To image leaky atmosphere, NASA rocket team heads north

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Earth's atmosphere is leaking, but how does oxygen get the energy to escape to space? NASA's VISIONS-2 rocket will soon launch into the unique magnetic environment near the North Pole in pursuit of an answer.
via Science Daily
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Newly discovered supernova complicates origin story theories

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A supernova discovered by an international group of astronomers provides an unprecedented look at the first moments of a violent stellar explosion. The light from the explosion's first hours showed an unexpected pattern, which astronomers analyzed to reveal that the genesis of these phenomena is even more mysterious than previously thought.
via Science Daily
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All of the starlight ever produced by the observable universe measured

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From their laboratories on a rocky planet dwarfed by the vastness of space, scientists have collaborated to measure all of the starlight ever produced throughout the history of the observable universe.
via Science Daily
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Hubble uncovers thousands of globular star clusters scattered among galaxies

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Astronomers using Hubble found a whopping 22,426 globular star clusters in a nearby neighborhood of galaxies.
via Science Daily
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Gas clouds whirling around black hole form heart of distant astronomical object

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Astronomers have concluded that gas clouds rapidly moving around a central black hole form the very heart of the 3C 327 quasar, confirming earlier measurements.
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A new way to create Saturn's radiation belts

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Scientists have discovered a new method to explain how radiation belts are formed around the planet Saturn.
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Atomic clocks now keep time well enough to improve models of Earth

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Experimental atomic clocks have now achieved three new performance records, now ticking precisely enough to not only improve timekeeping and navigation, but also detect faint signals from gravity, the early universe and perhaps even dark matter.
via Science Daily
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Detective mission to characterize and trace the history of a new African meteorite

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Researchers are on a mission to describe, classify and trace the history of a meteorite that landed in and around the small town of Benenitra in southwestern Madagascar shortly before the lunar eclipse on July 27, 2018.
via Science Daily
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NASA Hears MarCO CubeSats Loud and Clear from Mars

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NASA's MarCO mission was built to see whether two experimental, briefcase-sized spacecraft could survive the trip to deep space, and the two CubeSats proved more than able. After cruising along behind NASA's InSight for seven months, they successfully relayed data back down to Earth from the lander during its descent to the Martian surface on Monday, Nov. 26.
via Science Daily
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InSight Is catching rays on Mars

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NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface.
via Science Daily
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NASA InSight lander arrives on Martian surface

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Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458-million-kilometer) journey from Earth.
via Science Daily
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NASA InSight Team on course for Mars touchdown

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NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on Nov. 26. Engineers will be keeping a close eye on the stream of data indicating InSight's health and trajectory, and monitoring Martian weather reports to figure out if the team needs to make any final adjustments in preparation for landing.
via Science Daily
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ISS microbes should be monitored to avoid threat to astronaut health

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Strains of the bacterium Enterobacter, similar to newly found opportunistic infectious organisms seen in a few hospital settings, have been identified on the International Space Station (ISS). The strains found in space were not pathogenic to humans, but researchers believe they should be studied for potential health implications for future missions, according to a new study.
via Science Daily
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Climate of small star TRAPPIST 1's seven intriguing worlds

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New research from astronomers gives updated climate models for the seven planets around the star TRAPPIST-1. The work also could help astronomers more effectively study planets around stars unlike our sun, and better use the resources of the James Webb Space Telescope.
via Science Daily
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Exoplanet stepping stones

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New observations of a young gas giant demonstrate the power of a ground-based method for searching for signatures of life.
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Scientists discover new 'pinwheel' star system

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An international team of scientists has discovered a new, massive star system -- one that also challenges existing theories of how large stars eventually die.   
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Mars moon got its grooves from rolling stones

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Computer models shine a light on the origin of the Mars moon Phobos' distinctive grooves.
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Astronomers discover giant relic of disrupted 'tadpole' galaxy

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Astronomers have identified a disrupted galaxy resembling a giant tadpole, complete with an elliptical head and a long, straight tail, about 300 million light years away from Earth. The discovery illuminates how and why galaxies disappear.
via Science Daily
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Overflowing crater lakes carved canyons across Mars

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Today, most of the water on Mars is locked away in frozen ice caps. But billions of years ago it flowed freely across the surface, forming rushing rivers that emptied into craters, forming lakes and seas. New research has found evidence that sometimes the lakes would take on so much water that they overflowed and burst from the sides of their basins, creating catastrophic floods that carved canyons very rapidly, perhaps in a matter of weeks.
via Science Daily
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Auroras unlock the physics of energetic processes in space

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A close study of auroras has revealed new ways of understanding the physics of explosive energy releases in space.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers detect once-in-a-lifetime gamma rays

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It's not every day you get to observe a gamma-ray binary system. In fact, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience comparable to seeing Halley's Comet or a solar eclipse.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers find possible elusive star behind supernova

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Astronomers may have finally uncovered the long-sought progenitor to a specific type of exploding star by sifting through NASA Hubble Space Telescope archival data. The supernova, called a Type Ic, is thought to detonate after its massive star has shed or been stripped of its outer layers of hydrogen and helium.
via Science Daily
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Universal laws in impact dynamics of dust agglomerates under microgravity conditions

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Scientists have found evidence that when projectiles hit soft clumps of dust or hard clumps of loose glass beads, the scaling laws for energy dissipation and energy transfer are the same in each case. This helps us understand how granular clumps stick together, and how planets are formed.
via Science Daily
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Trans-galactic streamers feeding most luminous galaxy in the universe

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ALMA data show the most luminous galaxy in the universe has been caught in the act of stripping away nearly half the mass from at least three of its smaller neighbors.
via Science Daily
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Earth's magnetic field measured using artificial stars at 90 kilometers altitude

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In 2011, researchers proposed that artificial guide stars could be used to measure the Earth's magnetic field in the mesosphere. An international group of scientists has recently managed to do this with a high degree of precision. The technique may also help to identify magnetic structures in the solid Earth's lithosphere, to monitor space weather, and to measure electrical currents in the part of the atmosphere called ionosphere.
via Science Daily
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First-ever views of elusive energy explosion

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Researchers have captured a difficult-to-view singular event involving 'magnetic reconnection' -- the process by which sparse particles and energy around Earth collide producing a quick but mighty explosion -- in the Earth's magnetotail, the magnetic environment that trails behind the planet.
via Science Daily
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NASA learns more about interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua

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The first known interstellar object to visit our solar system -- named 'Oumuamua -- was detected in October 2017 by Hawaii's Pan-STARRS 1 telescope. But it was too faint for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to detect when it looked more than two months after the object's closest approach to Earth in early September. That 'non-detection' puts a new limit on how large the strange object can be, astronomers now report.
via Science Daily
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Cold Super-Earth found orbiting closest single star to Sun

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The nearest single star to the Sun hosts an exoplanet at least 3.2 times as massive as Earth -- a so-called super-Earth. One of the largest observing campaigns to date using data from a world-wide array of telescopes has revealed this frozen, dimly lit world. The newly discovered planet is the second-closest known exoplanet to the Earth. Barnard's star is the fastest moving star in the night sky.
via Science Daily
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Gravitational waves from a merged hyper-massive neutron star

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For the first time astronomers have detected gravitational waves from a merged, hyper-massive neutron star.
via Science Daily
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Scientists capture the 'sound' of sunrise on Mars

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Scientists have created the soundtrack of the 5,000th Mars sunrise captured by the robotic exploration rover, Opportunity, using data sonification techniques to create a two-minute piece of music.
via Science Daily
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Harvesting renewable energy from the sun and outer space at the same time

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Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that heat from the sun and coldness from outer space can be collected simultaneously with a single device. Their research suggests that devices for harvesting solar and space energy will not compete for land space and can actually help each other function more efficiently.
via Science Daily
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Aging a flock of stars in the Wild Duck Cluster

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The way they move belies the true ages of the almost 3,000 stars populating one of the richest star clusters known. Astronomers recently discovered the stars all were born in the same generation, solving a long-standing puzzle about how stars evolve.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers find pairs of black holes at the centers of merging galaxies

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For the first time, a team of astronomers has observed several pairs of galaxies in the final stages of merging together into single, larger galaxies. Peering through thick walls of gas and dust surrounding the merging galaxies' messy cores, the research team captured pairs of supermassive black holes -- each of which once occupied the center of one of the two original smaller galaxies -- drawing closer together before they coalescence into one giant black hole.
via Science Daily
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Scientists theorize new origin story for Earth's water

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Earth's water may have originated from both asteroidal material and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, according to new research. The new finding could give scientists important insights about the development of other planets and their potential to support life.
via Science Daily
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Growing magnetic fields in deep space: Just wiggle the plasma

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Astrophysicists have long wondered how cosmic magnetic fields fields are produced, sustained, and magnified. Scientists have shown that plasma turbulence might be responsible, providing a possible answer to what has been called one of the most important unsolved problems in plasma astrophysics.
via Science Daily
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Evidence of outburst flooding indicates plentiful water on early Mars

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The presence of water on Mars has been theorized for centuries. Early telescopes revealed ice caps, and early astronomers noted channels that were hypothesized to be natural rivers or creature-created canals.
via Science Daily
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Laser tech could be fashioned into Earth's 'porch light' to attract alien astronomers

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If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light -- a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light years away.
via Science Daily
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Electrically charged dust in microgravity is surprisingly orderly

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In a lab on Earth, electrically charged dust generally lines up either along the downward pull of gravity or across it. Scientists got a surprise when examining data from a similar experiment on the International Space Station orbiting 248 miles above Earth. Rather than the dust bouncing around randomly, the dust often wiggled around in straight lines, even without gravity.
via Science Daily
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A stellar achievement: Magnetized space winds in the laboratory

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New insights have been gained about stellar winds, streams of high-speed charged particles called plasma that blow through interstellar space. These winds, created by eruptions from stars or stellar explosions, carry with them strong magnetic fields which can interact with or effect other magnetic fields, such as those that surround planets like Earth. To understand these processes, researchers are employing laboratory experiments to study magnetic flows up close.
via Science Daily
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Magnetic pumping pushes plasma particles to high energies

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The solar wind is not a calm summer breeze. Instead, it is a roiling, chaotic mess of turbulence and waves. There is a lot of energy stored in this turbulence, so scientists have long thought that it heats the solar wind. However, the heating expected from turbulence is not the heating observed. Scientists now have a new idea about what heats the solar wind, a theory called magnetic pumping.
via Science Daily
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Comet tails blowing in the solar wind

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Combined observations of Comet McNaught -- one of the brightest comets visible from Earth in the past 50 years -- have revealed new insights on the nature of comets and their relationship with the Sun.
via Science Daily
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NASA's Dawn mission to asteroid belt comes to end

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter.
via Science Daily
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Artificial intelligence bot trained to recognize galaxies

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Researchers have taught an artificial intelligence program used to recognize faces on Facebook to identify galaxies in deep space. The result is an AI bot named ClaRAN that scans images taken by radio telescopes. Its job is to spot radio galaxies -- galaxies that emit powerful radio jets from supermassive black holes at their centres.
via Science Daily
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Thirty years in the life of supernova 1987A

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Astronomers have observed the aftermath of Supernova 1987A over a 25-year period, from 1992 to 2017.
via Science Daily
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Strong ability to detect and perceive motion may prevent pilot disorientation

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A new study has found that good performance on a piloting task was associated with lower vestibular thresholds, which represent stronger ability to sense and perceive information about motion, balance and spatial orientation. The findings suggest that astronauts or pilots with higher vestibular thresholds are more likely to become disoriented during flight, especially in situations when gravity is less than that on Earth -- such as on the Moon.
via Science Daily
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Hubble reveals cosmic Bat Shadow in the Serpent's Tail

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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured part of the wondrous Serpens Nebula, lit up by the star HBC 672. This young star casts a striking shadow -- nicknamed the Bat Shadow -- on the nebula behind it, revealing telltale signs of its otherwise invisible protoplanetary disc.
via Science Daily
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