Category Astronomy/Space

Astronomers have uncovered a massive new trans-Neptunian object, 2017 OF201, lurking at the edge of our solar system. With an orbit stretching 25,000 years and a size that may qualify it as a dwarf planet, this mysterious world challenges long-held assumptions about the “empty” space beyond Neptune. Its unusual trajectory sets it apart from other distant bodies and may even cast doubt on the controversial Planet Nine hypothesis.

A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system.

The TNO is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, the same category as the much more we...

New ALMA observations reveal that the discs where planets form are often slightly warped, challenging long-held assumptions and offering clues about the subtle misalignments seen in our own Solar System.

Astronomers using ALMA have discovered that planet-forming...

New research from the University of St Andrews has proposed that particles in solar flares are 6.5 times hotter than previously thought. The research provides an unexpected solution to a 50-year-old mystery about our nearest star.

Solar flares are sudden and huge releases of energy in the sun’s outer atmosphere that heat parts of it to greater than 10 million degrees. These dramatic events greatly increase the solar X-rays and radiation reaching Earth and are hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts, as well as affecting our planet’s upper atmosphere.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, looks at evidence of how flares heat solar plasma to greater than 10 million degrees. This solar plasma is made up of ions and electrons...

Saturn’s moon Titan may be more alive with possibilities than we thought. New NASA research suggests that in Titan’s freezing methane and ethane lakes, simple molecules could naturally arrange themselves into vesicles—tiny bubble-like structures that mimic the first steps toward life. These compartments, born from splashing droplets and complex chemistry in Titan’s atmosphere, could act like primitive cell walls.

NASA research has shown that cell-like compartments called vesicles could form naturally in the lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Titan is the only world apart from Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface...