Astronomy - You Gotta Be Freakin' Kidding Me (Page 3)

by Parallax

on Jul 08

Mars Has No Magnetosphere. It's Doing the Magnetosphere Thing Anyway.

Mars lost its magnetic field billions of years ago. So why is it producing an effect that requires one? The answer involves a solar storm, a very surprised scientist, and toothpaste.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jul 07

Hundreds of Organic Carbon Detections on Mars. In Exactly the Right Place.

Perseverance found hundreds of organic carbon detections at a single Martian site, right where the biosignatures were already piling up. How much evidence is enough?

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jul 07

Cotton Candy Is Denser Than Some Planets

Jupiter-sized planets lighter than spun sugar. How does a planet that big end up less dense than a carnival snack?

#Astronomy

by Dark Matter

on Jul 06

A Star That Drains Its Partner Has Been Broadcasting the Crime Scene for 20 Years

A puzzling radio signal stumped astronomers for two decades. The culprit turned out to be a white dwarf quietly draining its companion star — and broadcasting every meal.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jul 03

Neptune Had a Moon System Once. Triton Ate It.

Neptune once had an orderly family of moons. Then a rogue the size of Pluto arrived.

#Astronomy

by Dark Matter

on Jul 01

Mini Neptune Planets Clogged with Diesel Exhaust

A chemical engineer looked at JWST's baffling exoplanet data and recognized something instantly: the spectral signature of diesel soot.

#Astronomy

by Tectonics

on Jun 24

A Space Peanut Is Tumbling Through the Asteroid Belt

It's shaped like a peanut, it wobbles on two axes, and it used to have water. NASA called this flyby a warm-up. The asteroid apparently didn't get that memo.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jun 23

Shadow Blaster Galaxy Shot Neutrinos at South Pole

An 11-billion-year-old particle vanishes into Antarctic ice. Gamma rays, X-rays, optical scans all come up empty. So what finally cracked it?

#Astronomy

by Tectonics

on Jun 17

Fireball Over Boston Detonates With the Force of 300 Tons of TNT. Casual Saturday.

A 5.6-metric-ton iron meteor exploded over Boston creating a sonic boom. NASA has a technical name for where it landed.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jun 15

The Universe's Most Baffling Odd Couples Just Got a Bit More Real

Two Jupiter-sized planets orbit each other in the dark: no star, no system, no explanation. How does something form that shouldn't be able to exist?

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jun 12

Europa's Famous Water Plumes May Have Been a Trick of the Light

A reanalysis of 14 years of Hubble data has quietly dismantled one of the most exciting clues in the search for life near Jupiter.

#Astronomy

by Signal

on Jun 08

The Bar at the Beginning of the Universe

Stellar bars don't survive in gas-rich environments. GN20 is 75 percent gas. It has one anyway.

#Astronomy

by Deep Time

on Jun 08

The Sun's Interior and Its Surface Are No Longer Telling the Same Story

Scientists have listened to acoustic waves inside the Sun since 1987. What they're hearing in the current cycle diverges significantly from what four centuries of surface observation would predict.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jun 05

Life Found a Way to Not Need a Star

The most hospitable worlds in the galaxy might not orbit anything at all. Moons of rogue planets have been drifting through interstellar space for billions of years carrying the chemistry of life.

#Astronomy

by Deep Time

on Jun 04

This Galaxy Has No Spin

A massive early galaxy stopped forming stars and lost its spin before the universe was 2 billion years old. How does a galaxy grow old so fast?

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on Jun 02

Hot Jupiter Posts Eviction Notice. Mini Neptune Ignores It.

Two planets sharing a solar system they shouldn't both occupy. JWST gave astronomers insight into the atmosphere that explains how they pulled it off.

#Astronomy

by Groundwater

on Jun 01

The Largest Wave in the Solar System Works Like Your Kitchen Sink

A 6,000-km wall of acid clouds sweeps around Venus every few days. Scientists finally know why, and the answer has been sitting in your kitchen the whole time.

#Astronomy

by Parallax

on May 28

Triton Massacred Neptune's Moons. The Outlier Survived.

Nereid was filed under "captured outsider" for decades. JWST says it's the only original moon that survived Triton's arrival. The orbit we called wrong is why it's still there.

#Astronomy

Mars Has No Magnetosphere. It's Doing the Magnetosphere Thing Anyway.

Hundreds of Organic Carbon Detections on Mars. In Exactly the Right Place.

Cotton Candy Is Denser Than Some Planets

A Star That Drains Its Partner Has Been Broadcasting the Crime Scene for 20 Years

Neptune Had a Moon System Once. Triton Ate It.

Mini Neptune Planets Clogged with Diesel Exhaust

A Space Peanut Is Tumbling Through the Asteroid Belt

Shadow Blaster Galaxy Shot Neutrinos at South Pole

Fireball Over Boston Detonates With the Force of 300 Tons of TNT. Casual Saturday.

The Universe's Most Baffling Odd Couples Just Got a Bit More Real

Europa's Famous Water Plumes May Have Been a Trick of the Light

The Bar at the Beginning of the Universe

The Sun's Interior and Its Surface Are No Longer Telling the Same Story

Life Found a Way to Not Need a Star

This Galaxy Has No Spin

Hot Jupiter Posts Eviction Notice. Mini Neptune Ignores It.

The Largest Wave in the Solar System Works Like Your Kitchen Sink

Triton Massacred Neptune's Moons. The Outlier Survived.

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