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NASA's newest space telescope will scan the entire sky in a range of near-infrared wavelengths to help astronomers better understand the evolution of the universe and search for promising spots for extraterrestrial life

Chemical rockets are loud, noisy and can only get us so far. If we want to reach another star system, we’ll need something better—either super energy-dense fuel to improve the efficiency of chemical rockets or a way to push spacecraft using beams of energy, like a photonic lightsail. A new paper looks at the pros and cons of lightsails, figures out the best setup to carry a small payload to another star while humans are still alive to see it, and checks out what materials might actually work for this kind of mission.

Interstellar travel, or journeying between stars, represents one of our most ambitious challenges. While current technology limits us to exploring the solar system, the dream of reaching distant star systems drives scientific innovation and imagination. Such journeys would require advanced propulsion systems, like nuclear fusion engines, solar sails, or theoretical concepts such as warp drives and wormholes (must resist any reference to Star Trek.) The immense distances between the stars present enormous challenges in terms of time, energy, and resource management. Shielding from radiation, life support and the psychological effects of isolation are among the challenges yet still, the pursuit of interstellar travel continues to inspire.

Artistic rendition of an interstellar spacecraft traveling near the speed of light. Credit: Made with ChatGPT

A new paper authored by a team led by Jadon Y. Lin from the University of Sydney explores one possible technology that may get, if not us then our technology, to the stars. They explore the principles of lightsail technology and how the application of photons of light could drive spacecraft the immense distances. Starting with the desired outcome, the team use a computational method which starts with a desired outcome and work backwards to get the best solution to achieve it. 

DALL-E illustration of a light sail

Just what is the problem. Travelling even relatively short distances among the stars, such as to Proxima Centauri ‘just’ 4.2 light years away, a spacecraft would need to travel at over 10% the speed of light to get there in a human lifetime! That’s approximately 30,000 km per second when our fastest probe has only achieved 194 kilometres per second! We need to go faster! According to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, chemical propulsion to accelerate a single proton to that speed would require more fuel than the entire observable universe! That means any spacecraft aiming for such enormous speeds needs an external source of momentum and energy. Enter light sail technology which could, according to recent research propel a probe to Proxima Centauri in just 21 years!

This image of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System. New research shows that material from Alpha Centauri has reached our Solar System, mostly in the form of tiny rocks. Image Credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi Zamani

Fundamental to the success of a functional lightsail for interstellar travel hinges on finding the right materials and fabrication methods for the sail itself. There are some promising options available such as silica, silicon nitride and molybdenum disulfide although their full properties in ultra-thin membranes have still to be tested. The team conclude that molybdenum disulfide is currently the best contender but further testing is needed. Shifting the focus to design, the traditional sail shapes show potential but the paper concludes that they are outperformed by nano-structured designs like diffraction gratings, which optimise propulsion, thermal control, and stability. 

Sadly interstellar lightsails might yet take decades to become a reality. The technology isn’t quite there yet, not just in material science but progress is needed in areas like metalenses and high-powered lasers too. We have already seen light sails used successfully in space but, as interest develops and technology advances, slowly, interstellar spacecraft designs may at least one day becoming a reality. 

Source : Photonic Lightsails: Fast and Stable Propulsion for Interstellar Travel

The post Photonic Lightsails are our Best Shot at Reaching Another Star appeared first on Universe Today.

In this passage from Dengue Boy, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, we get an insight into life for Michel Nieva’s mosquito protagonist – and the drowned future world she inhabits

Any satellite sent to space must be able to deal with the battle with Earth’s gravitational pull, withstanding the harsh conditions of launch before reaching the zero-gravity environment it was designed for. But what if we could send raw materials into orbit and build the satellite there instead? DARPA (the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) has formed partnerships with a number of universities to develop 3D printing technology and in-orbit assembly of satellite components. It’s recently put out a new request for proposals to explore biological growth mechanisms in space – the exciting prospect of living organisms that can increase in size, develop structures, and repair themselves.

Satellite launches from Earth began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. It marked the beginning of the space age and was followed by the U.S. launch of Explorer 1 in 1958. Over the decades that followed, advancements in rocketry culminated in the development of Saturn V capable of delivering humans to the Moon. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of communication, weather, and reconnaissance satellites and with the advent of reusable spacecraft like the Space Shuttle in the 1980s space became more economical. 

The Sputnik spacecraft stunned the world when it was launched into orbit on Oct. 4th, 1954. Credit: NASA

One of the biggest challenges facing agencies launching space satellites is the challenge of size and weight. The bigger and heavier it is, the more expensive it is to launch. DARPA’s 2022 NOM4D program aims to solve this by sending lightweight materials to space for on-site construction, rather than build them before launch. This innovative approach enables building much larger, more mass-efficient structures into orbit that would perhaps otherwise be impossible to launch fully assembled. The idea opens new possibilities for optimised designs that aren’t limited by launch vehicle dimensions and lifting capability. 

The partnerships established by DAPRA include Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have already demonstrated wonderful advances in the first two phases. They are now continuing phase 3 with launch companies to undergo in-space testing of the assembly process. In many ways though, the concept is not new, the ISS for example has been built in orbit over many decades, it’s the first time however that the approach is being used for smaller satellites. 

International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The Caltech experiment will operate independently in orbit without human interaction once deployed. It’s going to be fascinating to watch this momentous test. On-board cameras will provide live monitoring of the construction process as an autonomous robot assembles lightweight composite fibre tubes into a circular truss 1.4 meters in diameter, representing an antenna structure. It’s a little bit like popular children’s toys like K’Nex but of course, a little more advanced. 

If successful, the technology could be scaled up to eventually construct space-based antennas exceeding 100 meters in diameter, transforming space exploration with enhanced communicating and monitoring capabilities. It goes much further than this though. DARPA is now exploring the possibility of “growing” large biological structures in space too. 

Recent advances in metabolic engineering, knowledge of extremophile organisms and developments in tunable materials like hydrogels are making space grown organic structures a tantalising possibility. It aims to DAPRA have put out a request for proposals to explore the concept. These biologically manufactured structures could enable projects that are impractical with traditional methods with dreams of space elevator tethers, orbital debris capture nets and expandable commercial space station modules perhaps not so far from being a reality. By harnessing biological growth in the unique conditions of space, entirely new construction possibilities may become feasible. Just imagine!

Source : DARPA demos will test novel tech for building future large structures in space and Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures

The post DARPA Wants to Build Structures in Orbit, Without Needing a Launch from Earth appeared first on Universe Today.

Michel Nieva, the author of the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, Dengue Boy, on his story of a drowned, pandemic-struck future Earth – and his unusual protagonist

The many doctors who are just now realizing that misinformation wasn't "COVID hysteria nonsense" have a lot of catching up to do to understand how the forces they've legitimized the led to this moment.

The post Welcome to the Resistance UCSF Doctors first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

NASA’s asteroid-studying spacecraft Lucy captured an image of its next flyby target, the asteroid Donaldjohanson. On April 20th, the spacecraft will pass within 960 km of the small, main belt asteroid. It will keep imaging it for the next two months as part of its optical navigation program.

Donaldjohanson is an unwieldy name for an asteroid, but it’s fitting. Donald Johanson is an American paleoanthropologist who discovered an important australopithecine skeleton in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle in 1974. The female hominin skeleton showed that bipedal walking developed before larger brain sizes, an important discovery in human evolution. She was named Lucy.

NASA named their asteroid-studying mission Lucy because it also seeks to uncover clues about our origins. Instead of ancient skeletal remains, Lucy will study asteroids, which are like fossils of planet formation.

During its 12-year mission, Lucy will visit eight asteroids. Two are in the main belt, and six are Jupiter trojans. Asteroid Donaldjohanson is a main-belt, carbonaceous C-type asteroid—the most common variety—about 4 km in diameter and is Lucy’s first target. It’s not one of the mission’s primary scientific targets. Instead, the flyby will give Lucy mission personnel an opportunity to test and calibrate the spacecraft’s navigation system and instruments.

This image depicts the two areas where most of the asteroids in the Solar System are found: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Trojans, two groups of asteroids moving ahead of and following Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun. Image Credit: NASA

The animation below blinks between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20th and 22nd. It shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.

via GIPHY

The flyby is like a practice run before Lucy visits the Jupiter trojans. These asteroids are clusters of rock and ice that never coalesced into planets when the Solar System formed. These are the “fossils of planet formation,” the most well-preserved evidence from the days of Solar System formation.

Currently, Donaldjohanson is 70 million km away and will remain a tiny point of light for weeks. Only on the day of the encounter will the spacecraft’s cameras capture any detail on the asteroid’s surface. In the images above, the dim asteroid still stands out from the dimmer stars of the constellation Sextans. Lucy’s high-resolution L’LORRI instrument, the Long Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager, captured the images.

Lucy is following a unique flight pattern. It’s essentially a long figure-eight.

Illustration of the Lucy spacecraft’s orbit around Jupiter, which will allow it to study its Trojan population. Though the image lists 6 flybys, the spacecraft will visit 8 asteroids. One of the listed ones is a binary, and the spacecraft already encountered the asteroid Dinkinesh. Image Credit: SwRI

Even this early in its mission, Lucy has delivered some surprising results. In November 2023, it flew past asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh. The flyby was intended as a test for the spacecraft’s braking system, but instead, it revealed that Dinkinesh has a small satellite. Closer observations showed that the satellite is actually a contact binary, which means it’s composed of two connected bodies. This was a valuable insight into asteroids.

These two images from Lucy show the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam. The first image (L) shows Selam just coming into view behind Dinkinesh. The second image (R) reveals that Selam is actually two objects, a contact binary. Image Credits: By NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139996127

There are surprising discoveries in every mission, and Lucy is no exception. As it makes its way through its list of targets, it will almost certainly show us some surprises.

The Trojans are difficult to study from a distance. They’re a long way away. Scientists aren’t certain how many there are; there may be as many Trojans as there are main-belt asteroids. The Trojans exhibit a wide variety of compositions and characteristics, which could indicate that they came from different parts of the Solar System. By studying the Trojans in all their diversity, Lucy will hopefully help scientists reconstruct their origins and how they were captured by Jupiter.

The Solar System has a long history and we’ve only just become a part of it. Some of the clues to our origins are out there among the battered rocks of the asteroid belt and the Jupiter Trojans. Lucy will give us our best look at the Trojans. Who knows what it might reveal?

• Press Release: NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Takes Its 1st Images of Asteroid Donaldjohanson
• Press Release: NASA Lucy Images Reveal Asteroid Dinkinesh to be Surprisingly Complex
• ASU Institute of Human Origins: Lucy’s Story

The post Lucy Sees its Next Target: Asteroid Donaldjohanson appeared first on Universe Today.

A research team has developed a way for self-driving vehicles to share their knowledge about road conditions indirectly, making it possible for each vehicle to learn from the experiences of others even when they rarely meet on the road.

A research team has developed a way for self-driving vehicles to share their knowledge about road conditions indirectly, making it possible for each vehicle to learn from the experiences of others even when they rarely meet on the road.

Scientists demonstrate a new quantum chip architecture for suppressing errors using a type of qubit known as a cat qubit.

Scientists demonstrate a new quantum chip architecture for suppressing errors using a type of qubit known as a cat qubit.

Scientists have revealed how quantum interference and symmetry dictate molecular behavior in collisions with gold surfaces, offering new insights into molecular interactions. The findings can have important implications for chemistry and materials science.

Scientists have revealed how quantum interference and symmetry dictate molecular behavior in collisions with gold surfaces, offering new insights into molecular interactions. The findings can have important implications for chemistry and materials science.

A research group has revealed fundamental insights into anode-free solid-state batteries, paving the way for efforts to improve their manufacturability.

Scientists are designing a satellite and instruments capable of detecting space debris as small as 1 centimeter, less than one-half inch. Debris that small, which cannot currently be detected from the ground, can damage satellites and other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

If you’ve ever looked at Mars through a telescope, you probably noticed its two polar ice caps. The northern one is made largely of water ice—the most obvious sign that Mars was once a wetter, warmer world. A team of researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) used that ice cap to make surprising discoveries about it and what it tells us about Mars’s interior.

According to Adrien Broquet and a team of DLR planetary scientists, the northern polar cap on Mars is quite young. They found this out by applying techniques used to measure what ice sheets on Earth do to its surface. The effect that widespread glaciation has is called “glacial isostatic adjustment,” and it’s still happening in places such as Scandinavia. Essentially, it’s a constant movement of land as Earth’s surface deforms in response to the weight of ice. The rate of deformation depends on the specific characteristics of the underlying mantle.

Large areas of our planet have been covered at times by thick glacial sheets. The last time this occurred was during a glacial period that ended about 11,700 years ago. Those sheets “weighed down” the surface, compressing it. As the glaciers melted, the surface began to rise back up in a process called “isostatic rebound”. The rate of both depression and the subsequent rising motion tells something about Earth’s interior, particularly the mantle. Think of pushing down on a sponge and then watching as it expands when you take your hand away.

Mars is permanently covered by water ice at its north pole. The ice sheet here is approximately 1000 kilometres in diameter and up to three kilometres thick, and its load depresses the rocky crust beneath. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, NASA MGS MOLA Science Team Studying a Rebounding Ice Cap

Broquet and his team decided to measure glacial isostatic rebound on Mars under the northern ice cap. It’s about 1,000 kilometers wide and three kilometers thick. They studied its formation by combining models of the planet’s thermal evolution with calculations of glacial isostatic adjustment, along with gravity, radar, and seismic observations.

The team concluded that the Martian northern polar cap is quite young, and it’s depressing the ground underneath. “We show that the ice sheet pushes the underlying ground into the mantle at a rate of up to 0.13 millimetres per year,” said Broquet. That’s a fairly small deformation, according to team member Ana-Catalina Plesa. “The small deformation rates indicate that the upper mantle of Mars is cold, highly viscous and much stiffer than Earth’s upper mantle,” she said.

Understanding Planetary Construction

So, how can measurements of ice weighing down planetary surfaces tell us so much? Remember that rocky planets like Earth and Mars are in constant states of change. Those changes can range from short-lived events like volcanic eruptions to long-lived ones like Ice Ages. Each alteration affects the surface, as does the rate at which the surface deforms and “bounces back”. Earth scientists use techniques such as the study of glacial isostatic adjustment to probe deep beneath the surface to understand the characteristics of those layers.

When ice weighs down the surface, the amount of depression depends on the mantle’s viscosity. That’s a measure of how much the mantle’s rocky materials resist flowing. Earth’s mantle rocks are more than a trillion times more viscous than asphalt. They still deform, however, and flow over geological timescales of millions of years. Using radar data and other methods to study the rate of depression and rebound of Earth’s surface, scientists can find the mantle viscosity. As it turns out, when you apply the same methods to Mars, it presents some surprises, including a seemingly cold north pole and the recently volcanically active equatorial regions.

Estimating Mars’s Interior

To understand why the Mars interior is the way it is, you need estimates of Mars’s gravity field (which varies), seismic measurements made by the InSight lander, and other data. They all help to determine rates of depression and rebound on the Red Planet’s surface and interior. The result? It appears that the surface under the Martian north pole has not had nearly enough time to fully deform under the weight of the ice. Broquet’s group estimates that Mars’s north pole surface area is currently subsiding at rates of up to 0.13 millimeters per year. For it to be that slow, the underlying upper mantle viscosity tells us that the Martian interior is quite cold.

The team’s measurements indicate the ice cap is young—well more than any other large-scale feature seen on the planet. It’s most likely to be between 2 and 12 million years.

Artist illustration of Mars Insight Lander. It measured seismic activity on Mars, giving further insight into the subsurface structure. Credit: NASA/JPL

Other places on the planet may not be quite so frigid as the polar regions. “Although the mantle underneath Mars’s north pole is estimated to be cold, our models are still able to predict the presence of local melt zones in the mantle near the equator,” said study co-author Doris Breuer.

These findings represent the first time that scientists found glacial isostatic adjustment operating on another rocky planet. Future missions to Mars could include more instruments to measure the rise and fall of the Martian surface in response to glaciation.

For More Information

Mars’s Northern Ice Cap is Young with a Cold, Stiff Mantle Beneath
Glacial Isostatic Adjustment Reveals Mars’s Interior Viscosity Structure

The post Mars’s Northern Ice Cap is Surprisingly Young appeared first on Universe Today.

Our Solar System is in motion and cruises at about 200 kilometres per second relative to the center of the Milky Way. During its long journey, it has passed through different parts of the galaxy. Research shows that the Solar System passed through the Orion star-forming complex about 14 million years ago.

The Orion star-forming complex, also known as the Orion molecular cloud complex, is part of a larger structure called the Radcliffe Wave (RW). The RW was discovered very recently, in 2020. It’s a large, coherent structure that also moves through the galaxy. It’s a wave-like structure of gas and dust that holds many star-forming regions, including the well-known Orion complex and the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds. It’s almost 9000 light-years long and is within the Milky Way’s Orion arm.

The environment in the RW and the Orion complex is more dense, and when the Solar System passed through it, the greater density compressed the Sun’s heliosphere. This allowed more interstellar dust to enter the Solar System and reach Earth. According to new research, this affected Earth’s climate and left its mark on geological records.

The research, “The Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe wave during the middle Miocene,” was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The lead author is Efrem Maconi, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna.

“We are inhabitants of the Milky Way.”

João Alves, professor of astrophysics, University of Vienna

“As our Solar System orbits the Milky Way, it encounters different Galactic environments with varying interstellar densities, including hot voids, supernova (SN) blast wavefronts, and cold gas clouds,” the authors write. “The Sun’s passage through a dense region of the interstellar medium (ISM) may impact the Solar System in several ways.”

14 million years ago, Earth was in the Middle Miocene Epoch. Notable events took place in the Miocene. Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, mountains were actively building on multiple continents, and the Messinan Salinity Crisis struck the Mediterranean. Overall, the Miocene is known for the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO). During the MMCO, the climate was warm, and the tropics expanded.

However, the Miocene is also known for something else: the Middle Miocene Disruption (MMD). The MMD followed the MMCO and saw a wave of extinctions strike both terrestrial and aquatic life. It happened around 14.8 to 14.5 million years ago, which is in line with when the Solar System passed through the Radcliffe Wave and the Orion complex.

The authors of the new research say the Solar System’s passage through the RW and the Orion complex could be responsible for the MMD.

“Imagine it like a ship sailing through varying conditions at sea,” explains lead author Efrem Maconi in a press release. “Our Sun encountered a region of higher gas density as it passed through the Radcliffe Wave in the Orion constellation.”

The researchers used data from the ESA’s Gaia mission, along with spectroscopic observations, to accurately determine when the Solar System passed through the RW. By tracing the movement of 56 open clusters in the RW, the researchers traced the motion of the RW and compared it with the Solar System’s movement. Their work shows that the two intersected from 18.2 to 11.5 Myr ago. The closest approach occurred between 14.8 and 12.4 Myr ago.

This figure from the study shows an overview of the Radcliffe wave and selected clusters in a heliocentric Galactic Cartesian frame. The Sun is placed at the center, and its position is marked with a golden-yellow ?. The red dots denote the molecular clouds and tenuous gas bridge connections that constitute the Radcliffe wave. The blue points represent the 56 open clusters associated with the region of the Radcliffe wave that is relevant to this study. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of stars in the clusters. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

This period of time coincides with the MMD. “Notably, this period coincides with the Middle Miocene climate transition on Earth, providing an interdisciplinary link with paleoclimatology,” the authors write. The correlation is striking, and the researchers say that the influx of interstellar dust shifted Earth’s climate.

“This discovery builds upon our previous work identifying the Radcliffe Wave,” says João Alves, professor of astrophysics at the University of Vienna and co-author of the study. Alves was the lead author of the 2020 paper presenting the discovery of the RW.

“Remarkably, we find that the past trajectories of the Solar System closely approached (dSun–cloud within 50 pc) certain selected clusters while they were in their cloud phase, hinting at a probable encounter between the Sun and the gaseous component of the Radcliffe wave,” the researchers write in their paper.

“We passed through the Orion region as well-known star clusters like NGC 1977, NGC 1980, and NGC 1981 were forming,” Alves said in the press release. “This region is easily visible in the winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Look for the Orion constellation and the Orion Nebula (Messier 42)—our solar system came from that direction!”

This image shows the well-known Orion Nebula in the center and the less well-known NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula) on the left. NGC 1977 was still forming when the Solar System passed through this region about 14 million years ago. Image Credit: By Chuck Ayoub – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57079507

The increased dust that reached Earth during its passage through the RW could have had several effects. The interstellar medium (ISM) contains radioisotopes like 60Fe from supernova explosions, which could have created anomalies in Earth’s geological record. “While current technology may not be sensitive enough to detect these traces, future detectors could make it possible,” Alves suggests.

More critically, the dust could’ve created global cooling.

A 2005 paper showed that Earth passes through a dense giant molecular cloud (GMC) approximately every 100 million years. “Here we show that dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust
accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere during the Solar System’s immersion into a dense GMC,” those researchers wrote. They explained at the time that there was no evidence linking these passages with severe glaciations in Earth’s history.

This new research from Maconi et al. is shedding some light on the issue.

“While the underlying processes responsible for the Middle Miocene Climate Transition are not entirely identified, the available reconstructions suggest that a long-term decrease in the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide concentration is the most likely explanation, although large uncertainties exist,” Maconi said.

This figure shows when the Solar System passed through different star-forming clouds in the Radcliffe Wave. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

“However, our study highlights that interstellar dust related to the crossing of the Radcliffe Wave might have impacted Earth’s climate and potentially played a role during this climate transition. To alter the Earth’s climate the amount of extraterrestrial dust on Earth would need to be much bigger than what the data so far suggest,” says Maconi. “Future research will explore the significance of this contribution.”

With more research to come in the future, there’s most likely more to the story. In any case, one conclusion seems clear: the Earth passed through a region of dense gas that fits in with the Middle Miocene Disruption.

Research like this, when shallowly read, becomes cannon fodder in the tiresome debate about global climate change. The authors are quick to nip that in the bud.

“It’s crucial to note that this past climate transition and current climate change are not comparable since the Middle Miocene Climate Transition unfolded over timescales of several hundred thousand years. In contrast, the current global warming evolution is happening at an unprecedented rate over decades to centuries due to human activity,” Macon said.

Click on the image to explore an interactive tool showing our Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe Wave. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

The researchers also point out some weaknesses in their results. “Our results are based on the tracebacks of the orbits of the Solar System and of the clusters associated with the Radcliffe wave. As noted throughout the text, this method requires some approximations due to inherent difficulties in modelling the past structure and evolution of the gas,” they clarify. They explain that their tracebacks should be thought of as a first approximation of their movements.

However, if they’re right, their work draws another fascinating link between our planet, its climate, and life’s struggle to persist with much larger-scale events beyond Earth.

“Notably, our estimated time interval for the Solar System’s potential location within a dense ISM region (about 14.8–12.4 Myr ago for a distance of 20–30 pc from the center of a gas cloud) overlaps with the Middle Miocene climate transition,” the researchers explain. “During this period, the expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet and global cooling marked Earth’s final transition to persistent large-scale continental glaciation in Antarctica.”

“We are inhabitants of the Milky Way,” said Alves. “The European Space Agency’s Gaia Mission has given us the means to trace our recent route in the Milky Way’s interstellar sea, allowing astronomers to compare notes with geologists and paleoclimatologists. It’s very exciting.” In the future, the team led by João Alves plans to study in more detail the Galactic environment encountered by the Sun while sailing through our Galaxy.

• Press Release: The Galactic Journey of our Solar System
• New Research: The Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe wave during the middle Miocene
• Previous Research: A Galactic-scale gas wave in the solar neighbourhood
• Previous Research: Passing through a giant molecular cloud: ‘‘Snowball’’ glaciations produced by interstellar dust

The post The Solar System is Taking a Fascinating Journey Through the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

Changes in Earth’s orbit drive long-term glacial cycles, but a new forecast suggests this ancient pattern is being disrupted for tens of thousands of years due to human-induced global warming

Blue Zones, places home to an unusual number of centenarians, are looked to for their secrets to living healthier lives – but are they even real?

Recent advances in astronomical observations have found a significant number of extrasolar planets that can sustain surface water, and the search for extraterrestrial life on such planets is gaining momentum. A team of astrobiologists has proposed a novel approach for detecting life on ocean planets. By conducting laboratory measurements and satellite remote sensing analyses, they have demonstrated that the reflectance spectrum of floating vegetation could serve as a promising biosignature. Seasonal variations in floating vegetation may provide a particularly effective means for remote detection.