technical updates

Astronomers have spotted four dead star white dwarf stars playing a game of cosmic hide-and-seek, all four of which were hiding in the glares of red dwarf companion stars. This marks the first detection of white dwarfs existing in double star systems in our cosmic backyard. The white dwarfs are all located within around 65 light-years of Earth, and one of them is number nine in the top 10 closest white dwarfs to the solar system. White dwarfs are the type of stellar remnants left behind when stars around the size of the sun run out of fuel needed for nuclear fusion . This leads to their cores collapsing. The lack of fusion also means these stellar remnants cool and become dim. Thus, the light of much larger and brighter red dwarf stars is incredibly effective at hiding white dwarfs. "Nearby isolated white dwarfs are usually easy to find, but we couldn't see these four stars directly in...

The first of 10,000 missing black holes in the Omega Centauri globular cluster has been found thanks to teamwork by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The two observatories discovered the black hole after watching a star orbiting around something massive but dark, and which therefore could not be seen. The Hubble data ran from 2003 to 2023, and the James Webb Space Telescope picked up after that to help refine the measurements. Astronomers used the space telescopes to focus on a particular star in a binary system that appeared to be home to another, dark object called oMEGACat BH-2. Previous studies had suggested that the dark object was a neutron star . However, the new results are conclusive: the object has a mass 4.46 times that of the sun . This is too massive to be a neutron star, so it must therefore be a black hole. Omega Centauri is the most massive of our Milky Way galaxy ...

As our planet revels in the recent achievements of this spring’s Artemis 2 mission and its four astronaut crew members, a new four-part PBS documentary series takes a scrutinizing look at space exploration and its inherent perils and promises. " Once Upon a Time in Space " will be available to watch on PBS (and the PBS app) starting on July 14, 2026 (9pm ET). Directed by James Bluemel and his filmmaking team — the crew behind the award-winning "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" and "Once Upon a Time in Iraq" — "Once Upon a Time in Space" explores the connections between those venturing beyond Earth's gravity and the support staff remaining behind while pioneering souls venture into hostile outer space territory. "'Once Upon a Time in Space' tells the human stories behind one of our most extraordinary endeavors: the exploration of space...

A miniature X-ray machine is set to transform astronauts' health prospects following a successful test in orbit. As a bonus, as well as checking for broken bones on the moon, the technology could also be distributed to small towns and villages in rural areas to provide enhanced medical care far from major hospitals. For much of the Space Age, astronauts have only had access to ultrasound machines as tools to diagnose injuries. Unlike ultrasound, which requires a medium through which sound waves can pass, X-rays can be used in a vacuum. The problem with X-ray machines is that traditionally they have been big and bulky, they use a lot of power, they have difficulty imaging something that isn't perfectly stationary (resulting in blurred images), and they tend to get damaged when jostled about during launch and atmospheric re-entry. Yet, as human spaceflight and voyages beyond Earth -orbit co...

Dark matter may be far more complicated than scientists once believed. A new study suggests it could consist of at least two different kinds of particles that slowly separate over time, with heavier particles sinking toward the centers of galaxies and lighter ones drifting outward. This simple idea could explain several puzzling cosmic observations that have frustrated astronomers for years, from unusually diffuse dwarf galaxies to surprisingly dense dark matter clumps that bend light through gravitational lensing. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2q8WnGQ

Three people will launch toward the International Space Station on Tuesday (July 14), and you can watch the action live. NASA's Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina are scheduled to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1347 GMT; 7:47 p.m. local time in Baikonur). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency's YouTube channel . Coverage will begin at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1245 GMT). NASA astronaut Anil Menon (left) and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, Soyuz MS-29 prime crew members, pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. (Image credit: GCTC) The trio, flying in Russia's Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, will catch up to the International Space Station (ISS) after just two orbits, docking with the outpost at about 1:...