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    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA’s Roman telescope will catch 100,000 explosions — and rewrite the Universe’s story

    July 24, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey infographic
    This infographic describes the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey that will be conducted by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The survey’s main component will cover over 18 square degrees — a region of sky as large as 90 full moons — and see supernovae that occurred up to about 8 billion years ago. Smaller areas within the survey will pierce even farther, potentially back to when the universe was around a billion years old. The survey will be split between the northern and southern hemispheres, located in regions of the sky that will be continuously visible to Roman. The bulk of the survey will consist of 30-hour observations every five days for two years in the middle of Roman’s five-year primary mission.
    Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    NASA’s Roman Space T...

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    Mysterious object found dancing with Neptune

    July 23, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has discovered a rare object far beyond Neptune, from a class known as trans-Neptunian objects, that is moving in rhythm with the giant planet. This image shows the orbits of all of the objects discovered in the Outer Solar System Origins Survey. The orbit of 2020 VN40 is the thickest one, tilted up and to the left from the orbits of most of the objects.  The orbits of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the white circles. 
    Credit: Rosemary Pike, CfA

    This object, called 2020 VN40, is the first confirmed body that orbits the sun once for every ten orbits Neptune completes.

    Astronomers have discovered a bizarre object in the outer solar system, 2020 VN40, that dances to Neptune’s g...

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    Lunar soil could support life on the Moon, say scientists

    July 21, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Lunar soil could support life on the Moon
    Chang’E-5 lunar soil sitting at the bottom of a photothermal reactor. Credit: Sun et al.

    Scientists have developed a technology that may help humans survive on the moon. In a study published in the journal Joule, researchers extracted water from lunar soil and used it to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and chemicals for fuel—potentially opening new doors for future deep space exploration by mitigating the need to transport essential resources like water and fuel all the way from Earth.

    “We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed,” said Lu Wang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

    “The biggest surprise for us was the tangible success of this integrated approach...

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    Newly discovered compounds help cells fight a wide range of viruses

    July 21, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A virus being destroyed by beams of light
    Researchers at MIT and other institutions have discovered broad-spectrum antiviral compounds through the use of a novel optogenetic screen, symbolized in this image by a beam of light piercing a virus.
    Credits:Credit: Kendall Pata, Type A Creative; edited by MIT News

    Researchers at MIT and other institutions have identified compounds that can fight off viral infection by activating a defense pathway inside host cells. These compounds, they believe, could be used as antiviral drugs that work against not just one but any kind of virus.

    The researchers identified these compounds, which activate a host cell defense system known as the integrated stress response pathway, in a screen of nearly 400,000 molecules...

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