Low Earth orbit (LEO) is on the verge of a major expansion in crewed operations, but the proliferation of space debris could threaten these missions and create safety hazards for astronauts.
With the International Space Station (ISS) set to…
Category: 2. Space
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Magnetar ‘Starquakes’ Could Forge Gold in Space, Scientists Discover : ScienceAlert
Scientists have long been trying to determine how elements heavier than iron, including gold and platinum, were first created and scattered through the Universe, and new research may give us another part of the answer: magnetars.
Rare, giant…
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Depictions of Milky Way’s River of Stars Found in Ancient Egyptian Art : ScienceAlert
The glorious river of stars, interwoven with dark dust, that makes up the plane of the Milky Way in the night sky may have been hiding in plain sight in art from ancient Egypt.
Some depictions of the goddess of the sky, Nut, that appear on…
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NASA delays astrophysics mission call for proposals amid budget uncertainties
WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying the next competition for an astrophysics mission by a year, the latest sign of the fiscal pressures an upcoming budget proposal is placing on the agency’s science programs.
In an April 29 announcement, NASA…
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Why space needs nuclear now
In this week’s episode of Space Minds, Bhavya Lal, the former acting Chief Technologist at NASA explains how nuclear power could unlock humanity’s next giant leap in space.
Our interview with Bhavya Lal, a prominent voice in space policy,…
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May’s Night Sky Notes: How Do We Find Exoplanets?
Astronomers have been trying to discover evidence that worlds exist around stars other than our Sun since the 19th century. By the mid-1990s, technology finally caught up with the desire for discovery and led to the first discovery of a planet…
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Vesta Isn’t What We Thought – Could It Be a Chunk of a Lost Planet?
Surprising new research reveals Vesta lacks a core, suggesting it may be planetary debris rather than a proto-planet, rewriting its origin story. New research reveals that Vesta doesn’t fully qualify as either an asteroid or a planet. These…
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Hubble Turns 35: New Images, Major Discoveries, and What’s Next
From breathtaking snapshots of distant galaxies to game-changing discoveries about the universe’s expansion, the Hubble Space Telescope has dazzled humanity for 35 years. Launched in 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, Hubble overcame…
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Unveiling Alien Oceans: Webb’s Breakthrough in the Hunt for Life
Astronomers recently announced a tantalizing discovery: using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers detected potential biosignature gases—dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS)—in the atmosphere of K2-18b, a distant planet…
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The Magnetar That Forged a Planet’s Worth of Gold in Half a Second
A powerful cosmic event from 2004—a gamma-ray burst from a magnetar 30,000 light-years away—has just been revealed as a major source of the universe’s heaviest elements like gold and platinum. Researchers have shown that this intense flare,…
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