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Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 176

Feb 7, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope Detects Asteroid the Size of Rome’s Colosseum

Posted by in category: space

The object belongs to the poorly known sub-kilometer category of asteroids in the main belt. An asteroid roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum — between 300 to 650 feet (100 to 200 meters) in length — has been detected by an international team of European astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. They used data from the calibration of the MIRI instrument, in which the team serendipitously detected an interloping asteroid. The object is likely the smallest observed to date by Webb and may be an example of an object measuring under 1 kilometer in length within the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. More observations are needed to better characterize this object’s nature and properties. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), Martin Kornmesser (ESA), Serge Brunier (ESO), Nick Risinger Photopic Sky Survey)

Feb 7, 2023

ESA’s New Juice Mission Might Finally Uncover Jupiter’s Hidden Secrets

Posted by in category: space

Three of the four Galilean moons around Jupiter might have oceans beneath their ice.


The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission is set to launch in April 2023.

Feb 7, 2023

NASA Mars Rover Finds Metallic Object That Smashed Down on Surface

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has stumbled across yet another fascinating discovery while exploring the planet’s barren surface.

This time, it appears to be an iron-nickel meteorite dubbed Cacao, which measures roughly a foot across and can be seen in an ultra-high resolution image, stitched together from 19 individual photos taken by the rover on January 28.

The mysterious object’s lovely silver metallic hue stands out like a sore thumb in the surrounding, rust-colored landscape, a sulfate-bearing region of the Red Planet’s Mount Sharp.

Feb 7, 2023

Tricky alien worlds easier to find when humans and machines team up

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

A combination of citizen science and machine learning is a promising new technique for astronomers looking for exoplanets.

Feb 7, 2023

Scientists discover exoplanet almost the exactly same size as Earth

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Darryl Fonseca/iStock.

The astronomers confirmed the existence of K2-415b, an exoplanet orbiting an M dwarf star some 72 light-years away from Earth, according to a press release.

Feb 7, 2023

Webb Space Telescope ‘Unexpectedly’ Spots Faraway Asteroid

Posted by in category: space

The minor planet, considered small, is about the size of the Colosseum in Rome.

Feb 7, 2023

Scientists Made A New Kind Of Ice That Might Exist On Distant Moons

Posted by in category: space

The ‘amorphous’ solid is denser and could be water ‘frozen in time’.

Feb 7, 2023

NASA scientists ‘weigh’ a white dwarf for the first time using a space-time trick predicted by Einstein

Posted by in category: space

NASA astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the mass of a white dwarf, an important step for understanding how stars die.

Feb 7, 2023

‘1-In-10-Billion’ Star System is Doomed to Explode in a Fiery Kilonova

Posted by in category: space

Scientists have discovered an extremely rare star system that is doomed to explode in a ‘kilonova’ caused by the merger of two neutron stars.

Feb 6, 2023

How the Webb Telescope is Rewriting What We Know About the Early Universe, One Galaxy at a Time

Posted by in category: space

Astronomers are gaining a better census of the young Universe and its earliest galaxies.


Somehow, galaxies came together to kickstart the modern Universe. Astronomers have found surprises as they study ‘Cosmic Dawn’ with the Webb Space Telescope.