Tag

Space Science

All articles tagged with #space science

science7 days ago•9 min saved

Astronomers Reconstruct Exoplanet Orbits Using Decades of Telescope Data

Astronomer Jason Wang has created visualizations of exoplanet orbits by compiling images taken over 12 to 17 years. Using motion interpolation, a technique common in video editing, he reconstructs the slow, predictable movements of these distant worlds based on Kepler’s laws. This method allows for the direct visualization of exoplanets, a feat previously thought impossible without continuous nightly observation. The work has contributed to scientific papers and highlights the patience required for long-term astronomical imaging.

via Hackaday|

#astronomy #exoplanets #keck-observatory

science22 days ago•6 min saved

Hear the Ancient Flip: Earth's Magnetic Reversal Revealed

Scientists recreated the sound of Earth's 41,000-year-old magnetic reversal (the Laschamps excursion) using ESA Swarm data and ancient records, showing the field weakened to about 5% of its normal strength for centuries before flipping orientation for around 440 years and then staying far weaker than today. The event aligns with climate signals and megafauna extinctions and even ancient cave art, while today the field is weakening again with the North Pole drifting and the South Atlantic Anomaly expanding. Researchers caution that another reversal is not imminent, but ongoing monitoring of geomagnetic changes and space weather is essential.

via sciencealert.com|

#climate-change #earth-science #geophysics

space-science2 months ago•7 min saved

Moon’s Far Side Rocks Recast Early Solar System Bombardment

Far-side Moon rocks imply a gradual decline of asteroid impacts over billions of years, not a single catastrophic bombardment, challenging the late heavy bombardment theory and offering a cleaner record of early Solar System history that informs Earth's ancient environment, aided by China’s Chang’e‑6 samples.

via SciTechDaily|

#asteroid-impacts #early-solar-system #late-heavy-bombardment

science2 months ago•3 min saved

Solar Storms May Amplify Martian Dust Storms, New Study Indicates

New analysis using NASA's MAVEN and ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter data suggests solar energetic particle events can heat Mars’ lower atmosphere, and when these events coincide with global dust storms they may intensify the storms. The heating was clearly observed in a June 2018 SEP event during a dust storm (about 50°C at 75–125 km), while a July 2021 event showed a smaller effect; results are not yet conclusive and more data—such as from the 2024 solar storm—are needed to confirm the phenomenon. Opportunity’s demise after a dust storm is mentioned as context for Mars’ weather sensitivity, but the core finding is the potential for multiple solar and atmospheric events to interact and alter Martian weather.

via Gizmodo|

#dust-storms #mars #maven

science-space2 months ago•13 min saved

Four Billion Tonnes in a Teaspoon: The Dense Secret of Neutron Stars

A teaspoon of neutron-star matter weighs about four billion tonnes because gravity compresses more mass than the Sun into a city-sized sphere. The article explains how neutron stars form from collapsed stellar cores, the role of neutron degeneracy pressure in stopping collapse, their extreme surface gravity and magnetic fields, and how mergers like GW170817 forge heavy elements such as gold. It also touches on interior models and how neutron stars might help probe dark matter, while noting how the “teaspoon” analogy distills the star’s extreme density into a tangible image.

via Space Daily|

#gravitational-waves #neutron-degeneracy-pressure #neutron-star

space-science3 months ago•6 min saved

Dusty Galaxy Emerges as Possible Source of Ghost Neutrinos

A high-energy neutrino detected by IceCube may have originated from Shadow Blaster, a dust-enshrouded, intensely star-forming galaxy 11 billion light-years away that is gravitationally lensed. This link, while tentative (about 1% chance of a random coincidence), suggests star-forming galaxies could contribute a significant fraction of the diffuse neutrino background, and motivates deeper multiwavelength follow-up with facilities like ALMA and JWST to pinpoint more such sources.

via CNN|

#gravitational-lensing #icecube #neutrinos

space-science3 months ago•5 min saved

Mars Rock Hints at Ancient Life, But Earth-Based Proof Is Needed

Analysis of Martian rock Cheyava Falls by Perseverance’s SHERLOC and WATSON detected macromolecular carbon, a potential sign of ancient organics and past habitability in Jezero Crater; but MMCs can form abiotically, so a definitive conclusion requires returning samples to Earth—an effort whose future remains uncertain amid stalled Mars Sample Return plans.

via The Register|

#cheyava-falls #jezero-crater #macromolecular-carbon

space4 months ago•3 min saved

NASA Ponders Budget-Friendly Reboost to Save Hubble

NASA is weighing a cheaper, potentially commercial reboost to extend the aging Hubble Space Telescope’s life, inspired by a cost-effective plan already pursued for the Swift Observatory. Before any reboost can happen, NASA must reduce Hubble’s operating costs; the telescope is currently about 326 miles up and could reenter around 2033, with 2025 operating costs pegged at roughly $98.8 million.

via Gizmodo|

#hubble-space-telescope #nasa #orbit-reboost

space4 months ago•5 min saved

Psyche’s Mars flyby primes its long-awaited asteroid rendezvous

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft used a Mars flyby as a gravity assist to gain speed and adjust its orbit on the way to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029, while testing its science suite (a dual-camera multispectral imager, gamma-ray/neutron spectrometer, and magnetometer). The Mars encounter yielded rare imagery from a high phase angle, including a crescent view and a southern polar to Valles Marineris panorama, helping calibrate instruments ahead of the asteroid mission. The gravity assist boosted speed by about 1,000 mph and nudged the orbit by roughly 1 degree; Psyche launched in Oct 2023 and will complete a 2.2-billion-mile journey.

via Ars Technica|

#asteroid-psyche #gravity-assist #mars-flyby

space-science4 months ago•4 min saved

Earth Plows Through Ancient Supernova Debris Preserved in Antarctic Ice

A new study detects iron-60 in Antarctic ice aged 40,000–80,000 years, tying Earth’s passage through the Local Interstellar Cloud to debris from a past supernova. Using accelerator mass spectrometry on hundreds of kilograms of ice and corroborating isotopes, researchers show the cloud around the Solar System contains material from an ancient stellar explosion, with the iron-60 signal varying over tens of thousands of years and supporting the idea that our cosmic neighborhood records such events.

via SciTechDaily|

#antarctic-ice #interstellar-medium #iron-60

science5 months ago•2 min saved

Hubble’s 36th Anniversary Reveals a New View of the Trifid Nebula, the Cosmic Sea Slug

NASA marks Hubble’s 36th year in orbit with a sharper image of the Trifid Nebula, showcasing the telescope’s 1.7 million observations, 22,000+ papers, and 1.3 million citations while highlighting its role in studying star formation and nebular dynamics.

via New York Post|

#astronomy #cosmic-sea-slug #hubble-space-telescope

space-and-spaceflight5 months ago•16 min saved

Curiosity Unearths Giant Honeycomb Textures Across Martian Rocks

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured Mastcam mosaics showing thousands of polygonal, honeycomb-like textures across rocks near Antofagasta crater in Gale Crater, a pattern scientists are evaluating as a clue to Mars’ ancient watery past; researchers are testing hypotheses from drying/wetting cycles and groundwater mineralization, complementing other recent findings of organics in Martian rocks.

via Gizmodo|

#curiosity-rover #honeycomb-patterns #mars

space-science5 months ago•5 min saved

Euclid Lens Hunt Invites the Public to Map Dark Matter with Space Warps

The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope is powering a new citizen-science project on Zooniverse called Space Warps, enlisting volunteers to identify strong gravitational lenses in Euclid’s high‑quality images. This work helps study dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic expansion, with around 300,000 AI‑preselected images guiding the search and the team expecting to uncover more than 10,000 new lens candidates from Euclid Data Release 1.

via European Space Agency|

#citizen-science #dark-energy #dark-matter

space-science5 months ago•6 min saved

Titan and Beyond: A New Model Reveals Giant, Slow Waves on Alien Seas

MIT and Woods Hole researchers unveiled a generalized wave-model showing that ocean waves on alien seas (like Titan’s methane/ethane lakes) can be dramatically different from Earth’s, driven by gravity, liquid composition, and atmospheric density; on Titan, simulations predict tall, slow-moving waves due to its low gravity and thick atmosphere, reshaping expectations for shoreline erosion, sediment transport, and the design of future landers or floating probes.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#methane #modeling #oceans

science8 months ago•36 min saved

Space Mutations Boost Phages in the Battle Against Superbugs

A UW–Madison-led study compared a E. coli–T7 phage clash on Earth and in microgravity aboard the ISS. In space, phages infect more slowly but still acquire mutations that improve their ability to bind bacterial receptors, while the bacteria develop space-specific defenses—demonstrating space-driven evolutionary paths that could inform phage-based strategies against drug‑resistant pathogens on Earth.

via Yahoo|

#antimicrobial-resistance #bacteriophage #evolution