https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. Space exploration has always captivated our imagination, offering the promise of discovering new worlds and pushing the boundaries of human capability. As commercial space travel becomes more accessible, individuals with various underlying health conditions—including heart failure—may soon be among those venturing beyond Earth's atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-heart-lung-potential-health.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:01 EDT news638094713 Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe was born in a blur of mystery. The new Simons Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert may soon answer the great scientific question of what happened in that tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-team-probe-big-inflation.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 16:25:41 EDT news638119511 Atmospheric scientists get a little more excited with every rock core NASA's Perseverance Mars rover seals in its titanium sample tubes, which are being gathered for eventual delivery to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Twenty-four have been taken so far. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-intrigued-air-nasa-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:44:20 EDT news638117054 Teams of NASA researchers put their next-generation technologies to the microgravity test in a series of parabolic flights that aim to advance innovations supporting the agency's space exploration goals. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-generation-nasa-technologies-flight.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:55:03 EDT news638114101 ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra spacecraft have detected three young neutron stars that are unusually cold for their age. By comparing their properties to different neutron star models, scientists conclude that the oddballs' low temperatures disqualify around 75% of known models. This is a big step towards uncovering the one neutron star "equation of state" that rules them all, with important implications for the fundamental laws of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-young-cool-lessons-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:52:03 EDT news638106721 For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to image directly has been captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area of this young, nearby star-forming region. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-webb-image-alignment-bipolar-jets.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:17:29 EDT news638104643 Rusty in appearance and magnificent in detail, a new image of the Mawrth Vallis region on Mars reveals a world rich in iron, magnesium and aluminum. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-exomars-gas-orbiter-image-exposes.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:56:02 EDT news638103361 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 dust to form asteroids and planets. What did this cosmic nursery, known as a protoplanetary disk, look like, and how was it structured? https://phys.org/news/2024-06-iron-meteorites-hint-infant-solar.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:41:04 EDT news638102461 Studying the history of science shows how often serendipity plays a role in some of the most important discoveries. Sometimes, the stories are apocryphal, like Newton getting hit on the head with an apple. But sometimes, there's an element of truth to them. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earliest-merging-quasars.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:25:03 EDT news638101502 Drones are being raced against the clock at Delft University of Technology's "Cyber Zoo" to test the performance of neural-network-based AI control systems planned for next-generation space missions. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-drone-neural-network-ai-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:48:15 EDT news638099289 Supermassive black holes pose unanswered questions for astronomers around the world, not the least of which is "How do they grow so big?" Now, an international team of astronomers, including researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has discovered a powerful rotating, magnetic wind that they believe is helping a galaxy's central supermassive black hole to grow. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-supermassive-black-hole-baby-star.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:48:02 EDT news638099278 Photographing faint objects close to bright stars is incredibly difficult. Yet, by combining data from ESA's Gaia space telescope with ESO's GRAVITY instrument on the ground, scientists managed just that. They took the first pictures of so far unseen dim companions of eight luminous stars. The technique unlocks the tantalizing possibility to capture images of planets orbiting close to their host stars. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-hidden-companions-bright-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:15:04 EDT news638097302 Using the Magellan Telescopes in Chile, astronomers have performed photometric observations of a giant elliptical galaxy known as NGC 4696. The observations reveal that the galaxy has a complex globular cluster system. The finding was detailed in a paper published June 12 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-galaxy-ngc-hosts-complex-globular.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 09:30:55 EDT news638094651 A French-Chinese telescope satellite will blast off this weekend on a mission to hunt down gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-french-chinese-probe-universe-biggest.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 08:04:16 EDT news638089445 The official start of summer is around the corner. Parts of the West have already experienced triple-digit heat and wildfires. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-summer-solstice-corner-daylight.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:15:36 EDT news638086531 Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only other planetary body in the solar system that currently hosts active rivers, lakes, and seas. These otherworldly river systems are thought to be filled with liquid methane and ethane that flows into wide lakes and seas, some as large as the Great Lakes on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-titan-strong-erode-coastlines-lakes.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news638004482 Earth's protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us. The ozone layer plays a critical role in shielding the biosphere from deadly UV radiation. It blocks 99% of the sun's powerful UV output. Earth's magnetosphere also shelters us. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-atmosphere-defense-nearby-supernovae.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:29:53 EDT news638018990 As space travel becomes more common, it is important to consider the impacts of space flight and altered gravity on the human body. Led by Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles, researchers at Texas A&M University are studying some of those impacts, specifically effects on the eye. The findings are published in the journal npj Microgravity. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-impacts-space-astronauts-eye-health.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:25:14 EDT news638018711 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken its first new images since changing to an alternate operating mode that uses one gyro. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-hubble-image-mode.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:10:07 EDT news638017801 In the coming decade, more people will go to space than ever before as human spaceflight enters a new era. NASA, the European Space Agency and other governmental agencies are partnering to develop crewed missions beyond the moon. At the same time, these agencies are collaborating with private companies using new technologies to drive down the price of space exploration. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronauts-medicine-thousands-miles-earth.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:52:04 EDT news638016721 The severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the planetary science community is greater than in the general U.S. population, according to a study led by a University of Hawai'i at Mānoa scientist and published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mental-health-planetary-science-community.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:32:15 EDT news638011933 It's time for the start of summer—with a full moon to boot. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-summer-solstice.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:27:24 EDT news638011640 A new study published in Physical Review Letters explores the possibility that a strongly supercooled, first-order phase transition in the early universe could explain gravitational wave signals observed by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). https://phys.org/news/2024-06-supercooled-phase-transitions-gravitational.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:30:02 EDT news638006608 NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colorado, to build the spacecraft for NOAA's Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-lockheed-martin-gen-spacecraft.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:53:52 EDT news638006028 A late scrub due to weather on June 18 means it will have been at least 12 days since SpaceX last lit up the Space Coast sky with a rocket launch, the longest run between launches in more than a year. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-high-delay-spacex-cape-canaveral.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:52:16 EDT news638005932 Astronomers from India and Thailand have observed a young nearby open cluster known as Berkeley 59. Results of the observational campaign, published June 12 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver essential information regarding low-mass stellar and substellar content of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-explore-stellar-content-nearby-young.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:47:16 EDT news638005631 It's been 11 days since SpaceX last lit up the Space Coast sky with a rocket launch, the longest run between launches in more than a year. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-spacex-missions-cape-canaveral-tonight.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:27:02 EDT news637946821 After months of driving, Perseverance has finally arrived at "Bright Angel," discovering oddly textured rock unlike any the rover has seen before. The team now plans to drive up the slope to uncover the origin of this rock sequence and its relationship to the margin unit. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-perseverance-popcorn-planet-mars.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:28:52 EDT news637943330 NASA and Boeing are targeting a June 26 return to Earth of the Boeing Starliner from the International Space Station, officials said Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-boeing-starliner-earth-june.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:17:40 EDT news637942656 Solstices mark the changing of seasons, occur twice a year, and feature the year's shortest and longest daylight hours—depending on your hemisphere. These extremes in the length of day and night make solstice days more noticeable to many observers than the subtle equality of day and night experienced during equinoxes. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-tropical-solstice-shadows.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 13:32:18 EDT news637936336