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Probing the magnetar at the center of our galaxy
A new study analyzes pulses of radio waves coming from a magnetar - a rotating, dense, dead star with a strong magnetic field - located near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.
January 10, 2019
So long, Iridium flares
And hello, Iridium NEXT. The final launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites is targeted for January 8, 2019, at 7:48 a.m. PST. Meanwhile, the beloved glints of Iridium flares are disappearing from Earth's night skies.
January 7, 2019
New Juno images of Io’s fiery volcanoes
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system. The Juno spacecraft - now orbiting Jupiter - has now gazed across a distance to acquire new images and insights about the "fires of Io."
January 6, 2019
Galaxy collision to send solar system flying?
A new computer simulation shows the Large Magellanic Cloud is hurtling toward our galaxy on a collision course. Could the collision knock our solar system out of the Milky Way?
January 6, 2019
Dark matter on the move
New evidence suggests that dark matter - the mysterious stuff that makes up a significant percentage of the universe's mass - can heat up and move around.
January 6, 2019
China’s Chang’e-4 lands on moon’s far side
China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft set down last night, according to clocks in the Americas. It's a historic event, the first time a spacecraft has landed on the side of the moon we cannot see.
January 3, 2019
Oxygen and life: a cautionary tale
On Earth, oxygen is a signature byproduct of life. But what if astronomers found oxygen in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant sun? Would that prove life exists there? Not necessarily, says a new study.
January 3, 2019
Ultima Thule seen in detail
Ultima Thule - a Kuiper Belt object and the most distant object yet seen by an earthly spacecraft - is now revealed as a "contact binary," created when two small bodies in the early solar system stuck together.
January 2, 2019
Has Mars’ methane gone missing?
The 1st results from ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter mission at Mars have been released and - surprise - no atmospheric methane. That's even though methane on Mars has been observed multiple times before. Where is it?
January 2, 2019
Spacecraft orbits tiny Bennu, breaks record
On December 31 - while we celebrated - NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft went into orbit around Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid. The maneuver makes Bennu the smallest object yet to be orbited by a spacecraft.
January 1, 2019
