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Watch This Dark Volcanic Ash Creep Across the Red Planet
Mars is well known as a static, frozen desert. We tend to think of the only thing changing on the surface of the Red Planet is due to the occasional dust storm. But if you look closely – and are willing to wait decades – you’ll see the planet is very much alive – at
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What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 2: The Crowd, the Molasses, and the Speed of Light (Sort Of)
(This is Part 2 of a series on Cherenkov radiation — the “light boom.” Read Part 1 first.) Before we get to Brad Bradington sprinting down the red carpet, we need to talk about the crowd itself. Because the crowd is where all the magic happens, and the crowd has some very specific properties that
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Early Galaxies Were Surrounded by Huge Clouds of Hydrogen, and Astronomers Found a Whole Bunch!
Based on the most widely accepted models of how the Universe began – Big Bang cosmology and the LCDM model – scientists theorize that massive clouds of neutral hydrogen permeated the Universe. From this material, the first stars and galaxies formed rapidly over the next several hundred eons, an event that astronomers and cosmologists refer
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The Moon Might Be More Prone To Fires
Engineers love a good practical challenge, especially when it comes to spaceflight. But there’s one particular challenge facing the crewed missions of the near future that scares mission planners above almost all others – fire. For decades, we’ve relied on a NASA test known as NASA-STD-6001B to screen material flammability for flight. But space is
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Why NASA’s Cheapest Missions Produce the Least Science
To say NASA has been undergoing some massive administrative changes lately is a huge understatement. One of the more concerning ones, according to a new paper at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Ari Koeppel and Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society, is the trend towards the Silicon Valley mindset of “move fast
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What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 1: The Scientist Who Stared at a Glow
I want you to imagine a scene. It’s the red carpet. It’s the night of the Oscars, or the Emmys, or the participation trophy ceremony for your kid’s soccer team. That’s not the essential part of the metaphor. What matters is who is there: Brad Bradington’s adoring fans, curious onlookers, and of course the paparazzi,
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Where’s the Dividing Line Between A Star and A Planet? Ask the JWST.
Some of the most scientifically important astronomical objects are the ones that push the boundaries of definitions. These objects can exist in the grey areas between competing definitions. They motivate astronomers to develop a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Nature. One of these important dividing lines places planets on one side and stars on
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JWST Sees Smoking Gun for Black Hole Mergers in the Virgo Cluster
A pair of dwarf galaxies in the giant Virgo Cluster show what can happen when these stellar cities interact. Scientists at the University of Michigan focused the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) onto the galaxies NGC 4486B and UCD736 and found each of them sporting “overmassive” black holes at or near their hearts. Those supermassive
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The World Welcomes the Crew of Artemis II Home!
On Friday, April 10, 2026 at 5:07 p.m. PDT (02:07 p.m. EDT), the first astronauts to travel to the Moon in more than fifty years made it back to Earth when their Orion capsule (Integrity) splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. In addition to being a historic accomplishment and
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Planetary Exploration With Four-Legged Rovers Carrying Only Two Instruments
Mars rovers have spearheaded the exploration of the planet over the last 20 years. MSL Curiosity and Perseverance are awe-inspiring machines, and Spirit and Opportunity were similarly impressive. Collectively, they’ve greatly improved our understanding of Mars and its ancient climate and shed light on its potential ancient habitability. But according to new research, the next
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Recent Posts
- Watch This Dark Volcanic Ash Creep Across the Red Planet
- What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 2: The Crowd, the Molasses, and the Speed of Light (Sort Of)
- Early Galaxies Were Surrounded by Huge Clouds of Hydrogen, and Astronomers Found a Whole Bunch!
- The Moon Might Be More Prone To Fires
- Why NASA’s Cheapest Missions Produce the Least Science
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