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Two 'super-puff' cotton candy exoplanets are the lightest gas giants ever discovered

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What is rarer than discovering a "super-puff" planet with densities much (much) lower than those of the solar system gas giants? Discovering two orbiting the same star. That is exactly what astronomers have done, finding two extrasolar planets, or exoplanets , that are super-puff siblings orbiting the same star. Both planets, designated TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, have densities lower than that of cotton candy, making them the lightest exoplanets ever seen. "Only a handful of these super-puffy planets are known, and it is even rarer to find two in the same system," team leader George Dransfield of Oxford University said in a statement. "Their extremely low densities make them fascinating targets for understanding how planetary systems form and evolve." The two planets orbit a dwarf star called TOI-791, which is located around 1,110 light-years from Earth. Both plane...

Modern sci-fi movie posters usually suck, but Supergirl shows that it doesn't have to be that way

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DC's new "Supergirl" may or may not turn out to be a classic of the comic-book genre. It may or may not be a smash hit in theaters. But whatever else happens when Kara Zor-El flies into the unpredictable headwinds of the worldwide box office, one thing the new movie has got 100% right is its promo poster. Let's take a look at its components. The bright, primary-colored House of El logo in the background is so bold and unmistakable that there's no need to spell out that this is a Super movie. At the same time, having that famous shield spray-painted on a wall is elegant shorthand for "Looking for overgrown boy scout Clark Kent? Then move along". Meanwhile, lead actor Milly Alcock's "don't care" pose — not to mention the overcoat, sunglasses, and retro headphones — screams attitude. And by the time you get to that "Truth. Justice. Whatever...

James Webb Space Telescope catches 6 galaxies merging into one of the largest galaxies in the universe

An intense demolition derby of at least six galaxies smashing into one another has been found lurking in the early universe by the James Webb Space Telescope. This merger is also expected to fuel the growth of a supermassive black hole and trigger the formation of what will eventually become one of the most massive galaxies in the cosmos. "What makes this special is that we can follow both the build-up of a giant galaxy and the growth of the black hole at its center," Huub Röttgering, an astronomer at the Netherlands' Leiden Observatory, said in a statement . The discovery came after a tip-off from radio astronomers who had noticed emissions that seemed to be coming from an undiscovered active black hole. When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) looked closer, it found a surprise. "We didn't find a single galaxy, but an entire complex of at least six galaxies," sai...

NASA's aging infrastructure can't handle Artemis launches without $1 billion in upgrades, watchdog warns

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NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon and bolster a rapidly growing commercial space industry is facing an infrastructure obstacle. A new report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) warns that launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia are approaching capacity as demand accelerates across the agency and the private sector. Support infrastructure — such as roads, electricity, and gas and fuel pipelines that laid the foundation for KSC's network of launch pads built to support the Apollo program in the 1960s — are being increasingly stretched by the demands of NASA's Artemis missions , SpaceX, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and other users. "Based on current launch projections, Kennedy and Wallops are expected to operate near capacity in the 2028 to 2029 time frame," states the repor...

This is the largest and most detailed image of our Milky Way — with over 60 million stars and 50 exoplanet systems

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In 2025, the European Space Agency dark universe detective spacecraft Euclid turned its attention to the heart of the Milky Way for just 26 hours. In just over one day, Euclid was able to create the largest and most detailed photo of this region of our galaxy ever made. The image, packed with 60 million stars, could help scientists hunt for extrasolar planets, exoplanets , in this region known as the galactic bulge . Euclid is designed to study dark energy , the mysterious force that drives the accelerating expansion of the universe, by studying distant galaxies. That means the space telescope is powerful enough to distinguish individual stars in the central bulge of the Milky Way. Other telescopes fail to do this because they are too blinded by the densely packed stars in this region. The largest high-resolution photo ever made of our Milky Way galaxy's center in visible light. It was taken...

'50% superhero and 50% noir, but 100% totally new': 'Spider-Noir' composers on injecting retro style into the superhero multiverse (interview)

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Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios' brash experimental superhero series, "Spider-Noir," is a refreshing treat that revitalizes the fading genre with a cool film noir twist. Showcasing the "Spider-Man Noir" comics character seen in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", it stars Nicholas Cage as a 1930s New York City private detective named Ben Reilly who moonlights as the nocturnal avenger The Spider. Juilliard-educated composers Kris Bowers ("The Wild Robot," "Secret Invasion") and Michael Dean Parsons ("Light & Magic," "Bridgerton") have created a magnificent sweeping score with roots in old-school crime thrillers, Hollywood Golden Age jazz, and a variety of intriguing electronic instruments not traditionally used in a classical score of this nature. We caught up with the musical pair to hear more about the...

Did NASA just find evidence of ancient life on Mars? Perseverance rover spots complex carbon in Red Planet rocks

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Could Martian mudstones be holding evidence of ancient microbes? New findings strengthen the case that the Red Planet once held life. New data from NASA's Perseverance rover has revealed complex carbon in two Martian mudstones found in Mars' Jezero crater , the same location where previous evidence of possible ancient life has been found. Scientists think this macromolecular (meaning large) complex carbon, could hold evidence that ancient microbial life once existed in the same sedimentary material, according to one new paper describing these observations. "Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater," the paper reads. This comes soon after the news last year that Perseverance found what has been dubbed the strongest evidence of potential biosignatures, or hints of life, on Mars . "Carbon...