Space

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a brand new type of an otherwise familiar object – compact binary systems that steal gas from other stars, but which do so while emitting very low-energy X-rays but copious amounts of ultraviolet. Chandra spotted 84 suspicious object emitting very low-energy X-rays in six galaxies – four evolved ellipticals and two spirals, namely our…

Though their origins may be shrouded in mystery, fast radio bursts (FRBs) could be used to probe some of the universe’s biggest puzzles. This includes probing the nature of dark matter, the invisible sort of matter that somehow dominates the universe, and dark energy, the mysterious force causing the expansion of our universe to accelerate. They could even shed light on the mysteries of…

China is making progress on its Tianwen 3 Mars sample return mission, which aims to bring back to Earth roughly 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of Red Planet collectibles in 2031. According to the China National Space Administration, the Tianwen 3 mission will have a lander, an ascender, a service capsule, an orbiter and an Earth reentry module. If all goes to plan, Tianwen 3 will launch in 2028 on two…

It began with an unusual flash detected off the coast of South Africa by an aging American satellite — and to this day, debate continues over whether this odd Cold War event involved an illicit atmospheric nuclear test. The strange story of the “South Atlantic Flash,” better known as the Vela Incident, began on Sept. 22, 1979. At that time, Vela 6911, a satellite in a constellation…