inside a void, we have to first decide what a void…is.

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Scientists Confirm the Universe Was Hotter in the Past

Researchers from Keio University have made the most precise measurement yet of the cosmic microwave background radiation's temperature from seven billion years ago, finding it was approximately 5.13 K, roughly twice today's temperature of 2.7 K. By analysing archived data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, the team confirmed a key prediction of Big Bang model, that the universe cools as it expands, meaning it was hotter in the past. This highly accurate measurement provides strong support for the...

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

3I/ATLAS Brightens Dramatically as it Swings Past the Sun

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has undergone dramatic brightening as it approached its closest point to the Sun. Researchers have been using solar monitoring satellites to track it during a period when Earth based observations were impossible due to the comet's position behind the Sun. Analysis of data from STEREO-A, SOHO, and GOES-19 spacecraft revealed the comet brightened at an unexpectedly rapid rate between mid September and late October 2025, with its light showing a distinctly blue colour in...

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Space Clouds Are Chemical Factories Making the Building Blocks of Life

Scientists at MIT have discovered over 100 different molecules in a stellar nursery called the Taurus Molecular Cloud-1, making it the most chemically diverse interstellar cloud ever observed. Using over 1,400 hours of telescope time, the team found mostly hydrocarbons and nitrogen rich compounds, along with 10 ring shaped aromatic molecules similar to those found in coffee, vanilla, and DNA. This discovery helps solve a decades old mystery about complex organic molecules in space and provides k...

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Mapping Alien Worlds in 3D

For the first time, astronomers have mapped the three-dimensional atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star, revealing temperature variations and distinct atmospheric regions across an alien world 400 light years away. Using the James Webb Space Telescope to track minute changes in brightness as the scorching gas giant WASP-18b passed behind its star, scientists created a weather map of an exoplanet, transforming these distant worlds from featureless dots into environments we can actually s...

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

The Future of Propellantless Space Travel

Every kilogram of rocket fuel is dead weight once it’s burned, yet conventional spacecraft must carry hundreds, sometimes thousands of tons of propellant to reach even nearby planets. This fundamental limitation has confined humanity to our own Solar System for decades. But a new generation of propulsion concepts promises to break free from this constraint entirely, harnessing radiation pressure, solar wind, and planetary gravity to accelerate spacecraft without carrying a single drop of fuel. T...

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Early Hydrogen–Iron Reactions Key to Planetary Habitability

How does water form on exoplanets and what could this mean for the search for life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the processes responsible for exoplanets producing liquid water. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions for finding life beyond Earth, and specifically which exoplanets could be viable future targets for astrobiology.

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

The last stop in a literary Grand Tour portrays Pluto the way it really is

NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto has forced astronomers to rewrite their textbooks but that’s not all: In the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, space scientist Les Johnson explains how New Horizons forced him to rewrite "Pluto," the final novel in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series.

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Do Black Holes Really Need Singularities?

Black holes are usually described as having an event horizon and a singularity, but there are alternative models that don't have these bothersome mathematical paradoxes.

Tech - Universe Today - 4 days ago

Rise of the Axion

So where do we go after years of empty searches for dark matter? We haven’t learned nothing.

Tech - Universe Today - 5 days ago

A Mundane Universe and the Rarity of Advanced Civilizations

How could the principle of “radical mundanity” proposed by the Fermi paradox help explain why humans haven’t found evidence of extraterrestrial technological civilizations (ETCs)? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a lone researcher investigated the prospect for finding ETCs based on this principle. This study has the potential to help scientists and the public better understand why we haven’t identified intelligent life beyond Earth and how we might narrow the search fo...

Tech - Universe Today - 5 days ago

The Keen-Eyed Vera Rubin Observatory Has Discovered A Massive Stellar Stream

The Vera Rubin Observatory saw first light in June 2025. Its images from that time are called the Virgo First Look images because they focus on the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. M61 is one of the galaxies in that cluster, and the VRO has detected a stellar stream of stars around the distant spiral galaxy in Rubin's images.

Tech - Universe Today - 5 days ago

This Radio Colour Image Is A New Way To Explore The Milky Way

Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia have created a stunning new radio colour image of the Milky Way. By mapping different radio frequencies to RGB colours, the image reveals large-scale astrophysical phenomena and gives researchers a new tool to understand the lifecycle of stars.

Tech - Universe Today - 5 days ago

The Empty Search for Dark Matter

What if I told you that while you can’t see dark matter, maybe you can hear it?

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

We're Putting Lots Of Transition Metals Into The Stratosphere. That's Not Good.

We successfully plugged the hole in the ozone layer that was discovered in the 1980s by banning ozone depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But, it seems we might be unintentionally creating another potential atmospheric calamity by using the upper atmosphere to destroy huge constellations of satellites after a very short (i.e. 5 year) lifetime. According to a new paper by Leonard Schulz of the Technical University of Braunschweig and his co-authors, material from satellites t...

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

Surveying Atmospheric Escape from Gas Giants Orbiting F-Type Stars

Why is it important to know about exoplanets having their atmospheres stripped while orbiting F-type stars? This is what a recent study submitted to The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as an international team of scientists conducted a first-time investigation into atmospheric escape on planets orbiting F-type stars, the latter of which are larger and hotter than our Sun. Atmospheric escape occurs on planets orbiting extremely close to their stars, resulting in the extreme temperature and ...

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

New Findings Say the First Stars in the Universe Were Born in Pairs

New research from Tel Aviv University reveals that the first stars in the Universe formed in binary systems. These stars played a vital role in the evolution of early galaxies, giving rise to black holes and seeding the Universe with the ingredients for life.

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

Jupiter Saved Earth from Spiralling Into the Sun

The gas giant’s early growth carved rings in the protoplanetary disk that surrounded our Sun billions of years ago. This process set the architecture for the inner Solar System and prevented Earth from spiraling into the Sun.

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

One Of The Milky Way's Satellites Could Be A "Little Red Dot"

A tiny dim satellite galaxy of the Milky Way doesn't have enough stars to hold itself together. Its properties suggest that its dark matter halo is holding it together, but new research counters that. Researchers say that it's not dark matter but a massive black hole that's keeping the dwarf galaxy intact.

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

To Expand Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Astronomers Look to a Band That's Mid

Current gravitational wave observatories can't see a range of frequencies known as mid-band. That could change with a new detector that uses a trick from atomic clocks.

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

Why the WIMPs Became the Toughest Particle in Physics

As a kid you ever play that game Guess Who? If you haven’t, it’s actually kinda fun.

Tech - Universe Today - 6 days ago

X-59 Super-Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Makes Its First Test Flight

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has executed the first test flight of the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft in partnership with NASA. The first flight was subsonic, but eventually the plane will demonstrate technologies aimed at reducing sonic booms to gentle thumps.

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

When Black Holes Eat Their Own

Black holes are eating each other and growing fat on the remains! They then seem to move on, finding new partners to devour in what can only be described as a cycle of violence. Two gravitational wave detections from late 2024 have caught these “second generation" black holes in the act, one spinning so fast it ranks among the most extreme ever observed, the other rotating backwards. These aren't simple collisions between black holes born from dying stars, instead they're the products of earlier...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

The Great Space Spider That Hides a Secret

A giant spider sprawls across space, its three light year legs stretching into the cosmos powered by a star in its death throes. The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the Red Spider Nebula in stunning new detail, revealing not just the spectacular structure of a dying Sun like star, but also hints of a hidden companion influencing the show. What appeared faint and unremarkable in previous observations now blazes with infrared light, exposing hot dust shrouding the central star and fast mov...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

What Ancient Solar Storms Meant for Life on Earth

I tour a science show around the UK and have often fancied a flame thrower based demo, theatres are not so keen though. Imagine the Sun as a flamethrower in its youth, hurling solar storms and plasma bombs into space with incredible ferocity. Scientists have just witnessed what those ancient events might look like by observing a young star similar to our infant Sun, and the findings are both alarming and fascinating. Using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground observatories acr...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

A Second Instrument On HWO Could Track Down Nearby Earth-Size Planets

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is slated to be the next Great Observatory for the world. Its main focus has been searching for biosignatures in the atmospheres of at least 25 Earth-like exoplanets. However, to do that, it will require a significant amount of effort with only a coronagraph, the currently planned primary instrument, no matter how powerful that coronagraph is. As new paper from Fabien Malbet of the University of Grenoble Alpes and his co-authors suggest an improvement - add...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

Fate of Water-Rich Planets Around White Dwarfs

Can water-rich exoplanets survive orbiting white dwarf stars, the latter of which are remnants of Sun-like stars? This is what a recent study accepted to The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the likelihood of small, rocky worlds with close orbits to white dwarfs could harbor life. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions for finding life as we know it, or don’t know it, and where to find it.

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

Mapping the Universe's Largest Objects

A team of scientists has released a new survey mapping massive galaxy clusters, some of the largest structures in the universe, to test whether our fundamental understanding of the laws of the universe need revision. The analysis, using six years of Dark Energy Survey data, addresses an ongoing debate about whether the universe has more structure than our best models predict, ultimately reinforcing that our current rules remain accurate while demonstrating that galaxy clusters provide a powerful...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

The Hidden Gas That Builds Stars

Astronomers have created the first large scale map of dark molecular gas in the Milky Way, revealing vast networks of invisible star forming material that have so far have remained undetected. Using the Green Bank Radio Telescope to observe faint signals from carbon, the research team has finally started to uncover one of astronomy's biggest mysteries. Their discovery uncovers turbulent flows of gas moving faster than expected and show how raw galactic matter transforms into the molecular clouds...

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

Spying Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Near Perihelion

Everyone’s favorite interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS isn’t really hiding near perihelion this week, as amateur astronomers reveal. Don’t believe the breathless ballyhoo that you’re currently reading around the web about interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS. In a clockwork Universe, comets are the big wildcard, and interstellar comets doubly so. This particular comet is scientifically interesting enough in its own right, no alien interlopers needed.

Tech - Universe Today - 7 days ago

Fifty Years of Dark Matter

In the 1970’s Vera Rubin didn’t set out to upend modern cosmology.

Tech - Universe Today - 8 days ago

Many Asteroid Rotations Are Chaotic. A New Model Helps Explain Them.

Asteroids spin. Most of them do so rather slowly, and up until now most theories of asteroid rotation have failed to explain exactly why. A new paper from Wen-Han Zhou at the University of Tokyo and his co-authors might finally be able to fully explain that mystery as well as a few others related to asteroid rotation. Their work was presented at the Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science in late September and could ...

Tech - Universe Today - 8 days ago

Building Homes Beyond Earth

A new study has reviewed how space habitat designs have evolved from inflatable bubbles to 3D-printed structures built from Martian dust. The research traces how engineers have wrestled with extreme temperatures, the bombmardment of radiation, and the challenge of building on worlds without breathable air, transforming each obstacle into solved problems with innovative ideas and designs that could soon house the first permanent residents of the Moon and Mars.

Tech - Universe Today - 8 days ago

Spectral Biosignatures of Airborne Microbes in Planetary Atmospheres

Could scientists find life in the clouds of exoplanet atmospheres? This is what a recently submitted manuscript hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how the biosignatures of microbes could be identified in exoplanet atmospheres and clouds. This study has the potential to help scientists develop new methods for finding life on exoplanets, either as we know it or even as we don’t know it.

Tech - Universe Today - 8 days ago

Scientists Discover Ingredients for Life Just Beyond our Galaxy

A team led by a University of Maryland astronomer detected large complex organic molecules in ices outside of the Milky Way for the first time, offering a glimpse into the chemistry of the early universe.

Tech - Universe Today - 8 days ago

The Cosmic Microwave Background is a Wall of Light. Here's How We Might See Beyond It

We cannot see directly beyond the cosmic microwave background, which means we can't directly observe the first 380,000 years of the Universe. But there are indirect ways we might observe this period.

Tech - Universe Today - 9 days ago

The Quest for Corrosion Proof Satellites

Satellites orbiting Earth face a constant assault from highly reactive single atom of oxygen which are created when solar radiation splits oxygen molecules in the upper atmosphere. These atoms don't just create drag that pulls spacecraft back to Earth, they also bind to satellite surfaces, causing corrosion that limits most satellites to roughly five year lifespans. A team of engineers at the University of Texas at Dallas have been developing a protective coating using techniques borrowed from m...

Tech - Universe Today - 9 days ago

A Fibre Optic Breakthrough Reveals the Universe in Sharper Detail

Astronomers have discovered a clever way to make a single telescope capture sharper details than should be physically possible. The technique involves feeding starlight through a special optical fibre called a photonic lantern. Anyone else thinking of a certain glowing green lantern from a movie? Alas not, instead of special powers, it splits light according to its spatial patterns like separating a musical chords into individual notes. The researchers achieved resolution that has never been ach...

Tech - Universe Today - 9 days ago

The Tycho Supernova's Hidden Secret

The famous Tycho supernova of 1572, witnessed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, didn't explode in empty space as has been assumed. New analysis reveals it detonated inside a planetary nebula, the ghostly shell of gas expelled by an earlier dying star. The evidence lies in two "ear" shaped structures that were sticking out from the remnant's main shell, matching similar features in three other supernovae previously identified as explosions within planetary nebulae. This discovery supports the "co...

Tech - Universe Today - 10 days ago

AI Learns to Identify Exploding Stars with Just 15 Examples

How can artificial intelligence (AI) help astronomers identify celestial objects in the night sky? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the potential for using AI to conduct astrophysical surveys of celestial events, including black holes consuming stars or even exploding stars themselves. This study has the potential to help astronomers use AI to enhance the field by reducing time and resources that have ...

Tech - Universe Today - 10 days ago

Galactic Empires May Live at the Center of our Galaxy, Hence Why We Don't Hear from Them

In a recent paper, a team of researchers proposes how humanity may someday relocate its entire civilization near the center of our galaxy to take advantage of the relativistic effects of the supermassive black hole there. They also indicate how other advanced civilizations could have done so already.

Tech - Universe Today - 11 days ago

China's Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Passes Key Milestone

On Monday, Chinese company LandSpace executed a static-fire test with its 217-foot-tall Zhuque-3, a reusable rocket that China hopes will rival SpaceX. The rocket is on the way to its inaugural test flight expected at some point later this year.

Tech - Universe Today - 11 days ago

This New Super Earth May Have Liquid Water And It's In Our Neighbourhood

Astronomers have found a new super-Earth only about 20 light years away. At that distance, it's a candidate for direct imaging.

Tech - Universe Today - 11 days ago

XRISM Catches a Pulsar’s Cosmic Wind...and Sees a Surprising Result

The Universe is a strange place. The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) orbiting observatory recently highlighted this fact, when it was turned on a pulsar to document its powerful cosmic winds. The discovery comes courtesy of ESA’s Resolve instrument, a soft X-ray spectrometer aboard XRISM. The study looked at neutron star GX 13+1. This is a strong X-ray source located in the constellation Sagittarius, very near the galactic plane towards the core of our galaxy. GX 13+1 is about 23...

Tech - Universe Today - 12 days ago

Teach-And-Repeat Driving Could Automate Lunar Cargo Delivery

Driving on the Moon for the first time has got to be an exhilarating experience. But driving the same path on the Moon for the 500th time probably won’t be nearly as exciting to whatever poor astronaut got stuck with that duty for the day. With that in mind, a team of researchers led by PhD student Alec Krawciw and Professor Tim Barfoot of the University of Toronto are working on a way to automate the mundane task of driving goods back and forth from a lunar landing site to a nascent lunar explo...

Tech - Universe Today - 12 days ago

Are We In The Solitude Zone Of The Universe?

Are we alone? It’s probably one of the, if not the most basic questions of human existence. People have been trying to answer it for millennia in one form or another, but only recently have we gained the tools and knowledge to start tractably trying to estimate whether we are or not. Those efforts take the form of famous tools like the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation, but there’s always room for a more nuanced understanding. A new paper in Acta Astronautica from Antal Veres of the Hungarian...

Tech - Universe Today - 12 days ago

ESA Is Simulating A Solar Storms For Satellite Operator Training

Threats from space aren’t always obvious, but statistically its only a matter of time before one of them happens. One of the most concerning for many space experts is a massive solar storm, like the one that literally lit telegraph paper on fire when it hit back in 1859. In the last 150 years our technology has improved by leaps and bounds, but that also means it's much more susceptible to damage if another event like the “Carrington Event”, as the storm in 1859 is called. Estimates for potentia...

Tech - Universe Today - 12 days ago

Phosphorus Prepared Earth For Complex Life And Could Be A Valuable Biosignature

A new study has revealed how phosphorus, a nutrient essential for photosynthesis, surged into ancient oceans and started Earth's first major rise in atmospheric oxygen more than 2 billion years ago.

Tech - Universe Today - 13 days ago

Acting NASA Chief Announces More "Shakeups"

Acting NASA chief Sean Duffy announces that NASA's plan to land astronauts on the Moon by 2027 is no longer achievable and announces new competitions to develop a lunar lander.

Tech - Universe Today - 13 days ago

A Galaxy's Age Determines What Type Of Planets It Can Form

The chemistry of a galaxy changes over time as generations of stars live and die, spreading the results of their nucleosynthesis out into space. But stars with different masses produce different elements, and these stars have different lifespans. That means that over time, the materials readily available for planet formation also change.

Tech - Universe Today - 13 days ago

The JWST Spots A Doomed Star Entombed In Thick Dust

Astronomers working with the JWST, along with help from the Hubble, have found a red supergiant star that eventually exploded as a supernova. The discovery helps solve the 'red supergiant problem' that confounds efforts to understand how these stars serve as progenitors that eventually explode as Type II supernova.

Tech - Universe Today - 13 days ago

Dark Matter Could Color Our View of the Universe

Dark matter could tint light passing through it, depending on the model. While the effect is tiny, it is just on the edge of our ability to detect it.

Tech - Universe Today - 14 days ago

Two Black Holes Observed Circling Each Other for the First Time

For the first time, astronomers have managed to capture a radio image showing two black holes orbiting each other. The observation confirmed the existence of black hole pairs. In the past, astronomers have only managed to image individual black holes.

Tech - Universe Today - 14 days ago

Hidden In The Sun's Glare, This Asteroid Is Uncomfortably Close To Earth

Astronomers have detected an extremely fast asteroid in the blinding light of the Sun. Objects are extremely difficult to discern in the Sun's glare, but these 'twilight' asteroids could pose a threat to Earth. It's important that we find them all.

Tech - Universe Today - 14 days ago

Titan Is Teaching A New Chemistry Lesson

On bizarre Titan, chemicals can combine in surprising ways, creating host-and-guest relationships. Since Titan is similar to primitive Earth, these new findings could shed light on Earth's prebiotic chemistry. Stay tuned.

Tech - Universe Today - 14 days ago

Hera And Europa Clipper Will Pass Through 3I/ATLAS' Tail

All sorts of crazy things have been suggested regarding 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object that we’ve discovered. Some are simply conspiracy theories about it being an alien spacecraft, while others have been well-thought out suggestions, like using Martian-based probes to observe the comet as it streaked past the red planet. A new paper pre-published on arXiv and accepted for publication by the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society by Samuel Grand and Geraint Jones, of ...

Tech - Universe Today - 15 days ago

Scientist Have Uncovered The First Evidence of the 4.5-Billion-Year-Old “Proto Earth”

Researchers have discovered remnants from the primordial Earth before the giant collision that created the Moon. The ingredients of this "proto-Earth" help tell the tale of the entire Solar System. But there are still unanswered questions regarding all of the material that became the Earth.

Tech - Universe Today - 15 days ago

The Winds on Mars are Stronger Than We Thought

An international research team led by the University of Bern analyzed images taken by the Mars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) camera, CaSSIS, and the stereo camera HRSC, utilizing machine learning. Their work reveals that dust devils, a common feature on Mars, are faster than previously thought.

Tech - Universe Today - 15 days ago

How A Trick From Radio Astronomy Could Help Astronomers Find Earth-like Planets

By treating optical telescopes as an array of smaller telescopes, astronomers could observe exoplanets more clearly.

Tech - Universe Today - 15 days ago

What Do We Do If SETI Is Successful?

The Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is evolving. We’ve moved on from the limited thinking of monitoring radio waves to checking for interstellar pushing lasers or even budding Dyson swarms around stars. To match our increased understanding of the ways we might find intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is working through an update to its protocols for what researchers should do after a confirmed detection of intelligence outside of...

Tech - Universe Today - 16 days ago

Constraints On Solar Power Satellites Are More Ground-Based Than Space-Based

Space-based solar power has been gaining more and more traction recently. The recent success of Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project, which demonstrated the feasibility of transmitting power from space to the ground, has been matched by a number of pilot projects throughout the world, all of which are hoping to tap into some of the almost unlimited and constant solar energy that is accessible up in geostationary orbit (GEO). But, according to a new paper from a group of Italian and German researc...

Tech - Universe Today - 17 days ago

Signs of Late-Stage Cryovolcanism in Pluto’s Hayabusa Terra

What can cryovolcanism on Pluto teach scientists about the dwarf planet’s current geological activity? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated potential cryovolcanic sites within specific regions on Pluto. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the current geological activity, including how it can be active while orbiting so far from the Sun.

Tech - Universe Today - 17 days ago

Within Mars’ Craters, Ice Deposits Have Recorded the History of the Planet

Mars has experienced multiple ice ages, with each one leaving less ice than the last. By studying craters that serve as “ice archives,” researchers traced how the red planet stored and lost its water over hundreds of millions of years. These frozen records not only reveal Mars’ long-term climate history but also identify hidden resources beneath the surface that could provide drinking water, oxygen, and even rocket fuel for future astronauts.

Tech - Universe Today - 17 days ago

Listening For Gravitational Waves In The Rhythm of Pulsars

Astronomers are listening for cosmic gravitational waves in the rhythm of pulsars. But even after finding them, they will need to distinguish between cosmic waves and the more local waves of black holes.

Tech - Universe Today - 18 days ago

Starship Could Cut The Travel Time To Uranus In Half

The ice giants remain some of the most interesting places to explore in the solar system. Uranus in particular has drawn a lot of interest lately, especially after the 2022 Decadal Survey from the National Academies named it as the highest priority destination. But as of now, we still don’t have a fully fleshed out and planned mission ready to go for the multiple launch windows in the 2030s. That might actually be an advantage, though, as a new system coming online might change the overall missi...

Tech - Universe Today - 18 days ago

Alien Civilizations May Only Be Detectable For A Cosmic Blink Of An Eye

Alien civilizations may evolve so quickly that they are only detectable for a blink of cosmic time, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence.

Tech - Universe Today - 18 days ago

ESA’s Swarm Constellation Sees Growth in the Magnetic Field’s 'Weak Spot'

Earth is a dynamic place, both on its surface and down to its very core. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released findings from its Swarm constellation of Earth-observing satellites highlighting this fact, documenting activity in the planet’s magnetic field during its decade plus of extended operations. One key finding shows the well-known Southern Atlantic Anomaly is expanding in size.

Tech - Universe Today - 19 days ago

What Happened to Those "Little Red Dots"?

An international team of astronomers addressed the mystery of the "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) observed by Webb. They conclude that they are likely to be "black hole stars," the early seeds of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) we see at the center of galaxies today. Their findings have implications for our understanding of cosmic evolution.

Tech - Universe Today - 19 days ago

What Happened to Those "Little Red Dots" Webb Observed?

An international team of astronomers addressed the mystery of the "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) observed by Webb. They conclude that they are likely to be "black hole stars," the early seeds of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) we see at the center of galaxies today. Their findings have implications for our understanding of cosmic evolution.

Tech - Universe Today - 19 days ago

Research on Previously Unexamined Apollo 17 Moon Rocks Reveals Exotic Sulfur

Samples from one of the Apollo 17 drive tubes was recently opened and analyzed by Brown University researchers, who found surprising sulfur isotopes signatures inside.

Tech - Universe Today - 19 days ago

Microbes Or Their DNA Could Survive In Martian Ice And A Future Rover Could Dig For It

Frozen in time, ancient microbes or their remains could be found in Martian ice deposits during future missions to the red planet. By recreating Mars-like conditions in the lab, a team of researchers from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State demonstrated that fragments of the molecules that make up proteins in E. coli bacteria, if present in Mars' permafrost and ice caps, could remain intact for over 50 million years, despite harsh and continuous exposure to cosmic radiation.

Tech - Universe Today - 20 days ago

How Black Holes Produce Powerful Relativistic Jets

In a recent study, theoretical physicists at Goethe University Frankfurt described the origin of powerful jets emanating from the core regions of galaxies using a series of complex simulations.

Tech - Universe Today - 20 days ago

Foldable Solar Sails Could Help With Aerobraking and Atmospheric Reentry

Use cases for smart materials in space exploration keep cropping up everywhere. They are used in everything from antenna deployments on satellites to rover deformation and reformation. One of the latest ideas is to use them to transform the solar sails that could primarily be used as a propulsion system for a mission into a heat shield when that mission reaches its final destination. A new paper from Joseph Ivarson and Davide Guzzetti, both of Auburn’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, and pu...

Tech - Universe Today - 20 days ago

Humble Yeast Has Planetary Survival Skills

Rather randomly I’ve just returned from a theatre tour where my science show featured yeast in one of the experiments, so when research about yeast surviving Martian conditions crossed my desk, it immediately piqued my interest. These microscopic fungi that help our bread rise and our beer ferment might just have what it takes to endure one of the Solar System's harshest environments.

Tech - Universe Today - 20 days ago

When Fire Brought Ice to Mars

Mars is a planet of mystery! Its surface today is cold and dry, yet evidence suggests it was once home to flowing water. Most of the planet's remaining ice sits locked away at the poles, but recent observations have detected signals of hydrogen in equatorial regions that could indicate buried ice deposits where the environment should be too warm for ice to survive. How did frozen water end up at Mars's equator? It seems we might find the answer in Martian volcanoes.

Tech - Universe Today - 20 days ago

When Tides Turn White Dwarfs Hot

White dwarfs are stellar corpses, the slowly cooling remnants of stars that ran out of fuel billions of years ago. Our Sun will eventually share this fate, collapsing into a compact object so dense that the heavier it becomes, the smaller it shrinks. This rather strange property is just one of the aspects of white dwarfs that makes them utterly fascinating and occasionally, utterly baffling. Sometimes we find white dwarfs as part of binary systems and they are usually cool and gently radiating t...

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

Solving the Mystery of Solar Rain

It rains on the Sun! Although not in any way we'd recognise from Earth. In the Sun's corona, the superheated atmosphere that extends millions of kilometres above its visible surface, cooler blobs of plasma occasionally form and fall back downward in what astronomers are calling coronal rain. Until now, the mechanism behind the rain has remained a mystery especially during solar flares where it seems to accelerate but researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy have finally cr...

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

When Black Holes Don’t Play by the Rules

Scientists have begun to piece together the origin story of a cataclysmic collision between two black holes that met their fate on an unusual orbital path. The merger, designated GW200208_222617 (that really rolls of the tongue,) stands out among gravitational wave detections as one of the rare events showing clear signs of orbital eccentricity, meaning the black holes followed a squashed, oval shaped orbit rather than a circular one as they spiralled toward their final encounter.

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

SpaceX Veteran Lays Out Impulse Space's Roadmap for Making Deliveries to the Moon

Impulse Space, the California-based venture founded by veteran SpaceX engineer Tom Mueller, has unveiled its proposed architecture for delivering medium-sized payloads to the moon, starting as early as 2028.

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

Modular Robots Could Both Explore Off-World And Build Infrastructure

Modularity is taking off in more ways than one in space exploration. The design of the upcoming “Lunar Gateway” space station is supposed to be modular, with different modules being supplied by different organizations. In an effort to extend that thinking down to rovers on the ground, a new paper from researchers at Germany’s space agency (DLR), developed an architecture where a single, modular rover could be responsible for both exploration and carrying payloads around the Moon or Mars.

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

Arab Scholars May Have Noted the Supernovae of 1006 and 1181

It’s great to see old astronomical observations come to light. Not only can these confirm or refute what’s known about historic astronomical events, but they can describe what early observers actually saw. A recent study cites two Arabic texts that may refer to accounts of two well-known supernovae seen in our galaxy: one in 1006 AD and another in 1181 AD.

Tech - Universe Today - 21 days ago

The Hidden Rings of the Milky Way

We know lots about our Galaxy yet still, some regions still hold countless secrets. Recently, a team of astronomers using South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope uncovered 164 of them, compact radio rings. Each one smaller than an arcminute across, were hiding along the plane of the Milky Way, and were just waiting for a telescope powerful enough to reveal them.

Tech - Universe Today - 22 days ago

A Message in a Bottle from Another Star

For millions of years, a fragment of ice and dust drifted through interstellar space, its origin, a distant planetary system. This summer, that fragment finally entered our Solar System, becoming only the third confirmed interstellar visitor and earning the designation 3I/ATLAS. When astronomers at Auburn University pointed NASA's Swift Observatory toward this icy chunk, they detected water vapour streaming from its surface. It was revealed through the faint ultraviolet glow of hydroxyl molecule...

Tech - Universe Today - 22 days ago

SpaceX Successfully Puts Starship Through 11th Flight Test to Get Ready for the Next Generation

SpaceX closed out a dramatic chapter in the development of its super-heavy-lift Starship launch system with a successful flight test that mostly followed the script for the previous flight test.