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Mysterious new asteroid turns out to be Tesla Roadster in space
A strange object initially thought to be a newly discovered asteroid actually turned out to be a Tesla zipping through space. The “asteroid” was designated 2018 CN41 on January 2 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after its discovery by an amateur astronomer from Turkey. 2018…
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Space photo of the week: Galaxies teeter toward collision in the sparkling depths of Virgo
What it is: The Antlia Cluster of galaxies (also called Abell S636) Where it is: 130 million light-years distant in the constellation Antlia, also known as the Air Pump When it was shared: Jan. 1, 2025 Why it’s so special: Astronomers used a telescope in Chile equipped with a highly sensitive camera to capture the…
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Astronomers Capture Mysterious ‘Chorus Waves’ Emerging From Deep Space
An international team of astronomers has detected mysterious chirping signals in an unexpected region of space, raising major questions about how they’re created. Known as chorus waves, these signals are split-second bursts of electromagnetic radiation emitted from high above Earth’s surface. When converted into an audio format and drawn out, they sound eerily like birds…
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Astronomers announce discovery of new asteroid — only to learn it’s…
Astronomers announce discovery of new asteroid — only to learn it’s a Tesla sports car hurling through space Breaking News
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Astronomers spot bizarre icy balls in space that are unlike anything seen before
Astronomers have spotted a mysterious pair of icy balls in a remote region of the Milky Way, and they’re unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. The peculiar objects appear in the same region of the sky but are 13,000 light-years apart and unrelated to each other. They were first spotted in 2021 lurking in data…
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Space object or sports car? How a Tesla Roadster was briefly mistaken for an asteroid
What an amateur astronomer recently took to be a newly discovered asteroid turned out to be a Tesla Roadster voyaging through the cosmos. Yep, you read that right. The infinite vastness of outer space isn’t exactly conducive to terrestrial vehicles, like the sports car manufactured by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company. Perhaps that’s why the…
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Fast radio burst came from a neutron star’s magnetosphere, say astronomers
Star turn: Kenzie Nimmo presenting this work at a recent conference. (Courtesy: K Nimmo) The exact origins of cosmic phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRBs) are not fully understood, but scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have identified a fresh clue: at least one of these puzzling cosmic discharges…
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Two mysterious fast radio bursts originated from wildly different places in space
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — Mysterious fast radio bursts, or millisecond-long bright flashes of radio waves from space, have intrigued astronomers since the first detection of the phenomenon in 2007. The enigmatic signals, known as FRBs, release as much…
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Earth’s Mini-Moon Was Probably a Piece of Its Real Moon
Scientists think a small rock discovered near Earth last August was hurled into space by an ancient impact on the lunar surface. For a few months last fall, a school-bus-size space rock named 2024 PT5 gained fame as Earth’s new “mini-moon.” Astronomers rushed to study the object while it was still close enough to Earth…
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Astronomers watch monster black hole spit out a light-year-long jet
Astronomers have, for the first time, watched the moment a feeding supermassive black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy spat out a jet of material at one-third of the speed of light. Plus, the structure is technically made up of two jets, each about half a light-year across. The black hole in question,…