4+ week, 1+ day ago   (512+ words) A new study modelling Reflect Orbital's proposed constellation of giant orbital mirrors finds their light pollution would be severe. A single 54 metre satellite would appear four magnitudes brighter than the full moon to anyone in its beam, and its scattered…...

4+ week, 9+ hour ago   (698+ words) systems form, how oceans and atmospheres talk to each other. Get the rotation rate wrong and every climate...error. The trouble is that for planets orbiting other stars, we can't watch a solid surface spin...measuring wind, not rotation, and…...

2+ day, 7+ hour ago   (219+ words) The eROSITA Consortium has issued the survey's second data release (DR2), nearly doubling the previously known eROSITA X-ray sources to two million....

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (707+ words) Observing comets is tricky. They're easier to see when they're closer to the Sun, but proximity to the star heats them up and releases volatiles. That creates a coma around the comet, which shrouds its nucleus, hiding it from studious…...

4+ hour, 48+ min ago   (88+ words) The most comprehensive catalogue of exploding white dwarf stars ever assembled has revealed new clues about dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion....

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (451+ words) So, did you miss the August 12th total solar eclipse? Like lots of humanity, we sat out the celestial drama of this month's solar eclipse, both total and partial. But the good news is, a large swath of the world can…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago   (331+ words) Some signs of an alien civilization are easier to spot than signs of life itself. On technosignatures, from CFCs and industrial gases to the pandemic dip in pollution, and why Earth's most detectable moment might be right now....

4+ week, 1+ day ago   (264+ words) (This is Part 2 of a series on what we can actually find on an exoplanet. Read Part 1 first.) It's not hopeless, because the James Webb isn't the last telescope we'll ever build. Next up on the docket of space launches…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (91+ words) Dark matter is the invisible stuff that accounts for roughly 85% of the mass in the universe, and for decades, physicists have been trying to figure out what it's made of. Now an experimental facility located nearly a mile below ground…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (305+ words) The Moon is busy in September. Coming off of eclipse season in August, the Moon visits no less than two planets, two bright stars and one open cluster in September, as it heads towards the Full Harvest Moon of 2026 on…...