Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University and collaborating Japanese institutions have used numerical simulations to show that a small X-ray telescope in lunar orbit could map key elements across the entire Moon in just a few years. The work, published in Earth, Planets and Space, points to a practical path for building the first complete chemical…
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A study in The Astrophysical Journal has placed one unusual number at the center of a cosmic mystery. Researchers at the University of Miami argue that a gravitational-wave candidate reported by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration may involve a black hole lighter than the Sun.That would be extraordinary. Known black holes usually form when massive stars die,…
A study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters has turned the famous Murchison meteorite into a cautionary tale for the search for ancient life on Mars. Researchers found that two molecules often linked with biology, pristane and phytane, likely entered the meteorite through petroleum-based pollutants in Earth’s atmosphere. The result matters because the same kinds…
A study in The Astrophysical Journal has revisited the famous 2017 GW170817 analysis and produced the most precise measurement yet of the Hubble constant from that single gravitational-wave event. The result gives astronomers a sharper independent check on one of cosmology’s most stubborn questions, how fast the universe is expanding.The new analysis places the Hubble…
