An illustrated view of a black widow pulsar and its stellar companion. The pulsar’s gamma-ray emissions (magenta) strongly heat the facing side of the star (orange). The pulsar is gradually evaporating its partner. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain. The flashing of a nearby star has attracted MIT astronomers to a new and mysterious system 3,000 light-years...
The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) GSAT-9 on board the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09), launches in Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh on May 5, 2017. Credit: c4isrnet. This month, the U.S. government announced that it will not perform destructive anti-satellite weapons experiments, which dispersed hazardous "space junk" in low-Earth orbit. The prohibition...
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel, Dark Energy Survey, Department of Energy, Fermilab, Dark Energy Survey Camera, (DECam), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, NoirLab/National Science Foundation/AURA, Sloan Digital Sky Survey; Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt The Swirling Galactic Trio The mass of dust and brilliant swirls of stars in this picture are the far-off galaxy merger IC 2431, which...
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center NASA's Parker Solar Probe has taken its first visible-light pictures of the surface of Venus from space Surrounded in thick clouds, Venus' surface is usually hidden from view. However, in two current flybys of the Earth, Parker used its Wide-Field Imager, or WISPR, to image the whole nightside in wavelengths...
Illustration of a “super Neptune,” TOI-674 b, with an atmosphere that, according to a recent study, includes water vapor. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Water vapor in the atmosphere of planet TOI-674 b This newly found planet, a bit larger than Neptune and orbiting a red-dwarf star roughly 150 light-years away. This size places it in an exclusive club:...
An image of a Russian Satellite. Credit: iStock In a test of an anti-satellite missile on Monday, November 15, Russia demolished one of its older satellites. Members of the International Space Station were obliged to seek refuge in their spacecraft in the immediate aftermath of the test because the impact produced a cloud of space debris...
This image, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, shows wide (left) and close-up (right) views of the moon-forming disc surrounding PDS 70c, a young Jupiter-like planet nearly 400 light-years away. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al. New high-resolution observations reveal a Moon-forming area around exoplanet PDS 70c. The...
See Venus and the first-quarter moon, as well! Mercury, Venus and the first-quarter moon — along with the stars Spica and Arcturus — will appear to form a straight line in the evening sky on Sept. 13, 2021. This sky map shows the view from New York City at approximately 7 p.m. local time. Credit: SkySafari app Mercury...
An international group of scientists led by a renowned Harvard astronomer revealed a new initiative Monday to seek proof of technology built by extraterrestrial civilizations. Named the Galileo Job, it envisions producing a worldwide network of medium-sized telescopes, video cameras, and computers to examine unknown flying objects. So far, it was funded with $1.75 million...
How did it all start? This image maps the cooler infrared emission from interstellar dust found throughout the interstellar medium. NASA/JPL-Caltech As humanity has rolled in beyond into space, we have come to learn a great deal even more concerning the lifecycle of the solar system. From a collapsing cloud of gas into an all-new star to an...
