Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Hubble watches the 'flapping' of cosmic bat shadow in the Serpens Nebula
The young star HBC 672 is known by its nickname of Bat Shadow because of its wing-like shadow feature. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has now observed a curious ''flapping''...
NASA, ESA, JAXA to track pandemic's effects from space
An international trio of space agencies has joined forces to track and visualize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on air and water quality, climate change, economic activity and agriculture.
Motions in the sun reveal inner workings of sunspot cycle
The sun's magnetic activity follows an 11-year cycle. Over the course of a solar cycle, the sun's magnetic activity comes and goes. During solar maximum, large sunspots and active regions...
Super-Earths discovered orbiting nearby red dwarf
The nearest exoplanets to us provide the best opportunities for detailed study, including searching for evidence of life outside the solar system. In research led by the University of Göttingen,...
Watch: 'Brave New World' stars introduce trailer for Peacock series
"Brave New World," starring Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Alden Ehrenreich, Hannah John-Kamen and Demi Moore, will premiere July 15 on Peacock.
A multiplanet system of super-Earths orbiting the brightest red dwarf star GJ 887
The closet exoplanets to the Sun provide opportunities for detailed characterization of planets outside the Solar System. We report the discovery, using radial velocity measurements, of a compact multiplanet system...
Meridional flow in the Suns convection zone is a single cell in each hemisphere
The Sun’s magnetic field is generated by subsurface motions of the convecting plasma. The latitude at which the magnetic field emerges through the solar surface (as sunspots) drifts toward the...
Black Hole Collision May Have Exploded with Light June 25, 2020 Caltech
When two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. Because black holes do not give off light,...
Astronomers discover 'monster' quasar from early universe
Astronomers have discovered the most massive quasar known in the early universe, containing a monster black hole with a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion suns. Formally designated as J1007+2115, the...
Two lightning megaflashes shattered distance and duration records
Two extreme bolts of lightning have smashed previous records for lightning duration and distance. A bolt that lit up the sky over Argentina on March 4, 2019, lasted a mind-boggling 16.73 seconds, more...
New briefing paper on Arctic change
BAS researchers have contributed to a new briefing paper about the Arctic published this week (25 June 2020). Working with a team at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London,...
Space agencies join forces to produce global view of COVID-19 impacts
In an unprecedented collaboration, ESA, NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have created a new tool that combines a wealth of data from Earth-observing satellites to monitor the worldwide...
NASA's Summer of Citizen Science
Have five minutes? Ready to be dazzled by citizen science? Watch this new video by NASA Citizen Science Officer Marc Kuchner. You'll take a rapid tour of discoveries made by NASA's citizen scientists over...
Black hole collision may have exploded with light
Astronomers have seen what appears to the first light ever detected from a black hole merger.
Watch: David Benioff's wife, Amanda Peet, weighs in on 'Game of Thrones' finale
Amanda Peet, an actress and the wife of "Game of Thrones" co-creator David Benioff, weighed in on the show's polarizing final episode.
NASA’s TESS, Spitzer Missions Discover a World Orbiting a Unique Young Star
Portal origin URL: NASA’s TESS, Spitzer Missions Discover a World Orbiting a Unique Young StarPortal origin nid: 462159Published: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - 11:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Astronomers using data...
Drones help calibrate radio telescope at Brookhaven Lab
Cosmologists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are experimenting with a prototype radio telescope, called the Baryon Mapping Experiment (BMX). Built at the Lab in 2017,...
Colliding black holes may have created a surprising flare of light
In spite of their dark reputations, two black holes may have set off a cosmic light show. Subtle gravitational rumbles from a collision of two black holes may have been accompanied by...
Black Astronomers Highlight Achievements and Obstacles
One of the forces behind #BlackInAstro week shares her optimism for the future -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
First detector array ready for GUSTO mission
The first detector array for NASA's GUSTO mission has passed its pre-shipment review and is now shipping to the University of Arizona for integration into the balloon observatory. SRON together...
How NASA's Mars helicopter will reach the red planet's surface
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will travel with the Perseverance rover through 314 million miles (505 million kilometers) of interplanetary space to get to Mars. But for the team working on...
CNO fusion neutrinos from the sun observed for the first time
A team of researchers working on the Borexino project has announced that they have observed carbon/nitrogen/oxygen (CNO) fusion neutrinos from the sun for the first time. Co-spokesman for the group,...
NASA developing a plan to fly personnel on suborbital spacecraft
For the first time in the agency's history, NASA has initiated a new effort to enable NASA personnel to fly on future commercial suborbital spaceflights. NASA's Flight Opportunities program has...
Black hole collision may have exploded with light
When two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. Because black holes do not give off light,...
Calculate the number of alien civilizations in the Milky Way for yourself
In recent years, the explosive nature of exoplanet discovery (over 4,164 confirmed so far) has led to renewed interest in the timeless question: "Are we alone in the universe?" Or,...
Space agencies join forces to produce global view of COVID-19 impacts
In an unprecedented collaboration, ESA, NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have created a new tool that combines a wealth of data from Earth-observing satellites to monitor the worldwide...
Video: A 10-year time lapse of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
As of June 2020, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory—SDO—has now been watching the sun nonstop for over a full decade. From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has gathered 425...
Mapping the early universe with NASA's Webb Telescope
Astronomers and engineers have designed telescopes, in part, to be "time travelers." The farther away an object is, the longer its light takes to reach Earth. Peering back in time...