The physics surrounding black holes is just plain weird. A gravitational well so strong that not even light can escape can do some pretty strange things to normal matter. Over the decades, plenty of theories have been put forward about what those strange things might be. And now, a new paper from physicists at the …

Continue reading "After Swirling Around a Black Hole, Matter Just Falls Straight In"

The post After Swirling Around a Black Hole, Matter Just Falls Straight In appeared first on Universe Today.

A future space observatory could use exo-eclipses to tease out exomoon populations.

The post The Habitable Worlds Observatory Could See Lunar and Solar ‘Exo-Eclipses’ appeared first on Universe Today.

Sending tourists to space is still relatively novel in the grand scheme of humanity’s journey to the stars. Dennis Tito took the first-ever paid trip in 2001, but since then, plenty of others have journeyed to the heavens. Increasingly, they’ve done so via systems developed by private companies. On Sunday, May 19th, Blue Origin, originally …

Continue reading "New Shepard’s 25th Launch Carries Six to the Edge of Space and Back"

The post New Shepard’s 25th Launch Carries Six to the Edge of Space and Back appeared first on Universe Today.

On May 10th, 2024, people across North America were treated to a rare celestial event: an aurora visible from the Eastern Seabord to the Southern United States. This particular sighting of the Northern Lights (aka. Aurora Borealis) coincided with the most extreme geomagnetic storm since 2003 and the 27th strongest solar flare ever recorded. This …

Continue reading "That Recent Solar Storm Was Detected Almost Three Kilometers Under the Ocean"

The post That Recent Solar Storm Was Detected Almost Three Kilometers Under the Ocean appeared first on Universe Today.

The gravitational wave background was first detected in 2016. It was announced following the release of the first data set from the European Pulsar Timing Array. A second set of data has just been released and, joined by the Indian Pulsar Timing Array, both studies confirm the existence of the background. The latest theory seems …

Continue reading "More Evidence for the Gravitational Wave Background of the Universe"

The post More Evidence for the Gravitational Wave Background of the Universe appeared first on Universe Today.

The giant outer planets haven’t always been in their current position. Uranus and Neptune for example are thought to have wandered through the outer Solar System to their current orbital position. On the way, they accumulated icy, comet-like objects. A new piece of research suggests as many as three kilomerer-sized objects crashed into them every …

Continue reading "When Uranus and Neptune Migrated, Three Icy Objects Were Crashing Into Them Every Hour!"

The post When Uranus and Neptune Migrated, Three Icy Objects Were Crashing Into Them Every Hour! appeared first on Universe Today.

The hunt for extrasolar planets has revealed some truly interesting candidates, not the least of which are planets known as “Hot Jupiters.” This refers to a particular class of gas giants comparable in size to Jupiter but which orbit very closely to their suns. Strangely, there are some gas giants out there that have very …

Continue reading "Astronomers Discover the Second-Lightest “Cotton Candy” Exoplanet to Date."

The post Astronomers Discover the Second-Lightest “Cotton Candy” Exoplanet to Date. appeared first on Universe Today.

How did complex life emerge and evolve on the Earth and what does this mean for finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a pair of researchers investigated how plate tectonics, oceans, and continents are responsible for the emergence and evolution of complex life across …

Continue reading "Did Earth’s Multicellular Life Depend on Plate Tectonics?"

The post Did Earth’s Multicellular Life Depend on Plate Tectonics? appeared first on Universe Today.

In a world that seems to be switching focus from the Hubble Space Telescope to the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble still reminds us it’s there. Another amazing image has been released that shows the triple star system HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3.  The stars in this wonderful system are young, …

Continue reading "Hubble Sees a Brand New Triple Star System"

The post Hubble Sees a Brand New Triple Star System appeared first on Universe Today.

The world was much different in 1990 when NASA astronauts removed the Hubble Space Telescope from Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay and placed it into orbit. The Cold War was ending, there were only 5.3 billion humans, and the World Wide Web had just come online. Now, the old Soviet Union is gone, replaced by …

Continue reading "The Venerable Hubble Space Telescope Keeps Delivering"

The post The Venerable Hubble Space Telescope Keeps Delivering appeared first on Universe Today.