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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Helping to grow plants in space for NASA missions to the moon and mars

    November 28, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    Helping to grow plants in space for NASA missions to the Moon and Mars
    Credit: NASA/Norishige Kanai

    Imagine biting into a crisp, garden-fresh salad and savoring juicy strawberries for dessert. But instead of your backyard, you’re gazing out at a stark lunar landscape, Earth hanging like a precious blue marble in the inky sky.

    Sound like far-fetched sci-fi? Think again.

    This cosmic cuisine scenario is fast becoming our reality, thanks to research led by University of Melbourne scientists belonging to the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S, 2024-2030), in partnership with NASA and other space scientists.

    A global dream team of over 40 scientists in 11 countries and seven space agencies have united to produce a roadmap for plant science breakthroughs crucial for long-term human life on the moon and Mars.

    And...

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    After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter

    November 27, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter
    Gamma-ray intensity map excluding components other than the halo, spanning approximately 100 degrees in the direction of the Galactic center. The horizontal gray bar in the central region corresponds to the Galactic plane area, which was excluded from the analysis to avoid strong astrophysical radiation. Credit: Tomonori Totani, The University of Tokyo

    In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding—dark matter—holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark mattner, allowing the invisible matter to be “seen” for the very first time.

    The elusive nature of ...

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    Boiling oceans may lurk beneath the ice of solar system’s smallest moons

    November 26, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Looking inside icy moons
    Saturn’s moon Mimas, imaged by the Cassini spacecraft. A new study shows how such small ice moons could sustain a liquid ocean beneath an icy shell, and how that could give rise to surface features. Credit: By NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute – This image or video was catalogued by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: PIA12570., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10371541

    The outer planets of the solar system are swarmed by ice-wrapped moons. Some of these, such as Saturn’s moon Enceladus, are known to have oceans of liquid water between the ice shell and the rocky core and could be the best places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life...

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    Scientists may have found the planet that made the Moon

    November 25, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s impression of the collision between the early Earth and Theia. Since Theia originated in the inner Solar System, in this perspective the Sun can be seen in the background. Credit: MPS / Mark A. Garlick

    Researchers have traced chemical clues in rocks from Earth and the Moon to uncover the origins of Theia, the body that struck Earth billions of years ago. About 4.5 billion years ago, a colossal impact between the young Earth and a mysterious planetary body called Theia changed everything—reshaping Earth, forming the Moon, and scattering clues across space rocks. By examining subtle isotopic fingerprints in Earth and Moon samples, scientists have reconstructed Theia’s possible composition and birthplace.

    Reconstructing Theia’s makeup: A new study in Science identifies t...

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