News
A Brief-ish History of SETI. Part VII: Brief Windows and Transcendence
21+ min ago (454+ words) We should not underestimate the power of two critical factors that can terminate the life of a civilization once the technical state has been reached. Science and technology have been brought forward (not entirely, but to a high degree) by…...
Alien life may be missed by current space missions, but AI might help
1+ hour, 1+ min ago (160+ words) The study emphasizes that continued false negatives might lead to astrobiologists targeting the wrong locations to search for life, when in actuality they could have been searching in the right place all along. This could include planetary surfaces, atmospheres, and…...
Mars Fungi Could Make Red Planet Regolith Fertile for Crops
1+ day, 20+ hour ago (158+ words) Using ISRU for future human missions to the Moon and Mars is part of NASA's Moon to Mars Architecture with this study adding to a growing list of research dedicated to ISRU and specifically using lunar and Martian regolith to…...
Is Dust the Best Thing in the Universe? Part 4: We Owe Dust Our Lives
2+ day, 32+ min ago (299+ words) (This is Part 4 of a series on cosmic dust. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 first.) Okay, fine. Dust does some chemistry. I'll give it that. But surely the rest of cosmic structure, the actual stars and planets and us, has…...
Space X's Next-Gen Starship Doesn't Fire on All Engines During First Test
2+ day, 6+ min ago (395+ words) Space X's next-generation Starship V3 rocket got off to a glorious start for its first test flight, and although not all of its engines fired fully according to plan, Space X CEO Elon Musk said the mission "scored a goal for…...
NASA'S Juno Makes Closest Ever Approach To Jupiter's Moon Of Thebe
2+ day, 1+ hour ago (665+ words) First detected in 1979 during data analysis of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft's flyby, Juno's most recent image of Thebe was released early this month at a press conference at the European Geosciences Union 2026 general assembly in Vienna. The image, made at the…...
A Beautiful Death: How a Dying Star Created the Crystal Ball Nebula
2+ day, 4+ hour ago (399+ words) Planetary nebulae like the Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC 1514) are sort of like stellar obituaries. Though crystal balls supposedly reveal the future, the Crystal Ball Nebula tells us more about the past. It shows us how a binary pair of stars…...
Supermassive Black Holes Can Render Exoplanets Uninhabitable at Great Distances
2+ day, 8+ hour ago (622+ words) The thinking around exoplanet habitability is mostly concerned with a planet's distance from its star. Too close, and any surface water is boiled away into space. Too far, and surface water is frozen. Both are severe limits on the prospects…...
Is Dust the Best Thing in the Universe? Part 3: Tiny Chemistry Labs
1+ week, 2+ day ago (115+ words) (This is Part 3 of a series on cosmic dust. Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.) And I'll be honest. Dust does more than cause migraines. So we've got dust building the molecules. We've got dust making H2 possible, which makes molecular clouds…...
Crypto Investor Works on a Plan to Ride Space X's Starship Around Mars
2+ day, 21+ hour ago (630+ words) Chinese-born cryptocurrency investor Chun Wang has become the latest deep-pocketed space enthusiast to set his sights on a trip around Mars. But first, he wants to take a ride around the moon on Space X's Starship. And Space X is…...