• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A Hubble telescope survey has found that brown dwarfs—objects smaller than stars but bigger than planets—live a lonely life as they age. Over time they lose the companion brown dwarf that was born alongside them and the objects drift their separate ways.

• share
• favorite_border

On April 8, millions of observers in Ohio will witness a total solar eclipse, a rare celestial event that promises to be an otherworldly experience.

• share
• favorite_border

When a star goes supernova, a massive burst of neutrinos is the first signal that can escape the density of the collapsing star. Detecting and analyzing this phenomenon in real time would allow us insight into stellar dynamics and, potentially, black hole formation.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a prototype for an instrument for a future Moon mission with support from a nearly $3 million grant from NASA.

• share
• favorite_border

The giant planet Jupiter, in all its banded glory, is revisited by Hubble in images taken Jan. 5-6, 2024, capturing both sides of the planet. The many large storms and small white clouds are a hallmark of activity in Jupiter's atmosphere.

• share
• favorite_border

Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul space flight, which includes more than 10 days in space. The study was published in the March 13, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Physicists often turn to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability to explain why fluid structures form in plasmas, but that may not be the full story when it comes to the ring of hydrogen clumps around supernova 1987A, research from the University of Michigan suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Webb study of two protostars, so young that they have not yet formed planets, has found a variety of molecules ranging from relatively simple ones like methane to complex compounds like acetic acid (familiar to cooks as an ingredient in vinegar). These molecules constitute key ingredients for worlds that might one day host life.

• share
• favorite_border

A new telescope called the “Condor Array Telescope” may open up a new world of the very-low-brightness Universe for astrophysicists.

• share
• favorite_border

On April 8, 2024, 40 million people across the United States, Canada, and Mexico will have the opportunity to experience a true celestial spectacle, a rare total solar eclipse as the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, blocking daylight for several minutes.

• share
• favorite_border

Con la poderosa Cámara de Energía Oscura (DECam por sus siglas en inglés) de 570 megapíxeles, fabricada por el Departamento de Energía de Estados Unidos, los astrónomos han construido una imagen gigante de 1,3 gigapíxeles que muestra la parte central del remanente de Supernova Vela, un cadáver cósmico de una gigantesca estrella que explotó como una supernova. DECam es uno de los instrumentos de imágenes de campo amplio más productivos del mundo y está montada en el Telescopio de 4 metros Víctor M. Blanco de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de EE.UU en el Observatorio Interamericano Cerro Tololo en Chile, un Programa de NOIRLab de NSF.

• share
• favorite_border

Con la poderosa Cámara de Energía Oscura (DECam por sus siglas en inglés) de 570 megapíxeles, fabricada por el Departamento de Energía de Estados Unidos, los astrónomos han construido una imagen gigante de 1,3 gigapíxeles que muestra la parte central del remanente de Supernova Vela, un cadáver cósmico de una gigantesca estrella que explotó como una supernova. DECam es uno de los instrumentos de imágenes de campo amplio más productivos del mundo y está montada en el Telescopio de 4 metros Víctor M. Blanco de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de EE.UU en el Observatorio Interamericano Cerro Tololo en Chile, un Programa de NOIRLab de NSF.

• share
• favorite_border

With the powerful, 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), astronomers have constructed a massive 1.3-gigapixel image showcasing the central part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the cosmic corpse of a gigantic star that exploded as a supernova.

• share
• favorite_border

With the powerful, 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), astronomers have constructed a massive 1.3-gigapixel image showcasing the central part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the cosmic corpse of a gigantic star that exploded as a supernova.

• share
• favorite_border

For telescopes operating in the vacuum of space, or optical equipment in extreme environments, existing coatings are often insufficient. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology Aresearchers in China turned to atomic layer deposition and developed an ultrablack thin-film coating for aerospace-grade magnesium alloys. The team used alternating layers of aluminum-doped titanium carbide and silicon nitride and together the materials prevent nearly all light from reflecting off the coated surface. The coating absorbs 99.3% of light while being durable enough to survive in harsh conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

In the astronomy field, the term “nearby” is quite relative. Neighboring galaxies to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, are a few million light-years away. In contrast, some of the most distant galaxies ever detected, closer to the Big Bang, are billions of light-years away.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Space Telescope Live provides an interactive way to explore the most accurate, up-to-date, publicly available information on current, past, and upcoming observations by NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.

• share
• favorite_border

The Universe is almost inconceivably vast. So is the amount of data astronomers collect when they study it. This is a challenging process for the scientists and engineers at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). But what if they could do it over 300 times faster?

• share
• favorite_border

Hertz Fellow Katelin Schutz thinks existing experimental data across many fields of physics and cosmology can be re-analyzed through a “dark matter lens.”

• share
• favorite_border

Since 2019, a team of NASA scientists and their partners have been using NASA’s FUN3D software on supercomputers located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, or OLCF, to conduct computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, simulations of a human-scale Mars lander. The team’s ongoing research project is a first step in determining how to safely land a vehicle with humans onboard onto the surface of Mars.

• share
• favorite_border

Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers have measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a phenomenon that has long been predicted, though never observed. This massive pair gives clues as to why such an event seems so unlikely in the Universe.

• share
• favorite_border

Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers have measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a phenomenon that has long been predicted, though never observed. This massive pair gives clues as to why such an event seems so unlikely in the Universe.

• share
• favorite_border

Usando datos de archivo del telescopio Gemini Norte, un equipo de astrónomos midió un par de agujero negros supermasivos, los más pesados jamás encontrados. La fusión de estos agujeros negros supermasivos es un fenómeno que se predice desde hace mucho tiempo, aunque nunca se ha observado. Este par masivo nos entrega pistas de por qué un evento como este es tan improbable en el Universo.

• share
• favorite_border

Usando datos de archivo del telescopio Gemini Norte, un equipo de astrónomos midió un par de agujero negros supermasivos, los más pesados jamás encontrados. La fusión de estos agujeros negros supermasivos es un fenómeno que se predice desde hace mucho tiempo, aunque nunca se ha observado. Este par masivo nos entrega pistas de por qué un evento como este es tan improbable en el Universo.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The recent spike of activity from the sun occurred during what NASA has dubbed the Heliophysics Big Year—a celebration of solar science centered on the April 8 total eclipse, the last that will be visible from the continental U.S. for 20 years.

• share
• favorite_border

Most sighting reports of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena occur in the American West where proximity to public lands, dark skies and military installations afford more opportunities to see strange objects in the air. Understanding environmental context may help identify truly anomalous objects that are a legitimate threat.

• share
• favorite_border

A new computer platform called TCL 3.0 represents a breakthrough in how scientists measure and monitor changes in tiger habitat and provides a framework for monitoring other wildlife species across the globe.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory are working on ways to improve thrusters for satellites operating in very low orbit around the Earth. The researchers believe they can make satellites that weigh less, last longer and cost less by creating thrusters that use the air around them instead of having to carry its own supply of fuel. PPPL’s diagnostics will be used to evaluate this innovative thruster concept and characterize key physical processes involved in its operation.

• share
• favorite_border

Dark matter comprises over 80% of all matter in the cosmos but is invisible to conventional observation, because it seemingly does not interact with light or electromagnetic fields. Now Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, the Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), along with lead author Dr. Tom Donlon, a UAH postdoctoral associate, have written a paper to help illuminate just how much dark matter there is in our galaxy and where it resides by studying the gravitational acceleration of binary pulsars. Chakrabarti gave a plenary talk on this work and other methods to measure galactic accelerations at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans in January.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

In the three years since NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars, the NASA science team has made the daily task of investigating the red planet seem almost mundane.

• share
• favorite_border

New observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have provided the first direct evidence of what is likely a neutron star, revealed by the effects of its high-energy emission, at the center of the Supernova 1987A remnant.

• share
• favorite_border

RUDN University scientists have shown how the tissues of the digestive system change in weightlessness. The experiment was carried out on laboratory rodents that were in space flight for a month

• share
• favorite_border

How does ground-based astronomical radar expand our understanding of the Universe? By allowing us to study our nearby Solar System, and everything in it, in unprecedented detail. Radar can reveal the surface and ancient geology of planets and their moons, letting us trace their evolution.

• share
• favorite_border

A team including University of Idaho researchers is going to explore the physics of supermassive black hole mergers and galaxy collisions, unlocking secrets that could reshape science’s understanding of one of the universe’s most enigmatic processes.

• share
• favorite_border

In our most basic understanding of our Solar System, planets are drawn into the orbit of our massive star, the Sun. But what happens to planet-sized objects that don’t have a star? A team of astronomers studying Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) in the Orion Nebula are gaining a new understanding of these unusual systems.

• share
• favorite_border

Though far to the west of the St. Croix antenna, the Owens Valley antenna has some similarities, in particular being in a remote location. The high mountains surrounding the valley mean that access to the region is only possible from the south, or through mountain passes. This also makes for a unique geography. To the south are the dry bed remains of Owens Lake, and further beyond is Death Valley. To the East are the White Mountains, which is home to the great bristlecone pine forest, and some of the oldest living trees in the world. Within the Methuselah Grove of this forest is hidden a particular tree that was seeded nearly 5,000 years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

SuperKnova is a project to provide learning opportunities in radio technology for students in a way that is inclusive and equitable. Originally conceived at the Radio Astronomy Imaging and Analysis Lab (RADIAL), SuperKnova is a collaboration between RADIAL, NRAO, and educators and students from across the country.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists working with the powerful telescopes at Georgia State’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have completed a survey of a group of stars suspected to have devoured most of the gas from orbiting companion stars.

• share
• favorite_border

100 billion – there are at least that many stars in our Milky Way. It seems like an unimaginable number. Yet astrophysicists study structures in our universe that are far bigger than galaxies alone.

• share
• favorite_border

When galaxies go bump in the night, they cook-up new generations of stars that might otherwise have never been born. These close encounters between galaxies cause a gravitational tug-of-war.

• share
• favorite_border

El Observatorio Vera C. Rubin ayudará a los científicos a identificar objetivos intrigantes para dar prioridad a futuras misiones espaciales, mediante la detección de millones de nuevos objetos en el Sistema Solar y revelar, con el mayor detalle jamás visto, el contexto más amplio en el que existen.

• share
• favorite_border

Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help scientists identify intriguing targets to prioritize for future space missions by detecting millions of new Solar System objects, and by revealing — in more detail than we’ve ever seen — the broader context in which these objects exist.