Space

Astronomers have discovered 20 new moons around Saturn, bringing the total to 82. This outnumbers Jupiter, which previously held the record with 79 moons. One of the new moons has the most distant known orbit around Saturn, and they are all about the same size, with diameters of about three miles (5 kilometers). Two of the moons orbit in around two years, while the other 18 take more than three years. An artist’s conception of the 20 newly discovered moons orbiting Saturn. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Paolo Sartorio/Shutterstock Seventeen of the new moons orbit Saturn in reverse, or backward, relative to the planet's other natural satellites. The retrograde moons have orbits that are similar to those of Saturn's other known moons. And based on their inclinations, astronomers believe these moons were once part of a much larger moon that broke apart long ago. A team led by Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science discovered the moons using the Subaru

A nearby exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of a star just 4.2 light-years from Earth may be home to a vast ocean, boosting its chances of supporting life. Since its discovery, questions about the conditions at the surface of Proxima b have been swirling; the planet’s mass is just about 1.3 times that of Earth’s, and the red dwarf star it circles is similar in age to our sun. Studies over the last few years, however, have both bolstered hopes of its habitability and shot them down. Now, a new study has once again raised the possibility that Proxima b could support life, suggesting that under the right conditions, the exoplanet could sustain liquid water. “The major message from our simulations is that there’s a decent chance that the planet would be habitable,” Anthony Del Genio, a planetary scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told LiveScience .   Since its discovery, questions about the conditions at the surface of Proxima b have been swirling; the pla

We have solid evidence of water vapour in the atmosphere of Jupiter's moon Ganymede – the solar system's biggest moon — for the first time. The frozen water on Ganymede's surface may have sublimated, moving from solid to gas without becoming liquid. The surface of Ganymede is a mix of dark, cratered regions and bright grooved terrain that produces fascinating patterns. Researchers have long thought that Ganymede has a large amount of water — possibly more than the Earth — but because Ganymede is so far from the Sun, water could only remain liquid behind a thick covering of ice. Ganymede is assumed to have three primary layers: a metallic iron core, a rocky mantle, and a liquid and frozen layer of water. The ice shell on the outer is extraordinarily thick (around 500 miles / 800 kilometres), and any liquid water might exist beneath it. Regardless, there is water — and where there is water, there may be life. For the first time, researchers have discovered non-ice water on th

The big bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it? Three Perimeter Institute researchers have a new idea about what might have come before the big bang. It’s a bit perplexing, but it is grounded in sound mathematics, testable, and enticing enough to earn the cover story in Scientific American, called “ The Black Hole at the Beginning of Time .” What we perceive as the big bang, they argue, could be the three-dimensional “ mirage ” of a collapsing star in a universe profoundly different than our own. “Cosmology’s greatest challenge is understanding the big bang itself,” write Perimeter Institute Associate Faculty member Niayesh Afshordi, Affiliate Faculty member and University of Waterloo professor Robert Mann, and PhD student Razieh Pourhasan.  Conventional understanding holds that the big bang began with a singularity – an unfathomably hot and dense phenomenon of spacetime where the standa

On November 5, 2018, NASA’s Voyager 2 joined its sister aircraft Voyager 1 beyond the heliosphere, ‘ the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our Sun ’. Considered a ‘ watershed moment in our exploration of space ’, five new research papers have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy documenting what’s happened since the spacecraft crossed the boundary and raged against the dying of the light. As per NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Voyager 2’s findings will help ‘ paint a picture of this cosmic shoreline, where the environment created by our Sun ends and the vast ocean of interstellar space begins ’. As told to IFLScience, NASA astrophysicist Jeffrey Hayes said: This is a watershed moment in our exploration of space: we have for the first time left the confines of ‘home’ and are taking our very first tentative steps into the interstellar space – the Milky Way galaxy of which we are a part. That’s an amazing distance to come in only 62 years, since the

The image below shows a breathtaking view of the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as seen by the VISTA telescope from the European Space Agency. With the naked eye, you’d probably see the center of the Milky Way—with countless stars and cosmic dust clouds—occupying a small patch of a few inches. However, thanks to the VISTA telescope we got one of the most detail portraits of the Milky Way EVER produced which has allowed astronomers to catalog a staggering 84 million stars. After seeing this image, ask yourself. Are we alone in the Milky Way? The above image is just a small, reduced—thumbanil version of the original image which has a mind-boggling resolution of 108,500×81,500—or if you prefer 9 gigapixels, occupying 24.6 gigabytes. If for some reason you want to download the 24.6-gigabyte image you can do so by clicking here. Check out the ENTIRE 9-gigapixel image—and zoom in on those stars—by clicking here. This image is simply too big to be displayed at full resolution and is best

Is water present on Mars? Scientists have been debating this question since at least the 18th century, when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli used a telescope to observe Mars and thought he saw canals. A new compelling study suggests that a large lake of water exists beneath Mars' south polar ice cap. The study sheds new light on the subject, implying that there may be liquid water on Mars after all. The science and other important information The European Mars Express orbiter discovered in 2018 that the surface of the ice cap covering Mars' South Pole dips and rises, implying that liquid water could be lurking beneath. However, not all scientists were convinced at the time. Mars is extremely cold, and for subglacial water to exist in liquid form on the planet, there must be a source of heat, such as geothermal energy. Some researchers speculated at the time of the Mars Express discovery that the strange radar signal could be explained by something else, such as dry material be

The planet, known as " b Pictoris c ," is located roughly 63 light-years from Earth in the Beta Pictoris system. Using the additional brightness and dynamic mass data obtained from imaging it, they are aiming to narrow down how it arose. Scientists discovered the planet's existence by observing the impact it had on the orbit of its parent star. Because of how closely it orbits its star, it is impossible to picture the planet alone. The researchers utilised a technique known as the " radial velocity method ," which has been used for years to discover hundreds of exoplanets but has never been used to directly evaluate exoplanets. The team was able to pinpoint the position with incredible clarity using data from the four telescopes of the VLT, and they were also able to take a photograph of it. This was the first time an exoplanet could be verified using both the " radial velocity approach " and direct imaging. The newly imaged Beta Pictoris c alongside B

The jet appeared to be moving at seven times the speed of light, according to Hubble's measurements. Radio observations later revealed that the jet had decelerated to speeds four times faster than light. This, however, is a " cosmic illusion ," because nothing travels faster than light. A collision between two neutron stars propelled a jet through space at 99.97% the speed of light. This is according to Hubble Space Telescope measurements from NASA. The explosive event, designated GW170817, occurred in August 2017. The blast was estimated to have the same energy as a supernova explosion. The first gravitational wave and gamma-ray signals were detected simultaneously as a result of the binary neutron star merger. These extraordinary collisions were a watershed moment in the investigation. Seventy observatories on Earth and in space observed the aftermath of this merger. They discovered gravitational waves as well as a wide range of electromagnetic radiation. This event occ

In a recent study that was submitted to MNRAS, a collaborative research team made use of the first batch of data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify a galaxy candidate, CEERS-93316, that formed roughly 250 million years after the Big Bang and that also set a new redshift record of z = 16.7. This discovery is really exciting since it shows the strength of JWST, which has only recently started returning its first round of data. Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey, or CEERS, was developed especially for imaging with JWST. Postage stamp images of CEERS-93316 from their respective JWST NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) filters (F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, and F444W). (Credit: Donnan et al. (2022)) “The past few weeks have been surreal, watching all the records that stood for a long time with Hubble be broken by JWST,” says Dr. Rebecca Bowler, who is an Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Manchester, and a co-author on the study. “Finding a z = 16.7

Astronomers refer to it as the multiverse. There are multiple universes in this one. Physicists define more than one as an infinite number. These innumerable universes coexist in higher levels that our senses are incapable of directly experiencing. Nonetheless, astronomers and cosmologists appear to be increasingly using the multiverse to explain baffling observations. The stakes are really high. Each alternate universe has an own version of reality. There will be one in which you wrote this column and I read it; another in which the Guardian is an alt-right propaganda rag; and yet another in which Donald Trump uses Twitter to distribute only adorable cat videos. The latest piece of evidence supporting a multiverse comes from the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom. They recently published a study on the " cold spot ." This is an extremely chilly area of space detected in the radiation produced by the Universe's birth around 13 billion years ago. The cold spo

American space agency NASA on Sunday shared the " largest-ever " image assembled of the Andromeda galaxy by the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture was captured seven years ago and it is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic neighbor. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the image depicts a 48,000-light-year-long region of the Andromeda galaxy with over 100 million stars visible. The Instagram picture divides the panoramic image into three parts, with the last revealing a belt of blue stars with countless stars sprinkled around the image. The photograph has captivated internet users since it was shared. It has received almost one million likes. "It is really gorgeous," one user said. "It's wonderful," commented another. "Absolutely wonderful," said the third person. View this post on Instagram A post shared by NASA (@nasa) The space agency noted that because the Andromeda

Perhaps you believe that one Earth is sufficient. But what if the number was in the billions? According to new research, the number of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way galaxy could approach 6 billion. Astronomers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) examined data from NASA's Kepler project and came to a startling conclusion. From 2009 to 2018, the Kepler planet-hunting satellite collected data on 200,000 stars. The scientists' criterion for picking such a planet included that it had to be rocky, around the same size as Earth, and orbiting a star like our Sun. This planet had to be in the habitable zone of its star, where the conditions would be ideal for the presence of water and life.   Michelle Kunimoto, a UBC researcher who previously identified 17 new planets ("exoplanets") outside our Solar System, stated that their calculations "set an upper limit of 0.18 Earth-like planets per G-type star." In other words, there are approximately 5 planets

Astronomers refer to it as the multiverse. There are multiple universes in this one. Physicists define more than one as an infinite number. These innumerable universes coexist in higher levels that our senses are incapable of directly experiencing. Nonetheless, astronomers and cosmologists appear to be increasingly using the multiverse to explain baffling observations. The stakes are really high. Each alternate universe has an own version of reality. There will be one in which you wrote this column and I read it; another in which the Guardian is an alt-right propaganda rag; and yet another in which Donald Trump uses Twitter to distribute only adorable cat videos. The latest piece of evidence supporting a multiverse comes from the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom. They recently published a study on the " cold spot ." This is an extremely chilly area of space detected in the radiation produced by the Universe's birth around 13 billion years ago. The cold spo

Venus is our closest planetary neighbour, and above its oppressive surface, in the clouds, there is a mystery. In the planet's clouds, scientists have discovered traces of phosphine, a substance that may be produced by living organisms. In Venus' hazy atmosphere, life may exist, as scientists have long assumed. The surface of Venus reaches temperatures of more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit, making it unfriendly. No probe sent to the planet has managed to survive for more than a few hours. But the planet's atmosphere, which is made up of thick layers of sulfuric acid clouds, might offer a special environment for the development of new lifeforms. “We know that the molecule phosphine is a biomarker on Earth,” astronomer Jane Greave, of Cardiff University in Wales, said in a pre-recorded statement released by the Royal Astronomical Society. “It’s been suggested that there are possible habitats in the cloud decks of Venus, so somewhere where little lifeforms could live.” Fair enou