We all know what happens to most stars in the final stages of their lives: they explode violently in an event called a supernova, when they run out of “fuel” and collapse themselves. This led to some of the most powerful explosions in the universe, marking the end of life for a star. So when astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to observe a “dying” star, they thought they would see the same predictable events. What they see is a…

A team of astronomers used South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope to discover eight-millisecond pulsars in dense clusters of stars known as “globular clusters.” A millisecond pulsar is a neutron star, one of the densest known stars, rotating up to 700 times per second. This is the first pulsar discovery using the MeerKAT antenna, which comes from the collaboration of two international cooperation organizations, TRAPUM and MeerTIME, and is detailed in the recently published Monthly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.…

Rocks in the Martian crust may produce the same chemical energy as deep microbes on the Earth’s surface, new research suggests. NASA’s Perseverance has begun searching the surface of Mars for ancient life. Now, a new study suggests that the Martian underground may be a good place to look for modern life that may exist on the red planet. The study, published in Astrobiology, analyzed the chemical composition of Martian meteorites. The results suggest that if the rocks had been…

NASA said Saturday that engineers have decided to postpone the Ingenuity helicopter’s first flight to Mars until at least Wednesday, April 14, after a minor computer failure during a rotary-wing rotation test late Friday. It has been confirmed that the small aircraft itself is healthy, but engineers need more time to review the telemetry generated by the unexpected episode before proceeding. Ingenuity, a four-pound mini-drone that arrived on Mars on February 18, is attached to NASA’s Perseverance rover and was…

On April 10, 2019, the Vision Telescope (EHT) partnership released the first-ever image of a black hole. The target object, the M87 supermassive black hole 55 million light-years away, reveals a bright ring-shaped structure and its dark central region, the shadow of the black hole. Now, EHT has opened up a new perspective on the M87 black hole: its images in polarization light. This is the first time astronomers have measured polarization information that characterizes magnetic field characteristics so close…

The atmosphere makes life on the Earth’s surface possible to regulate our climate, and protects us from destructive cosmic rays. Although telescopes have counted an increasing number of rocky planets, scientists thought that most of their atmospheres had long since disappeared. However, a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and Stanford University suggests a mechanism by which these planets can not only develop an atmosphere filled with water vapor but also hold them for long periods. The…

The failure of the International Space Station reminds us that its useful life is coming to an end. NASA is considering promoting private space travel. Everyone is waiting for Biden to decide to build a new space station. China’s manned space engineering office has made every effort to build an orbital station, the Global Times reported. The satellite news agency is trying to figure out which projects could be replaced by the “decommissioning” of the International Space Station. The International…

The European Space Agency said the U.S.-based Airborne Systems will help the European and Russian joint Mars mission ExoMars-2022 probe make parachutes. In addition to Arescosmo’s parachutes, Airborne Systems’ parachutes that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land safely on Mars are now in production, the press release said. Airborne Systems is also supporting ground parachute extraction tests conducted at NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the press release said. The next high-altitude launch test of the ExoMars probe parachute will take place in Sweden…

Three sources from the rocket space agency told the satellite news agency that a Japanese national could be the next space tourist to travel to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December 2021. One of the sources said the tourist was Japanese. Two other sources also believe it is a Japanese citizen. A fourth source said japanese space meals were being booked for space tourists. Tony Quine, a British aerospace expert, posted on the social networking…

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, report that a larger planet has been found in the orbit of the red dwarf Gliser 486, which is only 26 light-years from Earth. This is described in an article published in the journal Science. The researchers combined a combination of the Ling-Japanese method and radial velocity spectroscopy to analyze data collected using the MuSCAT2 camera from Spain’s 1.52-meter-tall Carlos Sanchez telescope. The exoplanet found, called Glaser 486b, is…