Copernical Team
Outback radio telescope discovers dense, spinning, dead star
Astronomers have discovered a pulsar - a dense and rapidly spinning neutron star sending radio waves into the cosmos - using a low-frequency radio telescope in outback Australia. The pulsar was detected with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope, in Western Australia's remote Mid West region. It's the first time scientists have discovered a pulsar with the MWA but they believ
Record-breaking flare from Sun's nearest neighbor
A team of astronomers including Carnegie's Alycia Weinberger and former-Carnegie postdoc Meredith MacGregor, now an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, spotted an extreme outburst, or flare, from the Sun's nearest neighbor - the star Proxima Centauri. Their work, which could help guide the search for life beyond our Solar System, is published in The Astrophysical Jou
Astronomers release new all-sky map of Milky Way's outer reaches
Astronomers using data from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) telescopes have released a new all-sky map of the outermost region of our galaxy. Known as the galactic halo, this area lies outside the swirling spiral arms that form the Milky Way's recognizable central disk and is sparsely populated with stars. Though the halo may appear mostly empty, it is also predicted to contain a massive re
NASA's Webb to study young exoplanets on the edge
Before planets around other stars were first discovered in the 1990s, these far-flung exotic worlds lived only in the imagination of science fiction writers. But even their creative minds could not have conceived of the variety of worlds astronomers have uncovered. Many of these worlds, called exoplanets, are vastly different from our solar system's family of planets. They range from star-
Scientists find CO2-rich liquid water in ancient meteorite
Water is abundant in our solar system. Even outside of our own planet, scientists have detected ice on the moon, in Saturn's rings and in comets, liquid water on Mars and under the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus, and traces of water vapor in the scorching atmosphere of Venus. Studies have shown that water played an important role in the early evolution and formation of the solar system
Twenty years of Europeans on the Space Station
On 23 April 2001, ESA astronaut Umberto Guidoni first set foot, or hand, on the International Space Station, making him the first European to visit and work the orbiting outpost. Since then, the Space Station has grown immensely, as have the number of Europeans to have worked in it, together with the science experiments performed in orbit. When Umberto arrived, he flew on the Space Shuttle
Perseverance extracts first oxygen from Mars surface materials
The growing list of "firsts" for Perseverance, NASA's newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet's thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian
NASA to participate in tabletop exercise simulating asteroid impact
JPL's Center for Near Earth Object Studies will lead the hypothetical impact scenario to see how international agencies respond to an actual impact prediction. During the week of April 26, members of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) will participate in a "tabletop exercise" to simulate an asteroid impact scenario. The exercise depicting this fictional event is being led
MOXIE creates oxygen on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has been marking milestones on Mars since landing on the Red Planet in February. Its latest historic accomplishment is the first creation of oxygen from carbon dioxide in the thin Mars atmosphere. Mission time is measured in sols, or Martian days. Oxygen production was achieved early in the evening of April 20, or early morning on Sol 60 in Jezero Crater. MOXIE (M
SpaceX flight to ISS postponed by one day due to weather
A crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has been postponed by a day due to weather concerns downrange of the launch site, NASA said Wednesday.
Liftoff had been scheduled for Thursday but because of unfavorable conditions along the Atlantic coast, it will now be set for 5:49 am (0949 GMT) Friday.
"For crewed missions we need to look downrange to make sure weather's good for a potential launch escape, and for recovery of the crew," acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk told reporters.
The Crew-2 mission will carry four astronauts in the second routine taxi ride by SpaceX to ISS since the United States resumed crewed space flight, and the first with a European.