Space & Planetary
Welcome to the Space News section, where we journey beyond our planet to bring you the latest updates and discoveries from the cosmos. Here, we cover a wide array of topics, from groundbreaking space missions and astronomical findings to advancements in space technology and exploration.
Archaeology
Study uncovers new evidence supporting Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis
The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that a cometary or meteoric body exploded over the North American area sometime around 12,900-years-ago.
Archaeology
Moon may have influenced Stonehenge construction
A study by a team of archaeoastronomers are investigating the possible connection of the moon in influencing the Stonehenge builders.
Archaeology
The Alaca Höyük meteoric dagger
The Alaca Höyük meteoric dagger is an iron forged dagger with extraterrestrial origins.
Archaeology
Ancient celestial map found at Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo
Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo is an ancient hillfort, located in the Province of Trieste, Italy.
Space & Planetary
Possible traces of protoplanet found in Earth’s mantle
In a study of the Earth’s mantle, scientists have identified two compositionally distinct continent-sized anomalies which could be traces of a protoplanet which impacted with Earth during its early formation.
Cosmic radio burst offers path to weigh the Universe
In an article published in the latest issue of Science, Dr. Stuart Ryder from Macquarie University and Associate Professor Ryan Shannon from Swinburne University of Technology, leading a global team, have unveiled their groundbreaking discovery: the oldest and most distant fast radio burst ever detected, dating back approximately eight billion years.
The Maya predicted annular solar eclipses
On October 14th, 2023, a celestial event will unfold as the Sun, Moon, and Earth, align to create an annular solar eclipse.
Study weighs distant supermassive black holes
Near the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy sits an immense “supermassive” black hole that astronomers call Sagittarius A*. Scientists theorise that the black hole grew in tandem with our galaxy, and suspect that similar phenomena are at the heart of most large galaxies in the universe.
Study reveals new secrets of the Maya calendar
A team of anthropologists from Tulane University have deciphered new secrets of the Maya calendar.
Meteorite crater found in Southern France
Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt have found a meteorite crater in the grounds of a winery near the town of Béziers in Southern France.
Researchers discover earth sized planet
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface. The world is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky.
Origins of the Mesoamerican astronomy and calendar from the Olmec and Maya regions
In a paper published in the journal, Science Advances, researchers have applied archaeoastronomical studies to demonstrate how the civic and ceremonial buildings in Mesoamerica were largely oriented to sunrises or sunsets on specific dates from the Olmec and Maya regions
Filmmakers discover large fragment from Challenger space shuttle
A documentary film crew have discovered a large fragment from the Challenger space shuttle, while searching for the wreck of a WW2 aircraft off the Florida coast, United States.
Tree rings reveal devastating radiation storms
A study by the University of Queensland has revealed new insights into the cosmic radiation storms that have occurred approximately once every thousand years.
Impact that killed the dinosaurs triggered “mega-earthquake”
66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Potential first traces of the universe’s earliest stars
Astronomers may have discovered the ancient chemical remains of the first stars to light up the Universe.
Byzantine solar eclipse records illuminate obscure history of Earth’s rotation
Japanese researchers investigated ancient texts from the 4th to 7th centuries AD to identify five total solar eclipses near the Eastern Mediterranean and improve the model of the Earth's rotation over time
Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet that could be completely covered in water
An international team of researchers led by Charles Cadieux, a Ph.D. student at the Université de Montréal and member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), has announced the discovery of TOI-1452 b, an exoplanet orbiting one of two small stars in a binary system located in the Draco constellation about 100 light-years from Earth.
Underwater snow gives clues about Europa’s icy shell
Below Europa’s thick icy crust is a massive, global ocean where the snow floats upwards onto inverted ice peaks and submerged ravines.
Telescope reveals images of supermassive black hole at centre of galaxy
Astronomers have revealed images of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes.