May 24, 2021May 24, 2021 by Cody

May 2021

Interstellar Visitor 3I/ATLAS Finally Wakes Up, Spewing Organics and Water February 18, 2026
There’s been plenty in the news about 3I/ATLAS over the course of the past 8 months. Our third confirmed interstellar visitor went behind the Sun during its closest approach, but reemerged in December with plenty of eyes watching it. Papers describing what it looks like following its closest brush with the power of a star […]
Martian Volcanoes Could Be Hiding Massive Glaciers Under A Blanket of Ash February 18, 2026
When we think of ice on Mars, we typically think of the poles, where we can see it visibly through probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are hard to access, and even more so given the restrictions on exploration there due to potential biological contamination. Scientists have long hoped to find water closer […]
A Pulsar Near The Milky Way's Galactic Center Is A Perfect Set-up To Test General Relativity February 18, 2026
The Milky Way's center is densely-packed with stars and there should be abundant pulsars there. But for some reason, we can't find them. New research presents a candidate pulsar in the GC. It's close enough to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole that it can test Einstein's General Relativity. But first, it has to be […]
Ground Teams Stop Flow of Liquid Hydrogen During Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal February 18, 2026
NASA said Tuesday it will now target a March launch of its new moon rocket after running into exasperating fuel leaks during a make-or-break test a day earlier.
An Ancient Merger Could Have Created Titan and the Debris Created Saturn's Rings February 17, 2026
New research presents a timeline for recent (astronomically speaking) events in the Saturnian system. It shows that Titan collided with a proto-Hyperion, and the collision smoothed Titan's surface while some of the debris accreted onto a new Hyperion and also created Saturn's rings. The research can also explain some of the Saturnian system's other unusual […]