Grand plans: Both the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope are seen as the future of US ground-based astronomy and stem from advances in mirror technology (courtesy: Damien Jemison/Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)) The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is to assemble a panel to help it decide whether…

Over the past few years, our planet has become increasingly encircled by Starlink, OneWeb and other “megaconstellation” satellites. Yes, the emergence of those megaconstellations offers great benefits for humanity. But in a wait-a-minute pause, there are also substantial costs, including a growing imposition on astronomy. That’s the view of David Koplow, the Scott K. Ginsburg…

Electromagnetic waves are a form of energy that have both an electric and magnetic component. They’re different from mechanical waves since they’re one of the only things that can propagate long distances through the vacuum of space. A Webb / Hubble combined view of the Phantom Galaxy, M74, in optical and infrared. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA…

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. Already years late, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft continues to face delays as it prepares to launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams into space. The latest…

In 2015, the iconic Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first-ever tangible detection of gravitational waves. The waves were the result of two black holes colliding far away in the universe; since then, a wealth of such signals from merging black holes, neutron stars and even a couple of mixed mergers between the two…

Lift-off: Chang’e-6 will attempt to bring back 2 kg of lunar material from the far side of the Moon (Courtesy: CNSA) China has successfully launched a mission to bring back sample from the far side of the Moon – the first attempt to do so. Chang’e-6 was launched at 17:27 p.m. local time today by…

Join the Boise State Physics Department for our First Friday Astronomy Event:Friday, August 2, 7:30 p.m. in the Liberal Arts Building, Room 106. Jason Williams, project scientist at NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, will present: “NASA’s Cold Atom Lab: Six Years of Quantum Science on the International Space Station”. The event is free and open to the public.…

Artist’s depiction of the Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE). Credit: Edward Balaban The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all extremely faint, which presents an ongoing challenge for current missions and is the opportunity space for next generation telescopes:…

Artist’s depiction of the Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE)NASA The next generation of space-based astronomy hinges on telescopes with colossal apertures. The most critical astrophysics targets, such as Earth-like exoplanets, first-generation stars, and early galaxies, are all incredibly faint. This faintness presents a continuous challenge for current missions and opens up opportunities for next-generation telescopes. Larger telescopes…

Astronomers have puzzled for 88 years about how a pair of binary stars have continued to erupt over the course of a century, but it seems the mystery has finally been solved. The double star system FU Orionis (FU Ori), located around 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion, first stunned astronomers in…