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NASA discovers planet-wide electric field around Earth that’s shooting bits of our atmosphere into space
NASA has detected a planet-wide electric field surrounding Earth for the first time ever. The field, known as the ambipolar electric field, was discovered by NASA’s suborbital Endurance rocket more than 60 years after it was first hypothesized, and is thought to be as fundamental to our planet as its better known magnetic and gravitational…
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How AI is revealing the universe’s original ‘settings’
Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days. When we think of AI, we’re usually thinking of uncanny “deepfake” images and Chat GPT’s written responses — but astronomers are actually using it to make significant discoveries, too. Researchers from the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in New York City recently used AI to…
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Space exploration
Motivations for space activity Hurricane IreneSatellite image of Hurricane Irene taken on August 26, 2011.(more) Although the possibility of exploring space has long excited people in many walks of life, for most of the latter 20th century and into the early 21st century, only national governments could afford the very high costs of launching people…
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James Webb telescope spots 6 enormous ‘rogue planets’ tumbling through space without a star
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spotted six rogue planets drifting freely through space, untethered from the gravity of any companion stars. The planets are wandering through the Perseus molecular cloud 960 light-years away and range in size from five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter. The strange cosmic vagabonds are evidence that…
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Archaeologists find huge, 2,500-year-old Egyptian astronomy observatory
An apparent record-breaking ancient astronomy “observatory,” complete with a sundial, was uncovered recently during a temple dig in the old capital of lower Egypt. The mud-brick temple building was found in a larger complex known now as the Temple of Buto, but which was named after Wadjet during the sixth century BCE, from which it…
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Astronomers discover new ‘odd radio circle’ near the center of our galaxy
A mysterious ring of radio light could have been created by a type of massive star with a powerful wind of radiation blowing away its outer layers, according to astronomers who made the discovery with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. In 2019, astronomers conducting a survey with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder…
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NASA announces Boeing Starliner will return to Earth without crew
The Starliner approaches the International Space Station during a 2022 test flight. The orbiting lab was flying 268 miles above the south Pacific at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA When NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off from Earth June 5 aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on its first crewed flight test…
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All about the Polaris Dawn mission launching tomorrow
The Dragon capsule sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A. Credit: Polaris Program/John Kraus (Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) A billionaire entrepreneur and aviator, a Thunderbird pilot, a former NASA biomedical flight controller, and an experienced astronaut training program lead are preparing to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s…
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Starlink tests show how to save radio astronomy from satellites
A radio telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia J. Seymour/Green Bank Observatory Radio telescopes observing the cosmos face growing challenges because of electromagnetic interference from thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. Now, experiments involving SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have shown how to virtually eliminate one form of this problem. As these kind…
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‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ photo: Perseid meteors, northern lights and rare glowing arc shine over 11th-century castle
When photographer Josh Dury set out to photograph the peak of the Perseid meteor shower overnight on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, little did he know he’d be treated to a truly special cosmic display. The breathtaking image Dury captured shows not only Perseid meteors raining down through the sky but also northern lights and…