Space/Planetary Science

Credit: Purdue University/Jared Pike WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- For astronauts to go on long missions to the moon or Mars, they need a refrigerator. But today's fridges aren't designed to work in zero gravity - or upside down if…

Certain ultralight bosons would be expected to put the brakes on black holes, but new results show no such slowdown Ultralight bosons are hypothetical particles whose mass is predicted to be less than a billionth the mass of an electron.…

Credit: ERC-ZARATHUSTRA project Plasma thrusters consume less propellant than chemical combustion rockets, allowing for longer, more ambitious and economical missions. Existing technologies, however, use metal electrodes in contact…

Credit: (Image: Hakan Kayal / University of Wuerzburg) Suddenly, circular holes were visible on the surface of Mars that were not there before. On photos of Saturn's moon Enceladus, geysers were discovered that hurl powerful…

The International Astronomical Union and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan expand OAO's activitiesCredit: IAU OAO The IAU is delighted to announce that it has signed a new agreement with the National Astronomical Observatory…

Credit: West Virginia University In the southern sky, situated about 4,300 light years from Earth, lies RCW 120, an enormous glowing cloud of gas and dust. This cloud, known as an emission nebula, is formed of ionized gases and emits…

In 2017, three observatories managed by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian participated in the largest simultaneous observing campaign ever undertaken on a supermassive black hole with jets; data from their observations…

Oxygen in the atmosphere may not be an entirely reliable 'biosignature,' but there are ways to distinguish false positives from signs of life, scientists sayCredit: Illustration by J. Krissansen-Totton In the search for life on…

Hebrew University Researcher Introduces New Approach to Three-Body Problem, Predicts its Outcome Statistics The "three-body problem," the term coined for predicting the motion of three gravitating bodies in space, is essential for…

Credit: Skoltech Scientists from the Skoltech Space Center (SSC) have developed nanosatellite interaction algorithms for scientific measurements using a tetrahedral orbital formation of CubeSats that exchange data and apply…

Credit: City, University of London Funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), City, University of London will be spearheading the development of next-generation AI-based guidance, navigation and control (GNC) systems for space…

Credit: Juan Huo Clouds play a key role in balancing incoming and outgoing solar and thermal radiation. This is a critical process in the earth-atmosphere system. Monitoring cloud height, particle size, particle concentration,…

Credit: UNSW Sydney The search for life on other planets has received a major boost after scientists revealed the spectral signatures of almost 1000 atmospheric molecules that may be involved in the production or consumption of…

KATRIN experiment succeeds in strongly narrowing the search elusive particles There are many questions surrounding the elementary particle neutrino, in particular regarding its mass. Physicists are also interested in whether besides the…

Auroral displays continue to intrigue scientists, whether the bright lights shine over Earth or over another planet. The lights hold clues to the makeup of a planet's magnetic field and how that field operates. New research about…

An international group of scientists led by the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have studied the chemical composition of 50 protoplanetary-disk forming regions in the Perseus Molecular Cloud, and found that despite being in the same…

Machine-learning methods lead to discovery of rare "quadruply imaged quasars" that can help solve cosmological puzzlesCredit: The GraL Collaboration With the help of machine-learning techniques, a team of astronomers has discovered a…

New study published in GeologyCredit: Rapin et al., Geology Boulder, Colo., USA: Gale Crater's central sedimentary mound (Aeolis Mons or, informally, Mount Sharp) is a 5.5-km-tall remnant of the infilling and erosion of this ancient…

A group led by scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research, using coordinated observations of the Crab pulsar in a number of frequencies, have discovered that the "giant radio pulses" which it emits include an increase in…

X-ray emissions from the Crab Pulsar are more intense during giant radio pulses (GRPs), researchers report. The new findings provide constraints on the mechanisms underlying GRPs and may provide insights into other transient radio…