Category Astronomy/Space

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

By studying a stream on the UK coast, experts have calculated how much organic matter we might find on Mars, and where to look. Imperial College London scientists have found traces of fatty acids – key building blocks of biological cells – in Dorset’s acidic streams. They say that because of the similarity of acidic streams in Dorset and on Mars, their findings hint that life might once have existed on Mars.

By applying their findings to the Red Planet, they concluded that there could be nearly 12,000 Olympic sized pools of organic matter on Mars that could represent traces of past life. Dorset is home to highly acidic sulphur streams that host bacteria which thrive in extreme conditions...

Visualization of the gravitational wave emission from a pair of orbiting compact objects. Credit: NASA

Next-generation gravitational wave detector in space will complement LIGO on Earth. The historic first detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes far outside our galaxy opened a new window to understanding the universe. A string of detections – 4 more binary black holes and a pair of neutron stars – soon followed the Sept. 14, 2015, observation. Now, another detector is being built. LISA is expected to be in space in 2034, and it will be sensitive to gravitational waves of a lower frequency than those detected by the Earth-bound Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

A new Northwestern University study predicts dozens of binaries (pairs of orbiting co...

Artistic impression of a Multiverse — where our Universe is only one of many. According to the research varying amounts of dark energy have little effect on star formation. This raises the prospect of life in other universes — if the Multiverse exists. Credit: Image by Jaime Salcido/simulations by the EAGLE Collaboration

A Multiverse – where our Universe is only one of many – might not be as inhospitable to life as previously thought, according to new research. Questions about whether other universes might exist as part of a larger Multiverse, and if they could harbour life, are burning issues in modern cosmology...

The stars of IGR J17062–6143, illustrated here, circle each other every 38 minutes, the fastest-known orbit for a binary system containing an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar. As they revolve, a superdense pulsar pulls gas from a lightweight white dwarf. The two stars are so close they would fit between Earth and the Moon. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists analyzing the first data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes—about the time it takes to stream a TV drama. One of the stars in the system, called IGR J17062–6143 (J17062 for short), is a rapidly spinning, superdense star called a pulsar...