Category Astronomy/Space

“This Appears To Be A Universal Law”: 50-Year-Old Mystery About Our Sun’s Storms May Have Been Solved

For around half a century, scientists have been puzzled by the odd spectral lines produced by solar flares. Now we may have some answers.
Anew study looking at solar flares may have solved a 50-year-old mystery about our host star, finding that solar flares may be far hotter than we realized.

Solar flares are a common event on the Sun’s surface. They can be seen regularly throughout the year, and particularly during the solar maximum phase of the Sun’s cycle.

“A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. Flares are our solar system’s largest explosive events. They are seen as bright areas on the Sun and they can last from minutes to hours,” NASA explains...

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Mars Perseverance rover data suggests presence of past microbial life

Researchers uncover potential biosignatures on Mars
Perseverance rover reached the Bright Angel site on Mars by navigating through a dune field, bypassing large boulders. The rover is now investigating this area’s unique geological features to understand Mars’ past environmental conditions and support future human exploration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A new study co-authored by Texas A&M University geologist Dr. Michael Tice has revealed potential chemical signatures of ancient Martian microbial life in rocks examined by NASA’s Perseverance rover.

The findings, published by a large international team of scientists, focus on a region of Jezero Crater known as the Bright Angel formation—a name chosen from locations in Grand Canyon National Park because of the light-colored Martian rocks...

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Mysterious ‘red dots’ in early universe may be ‘black hole star’ atmospheres

Mysterious 'red dots' in early universe may be 'black hole star' atmospheres
Artist’s impression of a black hole star (not to scale). Mysterious tiny pinpoints of light discovered at the dawn of the universe may be giant spheres of hot gas that are so dense they look like the atmospheres of typical nuclear fusion-powered stars; however, instead of fusion, they are powered by supermassive black holes in their center that rapidly pull in matter, converting it into energy and giving off light. Credit: T. Müller/A. de Graaff/Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Tiny red objects spotted by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are offering scientists new insights into the origins of galaxies in the universe—and may represent an entirely new class of celestial object: a black hole swallowing massive amounts of matter and spitting out light.

Using the first dat...

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Life on Mars? NASA discovers potential biosignatures in Martian mudstones

An image of the rock named “Cheyava Falls” in the “Bright Angel formation” in Jezero crater, Mars collected by the WATSON camera onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.  The image shows a rust-colored, organic matter bearing sedimentary mudstone sandwiched between bright white layers of another composition.  The small dark blue/green to black colored nodules and ring-shaped reaction fronts that have dark rims, and bleached interiors are proposed to be potential biosignatures.  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Data and images from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover reveals that recently discovered rocks in Jezero crater are organic carbon bearing mudstones...

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