We’ve now seen farther, deeper and more clearly into space than ever before. The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope, released in a White House briefing on July…
Category: Space
Sand clouds are common in atmospheres of brown dwarfs
Clouds of sand can condense, grow and disappear in some extraterrestrial atmospheres. A new look at old data shows that clouds made of hot silicate minerals are common in celestial…
A new look at the ‘mineral kingdom’ may transform how we search for life
If every mineral tells a story, then geologists now have their equivalent of The Arabian Nights. For the first time, scientists have cataloged every different way that every known mineral…
50 years ago, a new theory of Earth’s core began solidifying
How the Earth got its core – Science News, July 1, 1972 In the beginning, scientists believe there was an interstellar gas cloud of all the elements comprising the Earth.…
New Gaia data paint the most detailed picture yet of the Milky Way
1.6 billion stars. 11.4 million galaxies. 158,000 asteroids. One spacecraft. The European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, which launched in 2013, has long surpassed its goal of charting more than…
Aliens could send quantum messages to Earth, calculations suggest
An intelligent alien civilization could beam quantum messages to Earth. Particles of light, or photons, could be transmitted over vast, interstellar distances without losing their quantum nature, researchers report June…
An otherwise quiet galaxy in the early universe is spewing star stuff
PASADENA, Calif. — A lucky celestial alignment has given astronomers a rare look at a galaxy in the early universe that is seeding its surroundings with the elements needed to…
Gravitational wave ‘radar’ could help map the invisible universe
It sounds like the setup for a joke: If radio waves give you radar and sound gives you sonar, what do gravitational waves get you? The answer might be “GRADAR”…
Seven newfound dwarf galaxies sit on just one side of a larger galaxy
PASADENA, Calif. — The faint dwarf galaxies in a nearby galaxy group seem to have missed the memo. Instead of being dispersed evenly around the group’s most massive galaxy, which…
Neutrinos hint the sun has more carbon and nitrogen than previously thought
After two decades of debate, scientists are getting closer to figuring out exactly what the sun — and thus the whole universe — is made of. The sun is mostly…
