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Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA/J. Pollard Image Processing: D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) =============================================================================== In A Nutshell A 37-member international team produced the most precise direct measurement of the Hubble constant ever recorded, with just 1.1 percent uncertainty. By linking a dozen different cosmic distance measurement methods into a single “Distance Network,” they confirmed the universe is currently expanding at about 73.5 kilometers per second per 3.26 million light-years. That rate conflicts with what the Big Bang’s ancient afterglow predicts by more than seven times the margin of error, a gap that makes a simple measurement mistake increasingly implausible. Resolving...

A team from Vienna and Frankfurt has found a formula describing a strange phenomenon: space and time can form a kind of “crystal” that may turn into a black hole.Alongside the famous gigantic black holes, physics also allows for microscopic versions. They emerge from so-called critical states, when spacetime organizes itself into a regular, crystal-like structure during a process known as critical collapse. A team from Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Wien has now succeeded, for the first time, in describing this phenomenon with an exact mathematical formula using an unusual mathematical trick. Black holes usually form in spectacular events,...

For more than two centuries, scientists have tried to determine one of the most important numbers in physics: the universal gravitational constant, known as "big G." It defines the strength of gravity throughout the universe, influencing everything from falling objects on Earth to the motion of galaxies. Yet despite its importance, researchers still cannot agree on its exact value. That uncertainty weighed heavily on Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as he prepared to open a sealed envelope containing a crucial secret number. For nearly 10 years, Schlamminger had devoted much of his...

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A hefty, never-before-seen asteroid is racing toward Earth at around 20,000 mph (32,000 km/h) and will zoom past our planet closer than some satellites on Monday (May 18), scientists say. You can watch the unusually close encounter for yourself, even if you don't have access to stargazing equipment. The asteroid, dubbed 2026 JH2, was discovered May 10 by astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, who also spotted the superbright Comet Lemmon last year. The space rock, which has since been verified by other observatories across the globe, likely circles the sun every 3.7 years on an elliptical...

NASA’s TESS mission has released its most complete cosmic mosaic yet, revealing thousands of confirmed and candidate exoplanets scattered across the night sky. © Credit: NASA NASA has unveiled the most complete panoramic view yet from its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), offering a breathtaking look at a sky crowded with thousands of potential alien worlds. The newly released all-sky mosaic combines years of observations into a single image that highlights nearly 6,000 confirmed and candidate exoplanets discovered across the galaxy. Beyond its visual impact, the map represents one of the most ambitious planet-hunting efforts ever conducted and marks another...

A powerful M5.7 solar flare erupted from the sun on May 10, unleashing an impressive coronal mass ejection (CME) that could deliver Earth a glancing blow later this week and potentially spark northern lights displays at high latitudes. The eruption peaked at 9:39 a.m. EDT (1339 GMT) from sunspot region AR4436, now rotating into Earth's "strike zone" on the sun's northeastern limb. As the active region swings further into view over the next few days, any major flares or CMEs it produces will have a greater chance of being directed toward Earth. While most of the recently launched CME appears...

Just as it faces an annual hurricane season and tornado season, North America is also experiencing an annual "fireball season," according to NASA."From February through April, the appearance rate of these very bright meteors can increase by as much as 10 percent to 30 percent, especially around the weeks of the March equinox," NASA explained in a statement in late March. "Exactly why is not known. Some astronomers think the Earth passes through more large debris at this time of year, causing an uptick in fireball sightings."...The American Meteor Society, which has gathered professional and amateur meteor reports since 1911,...

In a new physics milestone, scientists report that a time crystal and an external system have been successfully linked for the first time. The achievement, made by researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics, marks the first demonstration of converting a time crystal—an unusual quantum system in which particles are in constant, repetitive motion in its ground state—into an optomechanical system. A range of potential technological applications, including new high-precision sensors, quantum storage systems, and other innovative capabilities, could result from the research, led by Jere Mäkinen and detailed in a new paper appearing in Nature Communications. A New...

The beams are an in-kind contribution from CERN. Matthew Kapust / SURF The US has begun lowering 10 million pounds of steel nearly a mile underground to build the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), widely regarded as one of the world’s most ambitious particle physics experiments. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the premier US national lab for high-energy particle physics announced the start of the underground detector assembly for the massive neutrino project in South Dakota on May 7. It is carried out along with the Sanford Underground Research Facility and CERN. Transported deep underground, the steel beams will...

How time travel could work: Scientists have uncovered a way to send messages into the past Time machines may seem better suited to science fiction than the physics lab, but experts say this futuristic technology could become a reality. Researchers have revealed how time travel could really work by using the laws of quantum physics. While their method won't let you hop back to the time of the dinosaurs, scientists say it could be possible to send messages into the past. The researchers even say this mind–bending technique would work just like in Christopher Nolan's sci–fi epic, Interstellar. In the...

A team of astronomers in Japan has detected a thin atmosphere around (612533) 2002 XV93, a trans-Neptunian object about 500 km in diameter — an object far too small and cold to retain one. An artist’s conception of the trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93. Image credit: NAOJ. “In the cold reaches of the outer Solar System lie thousands of small objects known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) because they lie outside the orbit of Neptune,” said Dr. Ko Arimatsu from Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory and colleagues. “A thin atmosphere has been observed around Pluto, the most famous TNO, but studies of other TNOs...

Uranus in near-infrared. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The rings of Uranus were only discovered in 1977 and the outer rings, named for the Greek letters μ and ν (mu and nu), have been a nice puzzle. First of all, they are different colors, with ν being redder and μ being bluer. This already hints at a difference in composition. New research now suggests a different origin for the two altogether. Researchers have combined observations from JWST, Hubble, and the Keck Observatory to better understand what these rings are made of and where they come from. “By decoding the...

Explanation: The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000 light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic Cloud is seen in this sharp galaxy portrait. Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is the...

Explanation: What is the Small Magellanic Cloud? It has turned out to be a galaxy. People who have wondered about this little fuzzy patch in the southern sky included Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, who had plenty of time to study the unfamiliar night sky of the south during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth in the early 1500s. As a result, two celestial wonders easily visible for southern hemisphere skygazers are now known in Western culture as the Clouds of Magellan. Within the past 100 years, research has shown that these cosmic clouds are dwarf irregular galaxies,...

The fifth mirror for the GMT's 7 segment primary mirror is being cast at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory at the University of Arizona. In this image, a worker at the lab places the last piece of glass for mirror 5. Image: Giant Magellan Telescope Organization Astronomy, News, Observatories They Just Began Casting the Giant Magellan Telescope’s 5th Mirror. What a Monster Job. Article written: 7 Nov , 2017 by Evan Gough The fifth mirror for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is now being cast, according to an announcement from the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO), the body...

Both eruptions came from a sunspot region on the sun's western limb, AR4419. The first solar flare peaked at 9:07 p.m. EDT on April 23 (0107 GMT April 24), followed by the second at 4:14 a.m. EDT (0814 GMT) on April 24. These are the strongest solar flares we've seen in 78 days, according to solar physicist Ryan French. The bursts of radiation from the flares triggered strong radio blackouts on the sunlit side of Earth — the first affecting parts of the Pacific Ocean and Australia and the second impacting East Asia. The active sunspot region is putting on...

With all the excitement over sending scientists back to the moon, it’s easy to forget we’ve already got a pair of talented chemists on Mars: the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Although they beam back plenty of breathtaking images, these two robots are more than just cameras on wheels. Their primary mission is to search for signs of ancient life, and they’re equipped with a suite of onboard scientific instruments and chemical reagents to carry that mission out. Now, new research published in Nature Communications details Curiosity’s latest find—never-before-seen organic compounds, including one with a structure similar to DNA precursors. “We...

51 years ago, India marked a historic milestone with the launch of Aryabhata, its first step into space. But long before the satellite lifted off aboard a Soviet rocket, its story had already begun in an unlikely place: a small church by the Arabian Sea. In the early 1960s, India’s fledgling space programme, what would later become the Indian Space Research Organisation, was operating with limited resources but boundless ambition. Under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai, scientists were searching for a location close to the magnetic equator to study the upper atmosphere. They found it in Thumba, a quiet fishing...

Gerardo Aldana is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Aldana about Mayan astronomy, Mesoamerican culture, and the importance of Indigenous knowledge. “If we think of Indigenous cultures and their approaches, especially Mesoamerican cultures and their approaches to astronomy, it wasn't to transform and control nature,” Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”