https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. A Chinese rover has found new evidence to support the theory that Mars was once home to a vast ocean, including tracing some ancient coastline where water may once have lapped, a study said Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-chinese-rover-evidence-ancient-martian.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:56:32 EST news650213785 Scientists have developed a new method to compute how tides affect the interiors of planets and moons. Importantly, the new study looks at the effects of body tides on objects that don't have a perfectly spherical interior structure, which is an assumption of most previous models. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-spectral-method-tidal-effects-planet.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:08:02 EST news650210881 A team of astrophysicists, led by scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study, has developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, represents a major step forward, since it operates independently of many of the other ways in which scientists have probed these parameters in the past. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astrophysicists-echoes-illuminate-black-holes.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:59:04 EST news650206742 Using the CHIME telescope, an international team of astronomers has detected a new repeating fast radio burst (FRBs) source in the outskirts of a quiescent galaxy. The finding of a new FRB, which experienced 22 repeating bursts, was reported in a research paper published October 30 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astronomers-fast-radio.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Nov 2024 11:30:01 EST news650200879 Since their discovery in 2007, fast radio bursts—extremely energetic pulses of radio-frequency light—have lit up the sky repeatedly, leading astronomers on a chase to uncover their origins. Currently, confirmed fast radio bursts, or FRBs, number in the hundreds, and scientists have assembled mounting evidence for what triggers them: highly magnetized neutron stars known as magnetars (neutron stars are a type of dead star). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-mighty-radio-linked-massive-galaxies.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:10:39 EST news650121031 Tiny grains from a distant asteroid are revealing clues to the magnetic forces that shaped the far reaches of the solar system more than 4.6 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-asteroid-grains-outer-solar.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:14:04 EST news650117641 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers have observed a giant spiral galaxy designated ADF22.A1. Results of the observational campaign, published October 29 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide more insights into its inner structure. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astronomers-jwst-alma-explore-giant.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Nov 2024 10:09:42 EST news650110179 Using the Gemini-South telescope, astronomers have performed high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy of stars in a Galactic globular cluster known as Gran 5. They found that this cluster harbors two stellar populations with different metallicities. The finding was reported in a paper published October 28 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-globular-cluster-gran-hosts-stellar.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:00:02 EST news650019248 A trio of geologists and environmental scientists from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Minnesota has found evidence suggesting that the Haasttse-baad Tessera formation on Venus was likely formed due to two large impacts early in the planet's history. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-venus-haasttse-baad-tessera-formation.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:00:02 EST news650019008 A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the formation and dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters (spherical and very compact stellar agglomerates typically populated by 1–2 million stars). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-3d-view-formation-evolution-globular.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:56:55 EST news650019410 The world's first wooden satellite has blasted off on a SpaceX rocket, its Japanese developers said Tuesday, part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-world-wooden-satellite-space.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 Nov 2024 03:54:22 EST news650001252 Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe's evolution. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-black-hole-early-universe-consuming.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:01 EST news649935139 On a cold, ancient Mars, rivers flowed and a lake the size of the Mediterranean Sea swelled under the protection of thick ice ceilings, according to new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-carbon-dioxide-collapse-icy-mars.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:55:26 EST news649936521 Using the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), Chinese astronomers have identified nearly 300 candidate supergiant stars in the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. The finding was reported in a research paper published October 25 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-hundreds-supergiant-stars-nearby-galaxies.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:31:58 EST news649935113 Black holes continue to captivate scientists: they are purely gravitational objects, remarkably simple, yet capable of hiding mysteries that challenge our understanding of natural laws. Most observations thus far have focused on their external characteristics and surrounding environment, leaving their internal nature largely unexplored. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-black-hole-kerr-solution-assumptions.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:11:03 EDT news649689061 In the 1997 movie "Contact," adapted from Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star—but no obvious planets are visible. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-hubble-webb-probe-smooth-disk.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Fri, 01 Nov 2024 12:48:03 EDT news649684081 On a mountain in northern Chile, scientists are carefully assembling the intricate components of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the most advanced astronomical facilities in history. Equipped with an innovative telescope and the world's largest digital camera, the observatory will soon begin the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-ambitious-sky-survey-insight.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:23:50 EDT news649675424 How did everything begin? It's a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed in on an answer: the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-big-quest-unravel-mystery-birth.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:12:05 EDT news649599121 A team of computer scientists, astronomers and historians in Berlin has used machine-learning applications to learn more about the evolutionary history of European astronomical thought in the 15th and 16th centuries. In their study published in the journal Science Advances, the group trained machine-learning applications to make sense of hand-written texts, graphs, charts and other data from textbooks of the era. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-machine-analysis-tracks-evolution-16th.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:56:19 EDT news649587368 Astronomers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have inspected a Galactic open cluster known as NGC 2506 as part of the WIYN Open Cluster Study. Results of the study, published October 14 in The Astronomical Journal, shed more light on the properties of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-properties-cluster-ngc.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:25:07 EDT news649585502 On an airplane, motions of the air on both small and large scales contribute to turbulence, which may result in a bumpy flight. Turbulence on a much larger scale is important to how stars form in giant molecular clouds that permeate the Milky Way. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astrophysics-explores-turbulence-molecular-clouds.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:42:40 EDT news649525355 The temperature of elementary particles has been observed in the radioactive glow following the collision of two neutron stars and the birth of a black hole. This has, for the first time, made it possible to measure the microscopic, physical properties in these cosmic events. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astrophysicists-electrons-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:30:41 EDT news649517437 The key to unlocking the secrets of distant planets starts right here on Earth. Researchers at Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo, and Hokkaido University have developed a model that considers various atmospheric chemical reactions to estimate how the atmosphere—and the first signs of life—evolved on Earth. The study is published in Astrobiology. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-life-began-earth-ancient-atmosphere.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:19:04 EDT news649498742 By analyzing the data from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS), astronomers have discovered a new tidal tail likely associated with the galaxy NGC 3785. The newly detected tidal tail is extremely extended and faint. The finding was reported in a research paper published October 24 on the preprint server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-faint-tidal-tail.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 08:30:01 EDT news649440384 Astrophysical explosions are, to give a few examples, driven by the collapse of the iron core of a massive star (known as a core-collapse supernova), the consumption of spaghettified stellar remains by a massive black hole (known as a tidal disruption event), and runaway nuclear fusion on the surface of a white dwarf (known as a type 1A supernova). Such explosions occur frequently, but most often in distant galaxies, and only recently have astronomers been able to peer far enough into space to detect them in significant numbers—and many more are on the way. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-powerful-space-explosions.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:18:02 EDT news649437473 Evidence suggests Mars could very well have been teeming with life billions of years ago. Now cold, dry, and stripped of what was once a potentially protective magnetic field, the red planet is a kind of forensic scene for scientists investigating whether Mars was indeed once habitable, and if so, when. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-mars-habitable-thought.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:51:04 EDT news649435862 Our solar system dwells in a low-density environment called the Local Hot Bubble (LHB), filled by a tenuous, million-degree hot gas emitting dominantly in soft X-rays. A team led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) used the eROSITA All-Sky Survey data and found a large-scale temperature gradient in this bubble, possibly linked with past supernova explosions that expanded and reheated the bubble. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-erosita-survey-unveils-asymmetries-temperature.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:58:04 EDT news649421882 A new study by DTU Space researchers has revealed a neutron star that rotates around its axis at an extremely high speed. It spins 716 times per second, making it one of the fastest-spinning objects ever observed. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-fastest-stars-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:48:24 EDT news649421299 Over the span of two projects, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigated using a propulsion concept known as multimode propulsion to get spacecraft to the moon and developed a technique to design optimal multimode transfers. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-multimode-propulsion-efficient-space.html Space Exploration Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:28:03 EDT news649420081 A new study suggests Uranus' moon Miranda may harbor a water ocean beneath its surface, a finding that would challenge many assumptions about the moon's history and composition and could put it in the company of the few select worlds in our solar system with potentially life-sustaining environments. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-uranus-moon-miranda-ocean-beneath.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:10:07 EDT news649419001