From the stratosphere, the balloon-borne solar observatory has a clear view of the sun. After a series of weather-related aborts since the end of May, the Sunrise III balloon-borne solar…
Category: Astronomy
Analysis of NASA InSight data suggests Mars hit by meteoroids more often than thought
NASA’s Mars InSight Lander may be resting on the Red Planet in retirement, but data from the robotic explorer is still leading to seismic discoveries on Earth. Mars may be…
Iron meteorites hint that our infant solar system was more doughnut than dartboard
Four and a half billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust swirling around the sun, until gas began to condense and accrete along with…
Bennu holds the solar system’s ‘original ingredients,’ might have been part of a wet world
A deep dive into the sample of rocks and dust returned from near-Earth asteroid Bennu by NASA’s University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed some long-awaited surprises. This view of…
NASA Mission to Study Mysteries in the Origin of Solar Radio Waves
NASA’s CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment, or CURIE, is scheduled to launch July 9, 2024, to investigate the unresolved origins of radio waves coming from the Sun. CURIE will investigate where…
Hubble finds evidence for rare black hole in Omega Centauri
An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri,…
New class of Mars quakes reveals daily meteorite strikes
An international team of researchers combine orbital imagery with seismological data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander to derive a new impact rate for meteorite strikes on Mars. Seismology also offers…
Caltech’s Submillimeter Observatory Has Been Removed from Maunakea
The final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), including its foundation, silver geodesic dome, and on-site buildings, have been removed from a valley atop Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and the land at…
Cosmic Simulation Reveals How Black Holes Grow and Evolve
A team of astrophysicists led by Caltech has managed for the first time to simulate the journey of primordial gas dating from the early universe to the stage at which…
Moon ‘swirls’ could be magnetized by unseen magmas
Mysterious, light-colored swirls on Moon’s surface could be rocks magnetized by magma activity underground, Washington University laboratory experiments confirm. Lunar swirls are light-colored, sinuous features on the Moon’s surface, bright…
