Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
A young pulsar is blazing through the Milky Way at a speed of over a million miles per hour. This stellar speedster, witnessed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, is one of the fastest objects of its kind ever seen. This result teaches astronomers more about how some of the bigger stars end their lives. Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that are formed when some massive stars run

Berlin (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
Unravelling the mysteries of the Milky Way and mapping it in the process is one of the main goals of the Gaia mission. On 13 June 2022, the mission came a step closer to achieving this with the publication of the complete third star catalogue. Gaia observed and measured approximately 1.8 billion celestial objects for this purpose. By the expected end of the mission in 2025, the largest and

Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
Finding forming planets is a tough but important job for astronomers: Only three planets have ever been discovered caught in the process of forming, and the most recent of these was found just weeks ago. Evan Rich, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, suggests that instead of looking for individual planets forming, astronomers might have better luck looking for the like

Boston MA (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
Astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a new multiplanet system within our galactic neighborhood that lies just 10 parsecs, or about 33 light-years, from Earth, making it one of the closest known multiplanet systems to our own. At the heart of the system lies a small and cool M-dwarf star, named HD 260655, and astronomers have found that it hosts at least two terrestrial, Earth-s

Baltimore MD (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
A star's death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is siphoning off debris from both the system's inner and outer reaches. This is the first time astronomers have observed a white dwarf star that is consuming both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets. Archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Tele

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 15, 2021
Scientists in China have announced that they've detected what may be signals from an alien civilization using the world's largest radio telescope, but warned they could be just radio interference. Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, reported Tuesday that the team of scientists from Beijing Normal University identified two g

Boston MA (SPX) Jun 16, 2022
The Sol 3496 (last Monday) plan did not execute due to an issue onboard the rover that took a few days to investigate. Today, we were back to normal operations, and we were able to accomplish everything that was in the Sol 3496 plan as reported by my fellow blogger Cat O'Connell-Cooper, and more! More was possible because we had slightly different communication windows between Curiosity an

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 16, 2022
Sixteen scientists from the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Japan have been chosen to help future samples from the Red Planet achieve their full potential. NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), its partner in the Mars Sample Return Program, have established a new group of researchers to maximize the scientific potential of Mars rock and sediment samples that would be returned to Earth for in-dep

Paris, France (ESA) Jun 16, 2022
The next steps in exploring and using space for the benefit of European citizens were this week on the agenda at ESA's Council meeting in ESA/ESTEC, the Netherlands on 14 and 15 June. The possibility of the first-ever European astronaut to set foot on the Moon, a telecommunication satellite for lunar exploration and a mission to return precious rock samples from Mars were all discussed. NA

Paris (ESA) Jun 16, 2022
A key element of ESA's Hera mission for planetary defence has left the facilities of its manufacturer OHB in Bremen - a major step in preparation for its eventual odyssey to the Didymos asteroid system. The mission's Propulsion Module flight model, seen here, has been delivered to Avio, southeast of Rome, where propellant tanks, thrusters and associated pipes and valves will be integrated