3I/ATLAS's Coma Is Largely Carbon Dioxide All (or at least most) astronomical eyes are on 3I/ATLAS, our most recent interstellar visitor that was discovered in early July. Given its relatively short observational window in our solar system, and especially its impending perihelion in October, a lot of observational power has been directed towards it. That includes the most powerful space telescope of them all - and a recent paper pre-printed on arXiv describes what the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered in the comet’s coma. It wasn’t like any other it had seen before. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/3iatlass-coma-is-largely-carbon-dioxide

What Technosignatures Would Interstellar Objects Have? The recent discovery of the third known interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS, has brought about another round of debate on whether these objects could potentially be technological in origin. Everything from random YouTube channels to tenured Harvard professors have thoughts about whether ISOs might actually be spaceships, but the general consensus of the scientific community is that they aren’t. Overturning that consensus would require a lot of “extraordinary evidence”, and a new paper led by James Davenport at the DiRAC Institute at the University of Washington lays out some of the ways that astronomers could collect that evidence for either the current ISO or any new ones we might find. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-technosignatures-would-interstellar-objects-have

Astronomers Discover One of the Most Massive Binary Stars in the Galaxy Deep in one of our Galaxy's most spectacular star forming regions, astronomers have undertaken the most detailed look yet at a pair of stellar giants that rank among the heaviest stars ever directly measured in the Milky Way. The binary system NGC 3603-A1, located 25,000 light years from Earth, consists of two massive stars locked in an incredibly tight orbital dance. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-discover-one-of-the-most-massive-binary-stars-in-the-galaxy

The ESA Restores Communications with JUICE at Venus The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) suffered a communications anomaly on its way Venus for a gravity-assist maneuver. Thanks to swift and coordinated action by the teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and Airbus, communications were restored in time to prepare for its upcoming flyby with Venus. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-esa-restores-communications-with-juice-at-venus

Binary Star Evolution as a Driver of Planet Formation What can binary star systems teach astronomers about the formation and evolution of planets orbiting them? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated past studies that claimed a specific binary star system could host a planet demonstrating a retrograde orbit, meaning it orbits in the opposite direction of the star’s rotation. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand binary and multiple star systems, specifically the formation and evolution of their planets and what this could mean for finding life beyond Earth. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/binary-star-evolution-as-a-driver-of-planet-formation

A New Theory of the Universe’s Origins Without Inflation How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after the birth of the universe. This study has the potential to challenge longstanding theories regarding the exact processes that occurred at the beginning of the universe, along with how these processes have governed the formation and evolution of the universe. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-new-theory-of-the-universes-origins-without-inflation

The Great Filter Part 4: We’ve Got a Chance Wait wait wait. There are other, less stressful options. I don’t want to end on such a downer note. There is hope for us yet! https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-great-filter-part-4-weve-got-a-chance

The Great Filter Part 3: This is the End What about the middle stages? The march from single-celled organisms doing their single-celled thing to intelligent creatures that can wield tools and leave feedback reviews about them? https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-great-filter-part-3-this-is-the-end

A New Method For Producing Oxygen Using Magnets Since sending the first human into space in the 1960s, the solution to one key challenge has remained elusive: the efficient and reliable production of oxygen in space. On the International Space Station, this problem is addressed by heavy and energy-intensive systems that are not ideal for long-duration space missions. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-new-method-for-producing-oxygen-using-magnets

Parabolic Flights to Test Electrolyzer for Future Moon and Mars Missions What can parabolic flights teach scientists and engineers about electrolyzers and how the latter can help advance human missions to the Moon and Mars? This is the goal of a recent grant awarded to the Mars Atmospheric Reactor for Synthesis of Consumables (MARS-C) project, which is sponsored by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The $500,000 award for this research is part of NASA’s TechLeap Prize program with the goal of testing experimental electrolyzer technology that can be used for future missions. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/parabolic-flights-to-test-electrolyzer-for-future-moon-and-mars-missions

A Massive Virtual Radio Telescope Spots A Ribbon-like Jet Of Super-heated Plasma Astronomers used a powerful virtual radio telescope to observe a distant active galaxy. The observations revealed a ribbon-like jet of super-heated plasma. The plasma reaches temperatures of more than 10 trillion Kelvin, indicating that a pair of supermassive black holes are energizing the center of the galaxy. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-massive-virtual-radio-telescope-spots-a-ribbon-like-jet-of-super-heated-plasma

A New Theory of the Universe’s Origins Without Inflation How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after the birth of the universe. This study has the potential to challenge longstanding theories regarding the exact processes that occurred at the beginning of the universe, along with how these processes have governed the formation and evolution of the universe. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-new-theory-of-the-universes-origins-without-inflation

Habitable Planet Potential Increases in the Outer Galaxy What can the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ), which is a galaxy’s region where complex life is hypothesized to be able to evolve, teach scientists about finding the correct stars that could have habitable planets? This is what a recent study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a connection between the migration of stars, commonly called stellar migration, and what this could mean for finding habitable planets within our galaxy. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the astrophysical parameters for finding habitable worlds beyond Earth and even life as we know it. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/habitable-planet-potential-increases-in-the-outer-galaxy

Sensors Could Permanently Fly In The "Ignorosphere" Using Novel Propulsion Technique Earth’s atmosphere is large, extending out to around 10,000 km from the surface of the planet. It’s so large, in fact, that scientists break it into five separate sections, and there’s one particular section that hasn’t got a whole lot of attention due to the difficulty in keeping any craft afloat there. Planes and balloons can visit the troposphere and stratosphere, the two sections closest to the ground, while satellites can sit in orbit in the thermosphere and exosphere, allowing for a platform for consistent observations. But the mesosphere, the section in the middle, is too close to have a stable orbit, but too sparse in air for traditional airplanes or balloons to work. As a result, we don’t have a lot of data on it, but it impacts climate and weather forecasting, so scientists have simply had to make a lot of assumptions about what it's like up there. But a new study from researchers at Harvard and the University of Chicago might have found a way to put stable sensing platforms into the mesosphere, using a novel flight mechanism known as photophoresis. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/sensors-could-permanently-fly-in-the-ignorosphere-using-novel-propulsion-technique

The Stunning Astrogeology of the Apollo Missions Neil Armstrong almost made a mistake. He had found an interesting rock sticking out of a formation. Curious to see what the rock was made of, he needed to examine its interior more closely. So he reached for his hammer and took a swing. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-stunning-astrogeology-of-the-apollo-missions

What is the Moon Made Of? (Hint: It’s Not Cheese) A set of instruments shut off almost 50 years ago are still producing useful results. It’s the seismometers left by the Apollo missions to monitor moonquakes, which as the name suggests are earthquakes but on the Moon. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-is-the-moon-made-of-hint-its-not-cheese