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Astronomers Discover “Space Tornadoes” Around the Milky Way’s Core
Swirling through the Milky Way’s central zone, in the turbulent region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy, dust and gases constantly churn as energetic shock waves ripple throughout. An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have sharpened our view of this action by a factor…
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Supernovae, Stellar Mapping, and Saturn’s New Moons: S28E34 – SpaceTime: Space & Astronomy
SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 34The Astronomy, Space and Science News PodcastSupernovae’s Role in Mass Extinctions, NASA’s Stellar Mapping Mission, and New Moons of SaturnIn this episode of SpaceTime, we explore a fascinating new study suggesting that nearby supernovae could have triggered at least two of Earth’s mass extinction events. These violent stellar explosions may have…
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Williams and Wilmore Are Not the First Astronauts to Be Delayed in Space
The NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally on their way back to Earth after nine months at the International Space Station. But they were not the first to stay unexpectedly in space (much) longer than planned. Here are some other notable examples: On May 18, 1991, Sergei Krikalev set off into space…
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Burning Bright: Astronomy Club creates own outlet for space-loving students
“In space news: the SpaceX rocket blew up again,” Astronomy Club president Mia Bridges ’25 said. The club members scattered in Small Hall 122 nodded attentively. One person laughed. The College of William and Mary’s Astronomy Club provides an outlet for students who love space at a school without an astronomy major. “I tell people…
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Space Scientists Discover 128 New Moons Orbiting Saturn
Turns out, there’s a lot more floating around the planet Saturn than those famous rings. Space scientists announced last week they’ve discovered Saturn has 128 more moons, for a total of 274, far more than its larger neighbor Jupiter, with just 95 moons. University of Iowa physics and astronomy professor Allison Jaynes says she’s betting…
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Who Are Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams? What to Know About the NASA Astronauts
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have nearly half a century of combined experience as astronauts. But this is just their third time in space. Ms. Williams was born in Ohio but grew up in Massachusetts. She was a test pilot in the U.S. Navy and has spent more than 3,000 hours flying 30 different aircraft.…
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Swarms of satellites are harming astronomy. Here’s how researchers are fighting back
In the next few months, from its perch atop a mountain in Chile, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin surveying the cosmos with the largest camera ever built. Every three nights, it will produce a map of the entire southern sky filled with stars, galaxies, asteroids and supernovae — and swarms of bright satellites…
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You’ve heard of the Big Bang. Now astronomers have discovered the Big Wheel – here’s why it’s significant
Deep observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an exceptionally large galaxy in the early universe. It’s a cosmic giant whose light has travelled over 12 billion years to reach us. We’ve dubbed it the Big Wheel, with our findings published today in Nature Astronomy. This giant disk galaxy existed within the…
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You’ve heard of the Big Bang. Now astronomers have discovered the Big Wheel – here’s why it’s significant
Deep observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an exceptionally large galaxy in the early universe. It’s a cosmic giant whose light has travelled over 12 billion years to reach us. We’ve dubbed it the Big Wheel, with our findings published today in Nature Astronomy. This giant disk galaxy existed within the…
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The Artemis campaign: humanity’s return to the Moon
Top of page The global space community is undertaking Artemis, a multi-mission campaign designed to push human space exploration deeper into space to the Moon and on to Mars. What is the Artemis campaign? The NASA-led Artemis campaign is a new chapter of lunar exploration designed to send humans farther into space than ever before.…
