Odd radio circles, or ORCs, are so massive that they measure about a million light-years across — 16 times bigger than our Milky Way galaxy. Now, astronomers have captured the best image yet of these strange celestial objects.
Other than Earth, no planet in our solar system has been so thoroughly or long examined as Mars. For decades, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has continuously explored the Red Planet with an array of orbiters, landers, and rovers.
What laid the groundwork for this unparallel record of exploration? This 90-minute documentary describes the challenges of JPL’s first attempts to send spacecraft to the Red Planet.
Continue reading “JPL and the Space Age: The Changing Face of Mars” »
How to robotically build a human habitat in space…
Happening now.
Accelerate the accessibility and commercialization of cislunar space through cost-effective, habitable, scalable Infrastructure.
Continue reading “ThinkOrbital — orbital assembly, servicing and manufacturing techologies” »
UNLV researchers have discovered a new form of ice, redefining the properties of water at high pressures.
Solid water, or ice, is like many other materials in that it can form different solid materials based on variable temperature and pressure conditions, like carbon forming diamond or graphite. However, water is exceptional in this aspect as there are at least 20 solid forms of ice known to us.
A team of scientists working in UNLV’s Nevada Extreme Conditions Lab pioneered a new method for measuring the properties of water under high pressure. The water sample was first squeezed between the tips of two opposite-facing diamonds—freezing into several jumbled ice crystals. The ice was then subjected to a laser-heating technique that temporarily melted it before it quickly re-formed into a powder-like collection of tiny crystals.
An “anti-universe” where time runs backwards could exist next to ours, according to a new study.
The theory involves the fact nature has fundamental symmetries and researchers think this could apply to the universe as a whole.
The theory has been explained in the journal Annals of Physics.
Australia gets its own space force.
The Australian government yesterday launched the Space Command, a new defense agency with echoes of the US’ Space Force that has been tasked with securing the country’s place in an “already contested” cosmos.
Australian Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said the new defense arm would be modest to start with, although he gave no detailed staffing or budget figures.
Continue reading “Australia launches Space Command to counter China” »
These features could have a special significance for the Earth’s evolution.
When it comes to the universe and all of its mysteries, there are many things we know we don’t know. Some are minor and mostly inconsequential, but there are other cosmological unknowns that leave huge blanks in our understanding of how things work on large and small scales. How our planet was created is one such mystery. Let’s go all the way back to the beginning when the Sun was just a clump of gas and dust to understand how our solar system may have formed.
## How stars form.
Continue reading “The Sun is losing mass. And once featured Saturn-like rings?” »
Space weather experts have spotted the sun ejecting a large mass of particles and think this could hit Earth in the next few days.
When ejections like this hit Earth’s magnetic field, they can cause solar storms.
An ejection like this is known as a solar flare called a coronal mass ejection (CME).
