https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. A ring of icy rocks orbiting our sun just beyond Neptune may give us a glimpse of how Neptune—and other objects in the outskirts of our solar system—were formed. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-scientists-james-webb-space-telescope.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:57:04 EST news628966621 Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday announced it was eyeing March 14 as the earliest date for the next test launch of its giant Starship rocket, with which it hopes to one day colonize Mars. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-spacex-eyes-starship.html Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:38:05 EST news628965479 It's not hard to find out what NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have observed in the past. Barely a week goes by without news of a cosmic discovery made possible using images, spectra, and other data captured by NASA's prolific astronomical observatories. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-hubble-webb-nasa-tool.html Astronomy Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:34:16 EST news628965253 The Orion spacecraft that traveled around the moon and back during 2022's Artemis I mission completed a different round trip when it recently returned to Ohio for testing. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-earth-nasa-orion-capsule-crewed.html Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 15:30:02 EST news628961402 Using some of the largest telescopes in the world, including the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers discovered three new natural satellites orbiting the outermost planets in our solar system—one around Uranus and two around Neptune. One of the new moons, initially detected by the Subaru Telescope, is the faintest moon ever discovered by ground-based telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-subaru-telescope-faintest-moon-icy.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:52:58 EST news628959176 Neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics signals, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter, according to research from Washington University in St. Louis. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-physics-debris-colliding-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:24:12 EST news628957449 Scientists have revealed why some white dwarfs mysteriously stop cooling—changing ideas on just how old stars really are and what happens to them when they die. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astrophysicists-unveil-phenomenon-textbook-definition.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:23:46 EST news628957423 Ultrasound devices are commonplace in modern orbital medical kits, helping to facilitate rapid diagnoses of astronaut ailments or bodily changes. However it takes real-time guidance from experts on the ground to acquire medically useful ultrasound images. Once astronauts travel to the moon or further into the solar system such guidance will no longer be practical due to the time delay involved. A new ESA-led project aims to leverage AI and Machine Learning so that astronauts can perform close to expert quality ultrasound exams by themselves. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ai-expert-astronaut-ultrasound.html Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:42:01 EST news628951315 The Kepler mission enabled the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, revealing a deep truth about our place in the cosmos: There are more planets than stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The road to this fundamental change in our understanding of the universe, however, required almost 20 years of persistence before the mission became a reality with its selection in 2001. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-planets-stars-kepler-legacy.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:39:10 EST news628951139 Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) system, on February 22, 2023, the team detected a sudden surge in brightness followed by a rapid dimming in the galaxy NGC 3799, located about 160 million light-years from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-star-ripped-black-hole-rare.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:38:02 EST news628947481 A galaxy that suddenly stopped forming new stars more than 13 billion years ago has been observed by astronomers. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astronomers-oldest-dead-galaxy.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942866 Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have investigated the stellar population of the globular cluster NGC 1835. They detected a remarkably extended horizontal branch in this system. The discovery, reported February 28 on the preprint server arXiv, marks the first time when such a feature is found in a globular cluster beyond our Milky Way galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-horizontal-globular-cluster-ngc.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:02:17 EST news628941734 An increasing number of space objects, debris, and satellites in Low Earth Orbit poses a significant threat of collisions during space operations. The situation is currently monitored by radar and radio-telescopes that track space objects, but much of space debris is composed of very small metallic objects that are difficult to detect. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-potential-benefits-aibased-hard-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 07:23:00 EST news628932176 The moon lander Odysseus, known as Odie, touched down on the moon's surface on February 22, becoming the first time the U.S. has landed on the moon in more than 50 years and the first commercial moon lander to successfully land on the moon. Along with its science payload, the spacecraft also brought along a fusion of art and space exploration, SETI Institute's Artist in Residence (SETI AIR), Felipe Pérez Santiago's Earthling Project, a collection of global musical compositions representing Earth's cultural diversity and harmony. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-moon-lander-odysseus-home-artistic.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:13:03 EST news628877581 After two years of rigorous training, ten Americans officially became astronauts on Tuesday, and are now eligible for planned NASA missions to the International Space Station, the moon, and—if all goes well—to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nasa-astronauts-eying-moon-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:41:24 EST news628875679 Three US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived Tuesday at the International Space Station for a six-month mission on board the orbiting laboratory. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astronauts-international-space-station-swap.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:20:19 EST news628867213 Looking deep into space and time, two teams using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only about 430 million years old. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-webb-secrets-primeval-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:33:30 EST news628864407 Space weather experts at the University of Surrey are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation exposure. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-space-tourists-cosmic-exposure-experts.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:12:02 EST news628863121 When they are active, supermassive black holes play a crucial role in the way galaxies evolve. Until now, growth was thought to be triggered by the violent collision of two galaxies followed by their merger; however, new research led by the University of Bath suggests galaxy mergers alone are not enough to fuel a black hole—a reservoir of cold gas at the center the host galaxy is needed too. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-black-holes-stars-machine-mystery.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:18:04 EST news628859881 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-1135 b is young, hot and comparable in size to Saturn. The discovery was detailed in a paper published February 27 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astronomers-saturn-sized-exoplanet.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:59:10 EST news628851548 In a series of studies, a team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The stunning images, captured using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile, represent one of the largest ever surveys of planet-forming disks. The research brings together observations of more than 80 young stars that might have planets forming around them, providing astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insights into how planets arise in different regions of our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-groundbreaking-survey-reveals-secrets-planet.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:00:01 EST news628834856 April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the sun are not unusual, but this one was unusually widespread, hurling high-speed protons and electrons at velocities nearing the speed of light and striking several spacecraft across the inner solar system. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-multiple-spacecraft-story-giant-solar.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:47:03 EST news628793221 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-james-webb-space-telescope-captures.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:57:04 EST news628790221 Before the end of this decade, NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. But this time, through the Artemis Program, it won't be a "footprints and flags" affair. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-lunar-missions-moondust.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:42:04 EST news628785722 Just about every day we here on Earth get a breathtaking picture of Mars's terrain sent back by a rover. But, the view from space can be pretty amazing, too. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) just sent back a thought-provoking picture of Curiosity as it makes its way up a steep ridge on Mount Sharp. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-curiosity-rover-climbing-striped-terrain.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:30:06 EST news628785004 The Apollo Program delivered 12 American astronauts to the surface of the moon. But that program ended in 1972, and since then, no human beings have visited. But Artemis will change that. And instead of just visiting the moon, Artemis' aim is to establish a longer-term presence on the moon. That requires more complexity than Apollo did. Astronauts will need to transfer between vehicles. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nasa-starship-docking.html Space Exploration Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:30:03 EST news628785002 Correcting 50-year-old errors in the math used to understand how electromagnetic waves scatter electrons trapped in Earth's magnetic fields will lead to better protection for technology in space. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-space-physics-satellite-safety.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:36:01 EST news628781759 When it was first discovered in 2004, Apophis was identified as one of the most dangerous asteroids in that there was a risk that it could impact Earth. But that impact assessment changed over the years after astronomers tracked Apophis, also known as asteroid 99942, and its orbit became better determined, and it became clear that it was on course to miss our planet. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-chance-infamous-apophis-collides-asteroid.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:27:57 EST news628781274 An astronomy lesson on binary stars could begin with a series of complex diagrams and data or with a clip from the movie Star Wars where Luke Skywalker looks up at the sky of his home planet, Tatooine, and sees two suns shining. Which will more easily awaken the interest of a sleepy high school class? https://phys.org/news/2024-03-tatooine-reality-exoplanet-science-fiction.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:09:31 EST news628780169 As it trundles around an ancient lakebed on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is assembling a one-of-a-kind rock collection. The car-sized explorer is methodically drilling into the Red Planet's surface and pulling out cores of bedrock that it's storing in sturdy titanium tubes. Scientists hope to one day return the tubes to Earth and analyze their contents for traces of embedded microbial life. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-drilled-mars.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:02:04 EST news628776122