Phys.org Astronomy and Space

• A self-sufficient Mars garden? How cyanobacteria-based fertilizer could grow edible biomass

  A research team from the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), the Department of Environmental Process Engineering (UVT) at the University of Bremen and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has made significant progress toward a self-sufficient Mars mission: a fertilizer, which can be produced solely with Martian resources, has been successfully used to grow edible biomass.

• ShadowCam search casts doubt on abundant lunar ice

  New observations by a team of US astronomers have cast fresh doubt on whether the lunar surface could host abundant water ice. Publishing their results in Science Advances, a team led by Shuai Li at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has shown that relatively pure ice (making up more than about 20–30% of the surface material) is likely absent from the moon's permanently shadowed regions.

• What 'Project Hail Mary' gets right—and wrong—about astrophysics

  "Project Hail Mary," the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation of the best-selling sci-fi novel from Andy Weir, is being praised for putting the science in science fiction. Although aliens, sun-draining microorganisms and galaxy-spanning spaceflight are all a part of the story of a scientist sent on a suicide mission to save Earth, the film and its source material are not afraid to delve into the kind of astrophysics that would make most people's heads spin.

• NASA hauls its repaired moon rocket from the hangar back to the pad for an early April launch

  For the second time this year, NASA moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the pad Friday in hopes of launching four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month.

• Smile mission set for April 9 launch to image Earth's magnetic field in X-rays

  The Smile mission is set to launch on a Vega-C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on Thursday, April 9, at 08:29 CEST/07:29 BST/03:29 local time.

• NASA returns moon rocket to pad, eyeing April 1 launch

  NASA on Thursday began returning its towering SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to its Florida launch pad ahead of a planned flyby of the moon, after completing necessary repairs.

• Meteorite hunters scour Ohio for fragments of 7-ton space rock that crashed into Earth

  Meteorite hunters fanned out across a wide swath of Ohio on Thursday, hoping to collect fragments of an estimated 7-ton (6,350 kilograms) space rock that crashed into Earth this week after a dazzling fireball that was seen from hundreds of miles away.

• NASA's Artemis missions promise a return to the moon—but when?

  NASA's Artemis II mission plans to fly around the moon and back this April. Four astronauts will board the mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the test flight, spending 10 days off-Earth. They won't be touching down—this mission is intended to pave the way for humans to once again place their boots in the sticky, clumpy soil of our closest celestial neighbor.

• Project Hail Mary is packed with hard science. An astrophysicist breaks it down

  As an astrophysicist, my world revolves around the wonders of space and the mysteries of the universe. This means I can be a tough critic of science fiction books and films that explore these topics.

• 'Miracle': Europe reconnects with lost spacecraft

  The European Space Agency announced Thursday it has re-established communication with a spacecraft that is part of its Proba-3 mission, after losing contact with the satellite a month ago.

• JUICE is planning to do science on Jupiter's 'minor' moons too

  The European Space Agency's (ESA's) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) probe is on its (very long) way to Jupiter, and will finally arrive at the King of Planets in 2031. Its primary mission is to focus on the "big three" icy moons—Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. But while JUICE is busy mapping Ganymede's magnetic field, it will also be keeping a sharp eye on the other 94 moons in the Jupiter system. A recent paper published in Space Science Reviews by Tilmann Denk of DLR, Germany's space research association, and his co-authors showcases just how much "bonus science" JUICE is expected to squeeze out of these other targets.

• Gravitational waves leave imprints on light emitted by atoms, theoretical study predicts

  Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime produced by violent cosmic events, such as the merging of black holes. So far, direct detections have relied on measuring tiny distance changes over kilometer-scale instruments. In a new theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Stockholm University, Nordita, and the University of Tübingen propose an unconventional approach: tracking how gravitational waves reshape the light emitted by atoms. The work describes a possible detection route, but an experimental demonstration remains for the future.

• The moon's going to get crowded. We should protect our heritage on it while we still can

  In 1959, the Luna 2 probe from the Soviet Union became the very first human-made object to reach our closest celestial neighbor. In the decades since, we have been leaving footprints—both literally and figuratively—all over the moon. Today, there are over 100 metric tons of human-made material resting on the moon's surface—everything from advanced cameras and sensors to literal human waste. But that's nothing compared to what's to come. NASA predicts the next decade will see over 100 new lunar missions, equaling or exceeding all the missions previously flown, which brings up a pressing question about all the stuff that's already there—how do we protect that history?

• The discovery of a buried delta on Mars could boost the search for life

  There's more evidence that water once flowed on Mars with the discovery of an ancient river delta deep below the surface. NASA's Perseverance rover found it more than 35 meters beneath Jezero Crater using ground-penetrating radar. Perseverance was launched in 2020 to search for signs of ancient life on the red planet. Since landing in February 2021, it has been exploring Jezero Crater and collecting rock samples.

• The best places to look for alien life: Scientists identify 45 Earth-like worlds to explore for a 'Project Hail Mary'

  If we're to find extraterrestrial life in the universe, astronomers have pinpointed the best places to look for it. They have identified just under 50 rocky worlds most likely to be habitable out of the more than 6,000 exoplanets discovered so far.

• DESI maps C-19, an extremely metal-poor Milky Way stellar stream

  Using the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, an international team of astronomers has observed C-19—an extremely metal-poor stellar stream in the Milky Way's halo. Results of the observational campaign, published March 11 on the arXiv pre-print server, provide crucial insights into the properties of this stellar stream.

• How two dim stars came together to shine brightly

  Brown dwarfs get a bad rap in the stellar world, often labeled as "failed stars" for their inability to sustain nuclear fusion at their cores. The mass of these objects falls between planets and stars, ranging from 13 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Because they aren't massive enough to sustain fusion, they are far fainter and cooler than their stellar comrades.

• NASA's Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up

  In a happy twist of fate, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings are published in the journal Icarus.

• How common are fireballs streaking across the sky?

  The Earth is under assault. Space rocks are constantly hurtling toward us, slamming into the atmosphere and often exploding into fireballs that both delight and alarm.

• How young galaxies grew magnetic fields faster than expected

  How fast can a galaxy build ordered magnetic fields spanning thousands of light-years? Existing theories say several billion years, but observations of galaxies in our universe imply shorter timescales. In a study published in the Physical Review Letters and highlighted in the Physics magazine, scientists propose an explanation that resolves this contradiction. They say that the collapse of plasma clouds during the formation of galaxies could significantly accelerate the growth of these magnetic fields.

• Astronomers search for 'exotrojans' hiding in extreme pulsar systems

  Greek mythology has given a name to a great many objects in our solar system. But perhaps one of the least well understood are the Trojans, named after the people of Troy featured in "The Iliad." When astronomers refer to them, they are normally talking about a group of more than 10,000 confirmed asteroids orbiting at the Lagrange points both in front of and behind Jupiter on its orbit around the sun.

• Colliding dust and the sparks of creation: Carbon-coated grains provide new clue to life's early energy

  Two microscopic grains collide and produce a tiny spark. This phenomenon may have provided the energy to kick off life on Earth. But if these solid particles have the same composition, what factor causes the charge to flow in a given direction? In a study published in Nature, physicists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) identify the key factor as environmental carbon-based molecules that adhere to the materials' surface.

• Dim delights in the Cancer constellation

  Cancer the Crab is a dim constellation, yet it contains one of the most beautiful and easy-to-spot star clusters in our sky: the Beehive Cluster. Cancer also possesses one of the most studied exoplanets: the superhot super-Earth, 55 Cancri e.

• Using fiber-optic cables to detect moonquakes

  Two recent studies suggest that fiber-optic cables laid directly on the moon's surface could potentially detect moonquakes, offering a simpler way to gather seismic data to support future human and robotic exploration.

• Clearest evidence yet that giant planets spin faster than their cosmic lookalikes

  For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars. Through a telescope, these cosmic lookalikes can have overlapping brightness, temperatures, and even atmospheric fingerprints. The striking similarity leaves astronomers unsure if they have observed an oversized planet or an undersized star. Now, a Northwestern University-led team has uncovered a crucial clue that separates the two: how fast they spin.

• From dust to planets: Parabolic flight reveal a turbulent path

  How does fine dust aggregate into building blocks that ultimately form entire planets like our Earth? A research team led by the University of Bern, with the participation of ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS has provided the first experimental evidence—obtained during parabolic flights in zero gravity—that a key physical process, known as shear-flow instability, actually occurs under conditions similar to those in planet formation regions. The study thus addresses an important gap in our understanding of the very first steps of planet formation.

• Physicists trace the sun's magnetic engine, 200,000 kilometers below its surface

  Every eleven years, the sun's magnetic field flips. Sunspots—dark, cooler regions on the sun's surface that mark intense magnetic activity and often trigger solar eruptions—appear at mid-latitudes and migrate toward the star's equator in a butterfly-shape pattern before fading as the cycle resets. While this spectacle on the star's surface has long been visible to astronomers, where this powerful cycle begins inside the star has remained hidden until now.

• Asteroid Bennu's rugged surface baffled NASA—now, we finally know why

  In one of the biggest surprises of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, its target asteroid, Bennu, turned out to be a jagged, rugged world covered in large boulders, with few of the smooth patches that earlier observations from Earth-based instruments had indicated.

• Suspected meteor falling over Cleveland could be seen several states away

  A suspected meteor that fell over the Cleveland area on Tuesday shook homes and startled residents who heard a boom that some compared to an explosion.

• Experiment challenges hypothesis of cell-like membranes on Titan

  New experimental results have cast doubt on earlier proposals suggesting that spherical, cell-like membranes could form in the methane lakes of Saturn's largest moon. Through results published in Science Advances, Tuan Vu and Robert Hodyss at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggest that exobiologists will likely need to explore alternative routes when considering the possibility of life on Titan.