With a groundbreaking technique, astronomers have used a galaxy as a gravitational lens to backlight two hydrogen clouds, peering back 11 billion light-years at our early universe. Plus, volcano water on the Moon, a quadruple star system, and this week’s What’s Up takes a careful look at the Sun.
A forensic analysis of the element concentration found in the Hypatia stone finds evidence in the cometary fragment, which may have impacted Earth 28 million years ago, of a supernova origin story. Plus, Ceres, Mars, and this week in rocket history, we look back at SpaceX’s COTS Demo Flight 2.
Using a mere twelve grams of lunar soil returned by the Apollo missions, scientists have successfully grown plants in the lab. With a wealth of genetic data on hand, they can now analyze the changes to the plants and the soil. Plus, stellar cannibalism, a black hole merger, brown dwarfs, water on Mars, and a review of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”.
A ninth-magnitude star in our neighborhood of the Milky Way has been found to contain 65 different elements, including large proportions of heavier elements like gold. This star required either a supernova or a neutron star merger to form. Plus, another solar flare, a strong marsquake, cosmic rays, cookies, and this week in rocket history, we look back at STS-84.
Data from the Hubble Space Telescope has determined that the newly discovered companion of a star that went supernova had its outer hydrogen layer siphoned off before the explosion. The results support the theory that massive stars generally form and evolve as binary systems. Plus, rocks from space, Crew-4 comes home, searching for life beyond Earth, and another Canon lens review.
The flash of a pulsar about 3,000 light-years from our solar system was caused by a ‘black widow’ binary consuming a smaller star. Intriguingly, a third companion star is orbiting the pair, which may have originated near the Milky Way’s center. Plus, the Sun is ramping up, Chandra releases more sonification videos, and this week’s What’s Up is all about occultations.
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