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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New moonquake discovery could change NASA’s Moon plans

    December 8, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Moonquakes Could Change NASA’s Moon Plans
    A computer simulation depicting the seismic waves emanating from a shallow moonquake occurring on the Lee-Lincoln scarp in the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon and interacting with the Apollo 17 Lunar Module landing site. Red and blue are positive (upward ground motion) and negative (downward ground motion) polarities of the wave. Credit: University of Maryland, Nicholas Schmerr

    Moonquakes shook Apollo 17’s landing zone—and they could challenge the safety of future lunar outposts. Scientists have discovered that moonquakes, not meteoroids, are responsible for shifting terrain near the Apollo 17 landing site. Their analysis points to a still-active fault that has been generating quakes for millions of years...

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    Surprising optics breakthrough could transform our view of the Universe

    December 5, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A Powerful Leap in Gravitational-Wave Tech
    A high-precision thermal wavefront system called FROSTI allows LIGO and future detectors to operate at megawatt-scale laser power without degrading signal quality. This breakthrough will greatly expand our ability to detect black hole and neutron star mergers across the universe. Credit: Shutterstock

    FROSTI revolutionizes mirror control in gravitational-wave detectors, opening the door to a far deeper view of the cosmos. FROSTI is a new adaptive optics system that precisely corrects distortions in LIGO’s mirrors caused by extreme laser power. By using custom thermal patterns, it preserves mirror shape without introducing noise, allowing detectors to operate at higher sensitivities. This leap enables future observatories like Cosmic Explorer to see deeper into the cosmos...

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    Interstellar object covered in ‘icy volcanoes’ could rewrite our understanding of how comets formed

    December 4, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Interstellar object covered in
    Nov. 19 image obtained by Pau Montplet from Breda (Girona) using a C6 telescope at f:7. Original image is in the lower right inset, while a false color 0.6º wide Larson-Sekanina filtered image at 9º shows 3I in negative to remark the antitail pointing to the subsolar point, and several jets getting out from the false nucleus. Two additional arrows mark wavy structures in the jets. Image resolution is 0.7 arcsec/pix. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.19112

    Analysis of the second confirmed interstellar comet to visit our solar system suggests that the alien body could be covered in erupting icy, volcano-like structures called cryovolcanoes...

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    Sugars, ‘gum,’ stardust found in NASA’s asteroid Bennu samples

    December 4, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Graphic labeled "Bio-essential sugars ribose and glucose in samples from asteroid Bennu." The left half of the graphic has a background image of Bennu. In front of it are the RNA molecular components on Bennu: guanine, cytosine, ribose, adenine, uracil, and phosphate. Below them, the molecular structure of glucose is accompanied by text: "Ribose and glucose are sugars essential to life on Earth. RNA uses ribose for its structure. Glucose provides cells with energy and is used to make fibers like cellulose. A team of Japanese and US scientists have found ribose and glucose in samples of asteroid Bennu (collected by NASA'S OSIRIS-REx mission), suggesting that these simple sugars were brought to the early Earth by meteorites." The right half of the graphic has a background image of Earth. In front of it is the genetic code for protein synthesis, including ribose, phosphate, and the RNA nucleobases guanine, cytosine adenine, and uracil. Below that, the chemical process of energy production via glycolysis and the chemical structure of cellulose are annotated.
    A team of Japanese and US scientists have discovered the bio-essential sugars ribose and glucose in samples of asteroid Bennu that were collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. This finding builds on the earlier discovery of nucleobases (the genetic components of DNA and RNA), phosphate, and amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) in the Bennu samples, showing that the molecular ingredients of life could have been delivered to early Earth by meteorites. Download this graphic from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio website: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14932
    NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Dan Gallagher 

    The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life...

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