Deep Space(Page 2)

The latest on the missions plunging far beyond of Earth's orbit, including Voyager I, the Parker Solar Probe, and JUICE.

Latest in Deep Space

The ring of light surrounding the centre of the galaxy NGC 6505, captured by ESA’s Euclid telescope, is a stunning example of an Einstein ring. NGC 6505 is acting as a gravitational lens, bending light from a galaxy far behind it. The almost perfect alignment of NGC 6505 and the background galaxy has bent and magnified the light from the background galaxy into a spectacular ring. This rare phenomenon was first theorised to exist by Einstein in his general theory of relativity. This wide field shows the extended stellar halo of NGC 6505 and showcases the Einstein ring, surrounded by colourful foreground stars and background galaxies.
Science

Extremely rare ‘Einstein ring’ discovered close to Earth

By Laura Baisas

A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star. Many different wavelengths of light are combined and represented by separate and various colours. A dark line across the centre is the disc, made of opaque dust: the star is hidden in here and creates a strong glow in the centre. A band going straight up is a jet, while other outflows form flares above and below the disc, and a tail coming off to one side.
Science

Newborn stars surround a planet-forming disk 450 million light years away

By Laura Baisas

A Priority Mail stamp featuring spiral galaxy NGC 628 (left). A Priority Mail Express stamp of star cluster IC 348 (right). Both of these new stamps were issued on January 21 and designed by U.S. Postal Service art director Greg Breeding.
Science

Calling all philatelists: U.S. Postal Services issues two new JWST stamps

By Laura Baisas

planes and astronauts collage
Technology

5 aerospace breakthroughs of 2024

By Popular Science Team

The first brown dwarfs outside the Milky Way.
Science

Swirling galaxy arms, a cosmic sombrero, and a dead supernova: Our favorite JWST images from 2024

By Tom Hawking

Scientists are studying squirrels and hibernation that could help humans get to deep space
Science

Hibernation scientists studying squirrels could get humans to deep space

By Lauren Leffer

The first image depicts star cluster NGC 602 in vibrant and festive colors. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud. The image is aglow with specks and dots of colorful, festive light, in blues, golds, whites, oranges, and reds. These lights represent stars within the cluster. Some of the lights gleam with diffraction spikes, while others emit a warm, diffuse glow. Upon closer inspection, many of the glowing specks have spiraling arms, indicating that they are, in fact, distant galaxies.
Science

Happy holidays from space!

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a black hole
Science

Enormous black hole napping after eating a ton of gas

By Laura Baisas

A composite image galaxy cluster collisions known as the Abell 2744 system, known as the Pandora's Cluster. In blue is a map showing the total mass concentration (mostly dark matter) based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru telescope.
Science

‘Funny dark matter:’ Something is wrong about our theory of the expanding universe

By Tom Hawking

a black hole with orange and blue light swirling around it. two other objects, a large orange circle and a smaller bright orange star orbit around it
Science

First ‘black hole triple’ may have formed in a surprisingly gentle way

By Laura Baisas

A technician inspects a prototype LISA telescope.
Science

NASA unveils model of LISA, a satellite array for studying ripples in space-time

By Andrew Paul

Illustration: HIP 41378 f is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 0.233 Jupiters and it takes 3 years to complete one orbit of its star. Its discovery was announced in 2016.
Science

What if ‘cotton candy’ planets are actually Ring Pops?

By Briley Lewis

Voyager 2 diagram with equipment labeled
Science

NASA shut off a Voyager 2 tool to save power

By Andrew Paul

JUICE image of Earth's radiation belt
Science

NASA captured the clearest ever images of Earth’s radiation belt

By Andrew Paul

an illustration of an orange dot orbiting a larger orangish body in space
Science

Astronomers discover a new exoplanet orbiting the closest single star to the sun

By Laura Baisas

Artwork of cubesats in the sky.
Technology

CubeSats, the tiniest of satellites, are changing the way we explore the solar system

By Mustafa Aksoy / The Conversation

Artist concept: The LSST will carry out a deep, ten-year imaging survey in six broad optical bands over the main survey area of 18,000 square degrees.
Science

How AI’s data-crunching-power can help demystify the cosmos

By Briley Lewis

This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22 and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars.
Science

1.5 billion cosmic objects dazzle in the largest infrared Milky Way map ever created

By Andrew Paul

Z Machine operating at Sandia National Laboratories
Science

Could nukes deflect an asteroid? ‘X-ray scissors’ offer scientists clues.

By Andrew Paul

An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed.
Science

Biggest black hole jets ever seen span 140 Milky Way galaxies

By Andrew Paul

This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected with the greatest precision yet by the Planck mission.
Science

What was the first color in the universe?

By Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge

This artist concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our Sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies.
Science

Searching for the secrets behind the Little Red Dots

By Fabio Pacucci / The Conversation

Illustration of the cases where one impulse Δv = 10−1 m s−1 from a small asteroid impact has been applied to Apophis.
Science

Astrophysicist predicts (slightly) higher chance for major asteroid impact in 2029

By Andrew Paul

The Green Bank Observatory contains eight dishes that detect radiation from objects in space in the form of radio waves.
Science

Why the ‘Wow!’ signal is probably not from aliens after all

By Briley Lewis

a space telescope image of multiple shining stars in reddish clouds
Science

JWST spots six new ‘rogue worlds,’ neither planet nor star

By Laura Baisas

ALMA antennae bathed in red light. in the background there is the southern Milky Way on the left and the Magellanic Clouds at the top.
Science

Why astronomers keep staring at the same spot in the sky

By Briley Lewis

Two images displaying possible kilonova
Science

Scientists want your help finding black holes with your phone

By Andrew Paul

Artist impression of a large asteroid impacting on Earth such as the Chicxulub event that caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, 66 million years ago. The illustration shows an asteroid impacting at Chicxulub. Shown in the background are planet Mars and asteroid bodies.
Science

Dinosaur-killing asteroid likely came from deep space beyond Jupiter

By Andrew Paul

Ancient star, but not one of the first: One of the oldest known stars ever observed is a subgiant star in the Milky Way, just 190 light-years from Earth. The star, known as HD 140283 or the Methuselah star, appears to be almost as old as the universe. However, we know it is not one of the first stars because of it contains metals that must have formed in the core or during the explosion of even earlier stars.
Science

The hunt for the first stars in the universe

By Briley Lewis

The central region of a spiral galaxy. Its core is a small bright point radiating bright, bluish-white light over the scene. The white light is diffuse and many point-like stars in the galaxy (and even background galaxies) can be seen through it. The galaxy’s arms can be seen as broad, swirling streaks of glowing gas and dust, coloured red and orange. Two additional arms are revealed in green
Deep Space

You’ve never seen a prettier radiation-spewing supermassive black hole

By Laura Baisas

a red aurora along with the stars of the milky way over mountains
Science

19 magnificent images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist

By Popular Science Team

In the foreground to the left is a sphere half illuminated on the right side, almost filling the image vertically. The surface consists of several parallel, pale-coloured bands aligned horizontally. To the top right is a much smaller orange, circular light source, illuminating the large sphere in the foreground. The background is black with numerous tiny white dots.
Science

JWST detects a new exoplanet six times larger than Jupiter

By Tom Hawking

25 images of space
Science

NASA drops 25 dazzling images to celebrate Chandra X-ray space telescope

By Popular Science Team

Close up of pills in blister packs
Deep Space

How will astronauts handle expired drugs on Mars?

By Andrew Paul

Astronomy: a 40-foot telescope constructed by William Herschel, in use outdoors. Coloured etching, 18--. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
Science

400 years of telescopes: A window into our study of the cosmos

By Bill Gourgey

a flat map of the planet jupiter, showing reddish-orange lines and the planet's great red spot
Deep Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot keeps shrinking

By Laura Baisas

A team of astronomers led by Penn State scientists have discovered a planet that has the most oblong orbit ever found among transiting planets. The exoplanet’s extreme circuit — which looks closer to a cucumber than a circle — follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known exoplanets, planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. The planet, , named TIC 241249530, is also orbiting its star backwards, lending insight into the mystery of how close-in massive gas planets, known as hot Jupiters, form, stabilize and evolve over time.
Science

Newly discovered exoplanet’s orbit is like a ‘cucumber’

By Tom Hawking

Screenshot from music video for Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"
Deep Space

NASA beamed Missy Elliott’s ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ to her favorite planet

By Andrew Paul

Image of Omega Centauri star cluster with black hole and evidence stars highlighted
Black Holes

Astronomers discover Earth’s closest black hole

By Andrew Paul

an illustration of a blue exoplanet with white swirls near a sun-like star
Deep Space

A nearby exoplanet reeks of rotten eggs

By Laura Baisas

the tall and straight pillars of creation as seen with two space telescopes. these celestial bodies are finger-like figures of gas and dust
Deep Space

Ethereal Pillars of Creation come to life in new 3D visualization

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of two merging quasars in space. they are round yellow and orange disks, with a black hole in the center. white light is coming out of the center of the black hole.
Deep Space

In a first, astronomers spot merging quasars from the Cosmic Dawn

By Laura Baisas

Pegasus Shooting Star Vodka promo art next to meteorite
Science

The $200 meteorite-infused vodka is refreshingly tasty

By Andrew Paul

Artist concept art of Voyager 1
Deep Space

Voyager 1 defies the odds yet again and is back online

By Andrew Paul

Image of June 3, 2024, solar flare
Science

Watch a wild ‘failed eruption’ solar flare

By Andrew Paul

JWST discovers earliest galaxy ever observed
Science

JWST discovers earliest galaxy ever observed

By Tom Hawking

A spherical collection of stars which fills the whole view. The cluster is dominated by a concentrated group of bright white stars at the center, with several large yellow stars scattered throughout the image. Many of the stars have visible diffraction spikes. The background is black
Science

The 8 most extraordinary JWST images of 2024, so far

By Popular Science Team

an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star
Deep Space

Newly discovered exoplanet may be habitable (or a Venus-like hellscape)

By Laura Baisas

a pink and red galaxy (left). an illustration of the cylindrical euclid space telescope (right)
Science

See 5 dazzling new images from Euclid, the ‘dark universe detective’

By Laura Baisas

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies.
Black Holes

Astronomers use wobbly star stuff to measure a supermassive black hole’s spin

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of what exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like. It is also a hot and puffy gas giant like exoplanet WASP 193b.
Science

A massive cotton candy-like exoplanet stumps astronomers

By Laura Baisas

How ‘safe mode’ protects space telescopes like Hubble and TESS
Science

How ‘safe mode’ protects space telescopes like Hubble and TESS

By Briley Lewis

Artist rendering of exoplanet WASP-43b
Science

JWST measures ‘Hot Jupiter,’ a distant exoplanet hot enough to forge iron

By Andrew Paul

Astronomers fight to save a major X-ray space telescope
Science

Astronomers fight to save a major X-ray space telescope

By Briley Lewis

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Voyager 1 traveling through interstellar space–or the space between stars.
Science

Greetings, Earth! NASA can understand Voyager 1 again

By Laura Baisas

Where do all those colors in space telescope images come from?
Science

Where do all those colors in space telescope images come from?

By Briley Lewis

a galaxy that looks like an hourglass pinched at the center with a shining protostar
Science

Plunge into an immersive IMAX movie featuring the James Webb Space Telescope

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a black hole with a companion star. the star is bright with a blue line indicating where the black hole is.
Science

Humongous stellar-mass black hole is the biggest ever found in Milky Way

By Laura Baisas

An image of the core of our Milky Way galaxy. This view combines the sharp imaging of Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) with color imagery from a previous Spitzer Space Telescope survey done with its Infrared Astronomy Camera (IRAC).
Science

Youth-stealing stars could explain ‘missing giants’ at the Milky Way’s center

By Briley Lewis

LSST Camera Deputy Project Manager Travis Lange shines a flashlight into the LSST Camera.
Science

A 3,200-megapixel digital camera is ready for its cosmic photoshoot

By Andrew Paul

M74 aka the Phantom Galaxy shown in a combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring data from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. It is one of the celestial objects featured
Science

Listen to three breathtaking NASA images

By Laura Baisas

A combination of a Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1987A and the compact argon source. The faint blue source in the center is the emission from the compact source detected with the James Webb Space Telescope. Outside this is the stellar debris, which contains most of the mass. The inner bright “string of pearls” is the gas from the outer layers of the star that was expelled about 20,000 years before the final explosion. The fast debris is now colliding with the ring, explaining the bright spots. Outside of the inner ring are two outer rings, presumably produced by the same process as forming the inner ring. The bright stars to the left and right of the inner ring are unrelated to the supernova.
Science

JWST detects evidence of a neutron star in fiery supernova remains

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of quasar J059-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy that is powered by a supermassive black hole. This quasar has been found to be the most luminous object known in the universe to date.
Science

Fastest-growing black hole eats the equivalent of one sun a day

By Laura Baisas

Galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into an S-shape from a normal pancake-like spiral shape by the gravitational pull of a neighboring galaxy, seen in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. A consequence of this is that newborn clusters of stars form along a stretched-out tidal tail for thousands of light-years, resembling a string of pearls. They form when knots of gas gravitationally collapse to create about one million newborn stars per cluster.
Science

NASA’s Hubble space telescope reveals a galactic ‘string of pearls’

By Laura Baisas