Visualization showing how magnetic field lines, thin cyan lines, circling Earth can trap charged particles, thin yellow lines. Credit: UCLA EPSS/NASA SVS When lightning strikes, the electrons come pouring down. In…
Category: Planetary Science
Astronomers find Webb data conflict with reionization models
Simulation of galaxies ionizing hydrogen gas (bright areas) during the epoch of Reionization. Credit: M. Alvarez, R. Kaehler, and T. Abel / European Southern Observatory (ESO). Reionization is a critical…
Scientists long urged NASA to search for signs of life near Jupiter; now it’s happening
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In 2015, Bill Nye was on Marine One with President Obama. The television personality and science advocate was officially there for an Earth Day event, but…
Hera probe heads off to see aftermath of DART’s asteroid impact
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sends the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft into space from its Florida launch pad. Credit: SpaceX The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is on its…
Curiosity rover provides new insights into how Mars became uninhabitable
This is an artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue areas) on its surface. Ancient regions on Mars bear signs of abundant water – such as features…
Astronomers use Webb to probe a ‘steam world’ in the constellation Pisces
The study found that the planet’s atmosphere contains a high concentration of heavier molecules, including a significant amount of water vapor. Credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STSCI), Ralf Crawford (STSCI)…
Astronomers detect multiple extended tidal tails in an old globular cluster
High-probability members of NGC 288’s tidal tails. The green points show stars lying along the trailing tail, the cyan points designate candidate stars in the inner leading tail, and yellow…
The sun unleashes its strongest flare this cycle
Image of the October 3, 2024 X9 flare seen in extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO Yesterday the sun released a huge solar flare, and it’s heading toward Earth. It’s nothing…
Traces of antimatter in cosmic rays reopen the search for ‘WIMPs’ as dark matter
The image shows the predicted flux of antihelium-3 produced from dark matter (WIMPs) that annihilate producing these antinuclei. Each color represents the prediction for a different mass of dark matter,…
