Space news stories

Colossal Discovery on Mars Could Drive Surging Magma Under The Surface
5th December 2022 | sciencealert.com | Humans, Space

Scientists may have just identified the culprit behind signs of recently active volcanism on Mars. Beneath a broad plain called the Elysium Planitia, a colossal, 4,000-kilometer (roughly 2,500-mile) wide convection plume in the Martian mantle could be driving molten magma up as far as the surface.

Giant Asteroid Unleashed a Devastating Martian Megatsunami, Evidence Suggests
2nd December 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Mars wasn’t always the desiccated dustbowl it is today.In fact, the red planet was once so wet and sloshy that a megatsunami was unleashed, crashing across the landscape like watery doom. What caused this devastation? According to new research, a giant asteroid impact…

New Research Indicates That Mars Was Capable of Supporting Life
30th November 2022 scitechdaily.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Space

A new study reveals that Mars was born wet, with a dense atmosphere allowing warm-to-hot oceans for millions of years. This discovery was recently published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Two minerals never before been seen on Earth found inside 17-ton meteorite
29th November 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Space, Weird

Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered inside a massive meteorite in Somalia. They could hold important clues to how asteroids form.

Mars Once Had So Much Water, It Could Have Been An Ocean World, Scientists Say
29th November 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

According to a new study by an international team of planetary scientists, Mars may have had enough water 4.5 billion years ago to cover it in a global ocean up to 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet) deep.

Expert Proposes a Method For Telling if We All Live in a Computer Program
22nd November 2022 | sciencealert.com | Earth, Humans, Space, Weird

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the Universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets, and ultimately life to develop?

The Milky Way’s mysterious filaments have ‘older, distant cousins’
21st November 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Space

Northwestern University astrophysicist Farhad Zadeh has been fascinated and puzzled by a family of large-scale, highly organized magnetic filaments dangling in the center of the Milky Way ever since he first discovered them in the early 1980s.

The Leonid meteor shower peaks this week. Here’s how to watch.
18th November 2022 | livescience.com | Humans, Space

The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak this week as Earth passes through the trail of icy, rocky debris left behind nearly 30 years ago by the comet Tempel-Tuttle.

Meteorite that landed in Cotswolds may solve mystery of Earth’s water
17th November 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Earth, Space

4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system.

Scientists Are Drawing Up Plans to Intercept an Interstellar Object
16th November 2022 | sciencealert.com | Humans, Space, Tech

We finally have the technological means to detect interstellar objects. We’ve detected two in the last few years, ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, and there are undoubtedly more out there.

Scientists discover massive ‘extragalactic structure’ behind the Milky Way
13th November 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Space, Weird

An uncharted region of space known as the “zone of avoidance” lurks behind the Milky Way’s center – and astronomers just found an enormous, multi-galaxy structure there.

‘Overweight’ neutron star defies a black hole theory, say astronomers
11th November 2022 | theguardian.com | Humans, Space

An “overweight” neutron star has been observed by astronomers, who say the mysterious object confounds astronomical theories.

Astronomers Discover Oldest Planetary Debris in Our Galaxy – Remnants of Destroyed Solar System
9th November 2022 scitechdaily.com | Ancient, Space

Their findings conclude that a faint white dwarf located just 90 light-years from Earth, as well as the remains of its orbiting planetary system, are over ten billion years old. Led by the University of Warwick, the study was published on November 5 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

IceCube neutrinos provide new view of active galaxy
7th November 2022 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Space, Tech

An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Adelaide, have gathered new evidence about the energetic core of an active galaxy millions of lights years away by detecting neutrino particles emitted by it.

The ‘Beaver Blood Moon’ rises (and eclipses) on Nov. 8. Here’s how to watch.
7th November 2022 | livescience.com | Humans, Space

Sky watchers in North America who get an early start on Tuesday will also be treated to a total lunar eclipse — the last one for the next three years — with the moon falling into the darkest part of Earth’s shadow around 5:17 a.m. EST (9:17 a.m. UTC).

The Moon Had Volcanoes Much More Recently Than We Thought, Says New Study
7th November 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

The analysis of these rocks revealed a great deal about the Moon’s composition, formation, and geological history. In particular, scientists concluded that the rocks were formed from volcanic eruptions more than 3 billion years ago.

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