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New ESA Satellite will “Hug” Debris Out of Orbit

Clear-Space-1

The largest garbage dump on Earth might be in space. In low Earth orbit — the space around our planet up to about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) in altitude — more than 3,000 defunct satellites and tens of millions of smaller pieces of debris clatter around the atmosphere. And each is moving at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Sometimes, two big pieces of this so-called “space junk” crash into each other, fragmenting into yet more junk, each one a tiny bullet of trash that could critically damage satellites and spacecraft. It’s a real problem. Now, the European Space … Read more

SPACE: Where’s the Missing Dark Matter?

andromeda - pixabay

Nineteen newly discovered dwarf galaxies seem to be missing their dark matter, and physicists aren’t sure why. The find dramatically increases the number of galaxies that appear to be missing dark matter, the mysterious, invisible stuff that exerts gravitational pull, yet emits no light. Dark matter is thought to be a key ingredient in galaxy formation, with its gravity pulling together atoms of gas to form galaxies. We can tell dark matter is present in a galaxy because it makes the matter in that galaxy swirl faster than it would if the matter we see made up the galaxy’s whole … Read more

SPACE: Are Stars Throwing Comets At Us?

comets - pixabay

Stars and comets make unlikely dance partners. Their gravitational partnership is one that astronomers have long suspected but have never seen — until now. For the first time, a Polish group has identified two nearby stars that seem to have plucked up their icy partners, swinging them into orbits around our sun. The astronomers found the stellar duo after studying the movements of over 600 stars that came within 13 light-years of the sun. The new findings validate a theory born more than a half-century ago, and in doing so have also shown just how rare these stellar dances can … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers Discover (Too) Big Black Hole

black hole - pixabay

A gigantic stellar black hole 15,000 light-years from Earth is twice as massive as what researchers thought was possible in our own galaxy. The black hole is 70 times more massive than the sun, the scientists wrote in a new study. Previously, scientists thought the mass of a stellar black hole, formed from the gravitational collapse of massive stars, couldn’t exceed 30 times that of the sun. “We thought that very massive stars with the chemical composition typical of our galaxy must shed most of their gas in powerful stellar winds as they approach the end of their life,” lead … Read more

SPACE: Are There Cracks in the Universe?

cracks - pixabay

There might be cracks in space-time, but humanity’s telescopes can’t see them. The cracks, if they exist, are old — remnants of a time shortly after the Big Bang when the universe had just shifted from a hotter, more alien state to the cooler, more familiar one we see today. That great cool-down, what physicists call a “phase transition,” started earlier in some places than others, the theory goes. Bubbles of cooler universe formed and spread, blooming across space until they met other bubbles. Eventually, all of space transitioned, and the old universe disappeared. But that old, high-energy state might … Read more

SPACE: There’s a Secret Russian Satellite

Image credit: Roscosmos

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched a top-secret military satellite designed to scope out other satellites in space on Monday (Nov. 25), according to government reports. The Soyuz-2.1v launch vehicle brought the satellite into orbit from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which is roughly 500 miles or 800 kilometers north of Moscow, for the Russian Defense Ministry, the ministry said in a statement. The launch took place at 12:52 p.m. EST (1752 GMT or 8:52 p.m. local time). “The spacecraft … is launched into the target orbit from which the state of domestic satellites can be monitored,” the ministry added. “The optical equipment … Read more

SPACE: Do Massive Black Holes Keep Galaxies Alive?

black hole - pixabay

Supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies may be blasting hot, turbulent waves of gas through the cosmos, keeping galaxy clusters alive with their heat. And for the first time, astrophysicists believe they’ve seen that turbulence in action. Peer into a massive galaxy cluster and you’ll see hot gas swirling at its core, filling the space between stars and galaxies. But there’s a mystery about this gas. How does it stay so hot? Simple models suggest it should lose energy much faster than it does, and that gravity should start bind the whole cloud together into stars within about … Read more

SPACE: What Does It Take to Be a Moon?

Phobos - NASA

From Earth’s rocky, pockmarked satellite to ice-covered ocean worlds, our solar system is chock-full of moons. Some planets have dozens of them; others don’t have any. Astronomers find these satellites very interesting — geologically and, potentially, astrobiologically — and are eager to send probes to visit lunar destinations, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. So it might surprise you to discover that, currently, there is no scientific definition of a moon. The scholars in charge of such an undertaking would be the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which approves and certifies the names of celestial objects, planetary scientist … Read more

SPACE: Neptune’s Moons Locked in a Strange Dance

Neptune - pixabay

Astronomers have discovered an unusual pattern around Neptune. The gas giant’s innermost moons are doing everything in their power to steer clear from one another in a weird, zigzagging pattern that astronomers are calling a “dance of avoidance.” Thalassa and Naiad’s orbital paths sit no farther apart than Chicago and Miami, about 1,150 miles (1,850 kilometers). But their zigzagging path around each other as they orbit Neptune ensures that the moons themselves never get that close. Naiad moves faster than Thalassa, circling Neptune in 7 hours versus its twin’s orbital time of 7.5 hours. Every time Naiad passes the slower … Read more

Curiosity Rover Posts Emo Photo of Mars

curiosity rover Mars photo - NASA

Mars is the only known planet in the universe inhabited solely by robots. There’s InSight, the sturdy robo-stethoscope listening for the Red Planet’s heartbeat; there’s Odyssey and the gang, a cadre of droids surveilling the planet from orbit. And then, climbing a lonely crater hundreds of miles away from its companions, there’s Curiosity, the last surviving rover on Mars. About the size of an SUV and capable of traveling 100 feet (30 meters) per hour, Curiosity has been exploring the 3.5-billion-year-old pit called Gale Crater since landing there in 2012. Now, Curiosity is climbing the mountain, known as Mount Sharp … Read more