Several black holes have been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy. At the galaxy’s heart is a dormant one 4.2 million times larger than the Sun
The black holes at the center of the Milky Way (Earth’s home galaxy) and Andromeda (one of our closest galactic neighbors) are among the quietest eaters in the universe. What little light they emit varies subtly in brightness, suggesting that they consume a small but steady stream of matter rather than large clumps. The streams approach the black hole gradually and in a spiral, like water swirling down a drain.
Supermassive black holes protect galaxies from growing too large
Galaxies could live longer if supermassive black holes act as their “hearts and lungs,” keeping them breathing and preventing them from growing too big. That’s the suggestion of a new study, which suggests that the universe would have aged much faster and today be filled with “zombie” galaxies containing dead or dying stars if it weren’t for the supermassive black holes that are thought to reside at the heart of all large galaxies. The astrophysicists behind the discoveries compare the jets of gas and radiation that supermassive black holes blow from their poles into their airways to breathing and lungs.
Black Hole Systems: Gravitational Waves of Space-Time Learned to Catch on Earth
Astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes with masses millions or billions of times that of the Sun in most massive galaxies in the local Universe, including our own Milky Way. Webb’s new observations provide evidence of an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was just 740 million years old. The system is known as ZS7. Most black hole binaries are expected to be in what are called “quasi-circular” orbits. The giant black holes are thought to have been created when two smaller black holes collided and merged one day. And now scientists are wondering if we can learn about the black hole family tree by working backwards through the generations.
Anomalous ‘light’ black holes are primordial in the Universe
Black holes are formed either by the collapse of a massive star or by the merger of heavy objects. However, scientists suspect that smaller “primordial” black holes, including some with masses similar to the Earth, may have formed in the chaotic early moments of the universe. When we think of black holes, we tend to picture enormous cosmic monsters, such as stellar-mass black holes with masses tens or hundreds of times that of the Sun. We can even imagine supermassive black holes, with masses millions (or even billions) of times that of the Sun, sitting at the hearts of galaxies and dominating their surroundings. A team of scientists has predicted that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could detect a class of “light” black holes that have eluded detection until now.
Latest news on the theory of structure and origin of black holes
Supermassive black holes are thought to be born from successive mergers of smaller black holes, each bringing with it angular momentum that accelerates the spin of the black hole they birth. Measuring the spin of supermassive black holes can therefore provide insight into their history – and a new study suggests a new way to make such inferences based on the effects of spinning black holes on the very fabric of space and time.
The black hole in Omega Centauri is closer to Earth than the black hole at the center of the Milky Way
Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes found at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively light, with masses less than 100 solar masses. However, intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are rare and are considered rare “missing links” in black hole evolution.
Magnetic field and sea
German zoologists have found that bottlenose dolphins are as good as sharks and other fish in their ability to sense very weak electric fields, which allows these cetaceans to use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation in space. Underwater compasses have recorded disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field deep under water.
Scientists have linked the development of life with a magnetic field and concluded about magnetic fields on other planets
The weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field has led to a dramatic acceleration in the evolution of multicellular life. Fossil evidence has been found in Brazil and South Africa that the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field was about 30 times weaker than today’s values at the end of the Ediacaran period, about 590 to 560 million years ago. One of the defining features of the Earth is its magnetic field. It forms a protective shield against high-energy particles ejected by the Sun, and thus may have provided a safer place for life to grow into the complex array of organisms we see today.
Gravity and life: new discoveries
Scientists have found geological evidence that the gravitational interaction between Mars and Earth is driving the 2.4-million-year deep-sea circulation cycle and global warming. What happens if the moon disappears? Stars can strip entire planets of their atmospheres. Discovery of retrograde orbits.
Moon race. Last news
Following the Artemis III mission, which lands the first humans near the lunar south pole, Artemis IV astronauts will live and work on humanity’s first lunar space station, Gateway, opening up new opportunities for science and preparation for human missions to Mars . The mission will combine the complex choreography of multiple launches and dockings of spacecraft in lunar orbit, and will also mark the debut of a larger, more powerful version of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and a new mobile launcher.
As part of the Artemis project, scientists are studying the features of the lunar landscape
A meteorite study shows that in ancient lunar history, the Moon’s crust contained more water than scientists previously thought. Moonquakes are similar to earthquakes. In the case of the Moon, they are caused by folds that form on the Moon’s surface as it shrinks. The Moon is shrinking because the Moon’s interior has cooled over the past few hundred million years.
Scientists have found that life on our planet could not have appeared without the Earth’s magnetic field
The movement of the iron core generates electricity, which results in a magnetic orientation of the entire planet. Scientists can trace the magnetic history of our planet through cooled lava. Because the planet’s magnetism deflects solar radiation, it allows life to exist on Earth. In fact, throughout the history of our planet, the poles have even changed their position several times, and the magnetic field strength has increased and decreased. The rocks indicate that Earth had a strong magnetic field 3.7 billion years ago, but scientists are not sure where the field might have come from. Magnetized boulders have also been discovered on the Moon.
Magnetic Universe. New discoveries – from everyday use to neutron stars
Scientists smashed atom against atom and unleashed a magnetic monster. A groundbreaking experiment has created a field so strong it could eclipse the grip of a neutron star. Rotating magnets can create levitation that is almost impossible to physics. For the first time, physicists had a clear understanding of how individual atoms behave like waves.
Laws formulated by a 17th century scientist are used in modern space technologies
The story of how we understand planetary motion would be impossible to tell if not for the work of the German mathematician Johannes Kepler. Kepler’s Three Laws describe how the planets orbit the Sun. They describe 1 – how planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as the focus, 2 – a planet covers the same area of space in the same amount of time, regardless of where it is in its orbit, and 3 – the period revolution is proportional to the size of its orbit.
Solar hype from space agencies and increased solar activity. Coincidence?
The aurora ceases to remain polar. Now it can be observed with the naked eye all over the world. Until 2022, tourists from all over the world rushed to see the clear lights in the northern regions. In the last year, the red glow can be seen… everywhere. Not always, of course, but very often. Auroras are dangerous for people with unstable psyches.
China outpaces rivals in space exploration
China built its own Tiangong space station, also known as “Tianhe”, located at altitudes of 217 and 280 miles (340 to 450 kilometers) in low Earth orbit in 2021. For the first time in more than four decades, it was China that brought moon rocks to humanity. China launched the Chang’e-6 probe to return soil from the far side of the Moon. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Einstein Probe spacecraft was launched on January 9, 2024. China has already begun to lead the world in military launches, sending 45 defense satellites into orbit in 2022.
Features of the landscape on Mars – new discoveries
Olympus Mons is one of a dozen large volcanoes, many of which are ten to a hundred times taller than their Earthly counterparts. If Martian space tourism takes off in the coming decades, Olympus Mons could become a prime destination for adventure enthusiasts. Olympus may once have been a volcanic island surrounded by an ocean nearly 4 miles (6 km) deep, according to geological evidence found in the high cliffs. Another new study found that the rover discovered polygonal wedges 35 kilometers underground – the first time they have been discovered beneath the planet’s surface. Evidence suggests that the wedges formed between 3.7 and 2.9 billion years ago due to major climate changes in Mars’ past. The Mars Express orbiter has discovered enough water ice buried beneath the Red Planet’s equator to cover the entire planet in a shallow ocean if it melted.
Modern latest satellite meteorological monitoring systems
Space-based observing systems account for approximately 90% of the data used in global numerical weather prediction models. Everyone on Earth is affected by the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and rising sea levels. Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, floods and tornadoes can dramatically change the Earth’s surface to the point where the changes are visible in space. Changes caused by human actions and interventions such as mining and deforestation are also visible in satellite images. Collecting climate data helps communities better plan for and become more resilient to these changes.
Scientists have proven: there are asteroids – piles of rubble that carry water, carbon and amino acids
Scientists have proven that there are asteroids that are resistant to external influences. This means that the tested methods are not suitable for protecting the Earth from such objects. Scientists have discovered possible “seeds of life” in the matter of asteroids: The idea that life originated outside our solar system has been around for a very long time, and now analysis of new asteroid samples is providing evidence for this “panspermia” theory.
Space debris threatens not only the further exploration of outer space, but also directly the inhabitants of the Earth
NASA confirms that the object that crashed into a house in Florida was indeed space debris from the ISS. Satellites are burning up in the upper atmosphere – and we still don’t know what impact this will have on the Earth’s climate. Space pollution threatens the Earth’s magnetosphere; the deposition of highly conductive materials can reduce the planet’s protective capabilities, an expert says.
Global warming leads to a change in the speed of rotation of the Earth and a change in the length of the day
The melting of polar ice leads to a change in the planet’s rotation speed, which in turn affects the global calculation of time, a study from the University of California showed, reports the scientific journal Nature. Geophysicists from the University of California have found evidence that the slowing rotation of the Earth’s core, combined with the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland glaciers, will lead to the fact that in 2029, humanity will have to shorten, rather than increase, the length of the day for the first time.
Heavy hydrogen used in nuclear energy and water turned out to be older than Earth
In protoplanetary disks, water is virtually omnipresent. Recent studies of the water content of early planetary systems like ours show that water is an abundant and ubiquitous molecule, originally synthesized on the surface of tiny grains of interstellar dust by hydrogenation of frozen oxygen, reports the journal Elements. In the molecular cloud from which a new planetary system will emerge, oxygen attaches and freezes to the dust grains it encounters. Once a hydrogen molecule intersects with this frozen oxygen, water ice is formed.
The Voyager 1 spacecraft outside the solar system stopped sending useful data back to Earth
The Voyager 1 space probe is the farthest man-made object in space. It was sent in 1977 with a golden record on board that contained various sounds of our home planet: greetings in different languages, dogs barking and the sounds of two people kissing, to name just a few examples. The idea behind this recording was that Voyager 1 might one day become an emissary of alien life—a sonic time capsule of the creatures of Earth. Since its launch, it has also managed to complete missions to Jupiter and Saturn. In 2012, he crossed interstellar space.
Europa, a moon of Jupiter, generates enough oxygen to breathe for a million people during the day
NASA’s Juno mission measures the amount of oxygen on Europa. Jupiter’s ice-covered moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours—enough to keep a million people breathing for a day. But the rate of oxygen production on Jupiter’s moon Europa is significantly slower than most previous studies. The results, published March 4 in the journal Nature Astronomy, were obtained by measuring hydrogen evolution from the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon using data collected by the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument.
Astronomers paid attention to the “seasons” of Uranus and Neptune, and also discovered their new satellites
The James Webb Space Telescope recently took aim at the strange and mysterious Uranus, a side-rotating ice giant. What Webb discovered was a dynamic world with rings, moons, storms and other atmospheric features, including a seasonal polar cap. With his exceptional sensitivity, Webb captured images of Uranus’ faint inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta Ring, the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet. He also took pictures of many of the planet’s 27 known moons, even seeing some of the smaller moons inside the rings.
The commercial Odysseus module landed in the south polar region of the Moon
After launching on February 15, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander touched down in the moon’s south polar region on February 22 and has since transmitted valuable science data back to Earth. Odysseus took six NASA payloads with him, and their data is essential for future human exploration of the Moon under Artemis. This is the first commercial unmanned mission to the Moon. For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA was able to collect data using new scientific instruments and technology demonstrations on the Moon. The data comes from the first successful payload landing of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.
Astronauts on the ISS are looking for solutions to problems that may arise during a long flight
The flight of Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronauts, participants of the 70th long-term expedition, continues at the International Space Station. A long stay in space causes physical changes in the human body. For example, the condition of bones and muscles deteriorates. Therefore, the health of astronauts is closely studied by doctors and scientists.
Saturn’s moons: organic compounds discovered on Enceladus; Mimas has a subglacial ocean
The Cassini probe delivered new information about the moons of Saturn. In the subglacial ocean of Enceladus, Saturn’s moon, many organic compounds involved in the synthesis of proteins and DNA were discovered. This is very similar to the “primordial soup” that existed on Earth billions of years ago. There may be life on a distant, icy world at the edge of the solar system. Saturn has 146 moons, the most in the solar system. The largest one, Titan, has long been considered the most interesting. The Huygens lander was sent to it as part of the Cassini mission in 2005. Behind the dense atmosphere, the probe saw a lifeless, cold world, shrouded in smog, with seas and lakes of methane. Some evidence suggests that there is an ocean below the surface.
Carbonaceous materials from an asteroid, chelates and soda lakes: scientists are closer to understanding the origin of life
The research results may explain how life arose on Earth and can also be applied to other planets and bodies in the solar system and to exoplanets.
NASA’s Perseverance rover confirms the presence of an ancient dry lake on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has confirmed the presence of an ancient lake on Mars that could hold the key to ancient life. Evidence of ancient lacustrine sediments at the base of Jezero Crater on Mars offers new hope for detecting traces of life in samples collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
NASA orbiter discovered Japanese lunar lander SLIM on the lunar surface after its landing
SLIM, or Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration, is operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It landed on the Moon on January 19 in a precision landing, making Japan the fifth country to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface, after India, China, the United States and Russia (then the Soviet Union). Five days later, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft flew over the landing site and photographed SLIM.
Groundwater reserves are catastrophically declining
Groundwater supplies are being depleted in aquifers around the world, a new study has found, with the rate of decline accelerating over the past four decades in nearly a third of the aquifers studied. Rapid declines in water levels are most common in aquifers beneath cropland in drier regions, the largest analysis of groundwater trends shows.
75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are not trackable
An innovative study by Sentinel-1 and AI (European Space Agency) combining satellite data and artificial intelligence has shed light on the number of ships, wind turbines and oil platforms at sea. Shockingly, the study shows that about 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels were previously hidden from publicly available tracking systems. The study, published recently in the journal Nature, was conducted by Global Fishing Watch, an organization that seeks to improve ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea.
Eighth asteroid discovered before it collides with Earth
On January 20, 2024, astronomer Christian Sarnecki discovered an asteroid approaching Earth, which just hours later crashed into our planet’s atmosphere 50 km west of Berlin, creating a fireball. Dubbed “2024 BX1”, it is only the eighth asteroid discovered by humanity before the impact, and the third discovered by Sarnetsky. The asteroid impact created a bright fireball, or bolide, that was visible from as far away as the Czech Republic and may have scattered small meteorites across the ground at the impact site about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Berlin.
The Hubble telescope discovered water vapor in the atmosphere of an exoplanet located 97 light years from Earth
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed the smallest exoplanet to have water vapor in its atmosphere. Planet GJ 9827d, which is only about twice the diameter of Earth, could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres in other parts of our galaxy. GJ 9827d was discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope in 2017. It orbits the red dwarf every 6.2 days. The star GJ 9827 is located 97 light years from Earth in the constellation Pisces.
The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first Earth-based helicopter on Mars, has come to an end
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first off-planet vehicle operated on Mars for nearly three years, completed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while recording more than two hours total flight time.
NASA’s DSOC sent video using a laser to Earth from a distance of 31 million kilometers
Following successful testing of DSOC technology in Earth orbit and on the Moon, NASA is now using deep space optical communications technologies to test laser communications over increasingly greater distances. While aboard the agency’s Psyche mission, DSOC has already sent video via laser to Earth from 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) away and is aiming to prove that high-throughput data can be sent even from Mars.
Japan’s Sniper Moon (SLIM) probe lands on the Moon
On January 19, 2024, Japan’s national robotic spacecraft SLIM landed on the lunar surface, marking a huge success for Japan, making it only the fifth country to soft-land on Earth’s moon. The pioneers were the Soviet Union and the United States, which made their first flights to the lunar surface during the Cold War space race; then China, which successfully landed a probe in December 2013; India – Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover landed in August 2023. SLIM was expected to land within 330 feet (100 meters) of a target point on the rim of Scioli Crater, which explains the probe’s nickname “Moon Sniper.”
Researchers are studying layers of water ice on Mars
Mars appears to be a dry world now, but there are plenty of signs on the planet’s surface that there was once plenty of water, including dry river beds, ancient ocean and lake beds, and valleys carved by water. Significant reserves of water ice have also been discovered on Mars, such as huge polar ice caps, buried glaciers closer to the equator, and near-surface ice permeated by the Martian soil.
The Arctic, Antarctica and Greenland have received special attention from organizations involved in space research
The Russian satellite constellation Arktika-M, launched in 2021 and 2023, transmitted the first images of the Arctic region and surrounding areas from space. On June 30, 2011, NASA’s Terra satellite made several passes over the Arctic. ICESat-2 is the second spacecraft to study the Earth’s ice cover. The US-India satellite NISAR will begin monitoring changes in the Earth’s frozen regions in 2024.
The USA and China are the main competitors in the Moon race
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is not concerned that China will beat the United States to returning astronauts to the Moon. Both China and the United States plan to land astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade, reigniting talk of a new space race.
The NASA/JAXA XRISM mission investigates the composition and physical state of space objects by detecting X-ray radiation
Invisible to our eyes, X-rays emitted by the hot gas that fills much of the Universe can shed light on many cosmic mysteries. The first observations of this gas by JAXA’s X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) are ready and demonstrate that the mission will play a major role in revealing the evolution of the Universe and the structure of spacetime.
Uranus and Neptune are actually the same blue color, new color images show
While Voyager 2’s familiar images of Uranus were released in a form closer to “true” color, the images of Neptune were actually stretched and enhanced, and therefore artificially made too blue.
NASA has recognized the existence of life on Mars in the past and present
The goal of the NIAC project is to collect the necessary samples before human arrival on Mars, planned by NASA, the Chinese National Space Agency and SpaceX, by 2040, by 2033 and before 2030, respectively, according to the space agencies’ respective statements. Human arrival will undoubtedly complicate the search for indigenous Martian life, so from an astrobiological perspective, these planned manned missions to Mars have set a very strict timeline for the search for life on pristine Mars.
Top 12 unusual exoplanets discovered in 2023
In 2023, scientists discovered several stunning exoplanets. Last year, planetary scientists added a number of exciting new worlds to the exoplanet catalog of more than 5,000 objects. Among them are planets that we have never seen before.
The James Webb Space Telescope has proven that complex organic compounds are present even in the most ancient galaxies of the Universe
The James Webb Space Telescope is capable of searching the “carbonaceous” atmospheres of exoplanets to search for alien life. “We have a way to find out if there is liquid water on another planet. And we can achieve this in the next few years.”
The European Space Agency has announced a space economy in collaboration with international partners
From managing climate change to emergency response and digitizing the economy, space exploration is becoming increasingly important to life on Earth. To help policymakers and businesses make informed decisions about investments in space, ESA (European Space Agency) has published plans to create robust and reliable data on the space economy in collaboration with international partners.
The scientific community is studying the Apophis asteroid approaching Earth
Scientists estimate that asteroids the size of Apophis, about 367 yards across, come this close to Earth only once every 7,500 years. Asteroid Apophis will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet on April 13, 2029. Although Apophis will not collide with Earth during this approach or in the foreseeable future, its passage in 2029 will be within 32,000 kilometers of Earth. At this point, it will be closer than some satellites and can be seen with the naked eye in Earth’s eastern hemisphere. Although the encounter with Apophis is more than five years away, the next milestone on its path will be the first of six close transits of the Sun.
NASA has begun colonizing the Moon
The world’s industrial giants have rushed in pursuit of helium-3 in order to achieve “cosmic” successes in nuclear energy. “Lunar treasure” is considered an ideal fuel, with which there will be no need to search for and extract traditional fuel resources.
The era of liquid water on Mars ended three billion years ago
Chinese scientists have concluded that groundwater on Mars under the Utopia Planitia remained active until the Amazonian (recent) period of the geological history of the Red Planet, which was previously considered cold and dry. In sedimentary deposits of Amazonian age, Zhuzhong instruments identified hydrated sulfates, hydrosilica, ferric oxides and chlorides. These minerals require liquid salt water to form.