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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Peering into the Milky Way’s far side, Roman could unveil 100,000 worlds

    May 29, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Galactic Neighborhoods infographic
    This infographic features artist’s concept views of our Milky Way galaxy: face-on at the left and edge-on at the right. It highlights different galactic environments that could influence the development of planets and potentially life. The center of the galaxy is rich in the elements that form planets (like silicon, oxygen, and magnesium), which are forged by multiple generations of stars and supernova explosions. Planets there may be more common or larger, but they would also be flooded with radiation from densely packed stars (including massive ones that emit enormous amounts of high-energy ultraviolet light and X-rays). In the outskirts of the galaxy, where stars are much more spread out, radiation is far milder but there are also smaller amounts of planet-building materials...
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    NASA’s Fermi telescope reveals the power source behind monster supernovae

    May 28, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Composite showing optical and gamma-ray observations of SN 2017egm
    This composite image shows two views of SN 2017egm, in visible light (inset) and gamma rays (background). The optical image shows the supernova — the brightest object in the scene — and its host galaxy on July 1, 2017. The background map shows a wide area of the sky surrounding the supernova’s position. Brighter colors indicate greater statistical likelihood that gamma rays are associated with the explosion. The map includes gamma rays detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope from July 5, 2017, to Oct. 25, 2017, or from 43 to 155 days after the supernova was discovered.
    Background, NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration and Acero et. al. 2026; inset, NOT+ALFSOC/Bose et al. 2020

    NASA’s Fermi telescope has detected what may be the first confirmed gamma-ray signal from a superluminous su...

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    Triply-eclipsing triple star system discovered with TESS

    May 28, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered a triply-eclipsing star system. The newfound system, designated TIC295741342, consists of two sun-like stars in an eclipsing binary and a giant tertiary companion, which orbits the binary. The finding was reported in a paper published May 19 on the arXiv pre-print server.

    TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 bright stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. Besides identifying alien worlds, TESS is also a very useful tool in analyzing binary systems, tracking how mutual stellar eclipses twist and distort gravitational fields.

    Triply and triple
    Now, a team of astronomers led by Brian P...

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    Mars fungi could make red planet regolith fertile for crops

    May 28, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s rendering of a greenhouse on Mars. (Credit: Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC))

    You’re on the fourth human mission to Mars, and you’ve been tasked with establishing the first self-sustaining food crop on a Martian settlement. You’re nervous because you’re using a new type of fungi called beneficial fungi, which you’re told will help enhance the Martian regolith, enabling it to be used for growing crops.

    While growing crops on Mars using fungi might be decades away, this hasn’t stopped an international team of scientists from the United States and Brazil from pushing the limits of enhancing crop production through non-traditional methods.

    With their findings published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, the researchers discuss how ...

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