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

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in a signing ceremony Thursday with Bulgaria's Milena Stoycheva, minister of innovation and growth, as her country became the 32nd nation to sign the Artemis Accords. The Artemis Accords establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA's Artemis program. Also

Washington (AFP) Nov 9, 2023
Frank Borman, the NASA astronaut who led the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon, has died at the age of 95, the US space agency said Thursday. He passed away on November 7 in Billings, Montana. "Today we remember one of NASA's best," said the agency's administrator Bill Nelson, in a statement. "His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only

Liege, Belgium (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
An international team led by scientists from the University of Liege has observed, for the first time in the visible range, a glow on the night side of the planet Mars. These new observations provide a better understanding of the dynamics of the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet and its variations throughout the year. A scientific team led by researchers from the Laboratory for Planetary

Bern, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
In a landmark advancement for lunar science, the University of Bern, a beacon in space research since the Apollo era, is poised to make history once more with its latest instrument, LIMS (Laser Ablation Ionization Mass Spectrometer), set to land on the Moon by 2027. This venture is a part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which integrates the prowess of American comp

Tucson AZ (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
In a groundbreaking study that challenges long-standing assumptions in lunar science, researchers have discovered a significant correlation between lunar swirls and the topography of the Moon's surface. This revelation, spearheaded by Senior Scientist John Weirich and his team at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), may hold the key to deciphering the enigmatic history of lunar swirls. L

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 10, 2023
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s ambitious Hayabusa2 mission has once again brought to Earth not just asteroid samples but potential keys to unlock mysteries of our solar system's infancy. The mission, which daringly snagged samples from the asteroid Ryugu, has given scientists a pristine peek into the volatile and organic-rich materials that were present when the solar system was

Hong Kong (XNA) Nov 10, 2023
Many people gazing at the moon shining brightly in the night sky wonder what secrets the Earth's satellite holds. However, few of them have the chance to access lunar soil and study it to unlock such mysteries, unlike Qian Yuqi. At the start of this year, Qian, a postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, or HKU, applied to access lunar