Axions are a hypothetical particle that might explain the existence of dark matter. But it might occasionally interact with normal matter, especially in the cores of stars. A team of physicists have searched for evidence of axions in Betelgeuse and come up with nothing. It doesn’t mean that the axion doesn’t exist, but it does …

Continue reading "Astronomers Hoped to see Evidence of Dark Matter Particles Inside Betelgeuse. No Luck"

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The Sun has a lot of rhythm and goes through different cycles of activity. The most well-known cycle might be the Schwabe cycle, which has an 11-year cadence. But what about cycles with much longer time scales? How can scientists understand them? As it turns out, the Sun has left some hidden clues in tree …

Continue reading "Tree Rings Reveal 1,000 Years of Solar Activity"

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Planetary nebulae are the most beautiful objects in the night sky. Their gossamer shells of gas are otherworldly and evocative. They captivate the eye, and viewers need no scientific knowledge to get drawn in. How are they created, and why do they look so beautiful? First of all, if you don’t know already, planetary nebulae …

Continue reading "Why do Planetary Nebulae Look the Way They Do?"

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The TRAPPIST-1 system has long be studied by exoplanet hunters due to its unique quantity of planets that happen to also be Earth sized. In a recent paper, a team of scientists led by Erik Agol at the University of Washington, dove into more detail on the density of the seven known planets in the …

Continue reading "There are Seven Rocky Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System and They’re Surprisingly Similar"

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Rocket fuel is one of the most important components of any maneuverable spacecraft.  That is also true for ion thrusters – while they don?t use traditional chemical fuel, they do still need a feed source for their ion engines.  Now, a team from ThrustMe, a spinoff of the École Polytechnique and CNRS, has designed a …

Continue reading "Lightweight Iodine Thruster Could Help Solve Space Junk Problem"

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Computers are known for their ability to spot patterns.  It?s what they are good at, and over the last 50+ years they have continued to improve.  But they only know how to spot patterns if they know where to look for them in data.  So sometimes, it falls to a human to truly see a …

Continue reading "An Active Galaxy That Erupts Predictably Every 114 Days Or So"

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A new study by an international team shows how the physics of a black hole's event horizon could allow us to harness limitless energy from them someday.

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SpaceX has just acquired two former oil drilling rigs off the coast of Texas, which it is converting into launch facilities called Phobos and Deimos

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In the academic literature, review papers are widespread, and can help ground discussion on a specific topic by bringing new researchers up to speed as well as allowing experienced hands to catch up on some topics they might have otherwise missed.  Anytime a new one on a topic of space exploration is published, it helps …

Continue reading "3-D Printing on the Moon. From Regolith to Paste to Useful Objects and Structures"

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Dancing is a favorite pastime of many couples.  Swinging around a dance floor, using the laws of physics to twirl at just the right moment, and hopefully not step on any toes, is an art unto itself.  The same laws of physics that govern couples on a dance floor also govern (to some extent) the …

Continue reading "Massive Binary Stars Huddle Up Surprisingly Quickly"

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