When future astronauts explore Mars’s polar regions, they will see a green glow lighting up the night sky. For the first time, a visible nightglow has been detected in the martian atmosphere by ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 10, 2023
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope is beginning to look much like it will when it arrives in Earth orbit and starts mapping the entire sky. Short for Specto-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx resembles a bullhorn, albeit one that will stand almost 8.5 feet tall (2.6 meters) and stretch nearly 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) wide. Giving the observato

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
NASA's Solar Jet Hunter, a project that utilizes the collective power of citizen scientists to uncover the mysteries of solar jets, has made a triumphant return. After a brief hiatus, the initiative is now equipped with an influx of fresh data harvested from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) and bolstered by new user-friendly features designed to enhance public involvement. Solar jets

Shanghai, China (XNA) Nov 10, 2023
China has recently launched the construction of two 40-meter-aperture radio telescopes in Shigatse, located in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and in Changbai Mountain area in northeast China's Jilin Province, respectively. The two telescopes, developed by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are expected to offer technical support for

Riverside CA (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team, including astronomer Alexander de la Vega of the University of California, Riverside, has discovered the most distant barred spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way that has been observed to date. Until now it was believed that barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way could not be observed before the universe, estimated to be 13.

College Station TX (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
Astronomers once again have combined the observational powers of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope to create one of the most detailed and colorful portraits of the cosmos, just in time for the holiday season. The new image, dubbed the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster by the research team that includes Texas A and M University astronomer Dr. Lifan Wang, combines visi

Columbia MO (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
An international team of scientists, led by University of Missouri's Haojing Yan, used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover 14 new transient objects during their time-lapse study of galaxy cluster MACS0416 - located about 4.3 billion light years from Earth - which they've dubbed as the "Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster." "Transients are objects in space, like individual stars,

Jerusalem, Israel (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
Professor Amri Wandel, from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has unveiled research that promises to redefine our comprehension of habitable exoplanets. In a recent study published in the Astronomical Journal, Professor Wandel introduces the concept of subglacial liquid water as a pivotal element in broadening the boundaries of the conventional Habitable Zone. The classical Habitable Zone, o

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 10, 2023
Gravity data collected by NASA's Juno mission indicates Jupiter's atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner, parallel to its spin axis. A paper on the findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The violent nature of Jupiter's roiling atmosphere has long been a source of fascination for astronomers and planetary scientists, and Juno has had a rings