space

Researchers Now Say That Black Holes May Form without Collapsing Stars 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- July 3, 2019
Black holes have traditionally been believed to have formed exclusively from stellar remnants. New indirect evidence suggests otherwise.

By David Aragorn
NASA to send drone to Saturn’s moon for clues on human origins 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- July 2, 2019
NASA plans to send a drone named Dragonfly to Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, the agency said Thursday, announcing the space agency’s latest high-profile mission to explore the solar system for clues on humanity’s origins. “Today I am proud to announce that our next New Frontiers mission, Dragonfly, will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a video teleconference.

By David Aragorn
This was the moment a car-size asteroid exploded above Puerto Rico 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- July 2, 2019
Such an explosion has energy equivalent to more than 6,000 tonnes of TNT

By David Aragorn
Astronomers Snap Thermal Images of Uranian Ring System 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 29, 2019
The rings of the ice giant Uranus are invisible to all but the largest telescopes — they weren’t even discovered until 1977. However, they are surprisingly bright in the new thermal images taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The new images allowed astronomers for the first time to measure the temperature of rings particles: minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 196 degrees Celsius).

By David Aragorn
Ultra-short period brown dwarf discovered 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 29, 2019
An international team of astronomers has detected a new brown dwarf with an ultra-short orbital period that transits an active M-dwarf star. The newfound object, designated NGTS-7Ab, turns out to be the shortest period transiting brown dwarf around a main or pre-main sequence star discovered to date. The finding is detailed in a paper published June 19 on the arXiv pre-print server.

By David Aragorn
We will rock you: the world prepares for Asteroid Day 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 29, 2019
Events are planned in 192 countries, so there’s something for everyone. Jeff Glorfeld reports

By David Aragorn
NASA announces ‘Dragonfly’ mission to Titan 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 28, 2019
A new $850 million drone-like lander will be venturing on to (and above) the surface of Saturn’s enigmatic moon.

By David Aragorn
U.N., European bodies outline joint push against space junk 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 28, 2019
European and U.N. bodies on Thursday outlined a joint push for global action on space junk, saying that debris orbiting the earth must be cleaned up as satellites launched by private companies and other new entrants are adding to the crowding.

By David Aragorn
NASA’s search for signs of life on Mars yields another shock 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 27, 2019
It was just a couple of days ago that NASA announced something pretty exciting about Mars. Its Curiosity rover had detected shockingly high levels of methane, suggesting an unseen geological or even biological process was at work on the planet. Signs of past or present life? Perhaps, but a follow-up reading has now generated more questions than answers.

By David Aragorn
Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Cyanide Compounds in Meteorites 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- June 27, 2019
A research team led by scientists from Boise State University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has identified several complex cyanide compounds in a set of CM chondrite meteorites. These extraterrestrial organometallic compounds are a source of free cyanide and also bear a striking similarity to portions of the active sites of hydrogeneses (enzymes that provide energy to bacteria and archaea by breaking down hydrogen gas), which suggests that these compounds may have played an important role during the origin and early evolution of life on Earth.

By David Aragorn