Scientists have used a NASA probe way out in space, beyond Pluto, to measure visible light that’s not connected to any known source like stars or galaxies.
In a paper published this week in the journal Frontiers of Physics, a duo of researchers from Italy investigated the similarities between the network of neurons in the human brain and the cosmic network of galaxies.
The first radio burst discovered in the Milky Way is now repeating as it travels from a magnetar – a neutron star with a strong magnetic field – 32,616 light-years away.
The initial flash of energy was first detected in April and scientist have identified two more, confirming fast radio bursts ‘are emitted by magnetars at cosmological distances.’
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Titan, the already pretty weird moon of Saturn, just got a little bit weirder. Astronomers have detected cyclopropenylidene (C3H2) in its atmosphere — an extremely rare carbon-based molecule that’s so reactive, it can only exist on Earth in laboratory conditions.
In fact, it’s so rare that it has never before been detected in an atmosphere, in the Solar System or elsewhere. The only other place it can remain stable is the cold void of interstellar space. But it may be a building block for more complex organic molecules that could one day lead to life.
“We think of Titan as a real-life laboratory where we can see similar chemistry to that of ancient Earth when life was taking hold here,” said astrobiologist Melissa Trainer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, one of the chief scientists set to investigate the moon in the upcoming Dragonfly mission launching in 2027.
Theories on how the Milky Way formed are set to be rewritten following discoveries about the behavior of some of its oldest stars.
An investigation into the orbits of the Galaxy’s metal-poor stars—assumed to be among the most ancient in existence—has found that some of them travel in previously unpredicted patterns.
“Metal-poor stars—containing less than one-thousandth the amount of iron found in the Sun—are some of the rarest objects in the galaxy,” said Professor Gary Da Costa from Australia’s ARC Center of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) and the Australian National University.
Scientists have detected two bright radio bursts from a magnetar in our galaxy, as they get closer to discovering the source of the blasts.
Earlier this month, scientists discovered that fast radio bursts were coming from the object, in a major breakthrough in the search for the source of those mysterious blasts of energy. It was the first time an FRB had been detected coming from inside our Milky Way, and also the first time such a blast had been traced back to a particular source.
Now scientists say they have found new bursts coming from that same magnetar. That should help further indicate whether it is really a source of FRBs – and whether the same process could be powering those bursts we have discovered coming from elsewhere in the universe.
Analysis of an ancient meteorite from Mars suggests that the mineral zircon may be abundant on the surface of the red planet.
By determining the age and hafnium isotope composition of zircon, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have shown that a population of these crystals were sourced from the deep interior of Mars. If the researchers are correct, it means that the young zircons contain information about the deep, inaccessible interior of Mars, providing insights into the internal structure of the planet.
The uranium-bearing mineral zircon is an abundant constituent of Earth’s continental crust, providing information about the age and origin of the continents and large geological features such as mountain chains and giant volcanoes. But unlike Earth, Mars’s crust is not evolved and is compositionally similar to the crust found under the Earth’s oceans, where zircon is rare. Therefore, zircon is not expected to be a common mineral on Mars.
A long time ago — roughly 4.5 billion years — our sun and solar system formed over the short time span of 200,000 years. That is the conclusion of a group of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists after looking at isotopes of the element molybdenum found on meteorites.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced plans to send a compact rover named Rashid to study the Moon in 2024, marking an intensification in the small nation’s spacefaring ambitions. If Rashid is successful, the UAE could become only the fourth country to operate a craft on the Moon’s surface, and the first in the Arab world.
With its orbiter Hope on its way to Mars, the United Arab Emirates has now set its sights on the Moon.
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LIVE: NASA is launching a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. This is the first crew rotation flight of a U.S. commercial spacecraft with astronauts to the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ will carry astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) to the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
