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Space

In Space, “X” Marks the Spot

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X Galaxy

Spied through a normal telescope, the galaxy PKS 2014−55 is an unremarkable smudge of bright light. But look again in radio wavelengths, and you’ll see that the galaxy is hiding a gargantuan, glowing treasure at its center — and X marks the spot. PKS 2014−55 is an X-shaped radio galaxy (XRG), an unusual type of galaxy that looks like an enormous X in the night sky when imaged in radio wavelengths. The long arms of the X — each one about 100 times longer than the Milky Way — are actually a blazing-fast soup of particles and magnetic fields, blasted … Read more

SPACE: The Moon in High Contrast

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moon

Shadows creep down the banks of every crater on the near-side of the moon, highlighting the pockmarked face of Earth’s gravitationally-bound buddy with a clarity never before seen. According to photographer Andrew McCarthy, who posted the stunning image to his Instagram in April, there’s a simple explanation for the unprecedented level of detail in his work — this lunar view is actually “impossible.” “This moon might look a little funny to you, and that’s because it is an impossible scene,” McCarthy wrote on Instagram. “From two weeks of images of the waxing moon, I took the section of the picture that has the … Read more

Welcome to Your New Home on Mars

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lava tube - pixabay

There’s no safe place to camp out on Mars. But a team of researchers has identified what could be future Martian explorers’ best possible hideout: a string of lava tubes in the low-lying Hellas Planitia — an impact basin blasted into the Red Planet’s surface by ancient meteor impacts. Every part of Mars could kill you. Its surface is arid, starved of oxygen and blasted daily with unrelenting, unfiltered solar radiation. Any future Martian explorers will put their lives in peril when they embark. NASA has decades of experience hauling oxygen, food and water beyond Earth. But that last killer, … Read more

Astronomers Find Black Hole “Close” to Solar System

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HR 6819

A newfound black hole may be the closest black hole to Earth, and you can spot its cosmic home in the night sky without a telescope. The black hole, which is lurking 1,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Telescopium, belongs to a system with two companion stars that are bright enough to observe with the naked eye. But you won’t be able to see the black hole itself; the massive object has such a strong gravitational pull that nothing — not even light — can escape it. Astronomers discovered this black hole while studying what they thought … Read more

A new Way to Hunt for Planet 9?

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planet 9 - pixabay

There’s something heavy in the outer reaches of our solar system. At least, it seems that way. Hints of it are scattered across the farthest reaches of our sun’s neighborhood — that something 5 to 10 times the mass of Earth tugging on nearby objects with its gravity. No one’s ever seen it, as this phantom has eluded years of searches by telescopes. In fact, not everyone believes it’s real. For now, most astronomers refer to it as “Planet 9.” Now, the famous theoretical physicist Edward Witten has published a paper on how to track down this specter haunting our … Read more

Tom Cruise to Shoot Movie on Space Station

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Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise and Elon Musk’s Space X are working on a project with NASA that would be the first narrative feature film – an action adventure – to be shot in outer space. It’s not a Mission: Impossible film and no studio is in the mix at this stage. There has never been a leading man (Jackie Chan might dispute this) who puts himself at risk as often as does Cruise, in the name of the most realistic action sequences possible. If he is successful shooting a project in Musk’s space ship, he will be alone in the Hollywood record … Read more

Researchers Find Traces of Martian Oceans in Antarctic Meteorite

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Mars

A bit of 4-billion-year-old rock blasted off the Martian surface about 15 million years ago and eventually landed in Antarctica, where explorers found it in 1984. In the decades since, organic compounds found in that meteorite have been sources of controversy: Did they come from Mars, or did the meteorites get contaminated on Earth? Now, a team of Japanese researchers has reexamined the meteorites, and say they found traces of ancient oceans, rich in useful carbon and nitrogen — key ingredients for life. The meteorite, known as Allan Hills 84001, after the location where it was first discovered, has long … Read more

Navy Declassifies UFO Videos

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Navy UFOs

Last September, we reported on three videos of unusual objects encountered by Navy pilots that were released beginning in 2017 that were confirmed to be legitimate by the U.S. Navy. The Pentagon said at the time that “the three videos were never cleared for public release” and added they “were never officially released to the general public by the DoD and should still be withheld.” This week the Pentagon declassified the videos “in an effort ‘to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real or whether or not there … Read more

SpaceX’s 12,000 Starlink Satellites to Get Glare-Reducing ‘Sunshades’

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SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites

SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites will soon sport an accessory to tamp down their surprising brightness. That brightness worries many astronomers, who say that the huge Starlink constellation could seriously disrupt a variety of scientific observations. And Starlink will indeed be huge, if all goes according to SpaceX’s plan: The company has approval to launch 12,000 craft to low Earth orbit (LEO) and has applied for permission to loft 30,000 more. (For perspective, humanity has launched just 9,400 objects to orbit since the dawn of the space age in 1957). SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that the company … Read more

SPACE: China Wants to Bring back a Piece of the Moon

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moon - pixabay

A glimpse into China’s readiness to handle samples from the moon reveals steps to be taken for storage, processing and preparation of the specimens. China’s Chang’e 5 robotic moon mission is scheduled to launch later this year. That venture represents the third phase of China’s Chang’e lunar exploration program: returning samples from the moon. The reported candidate landing region for Chang’e 5 is the Rümker region, located in the northern Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”). The area is geologically complex and known for its volcanic activity. The Chang’e 5 mission has four main parts: an orbiter, ascender, lander and Earth … Read more