-
“Fluffy” exoplanet filled with water, sulphur and sand rain
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify clouds of water vapour, sulphur dioxide and silicates on a nearby exoplanet. European researchers found the compounds on WASP-107b, an exoplanet some 200 light-years from Earth. With the mass of Neptune and the size of Jupiter, WASP-107b is not a dense planet – in…
-
This dead star is bursting back to life
It would appear that a distant star has sprung back to life after its explosive death, blasting out repeated energetic flares over a period of several months that are like nothing astronomers have seen before. Though each flash lasts just a few minutes even 100 days after the first eruption, they all remain as bright…
-
‘A galactic war of aliens’? The colossal ‘Tassie devil’ exploding in space
Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size A colossal cosmic cataclysm exploding with the intensity of an entire galaxy of stars has gobsmacked astronomers, who say the detonations of hot, blue-white light upend our understanding of how the laws of physics are supposed to operate. And the puzzling phenomenon has been named after Australia’s…
-
Webb Telescope Peers into Puffy Planet with Clouds of Sand
Artist’s impression of WASP-107bMichiel Min / European MIRI EXO GTO team / ESA / NASA / Klaas Verpoest (LUCA School of Arts, Belgium) It’s a strange world not even the most imaginative science fiction authors ever came up with: a planet only twice as dense as Styrofoam, enveloped in high-altitude clouds of tiny sand particles.…
-
Scientists suspect there’s ice hiding on the Moon
Some dark craters on the Moon, indicated here in blue, never get light. Scientists think some of these permanently shadowed regions could contain ice. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Building a space station on the Moon might seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but each new lunar mission is bringing that idea…
-
Life’s Building Blocks Could Be Seeded By “Bouncing” Comets
The building blocks of life have been found on comets, asteroids, and in interstellar space. But how they end up on the surface of planets is not exactly clear. One idea is that comets and asteroids can ferry these molecules to worlds where life can emerge, but they need to travel relatively slowly for molecules to…
-
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Just Keeps Getting Smaller
NASA’s Juno spacecraft took this portrait of Jupiter’s colorful and enigmatic Great Red Spot in 2017. Its color is still something of a mystery and may arise when solar ultraviolet (UV) light breaks down atmospheric ammonia in the presence of acetylene into red-hued compounds. Since the Spot rises about 8 kilometers (5 miles) above the…
-
Mars probe sees Red Planet atmosphere glowing green at night
Mars might be the Red Planet, but its atmosphere glows green. Using the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), scientists have observed Mars’ atmosphere glowing green for the first time ever — in the visible light spectrum, that is. The effect is called airglow (or dayglow or nightglow, depending on the hour), and…
-
GSOA releases space sustainability conduct code
GSOA releases code of conduct on Space Sustainability. Credit GSOA London, 15 November 2023.- The Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA) released on the 13th of November its Code of Conduct on Space Sustainability. It is calling on operators to implement responsible practices that: mitigate the risk of in-orbit collision, minimise the threat of non-trackable debris,…
-
Can technology save astronomy from light pollution?
For nearly all of human history, once the Sun went down and the sky darkened, so long as you had a clear, moonless night, you’d be greeted with a spectacular, thrilling night sky: with thousands of stars, a clear view of the Milky Way, and several faint, fuzzy nebulae all visible to your naked eye.…
