Collaborate Disseminate
NASA and NOAA have confirmed that the Sun has entered a new solar cycle, with activity beginning to ramp back up from its minimum in December 2019. This next cycle is forecast to be rather quiet, continuing a long-term trend of reduced activity from ou… Continue reading Sun’s activity flares up as NASA confirms start of new solar cycle
While the Sun is very clearly a solo act nowadays, some astronomers theorize that it once had a binary companion star. Now, Harvard scientists have added weight to the idea by showing that an ancient binary solar system explains the strange structure o… Continue reading Sun’s long-lost twin could have captured Planet Nine
The closest confirmed black hole to Earth is 1,000 light-years away – but could there be one hiding in our own backyard? It’s been hypothesized that a tiny black hole could be orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, and now astronomers have proposed how we mi… Continue reading Planet Nine could be a black hole, and a new telescope will tell us
In the last few years, astronomers have begun to realize that our solar system may be visited by interstellar objects more often than we thought. And now, researchers at CNRS in France and UNESP in Brazil have traced back the odd orbits of objects call… Continue reading Population of asteroids beyond Jupiter may be from another star system
2I/Borisov is like a time capsule from a part of the universe humans might never be able to visit. This comet from another star system is currently visiting our own, and now Hubble has taken the valuable opportunity to study its chemical makeup. The fa… Continue reading Hubble reveals interstellar visitor is unlike any local comet
‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar interloper detected passing through our solar system, raised many questions when it was discovered. According to a new model, the object’s unusual shape and trajectory may be the result of a devastating close encounter… Continue reading ‘Oumuamua may be a piece of a planet torn to shreds by a star
Well over 100 new minor planets have been discovered in our solar system, in the darkness out beyond the orbit of Neptune. The discoveries were made by sifting through several years’ worth of data gathered by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and applying … Continue reading Almost 140 new minor planets spotted in the outer solar system
Jupiter is a gigantic ball of churning gas clouds, and that makes it hard to see what’s in the middle. It’s believed to be a relatively small, rocky core, but data from the Juno probe found that it’s less dense and more spread out than expect… Continue reading An ancient planet, 10 times bigger than Earth, may have crashed into Jupiter
When scientists need to learn about something, recreating it in the lab is often one of the best ways – and now that even applies to the Sun itself. Physicists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have built a mini-Sun in the lab, and use… Continue reading Lab-made "Mini-Sun" sheds light on the real thing
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has successfully pulled off a second touchdown on the surface of the distant asteroid Ryugu. The risky maneuver saw the probe dive down to collect material that had been exposed during the creation of an art… Continue reading Hayabusa 2 spacecraft survives second touchdown on asteroid Ryugu