Topic: Pamela Gay
Chang’e 5 Returns Some Really Cool Science

Chang’e 5 Returns Some Really Cool Science

by | Sep 15, 2024 | ,

Change'e 5 landing site overview. Credit: Chinese National Space Agency's (CNSA) Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center On Dec 1, 2020, China landed the Chang’e 5 mission on the near side of the moon. Three days later, that little lander lifted back off with about 1.7 kg lunar rocks and soil.  On Dec 16 this mission would successfully return to Earth and analysis would begin. In this sample, researchers found tiny glass beads produced in Lunar Volcanoes. Analysis of their chemical composition indicates these beads were formed as recently as 120 million years ago. It is unclear...

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Finding the Source of Low-Hydrogen Supernovae

Finding the Source of Low-Hydrogen Supernovae

by | Dec 20, 2023 |

Visualization of a binary star experiencing mass transfer. Credit: Ylva Götberg One factor upping the difficulty of understanding our universe is… the complexity of our universe. It sometimes feels like every time we think we’re getting a handle on how things work,...

Small star hosts (smaller) huge planet

Small star hosts (smaller) huge planet

by | Dec 13, 2023 |

Artistic rendering of the possible view from LHS 3154b towards its low mass host star. Given its large mass, LHS 3154b probably has a Neptune-like composition. Credit: Penn State Solar systems keep finding new ways to surprise us and to convince us that we don’t...

Six planets in coordinated orbits

Six planets in coordinated orbits

by | Dec 13, 2023 |

https://youtu.be/KfZCGBhwpes In my personal opinion, one of the mathematically coolest things in our solar system is the orbits of Jupiter's three inner Galilean moons. It just happens, that these worlds orbit to a beat, with innermost Io circling four times for every...

500,000 Stars, with More Born Regularly

500,000 Stars, with More Born Regularly

by | Dec 6, 2023 |

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and S. Crowe (University of Virginia) Our Solar System lives in a nice suburb of the Milky Way. Sitting about 25,000 light years from the galactic center, we’re in a good place to view what’s happening in the core district, but far...

More Theory-Changing Old Galaxies

More Theory-Changing Old Galaxies

by | Dec 6, 2023 |

Credit: Cluster image: NASA, UNCOVER (Bezanson et al., DIO: 10.48550/arXiv.2212.04026). Insets: Nasa, UNCOVER (Wang et al., 2023); Composition: Dani Zemba/Penn State Ok, I have to admit, the JWST is finding objects so exceedingly weird that my first reaction is to...