-
Amazon Taps SpaceX For Kuiper Launch
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon just inked a deal with chief competitor and Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX to launch internet-beaming satellites — a move that comes even as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pursues his own space dreams with his own rocket company, Blue Origin, and as SpaceX builds its own internet constellation. While Musk and Bezos…
-
The light echoes of Black Holes
In the center of a typical galaxy lies a “supermassive” black hole, a beast several millions of times more massive than our own Sun. While light that is fully engulfed by one of these monsters will never escape, hence the name “black hole”, the surrounding neighborhood can in some cases be dramatically bright. In these so-called…
-
The light echoes of Black Holes
In the center of a typical galaxy lies a “supermassive” black hole, a beast several millions of times more massive than our own Sun. While light that is fully engulfed by one of these monsters will never escape, hence the name “black hole”, the surrounding neighborhood can in some cases be dramatically bright. In these so-called…
-
Where did I put that? Astronauts who lost a tool bag can’t get it back because it’s in orbit
A bag of tools that drifted away from astronauts on Nov. 1 while on a maintenance spacewalk outside the International Space Station is in a slowing orbit around the Earth – and for now is giving stargazers an extra artificial object to look for in the night sky. During a spacewalk that lasted six hours…
-
JWST detects methane in atmosphere of blistering hot WASP-80 b
An artist’s rendering of the warm exoplanet WASP-80 b whose color may appear bluish to human eyes due to the lack of high-altitude clouds and the presence of atmospheric methane identified by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, similar to the planets Uranus and Neptune in our own solar system. Image credit: NASA. The James Webb…
-
Astronomers find unprecedented ‘disc’ around distant planet
Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Scientists have found the first ever disc structure around a star outside of our own Milky Way. The disc is around a young massive star forming in a stellar nursery called N180. It is within…
-
This ‘forbidden’ exoplanet is way too massive for its star
Astronomers have discovered a massive extrasolar planet, or “exoplanet,” orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that is way too small to host such a world, challenging scientists’ models of how planets and planetary systems are born. The planet in question, designated LHS 3154 b, is 13 times as massive as Earth, meaning that it has a…
-
Astronomers discover massive exoplanet which ‘should not’ have existed
The astronomers were forced to question the theories surrounding the planet’s formation after they stumbled upon an exoplanet which shouldn’t have existed technically. The discovered planet, which has a mass similar to Neptune and more than 13 times as big as Earth, was spotted orbiting an ultracool M-dwarf star named LHS 3154. Ironically, the star…
-
Astronomers discover massive exoplanet which ‘should not’ have existed
The astronomers were forced to question the theories surrounding the planet’s formation after they stumbled upon an exoplanet which shouldn’t have existed technically. The discovered planet, which has a mass similar to Neptune and more than 13 times as big as Earth, was spotted orbiting an ultracool M-dwarf star named LHS 3154. Ironically, the star…
-
A Star Is Born: UVA Undergrad Leads Team Studying Stellar Formation
His team is poring over infrared-light images from the telescope and other data from the extreme environment, captured during the September observation window. “There’s never been any infrared data on this region with the level of resolution and sensitivity we get with Webb, so we are seeing lots of features here for the first time,”…