• Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies

    Updated: 2025-01-21 00:21:33
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in This artist†s impression shows the planet K2-18b , it†s host star and an accompanying planet in this system . K2-18b is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life . Could habitable worlds like this have formed before galaxies formed Image Credit : ESA Hubble , M . Kornmesser Posted on January 20, 2025 January 20, 2025 by Evan Gough Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies What came first , galaxies or planets The answer has always been galaxies , but new research is changing that idea . Could habitable planets really have formed before there were galaxies In the immediate aftermath of the Big

  • Hubble Takes a 2.5 Gigapixel Image of Andromeda

    Updated: 2025-01-20 21:00:57
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in This the largest photomosaic ever assembled from NASA ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations . It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy , located 2.5 million light-years away . Image Credit : NASA , ESA , B . Williams University of Washington Posted on January 20, 2025 January 20, 2025 by Evan Gough Hubble Takes a 2.5 Gigapixel Image of Andromeda The Andromeda galaxy is our closest galactic neighbour , barring dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way . When conditions are right , we can see it with the naked eye , though it appears as a grey smudge . It’s the furthest object in the Universe that we can see without telescopic help . The

  • Black Holes are Spinning Faster Than Expected

    Updated: 2025-01-20 19:15:16
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in A typical spiral galaxy grows by mergers and acquisitions . The central supermassive black holes in galaxies likely spent their early formative epochs feasting on a smooth diet of stars and gas . That history is reflected in their spin rates . AdobeStock . image Posted on January 20, 2025 by Carolyn Collins Petersen Black Holes are Spinning Faster Than Expected There’s a Universe full of black holes out there , spinning merrily away—some fast , others more slowly . A recent survey of supermassive black holes reveals that their spin rates reveal something about their formation . history If you want to describe a supermassive black hole’s characteristics , there are two

  • Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant

    Updated: 2025-01-20 15:59:54
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in Posted on January 20, 2025 January 20, 2025 by Andy Tomaswick Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy . Scientists can directly measure their power , their spin , and their eventual fallout , whether that’s turning into a black hole or a neutron star in some cases or just a much smaller stellar remnant . One of these events happened around 350 years ago or around 11,000 years ago from the star’s perspective in the constellation Cassiopeia . The James Webb Space Telescope recently caught a glimpse of the aftereffects of the explosion , and it happened to shed light literally on a familiar area of study

  • NASA is Building a Space Telescope to Observe Exoplanet Atmospheres

    Updated: 2025-01-19 00:34:42
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in Artist's impression of the Pandora mission observing a transiting exoplanet . Credit : NASA†s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Posted on January 18, 2025 January 18, 2025 by Matt Williams NASA is Building a Space Telescope to Observe Exoplanet Atmospheres The exoplanet census continues to grow . Currently , 5,819 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,346 star systems , while thousands more await confirmation . The vast majority of these planets were detected in the past twenty years , owing to missions like the Kepler Space Telescope the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite TESS the venerable Hubble the Convection , Rotation and planetary Transits CoRoT

  • New Glenn Reaches Orbit, but Doesn't Recover the Booster

    Updated: 2025-01-17 23:46:12
    , Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launching on January 16th , 2025. Credit : Blue Origin Posted on January 17, 2025 January 17, 2025 by Matt Williams New Glenn Reaches Orbit , but Doesn't Recover the Booster On Thursday , January 16th at 02:03 AM EST , Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket took off on its maiden flight from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station . This was a momentous event for the company , as the two-stage heavy-lift rocket has been in development for many years , features a partially reusable design , and is vital to Bezos’ plan of building a road to space While the company failed to retrieve the first-stage booster during the flight test , the

  • Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster

    Updated: 2025-01-17 23:25:28
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in An artist impression of young star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud . Massive and low-mass stars appear within nebulous gas within which they are born . Credit : NSF AUI NSF NRAO S.Dagnello Posted on January 17, 2025 January 17, 2025 by Evan Gough Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster Six or seven billion years ago , most stars formed in super star clusters That type of star formation has largely died out now . Astronomers know of two of these SSCs in the modern Milky Way and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud LMC and all three of them are millions of years old . New JWST observations have found another SSC forming in the LMC , and it’s only

  • A planet parade of Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars shines in the skies this month

    Updated: 2025-01-17 21:02:28
    All month, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars will appear to line up and be bright enough to see with the naked eye in the first few hours after dark. This weekend, Venus and Saturn get especially cozy.

  • Landmark Survey Reveals 74 Exocomet Belts Orbiting Nearby Stars

    Updated: 2025-01-17 21:00:00
    Learn what this survey recorded of exocomet belts, which imaged and identified bands of every size.

  • A Space Bus Named Pandora Will Help Hunt for Potentially Habitable Planets

    Updated: 2025-01-17 15:30:00
    The construction of a satellite that will orbit the Earth, has now been completed and it will help probe exoplanets.

  • SpaceX launches its Starship rocket on latest test flight but spacecraft is destroyed

    Updated: 2025-01-17 00:04:18
    After launching on Thursday, the Starship rocket caught the booster back at the pad but lost contact with the ascending spacecraft as engines went out. Officials for Elon Musk's company confirmed that the spacecraft was destroyed.

  • A Light Echo From a Supernova Has Illuminated Interstellar Gas and Dust

    Updated: 2025-01-16 21:30:00
    Learn about the thermal light echo, observed by NASA, that causes intricate layers of interstellar gas and dust to emit an infrared glow.

  • Bezos and Musk launching massive rockets in billionaires' space race

    Updated: 2025-01-16 08:51:01
    Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are launching two of the world's largest rockets into orbit within days of each other. Some see these as efforts to build their legacies and promote their visions for humanity.

  • Jeff Bezos' New Glenn rocket reaches orbit on first test flight

    Updated: 2025-01-16 07:23:57
    Named after the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida, soaring from the same pad used to launch NASA's Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft a half-century ago.

  • Two Lunar Landers Have Embarked On a Journey To the Moon

    Updated: 2025-01-15 21:45:00
    Learn about the two missions that are en route to the moon and find out what the companies behind them hope to learn from experiments on the lunar surface.

  • 2 private lunar landers head toward the moon in a roundabout journey

    Updated: 2025-01-15 07:11:24
    In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX launched a pair of lunar landers Wednesday for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business on Earth's dusty sidekick.

  • Seven Planets Will Soon Align, Creating a Planet Parade in the Sky

    Updated: 2025-01-14 17:45:00
    Learn about the great planetary alignment occurring on February 28, 2025, and the misconceptions surrounding this type of celestial event.

  • James Webb Space Telescope's 'little red dots' come into focus

    Updated: 2025-01-14 05:56:12
    A cosmic object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope has flummoxed astronomers. Now, a research team has studied hundreds of these "little red dots" and found clues about their identity.

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