Space station mold survives high doses of ionizing radiation

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The International Space Station, like all human habitats in space, has a nagging mold problem. Astronauts on the ISS spend hours every week cleaning the inside of the station's walls to prevent mold from becoming a health problem. New research finds mold spores may also survive on the outside walls of spacecraft.
via Science Daily
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NASA's TESS mission finds its smallest planet yet

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NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest discovered by TESS to date.
via Science Daily
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Frozen sperm retains its viability in outer space conditions

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Those who see the 'colonization' of space as an answer to the Earth's ever threatened resources will be reassured to learn that human sperm retains its complete viability within the different gravitational conditions found in outer space.
via Science Daily
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Cosmic cat and mouse: Astronomers capture and tag a fleeting radio burst

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Gemini Observatory provides critical observations that confirm the distance to a mysterious, very short-lived, radio outburst from a galaxy several billions of light years away.
via Science Daily
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Thunderbolt of lightning, gamma rays exciting

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Scientists discover a connection between lightning strikes and two kinds of gamma-ray phenomena in thunderclouds. The research suggests that in certain conditions, weak gamma-ray glows from thunderclouds may precede lightning bolts and their accompanying gamma-ray flashes.
via Science Daily
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ALMA pinpoints the formation site of planet around nearest young star

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Researchers found a small dust concentration in the disk around TW Hydrae, the nearest young star. It is highly possible that a planet is growing or about to be formed in this concentration. This is the first time that the exact place where cold materials are forming the seed of a planet has been pinpointed in the disk around a young star.
via Science Daily
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Cyanide compounds discovered in meteorites may hold clues to the origin of life

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Compounds containing iron, cyanide, and carbon monoxide discovered in carbon-rich meteorites by scientists may have helped power life on early Earth.
via Science Daily
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Astronomy bot speeds up search for Jupiter's twins

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Astronomers have a new tool in their search for extraterrestrial life -- a sophisticated bot that helps identify stars hosting planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn.
via Science Daily
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'Bathtub rings' around Titan's lakes might be made of alien crystals

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The frigid lakeshores of Saturn's moon Titan might be encrusted with strange, unearthly minerals, according to new research.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers see 'warm' glow of Uranus's rings

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Two telescopes have measured the faint heat from the main, or epsilon ring, of Uranus, enabling astronomers for the first time to determine its temperature: a cool 77 Kelvin. Earlier images of the rings came from reflected light only. The observations also show that the rings lack dust, which is common in the rings of other planets, and are composed of centimeter-sized particles and larger.
via Science Daily
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Northern lights' 'social networking' reveals true scale of magnetic storms

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Magnetic disturbances caused by phenomena like the northern lights can be tracked by a 'social network' of ground-based instruments, according to a new study.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers uncover first polarized radio signals from gamma-ray burst

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An international team of astronomers has captured the first-ever polarized radio waves from a distant cosmic explosion.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers make first detection of polarized radio waves in Gamma Ray Burst jets

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Astronomers detect polarized radio waves from a gamma-ray burst for the first time. Polarization signature reveals magnetic fields in explosions to be much more patchy and tangled than first thought. Combining the observations with data from X-ray and visible light telescopes is helping unravel the mysteries of the universe's most powerful explosions.
via Science Daily
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Cool halo gas caught spinning like galactic disks

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Astronomers have discovered cool halo gas spinning in the same direction as galactic disks in typical star-forming galaxies. Their findings suggest that the whirling gas halo will eventually spiral in towards the galactic disk where it can fuel star formation.
via Science Daily
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Meteors help Martian clouds form

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Researchers think they've solved the long-standing mystery of how Mars got all of its clouds.
via Science Daily
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Sun's history found buried in Moon's crust

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The Sun's rotation rate in its first billion years is unknown. Yet, this spin rate affected solar eruptions, influencing the evolution of life. Scientists think they've figured it out by using the Moon as critical evidence.
via Science Daily
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NASA's Cassini reveals New Sculpting in Saturn Rings

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As NASA's Cassini dove close to Saturn in its final year, the spacecraft provided intricate detail on the workings of Saturn's complex rings, new analysis shows.
via Science Daily
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Researchers learned how to better combat muscle loss during space flights

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A new study has further documented how muscles are affected by reduced gravity conditions during space flight missions and uncovered how exercise and hormone treatments can be tailored to minimize muscle loss for individual space travelers.
via Science Daily
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NASA's Fermi mission reveals its highest-energy gamma-ray bursts

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For 10 years, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has scanned the sky for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the universe's most luminous explosions. A new catalog of the highest-energy blasts provides scientists with fresh insights into how they work.
via Science Daily
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Earth's heavy metals result of supernova explosion, research reveals

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New research suggests most of Earth's heavy metals were spewed from a largely overlooked kind of star explosion called a collapsar.
via Science Daily
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Astrophysicist announces her discovery that could rewrite story of how galaxies die

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A breakthrough finding overturns assumptions about the maturation of galaxies and may represent a phase of every galaxy's life cycle that was unknown until now.
via Science Daily
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Table salt compound spotted on Europa

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Researchers have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa is actually sodium chloride.
via Science Daily
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Jupiter-like exoplanets found in sweet spot in most planetary systems

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A survey of 300 stars in search of exoplanets finds that massive, Jupiter-like gas giants are found just about where Jupiter is in our own solar system.
via Science Daily
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Rare 'superflares' could one day threaten Earth

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New research shows that the sun could experience a massive burst of energy called a superflare sometime in the next several thousand years.
via Science Daily
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Crash with Antlia 2 gave the Milky Way the ripples in its outer disc, new evidence shows

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The newly-discovered dark dwarf galaxy Antlia 2's collision with the Milky Way may be responsible for our galaxy's characteristic ripples in its outer disc, according to a new study.
via Science Daily
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Gemini Planet Imager analyzes 300 stars

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Analysis from halfway through the Gemini Planet Imager's planetary survey hints that our solar system may have rare qualities which could possibly be related to the habitability of Earth.
via Science Daily
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Saturn's moon Mimas: A 'snowplough' in the planet's rings

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Researchers have shown that Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, acted as a kind of remote snowplough, pushing apart the ice particles that make up the rings.
via Science Daily
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Direct from distant planet: Spectral clues to puzzling paradox

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CI Tau b is a paradoxical planet, but new research about its mass, brightness and the carbon monoxide in its atmosphere is starting to answer questions about how a planet so large could have formed around a star that's only 2 million years old.
via Science Daily
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Most-detailed-ever simulations of black hole solve longstanding mystery

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Scientists have constructed the most detailed, highest resolution simulation of a black hole to date. The simulation found that the inner-most region of an accretion disk aligns with its black hole's equator, confirming a 1975 prediction.
via Science Daily
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Technique pulls interstellar magnetic fields within easy reach

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A new, more accessible and much cheaper approach to surveying the topology and strength of interstellar magnetic fields -- which weave through space in our galaxy and beyond, representing one of the most potent forces in nature -- has been developed.
via Science Daily
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Mass anomaly detected under the moon's largest crater

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A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar system -- the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin -- and may contain metal from the asteroid that crashed into the Moon and formed the crater, according to a new study.
via Science Daily
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Site of biggest ever meteorite collision in the UK discovered

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Scientists believe they have discovered the site of the biggest meteorite impact ever to hit the British Isles.
via Science Daily
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How acids behave in ultracold interstellar space

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Researchers have investigated how acids interact with water molecules at extremely low temperatures. Using spectroscopic analyses and computer simulations, they investigated the question of whether hydrochloric acid (HCl) does or does not release its proton in conditions like those found in interstellar space. The answer was neither yes nor no, but instead depended on the order in which the team brought the water and hydrochloric acid molecules together.
via Science Daily
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ESO contributes to protecting Earth from dangerous asteroids

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The unique capabilities of the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope have enabled it to obtain the sharpest images of a double asteroid as it flew by Earth on May 25. While this double asteroid was not itself a threatening object, scientists used the opportunity to rehearse the response to a hazardous Near-Earth Object (NEO), proving that ESO's front-line technology could be critical in planetary defense.
via Science Daily
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Cool, nebulous ring around Milky Way's supermassive black hole

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New observations reveal a never-before-seen disk of cool, interstellar gas wrapped around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
via Science Daily
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Solving the sun's super-heating mystery with Parker Solar Probe

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It's one of the greatest and longest-running mysteries surrounding, quite literally, our sun: Why is its outer atmosphere hotter than its fiery surface?
via Science Daily
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