NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken a closer look at a volatile star at the heart of a system of seven potentially Earth-like worlds, some of which might be able to support life as we know it. The powerful space telescope studied four flares erupting from the star […]
TRAPPIST-1
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Efforts to observe the atmospheres of planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are being stymied by rambunctious activity on the surface of the red dwarf star at its center, new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) show. In March 2023, the JWST‘s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) observed a secondary transit […]
For years, scientists have been debating the odds of life existing on seven fascinating planets orbiting the Trappist-1 star, the most famous planetary system outside our own. The reason? Although several of these planets orbit in their star’s habitable zone, the region around a stellar body where liquid water can […]
METI, an organisation aiming to make contact with other civilisations, will send out its second message from Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall, UK Space 12 April 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall, UK Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd A message containing scientific data and samples of […]
Birthing a new space telescope takes a long time and a lot of money and inspiration. Astronomers first began pestering NASA for the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope even before that telescope was launched into orbit in 1990. Back then they thought it could cost less than a billion […]
This artist’s conception of quasar J0313-1806 depicts it as it was 670 million years after the Big Bang. Quasars are highly energetic objects at the centers of galaxies, powered by black holes and brighter than entire galaxies. Shown here is a phenomenon known as zodiacal light, which is caused by […]
Exoplanets An artist’s rendition of 51 Pegasi b. Credit – NASA Nobody gives out awards for Worst Planet in the Galaxy—and it would be a dubious honor at best. Somewhere out there may be other garden planets like Earth. Somewhere too may be near-miss worlds like Mars. And somewhere out […]
Discovery of pulsars British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar. Since then other types of pulsars that emit x-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted. Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnatised neutron stars but […]