Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray space telescope, astronomers have performed high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of a bright low-mass X-ray binary known as GX 340+0. Results of the observational campaign, published April 3 on the arXiv pre-print server, shed more light on the composition of interstellar medium (ISM) in this system.
The IBeA group of the EHU-University of the Basque Country is proposing new measures to safeguard the purity of extraterrestrial samples. Several contaminants, including traces of ink, originating in the preparation of subsamples, have been identified in Martian meteorites by the EHU’s research group. The finding highlights the importance of stricter protocols to prevent misinterpretations of the composition of these rocks and to ensure the reliability of future studies and Mars sample-return missions. The research is published in the journal Applied Geochemistry.
For the first time, new theoretical models, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, connect the magnetism at the surface of long-dead stellar remnants (white dwarfs) with recent evidence of magnetism at the cores of their dying progenitors (red giants). The team, led by astrophysicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), argues that these magnetic fields might originate early in the stars’ lives, and survive their entire evolution, emerging as “fossil fields” at the surfaces of older remnants. A better understanding of these processes can also help to better understand our own sun’s future.
At this point in NASA’s human spaceflight story, researchers have a substantial amount of material—documents, artifacts and images—with which to tell the stories of past flights to space. But with NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon now in the books, we’re getting a refreshed look at space.
The center of our galaxy is an extreme place. Surrounding the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, stars are packed densely into a region where gravity, radiation, and dark matter all interact in complex ways. It is a natural laboratory for testing some of the deepest ideas about astrophysics.
The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, a rocky celestial body that orbits our planet at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometers. The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the moon’s origin is the “giant impact,” a high-energy collision between a Mars-sized proto-planet named Theia with the young “proto-Earth” about 4.5 billion years ago. As the newly formed moon cooled down from a hot magma ocean, layers with varying iron-content and mineral compositions crystallized to form the moon’s structure that we know today.
The most realistic picture yet of how galaxies formed and then evolved from the beginning of time has been revealed in a suite of new and unique audiovisual simulations. These data, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, show that the standard cosmological model can successfully explain the observed growth of galaxies, from the first billion years after the Big Bang to the present day, when key physics is included.
Across Earth, every night, thousands of automated stargazers are waiting to take pictures of shooting stars. I am one of the scientists who study these meteors.
Decomposition of dead leaves in Veluwe forests has declined by tens of percent since the turn of the century. Meteorologists from Wageningen University & Research discovered this in an analysis of long-term measurements. The cause appears to lie in soil acidity. This is noteworthy because nitrogen deposition in the area has actually decreased over the same period. The effects of nitrogen entering the ecosystem in the past may still be lingering.
A new study led by researchers at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) reveals why a particular boron-rich molecule, called o-FESAN, behaves in an unusually helpful way, remaining intercalated into DNA even though it was thought it should be repelled by it. The paper is published in the journal Aggregate and builds on research published in 2024 in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B.
Physicists in China have simulated the effect of “false vacuum decay”: a phenomenon believed to play out constantly in the seemingly empty expanses of space, and which one theory even suggests could bring an abrupt end to the entire universe. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, Yu-Xin Chao and colleagues at Tsinghua University, Beijing, mimicked the effect using a simple tabletop experiment.
British scientists have launched a crew of microscopic worms to the International Space Station in a pioneering experiment that could help unlock the secrets of long-duration space travel—and support ambitions to reach the moon and beyond.
The successful Artemis II trip around the moon was a historic achievement—the first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years, and the greatest distance yet traveled by humans from our “pale blue dot.”
Light, as we usually conceive of it, is defined by the astonishing velocity at which it moves from one point to another. For example, in just one second, light can travel most of the distance between Earth and the moon. This property is what makes light useful for communication, which we expect to happen at lightning speed in the modern age.
Never-before-glimpsed views of the moon’s far side. Check. Total solar eclipse gracing the lunar scene. Check. New distance record for humanity. Check.
As NASA’s Artemis II mission completed its lunar flyby, the astronauts sent back a stunning image of the colorful Earth setting behind the moon. This breathtaking photo, called Earthset, draws inevitable comparisons with the original Earthrise photo from the Apollo 8 flight in 1968.
Scientists in Japan have developed a high-resolution X-ray telescope sharp enough to distinguish an object just 3.5 mm wide from one kilometer away, by combining precision mirror-making technology with space astronomy. To test its performance, they built a first-of-its-kind evaluation system, capable of simulating starlight on the ground to measure the telescope’s sharpness before its launch on the US-Japan FOXSI sounding rocket mission. The findings, published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, represent a landmark achievement for Japanese X-ray astronomy and pave the way for high-resolution X-ray observations on future smaller satellites.
For decades, astronomers were only able to study the universe’s very first stars using theoretical models. Now, observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed what may be the most compelling evidence to date for these ancient “Population III” stars, finding them clustered around a small companion object that formed just 400 million years after the Big Bang.
We’ve spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. But we’ve been searching a barren wasteland bombarded by radiation and bathed in toxic perchlorates. The entire time, it’s likely that it’s been too hostile to harbor extant life. So if we want a better shot at finding currently living life on Mars, we need to go underground. That is exactly the purpose of Orpheus, a proposed Mars vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) hopper mission put forth in a paper presented by Connor Bunn and Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).
NASA’s Artemis II mission sent four astronauts—three Americans and one Canadian—on the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
