Since time immemorial, humans have gazed up at the stars and wondered if we?re alone in the universe. We have asked if there are other intelligent beings out there in the vastness of the cosmos, also known as extraterrestrial intelligence (ET). Yet, despite our best efforts, we have yet to confirm the existence of ET …

Continue reading "Since Aliens Obey the Laws of Physics, Can We Guess What They Look Like?"

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Since the discovery of antimatter decades ago, particle physicists have wondered if these particles were repulsed by gravity. Einstein predicted that despite having opposite charges to its regular matter counterparts, antimatter should still behave like matter does concerning gravity. This has been tricky to confirm experimentally since it's hard to make enough antimatter to observe its behavior. Particle physicists have finally pulled it off, using the ALPHA-g experiment at CERN, generating antihydrogen atoms and then dropping them in a 3-meter tall vertical shaft.

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A new study shows how existing observatories like the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) can be upgraded to perform cutting-edge astronomy

The post A New Planet-Hunting Instrument Has Been Installed on the Very Large Telescope appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronomers still don't know what dark matter is, but one of its characteristics is that it has a small "cross section," which means that it doesn't interact with regular matter or itself. However, if it's possible to trap dark matter in a region dense enough, it might interact and annihilate, releasing gamma radiation. A new paper suggests that astronomers use gamma-ray observatories to scan white dwarf stars to discover whether there's an excess of radiation coming from them. This might mean there's dark matter trapped inside, providing more clues to its nature.

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There may come a day when we grow weary of JWST images. But it’s not today. Today, we can lose ourselves in the space telescope’s engrossing image of NGC 6822, also called Barnard’s Galaxy. Barnard’s Galaxy was discovered by the accomplished American astronomer E. E. Barnard in 1884. He spotted it with a 6-inch refractor …

Continue reading "Lose Yourself in the JWST’s Exquisite Image of Barnard’s Galaxy"

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The upcoming solar eclipses and the current high sunspot activity means it?s a great time to observe the Sun. Eclipses also mean that large groups of people will be together to view these events. However, rule #1 for astronomy is to never look at the Sun with unprotected eyes, especially with a telescope or binoculars. …

Continue reading "Want to Safely Watch the Sun With a Large Group? Get a Disco Ball"

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If we could wind the clock back billions of years, we’d see our Solar System the way it used to be. Planetesimals and other rocky bodies were constantly colliding with each other, and new objects would coalesce out of the debris. Asteroids rained down on the planets and their moons. The gas giants were migrating …

Continue reading "Colliding Moons Might Have Created Saturn’s Rings"

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Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life’s presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we encounter is a unique puzzle. When it comes to planetary atmospheres, carbon is a big piece of the puzzle because it has a powerful effect on climate and biogeochemistry. If scientists can figure out how …

Continue reading "Is it Life, or is it Volcanoes?"

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A new study estimates that there could be 11,000 habitable planets within 100 parsecs of our Sun, the nearest being 20 parsecs away.

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NASA teams have started the intricate process of removing the samples of asteroid Bennu from their canister.

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