News by Subject Space & Planetary

A year ago, astronomers identified the first interstellar visitor to our solar system. 'Oumuamua was studied by nearly every telescope available, including the ultra-sensitive Spitzer infrared space telescope. Despite a whopping 33 hours of observation time, 'Oumuamua proved too faint for Spitzer to see. Nevertheless, this allowed the observation team to draw significant conclusions. Their analysis of the visitor was published online on Nov. 14 by The Astronomical Journal.

A close study of auroras has revealed new ways of understanding the physics of explosive energy releases in space, according to new UCL-led research.

To break out of Earth's lower orbit, hypersonic vehicles must reach speeds greater than Mach 5. At these hypersonic speeds, the air particles and gases that flow around the vehicle and interact with the surfaces generate heat and create shock waves that disturb the flow's equilibrium. New research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a model to simulate and better understand flow transitions.

If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light -- a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light years away.

In a lab on Earth, electrically charged dust generally lines up either along the downward pull of gravity or across it. Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER), at Baylor University, got a surprise when examining data from a similar experiment on the International Space Station orbiting 248 miles above Earth. Rather than the dust bouncing around randomly, the dust often wiggled around in straight lines, even without gravity.