A true-color image of Mars taken by the OSIRIS spacecraft. (ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team) Its ruddy complexion is the defining characteristic of Mars, the idiosyncrasy that marks it out from all the other planets of the Solar System. But a new study suggests we may have misunderstood the mechanism whereby its rouge… Continue reading
The solar system has always been a subject of wonder and curiosity for humanity. The image above beautifully illustrates the alignment of the planets in a mesmerizing cosmic setting, depicting the grandeur and complexity of our celestial neighborhood. From the radiant Sun at the top to the smallest planets orbiting in their designated paths,… Continue reading
In the heart of a bustling metropolis, where towering skyscrapers meet winding highways, a rare and mesmerizing celestial phenomenon unfolds in the sky. The image presents a surreal scene—an annular solar eclipse illuminating the evening horizon with an ethereal glow. The fiery halo of the sun peeks through thick atmospheric layers, casting a golden-red radiance… Continue reading
Every time we capture an image of the night sky, we witness a story that has been billions of years in the making. The photons that strike a camera’s sensor have traveled vast distances from distant stars, nebulae, and galaxies before finally being absorbed and transformed into digital data. This data is then processed,… Continue reading
An artist’s impression of the origin of FRB 20221022A. (Daniel Liévano/MIT News) When a magnetar within the Milky Way galaxy belched out a flare of colossally powerful radio waves in 2020, scientists finally had concrete evidence to pin down an origin for fast radio bursts. A mind-blowing new study has now narrowed down the… Continue reading
Principal technician Billy Keim installs a cover plate over the detectors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn NASA’s Focal Plane System, a key part of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has arrived at Ball Aerospace for assembly into the Wide Field Instrument. This system, with 18 detectors and state-of-the-art electronics,… Continue reading
There’s something really weird in the center of the Milky Way. The vicinity of a supermassive black hole is a pretty weird place to start with, but in 2020 astronomers found six objects orbiting Sagittarius A* that are unlike anything in the galaxy. They are so peculiar that they have been assigned a brand-new… Continue reading
This artist’s concept shows NASA’s Voyager spacecraft against a field of stars in the darkness of space. The two Voyager spacecraft are traveling farther and farther away from Earth, on a journey to interstellar space, and will eventually circle around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The plan will keep Voyager… Continue reading
Celebrated science communicator Carl Sagan had a way of speaking and writing that instilled listeners and readers with wonder and nurtured the human drive to explore. It was partially for this reason that the Cornell University scientist and narrator of the timeless PBS documentary Cosmos was often invited into schools to guest-teach kids of all… Continue reading
NASA is currently working on the first practical field test toward the possibility of faster-than-light travel. Traveling faster than light has always been attributed to science fiction, but that all changed when Harold White and his team at NASA started to work on and tweak the Alcubierre Drive. Special relativity may hold true, but to… Continue reading