Scientists have been debating for decades whether Mars once held a vast ocean covering a large part of its northern face. To prove the idea, they’ve been looking for a “bathtub ring” – a distinct, level shoreline that shows where water once stood. But, despite years of looking, they’ve only been able to find a very distorted potential shoreline whose height deviates by several kilometers – not exactly great evidence of a stable water level. But, according to a new paper in Nature from Abdallah Zaki and Michael Lamb of CalTech, what scientists should have been looking for wasn’t a bathtub ring, but a continental shelf.

The two most puzzling rings around Uranus are gradually giving up their secrets, only to deepen the mystery of the Uranian system. Continue ReadingMysterious rings around Uranus point to hidden moons orbiting the ice giant→

Northrop Grumman said April 21 it took a $71 million charge in its fiscal first quarter linked to an anomaly with a solid rocket booster that has grounded ULA’s Vulcan. The post Northrop Grumman takes $71 million charge on Vulcan booster issue appeared first on SpaceNews.

A Beijing-based space startup has secured early-stage funding and extensive credit backing as part of a broader Chinese push toward space-based computing infrastructure. The post China backs orbital data center startup with $8.4 billion in credit lines appeared first on SpaceNews.

The search for life beyond Earth has traditionally focused on exoplanets orbiting Sun-like stars, which is a G-type star. However, low-mass stars, which are designated as K-type and M-type stars, have rapidly become a target for astrobiology, primarily due to their much longer lifetimes. This also means the habitable zone (HZ), which is the distance from a star where liquid water could exist, is much smaller than our solar system’s HZ, and is referred to as the liquid water habitable zone (LW-HZ). In contrast, another type of HZ that involves a star’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation potentially enabling life-harboring conditions is known as UV-HZ.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is set to launch this coming September, has the potential to show us pockets of the cosmos we’ve yet to touch. Continue ReadingThe Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next great observatory, is finally complete→

Erich Hernandez-Baquero is currently vice president for space intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at Raytheon The post Trump taps Raytheon executive for top military space acquisition post appeared first on SpaceNews.

Officials confirm $71 billion request for U.S. Space Force The post Pentagon details funding strategy behind Trump’s proposed $1.45 trillion defense budget appeared first on SpaceNews.

As we make our way through the latest solar maximum period, scholars and scientists are looking to similar events in the past to learn more about ancient bouts of solar activity. In particular, they want to know more about solar proton events (SPEs). These outbursts of high-energy particles get triggered by flares and coronal mass ejections.

NASA Force aims to recruit industry talent to the space agency for relatively short stints. Applications are open now in the wake of the Artemis 2 moon mission. Continue ReadingYou’ve heard of the Space Force. Now there’s a ‘NASA Force’ — but it’s not about making space war→

Sick of light pollution tainting your astrophotography? Capture nebulas, galaxies and more with $700 off this powerful, portable Unistellar Odyssey Pro smart telescope. Continue ReadingBring nebulas and galaxies into focus with nearly $700 off this smart telescope→

New research examines 10 different types of global technological civilizations, how they govern themselves, how they use resources, and other factors, to determine which types may endure and which may be doomed to collapse. Simulations show that resource use plays the key role. The simulations also show which types of detectable technosignatures each may generate.

Astronomers have discovered that jets from a cannibalistic black hole are erupting with the power of 10,000 suns. Continue Reading‘Dancing’ jets erupting from a cannibalistic black hole have the power of 10,000 suns→