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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Japan space probe skims asteroid in test for planetary defense

    July 7, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    asteroid (Dimorphos)
    This high-resolution view of Dimorphos was created by combining the final 10 full-frame images obtained by DART’s Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) and layering the higher-resolution images on top of the lower-resolution ones. Dimorphos is oriented so that its north pole is toward the top of the image. Credit: Public Domain

    A Japanese space probe performed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks.

    The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 meters (0...

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    Astronomers may have caught an early galaxy in the process of dying

    July 5, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers may have caught an early galaxy in the process of dying
    JWST imaging of the RPS galaxy C26 in SPT2349–56. (a) Red-green-blue image of the protocluster core (blue: NIRCam/F200W; green: NIRCam/F444W; red: MIRI/F1000W). The RPS galaxy C26 is marked by the red rectangle. The cross labels the kinematic center of the protocluster. (b–d) Zoomed images of C26 in F200W, F444W, and F1000W, respectively. credit: DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.18229

    Astronomers have spotted many “red and dead” galaxies in the early universe. These are massive systems that stopped forming stars surprisingly early in cosmic history. Now, they may have found evidence of one in the act of becoming dead: a massive galaxy being stripped of its starforming gas just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang...

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    Comet from another star has a composition unlike anything else in our solar system

    July 3, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers have revealed new details about the makeup and age of a visiting comet that was born around a distant star. They conclude that the composition of 3I/Atlas is strikingly different from any object found in our solar system.

    A trio of recently published studies shed light on the origins of this exotic comet. 3I/Atlas appears to have been born in a cold environment, possibly around 12 billion years ago.

    The comet is an interstellar object (ISO), meaning an asteroid or comet that originated outside the solar system. It is the third such object found, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. It was discovered almost exactly one year ago, traveling inbound on a trajectory that has taken it through the inner solar system and out the other side.

    These distant origins make ISOs ...

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    TESS just found a planet in a new way—and more may be hiding in its eight years of data

    July 3, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    microlensing
    This animation illustrates the concept of gravitational microlensing. When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the warped space-time around the foreground star. This star acts like a virtual magnifying glass, amplifying the brightness of the background source star. If the nearer star harbors a planetary system, then those planets can also act as lenses, each one producing a short deviation in the brightness of the source. When astronomers find planets this way, they can measure their mass and orbital distance from their host star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

    For the first time, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has identified a planet orbiting a ...

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