Mercury is the perfect destination for a solar sail
Solar sails rely upon pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces.
Get the sail closer to the Sun and not surprisingly efficiency increases.
A proposed new...
A new look at how planets are born
Imagine a young star, much like our own sun, but in its earliest days. Around it, there's a swirling dance of dust and gas....
Merging stars can lead to blue Supergiants
In the constellation of Orion, there is a brilliant bluish-white star. It marks the right foot of the starry hunter.
It’s known as Rigel, and...
ESA’s Gaia telescope unveils the Milky Way’s oldest star streams
The Gaia space telescope, managed by the European Space Agency (ESA), has made a remarkable discovery about our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Researchers have identified...
In a distant solar system, the JWST sees the end of planet formation
Every time a star forms, it represents an explosion of possibilities.
Not for the star itself; its fate is governed by its mass.
The possibilities it...
Dwarf galaxies could be the key to explaining dark matter
If you have a view of the southern celestial sky, on a clear night you might see two clear smudges of light set off...
An asteroid found sharing the orbit of Mars
Astronomers discovered another asteroid sharing Mars’ orbit.
These types of asteroids are called trojans, and they orbit in two clumps, one ahead of and one...
Ice is starting to cloud Euclid Observatory’s optics
On July 1st, 2023, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Euclid Observatory, a mission that will spend the next six years investigating the...
Parker Solar Probe was blasted by coronal mass ejections 28 times in 4 years
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) was launched on August 12, 2018, with the goal of becoming the first spacecraft to touch the Sun while...
Astronomers create a giant map of distant black holes
Astronomers have accomplished a massive feat by creating the biggest map yet of the universe.
This isn't just any map; it's a detailed chart of...