Any event in the cosmos generates gravitational waves, the bigger the event, the more disturbance. Events where black holes and neutron stars collide can send out waves detectable here on Earth. It is possible that there can be an event in visible light when neutron stars collide so to take advantage of every opportunity an … Continue reading "Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds" The post Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds appeared first on Universe Today.

During the Space Race, scientists in both the United States and the Soviet Union investigated the concept of ion propulsion. Like many early Space Age proposals, the concept was originally explored by luminaries like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Hermann Oberth – two of the “forefathers of rocketry.” Since then, the technology has been validated repeatedly by … Continue reading "Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful" The post Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful appeared first on Universe Today.

The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to explain this for years. One of the more interesting ideas comes from a team of astronomers in Europe and invokes dark matter, neutron stars, and primordial black holes (PBHs). Astronomer Roberto Caiozzo, of the International School for Advanced Studies in … Continue reading "Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes" The post Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes appeared first on Universe Today.

Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too common but it’s wonderful to see missions exceed expectations. The Japanese Space Agency’s SLIM lunar lander was only supposed to survive a single day but it’s survived three brutal, harsh lunar nights and is still going. The temperatures plummet to … Continue reading "Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night" The post Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night appeared first on Universe Today.

It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at snails pace albeit with the odd exception. Take the formation of galaxies growing in the early universe. Their immense gravitational field would suck in dust and gas from the local vicinity creating vast collections of stars. In the very centre … Continue reading "Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies" The post Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today.

We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth’s magnetic field. It turns out that most objects in space have magnetic fields but it’s quite tricky to measure them. Astronomers have developed an ingenious way to measure the magnetic field of the Milky Way using polarised light from interstellar dust grains that align … Continue reading "Mapping the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field in 3D" The post Mapping the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field in 3D appeared first on Universe Today.

Solar Sails are an enigmatic and majestic way to travel across the gulf of space. Drawing an analogy to the sail ships of the past, they are one of the most efficient ways of propelling craft in space. On Tuesday a RocketLab Electron rocket launched NASA’s new Advanced Composite Solar Sail System. It aims to … Continue reading "NASA’s New Solar Sail Has Launched and Deployed" The post NASA’s New Solar Sail Has Launched and Deployed appeared first on Universe Today.

Scientists detected the first long-predicted gravitational wave in 2015, and since then, researchers have been hungering for better detectors. But the Earth is warm and seismically noisy, and that will always limit the effectiveness of Earth-based detectors. Is the Moon the right place for a new gravitational wave observatory? It might be. Sending telescopes into … Continue reading "Here’s Why We Should Put a Gravitational Wave Observatory on the Moon" The post Here’s Why We Should Put a Gravitational Wave Observatory on the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Well over 5,000 planets have been found orbiting other star systems. One of the satellites hunting for them is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Astronomers using TESS think they are made a rather surprising discovery; their first free-floating – or rogue – planet. The planet was discovered using gravitational microlensing where the planet passed … Continue reading "TESS Finds its First Rogue Planet" The post TESS Finds its First Rogue Planet appeared first on Universe Today.

Over the last few years I have been renovating my home. Building on Earth seems to be a fairly well understood process, after all we have many different materials to chose from. But what about future lunar explorers. As we head closer toward a permanent lunar base, astronauts will have very limited cargo carrying capability … Continue reading "There are Four Ways to Build with Regolith on the Moon" The post There are Four Ways to Build with Regolith on the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.