Category Astronomy/Space

Researchers have developed a Martian atmospheric evolution model to propose a new theory about Mars’s past. Although Mars is currently a cold, dry planet, geological evidence suggests that liquid water existed there around 3 to 4 billion years ago. Where there is water, there is usually life. In their quest to answer the burning question about life on Mars, researchers at Tohoku University created a detailed model of organic matter production in the ancient Martian atmosphere.

Organic matter refers to the remains of living things such as plants and animals, or the byproduct of certain chemical reactions.

Whatever the case, the stable carbon isotope ratio (13C/12C) found in organic matter provides valuable clues about...

A newly discovered cluster-scale strong gravitational lens, with a rare alignment of seven background lensed galaxies, provides a unique opportuni...

The launch of Polaris Dawn from Kennedy Space Center includes the first civilian commercial spacewalk and other factors that will be firsts for space medicine research. And that’s why Emmanuel Urquieta, an internationally recognized space medicine expert who recently joined UCF’s College of Medicine, is especially excited about this latest mission.

The spacecraft is flying up to 870 miles above Earth—the highest orbit flown in the last half century...

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The international team, co-led by the University of Cambridge, used Webb to observe a galaxy roughly the size of the Milky Way in the early universe, about two billion years after the Big Bang. Like most large galaxies, it has a supermassive black hole at its center. However, this galaxy is essentially ‘dead’: it has mostly stopped forming new stars.

“Based on earlier observations, we knew this galaxy was in a quenched state: it’s not forming many stars given its size, and we expect there is a link between the black hole and the end of star formation...