Space news stories

‘Symbiotic stars’ caught snacking on each other outside the Milky Way
22nd January 2021 | space.com | Space, Weird

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers have identified two pairs of stars beyond the galaxy that are consuming their companions.

Solar Wind Is Strangely Drawn to Earth’s North Pole, And Scientists Don’t Know Why
21st January 2021 | sciencealert.com | Earth, Space, Weird

Likely the most well-known result of the Earth’s magnetic field are the Aurora Borealis and Australis (Northern and Southern Lights).

The Milky Way does the wave
19th January 2021 phys.org | Space

In results announced this week at the 237th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky survey present the most detailed look yet at the warp of our own galaxy.

Starwatch: Orion’s treats for the naked-eye star watcher
18th January 2021 | theguardian.com | Humans, Space

The mighty constellation of Orion the hunter is one of the greatest sights in the night sky.

Image from:http://deepskycolors.com/astro/JPEG/RBA_Orion_HeadToToes.jpg (Wiki Commons)

Astronomers may have detected background ripples in spacetime itself
18th January 2021 newatlas.com | Ancient, Space

The gravitational waves we’ve detected so far have been like tsunamis in the spacetime sea, but it’s believed that gentle ripples should also pervade the universe. Now, a 13-year survey of light from pulsars scattered across the galaxy may have revealed the first hints of these background signals.

Image from: https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24036 (Wiki Commons)

Astronomers Find an Astonishing ‘Super-Earth’ That’s Nearly as Old as The Universe
14th January 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

Around one of the galaxy’s oldest stars, an orange dwarf named TOI-561 just 280 light-years away, astronomers have found three orbiting exoplanets – one of which is a rocky world 1.5 times the size of Earth, whipping around the star on a breakneck 10.5-hour orbit.

For The First Time, Astronomers May Have Heard The Background ‘Hum’ of The Universe
13th January 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

Based on what we know about gravitational waves, the Universe should be full of them. Every colliding pair of black holes or neutron stars, every core-collapse supernova – even the Big Bang itself – should have sent ripples ringing across spacetime.

News stories covering Space, from the macro to the micro, including Space exploration, quantum physics and quantum weirdness.