The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has released a goldmine of knowledge about our galaxy and beyond. Among other findings, the star surveyor has surpassed its planned potential to reveal half a…
Category: Astronomy
Ionic Crystal Generates Molecular Ions upon Positron Irradiation
Positron―surface interactions generate positive molecular ions via formation of positronic compounds, opening doors to generating novel molecular ions. Positron, the antiparticle of electron, has the same mass and charge as…
Keeping Beds in the Goldilocks Zone
For Mark Aramli, the bed was a battlefield. He liked the bed a little cool, while his partner liked to stay warm under the covers. The constant fight over the…
First-ever Afterglow of Huge Planetary Collision in Outer Space
Image shows a visualisation of the huge, glowing planetary body produced by a planetary collision. In the foreground, fragments of ice and rock fly away from the collision and will…
Plot Thickens in Hunt for Ninth Planet
Outer reaches of the solar system could harbor another – ninth planet—or evidence modifying laws of gravity. An artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer…
“Starquakes” Could Explain Mystery Signals
Receiver of the Arecibo Telescope, Puerto Rico. FRB data was provided by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China and the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico, two of the…
Dazzling – and Fortunate – Story of Gold
New research offers a theory on how gold, platinum, and other precious metals found their way to shallow pockets within Earth’s mantle. Artistic rendering of a large collision on the…
Bursts of Star Formation Explain Mysterious Brightness at Cosmic Dawn
Intense flashes of light, not mass, during star formation, resolve the puzzle of impossible brightness. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest…
How New Satellite Type Will Impact Earth Astronomy
A team of scientists has been tracking a bright object in the sky. But it’s not a star. It’s a new type of commercial satellite. Astronomers are trying to understand…
Prehistoric Cosmic Airburst Preceded the Advent of Agriculture in the Levant
Agriculture in Syria started with a cosmic bang 12,800 years ago as a fragmented comet slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion and subsequent environmental changes forced hunter-gatherers in the…
