Tag: cosmic
Can Cosmic Rays Help Alien Life Thrive?
Can Cosmic Rays Help Alien Life Thrive? Beneath the surfaces of distant planets, microbes might subsist on harsh radiation rather than starlight, a new study suggests By Emma R. Hasson edited by Lee Billings Cosmic radiation could be a boon for subsurface life on worlds such as Europa (left), Mars (center) and Enceladus (right), according…
Cosmic Tornado from Star’s Birth Whirls in Dazzling JWST Image
Cosmic Tornado from Star’s Birth Whirls in Dazzling JWST Image This telescope has revealed the whipped-up dust from the birth of a star—and a shining background galaxy—more clearly than ever before By Gayoung Lee edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Join Our Community of Science Lovers! When a star is born, the process leaves behind a…
U.S. Ends Support for CMB-S4 Project to Study Cosmic Inflation
By Nadia Drake edited by Lee Billings An aerial view of the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Budgetary challenges and crumbling infrastructure at the station helped scuttle the U.S.-led Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4 (CMB-S4) project. Amid simmering anxiety about the future of federally funded science, the U.S. government has quietly withdrawn support…
Cosmic Explorer, Laser Breakthroughs and the Next Generation of Gravitational-Wave Research
The LIGO Lab Is Pushing the Boundaries of Gravitational-Wave Research After 10 years of gravitational-wave research, the LIGO Lab team at MIT is getting ready for the next generation of detectors. By Rachel Feltman, Naeem Amarsy, Jeffery DelViscio & Alex Sugiura Host Rachel Feltman with Matthew Evans, MIT’s MathWorks professor of physics. Rachel Feltman: For…
Scientists Find Universe’s Missing Matter in Intergalactic ‘Cosmic Fog’
Scientists Find Universe’s Missing Matter in Intergalactic ‘Cosmic Fog’ Researchers have used cosmic explosions called fast radio bursts to illuminate the intergalactic medium By Robert Lea & SPACE.com Astronomers have long struggled to see and study the dilute, dark gas and dust between galaxies, depicted in this artist’s concept as blue and purple filaments in…
Mapping Nearby Stars Could Solve a Deep Cosmic Mystery
The UniverseFridays This New Map of Nearby Stars May Solve a Cosmic Mystery A near-complete census of our interstellar neighborhood hopes to answer how stars, brown dwarfs and rogue planets form throughout the universe By Phil Plait edited by Lee Billings Newborn stars set gas clouds aglow in this mosaic of images from the James…
Frozen Cosmic Sound Bubbles Suggest Dark Energy Is Shockingly Changeable
Shocking Dark Energy Findings Challenge the Standard Model of the Universe A new map of cosmic expansion suggests that dark energy evolves over time, hinting that the universe doesn’t work the way we thought it did By Zack Savitsky edited by Clara Moskowitz DESI’s 3D map of the universe can show how dark energy may…