Any astronomical instrument dubbed “Lobster Eyes” is bound to grab attention. It’s actually unlike scientists to give anything creative names, take the big red coloured storm on Jupiter which resembles a spot…aka the Great Red Spot! Lobster Eyes is the name adtoped by the X-ray telescope that just been launched from China and will scan the sky looking for X-rays coming from high-energy transients.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Impact Craters: Why study them and can they help us find life elsewhere?
When we look at the Moon, either through a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or past footage from the Apollo missions, we see a landscape that’s riddled with what appear to be massive sinkholes. But these “sinkholes” aren’t just on the Moon, as they are evident on nearly every planetary body throughout the solar system, from planets, to other moons, to asteroids. They are called impact craters and can range in size from cities to small countries.
Doomed Peregrine moon lander snaps another selfie as it zooms away from Earth (photo)
Astrobotic's Peregrine moon lander snapped another in-space selfie as it cruised away from Earth, toward a date with lunar destiny that it can no longer keep.
A Giant Star is Fading Away. But First, it Had an Enormous Eruption
About 16,000 light-years away, a massive star experienced an unusual dimming event. This can happen in binary stars when one star passes in front of the other. It can also be due to intrinsic reasons like innate variability. But this star dimmed by as much as one-third, a huge amount.
Another Example of a Fantastic Einstein Ring
The most evocative astronomy images take us across space and time to stars and galaxies billions of light-years away. Nestled at the center of this one, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is a collection of three galaxies. They’re not all that close together, although they appear to be in this image. What’s fascinating about this image is that it’s a fine example of an Einstein gravitational ring—and its discovery was enabled by members of the public!
UAE to provide airlock for NASA's moon-orbiting Gateway space station
The United Arab Emirates will build an airlock for NASA's moon-orbiting Gateway space station, and will get to send an astronaut to the outpost for the contribution.
Hubble Telescope finds surprising source of brightest fast radio burst ever
The brightest fast radio burst ever observed flashed from a group of ancient galaxies, the Hubble Space Telescope has found, and astronomers are surprised.
SpaceX targeting February for Starship's 3rd flight test
SpaceX's massive, reusable Starship rocket made two test flights in 2023, and company representatives now say the third flight test could come as soon as February 2024.
China's 1st launch of 2024 puts 4 small weather satellites into orbit (video)
A Kuaizhou 1A solid rocket launched four Tianmu-1 weather satellites on Jan. 5, on the first of what will be many Chinese missions in 2024.
The Youngest Planetary Disks Ever Seen
How long does planet formation take? Maybe not as long as we thought, according to new research. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) show that planet formation around young stars may begin much earlier than scientists thought.
Watch this self-eating rocket prototype engine consume itself then explode (video)
British researchers have tested a prototype self-eating rocket that could launch tiny satellites cheaply and without leaving any debris behind.
Private Peregrine moon lander failure won't stop NASA's ambitious commercial lunar program
Despite anomalies experienced by the Peregrine lunar lander scientists are looking ahead to upcoming missions under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
China launches 'lobster eye' Einstein Probe to study black holes, neutron stars and more (video)
On Jan. 9, China launched its Einstein Probe to observe the X-ray sky, hunting for high-energy light from neutron stars, feeding black holes and other exotic objects.
The mystery of vast 'cosmic ORCs' — odd radio circles that encompass entire galaxies — may be solved
Mysterious "odd radio circles" or ORCs that compass entire galaxies may have finally been explained, with astronomers pointing the finger at winds from bursts of supernova star explosions.
Astrobotic Confirms it Won’t be Landing on the Moon
It’s a real shame that spaceflight is seen as routine by the world’s media. In reality, our exploration of the Solar System is still in its infancy, problems are still seen and sadly missions do still fail. We are reminded of this with the recent launch of the Astrobotic Peregrine lander on Sunday. It was launched atop a Vulcan rocket but it soon became apparent that there was a problem with the lander propulsion system. A leak has been discovered and unfortunately there is insufficient fuel to support a soft landing on the Moon.
Mystery solved! 1st close-up images of giant star explain its bizarre dimming
The first close-up images of the gigantic star RW Cephei explain why it appeared to mysteriously grow dimmer in recent years before brightening once more.
Why you don't need to get to the centerline for April's total solar eclipse — and what will happen at the edge
If you understand the importance of the path of totality, then you may be heading for the centerline, but there are lots of reasons not to.
Unexplained Auroras Found on a Lonely Brown Dwarf
James Webb Space Telescope observations of a faint, giant world have revealed the signature of aurorae — even though the world has no star.
Remastered 'Space-Mullet' webcomic collection coming this summer
A preview of Image Comics 'Space-Mullet' TPB, which is landing in July 2024.
A Solo Brown Dwarf Found With Auroras
Astronomers have used JWST to find a brown dwarf with polar auroras like the Earth, or Jupiter. This is surprising because the brown dwarf, dubbed W1935, is a free-floating object, meaning it isn’t part of another star system. Therefore, there’s no solar wind available to generate any Northern Lights. Instead, the auroras are seemingly generated from methane emissions in the planet’s atmosphere, interacting with the interstellar plasma. Another theory is that it perhaps has an active but unseen moon contributing to the emissions.
Black Holes in Early Universe Are Too Big
JWST observations of the universe as it was 12 to 13 billion years ago indicate that the black holes at the centers of small, early galaxies were more massive than expected.
