Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the Moon since the Apollo Era before 2030. They will be joined by multiple space agencies, like the ESA and China, who plan to send astronauts (and “taikonauts”) there for the first time. Beyond this, all plan to build permanent habitats in the South … Continue reading "NASA is Developing Solutions for Lunar Housekeeping’s Biggest Problem: Dust!" The post NASA is Developing Solutions for Lunar Housekeeping’s Biggest Problem: Dust! appeared first on Universe Today.

New research suggests that our best hopes for finding existing life on Mars isn’t on the surface, but buried deep within the crust. Several years ago NASA’s Curiosity rover measured traces of methane in the Martian atmosphere at levels several times the background. But a few months later, the methane disappeared, only for it to … Continue reading "Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life?" The post Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life? appeared first on Universe Today.

Entanglement is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics. On its surface, entanglement allows particles to communicate over vast distances instantly, apparently violating the speed of light. But while entangled particles are connected, they don’t necessarily share information between them. In quantum mechanics, a particle isn’t really a particle. Instead of being … Continue reading "Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light?" The post Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light? appeared first on Universe Today.

Neutrinos are tricky little blighters that are hard to observe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica was built to detect neutrinos from space. It is one of the most sensitive instruments built with the hope it might help uncover evidence for dark matter. Any dark matter trapped inside Earth, would release neutrinos that IceCube could … Continue reading "IceCube Just Spent 10 Years Searching for Dark Matter" The post IceCube Just Spent 10 Years Searching for Dark Matter appeared first on Universe Today.

A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from a galaxy 500 million light years away. The burst of radiation peaked in brightness just after 4 day and then faded quickly. The team identified the burst, which was using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey with supporting observations from the … Continue reading "Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers" The post Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers appeared first on Universe Today.

Meet the brown dwarf: bigger than a planet, and smaller than a star. A category of its own, it’s one of the strangest objects in the universe. Brown dwarfs typically are defined to have masses anywhere from 12 times the mass of Jupiter right up to the lower limit for a star. And despite their … Continue reading "What Makes Brown Dwarfs So Weird?" The post What Makes Brown Dwarfs So Weird? appeared first on Universe Today.

In 1971, the Soviet Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to land on Mars, though it only lasted a couple of minutes before failing. More than 50 years later, it’s still there at Terra Sirenum. The HiRISE camera NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have imaged some of its hardware, inadvertently taking part in what … Continue reading "Archaeology On Mars: Preserving Artifacts of Our Expansion Into the Solar System" The post Archaeology On Mars: Preserving Artifacts of Our Expansion Into the Solar System appeared first on Universe Today.

Many of the black holes astronomers observe are the result of mergers from less massive black holes. Using gravitational waves, we can observe two black holes coming together and their combined remnant. But can astronomers observe a black hole and work out the masses of the objects that came together? Can we build a black hole's family tree? In a new paper, researchers propose that the nearby environment puts limits on the kinds of black holes that can merge. The post Building the Black Hole Family Tree appeared first on Universe Today.

Telling time in space is difficult, but it is absolutely critical for applications ranging from testing relativity to navigating down the road. Atomic clocks, such as those used on the Global Navigation Satellite System network, are accurate, but only up to a point. Moving to even more precise navigation tools would require even more accurate … Continue reading "Need to Accurately Measure Time in Space? Use a COMPASSO" The post Need to Accurately Measure Time in Space? Use a COMPASSO appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronomers have already discovered many stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sgr A*. Now, researchers have announced they've found a binary star system in the vicinity too. This is surprising since Sgr A* tears at nearby stars with its ferocious tidal forces, and you'd expect binary stars to be separated from one another after too many close flybys. Well, there they are, still a pair after millions of years. The post A Binary Star Found Surprisingly Close to the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole appeared first on Universe Today.