After spending the 1850s at Harvard Observatory calculating orbits, Asaph Hall became an assistant at the U.S. Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C., in 1862. He was quickly promoted, and by 1873 had not only held several scientific discussions with Abraham Lincoln during the president’s visits to the observatory, but had also been put in chargeContinue reading "Aug. 11, 1877: Asaph Hall discovers Deimos"

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The world’s largest solar telescope and advanced computer simulations revealed vortices that are reshaping our understanding of the Sun. Across the Sun’s visible surface, hot plasma is constantly rising, cooling, and sinking. At the edges of these churning regions, researchers have now resolved tiny swirling structures that may help explain how the Sun twists, stores, [...]

A rare total solar eclipse will sweep across parts of Europe on August 12, 2026, briefly turning daylight into darkness as the Moon completely covers the Sun. Europe is about to experience a total solar eclipse, and people around the world will be able to watch it live. The European Space Agency (ESA) will begin [...]

The past, present, and future of this brilliant display

The post Why the Perseids are the Most Famous Meteor Shower appeared first on Nautilus.

The Perseids will be most active on Wednesday into Thursday morning, on the moonless night after a total solar eclipse.

New infrared observations of the Eskimo Nebula, a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula in the constellation of Gemini, reveal clumps of dust, ionized gas and expanding shells surrounding a central star.

The post Webb Captures Stunning Infrared View of Eskimo Nebula appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

The crater could measure 100 feet in diameter

The post Here’s the Crater SpaceX’s Rocket Left on the Moon appeared first on Nautilus.

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission approved an experimental and controversial new satellite being developed by venture Reflect Orbital to reflect sunlight down onto the Earth to illuminate patches of it at night for paying customers.

The purported goal is to allow solar farms to continue generating electricity even after nightfall and provide illumination during emergencies. Those may sound like noble ideas on the surface, but the concept comes with major downsides as well.

One is that such bright satellites could easily wreck deep space observations. Astronomers were appalled at the news, with the FCC receiving nearly nearly 2,000 public comments criticizing the proposal, as Wired reported at the time.

And it’s not just professional astronomers that could be affected, as experts told The Verge. Amateur astronomers gazing up at the prototype mirror satellite, dubbed Eärendil-1 — continuing Silicon Valley’s obsession with borrowing names from JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” — could easily be blinded. Even looking through a 12-inch telescope, a common type used by enthusiasts, could result in permanent eye damage.

It’s a considerable risk to human health that makes the FCC’s approval “extraordinary,” as Royal Astronomical Society deputy executive director Robert Massey told The Verge.

It’s a risk experts have known for decades now. Case in point, observing a similar proposed Russian prototype, dubbed Znamya, could cause damage equivalent to staring at the Sun around a total eclipse, according to a 2000 research article by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. (Russia launched two experimental Znamya space mirror satellites in the 1990s, but later abandoned the program.)

Critics of the FCC’s approval of Reflect Orbital’s plans pointed out the risk of eye damage to the regulator, which wound up being deemed irrelevant and too “small” of a factor compared to the “benefits of permitting American companies to test innovative technology in space.”

As The Verge points out, astronomers won’t even be warned of when and where the mirror satellite will be in the night sky, which could result in them gazing at it inadvertently.

Reflect Orbital spokesperson Christopher Buscombe told the publication that the company is in active talks with “scientists, astronomers, environmental researchers and other stakeholders” and that it will use its initial demonstration satellite to test out built-in safeguards.

The Air Line Pilots Association has also raised concerns over Reflect Orbital’s inadequate approach to air safety. The satellites could also disrupt sleep and the circadian rhythms migratory species.

“The proposed scale of orbital deployment would represent a significant alteration of the natural night-time light environment at a planetary scale,” the presidents of several international chronobiology assocaitions said in a joint statement quoted by The Guardian.

Buscombe told The Verge that the company would limit the amount of light being reflected and calibrate brightness to “levels humans and animals already tolerate.” But experts warn there are far too many variables that the company won’t be able to control for, from light scattering in the atmosphere to interactions with clouds.

Satellites in general are an increasingly controversial topic. The number of spacecraft in low Earth has exploded over the past decade, and many are being delivered at lower altitudes that make them appear even brighter.

“The stars above us are a valued part of human heritage – deploying more than one million exceptionally bright satellites would utterly destroy this and permanently scar the natural landscape,” Massey told The Verge.

More on the satellites: Astronomers Horrified by Enormous Mirror Satellite That Reflects Sunlight Back Down to Earth at Night

The post Scientists Warn That New Satellites Could Cause Eye Damage for People on the Ground appeared first on Futurism.

European scientists are taking advantage of this week’s solar eclipse to test a potentially groundbreaking instrument that could transform the way astronomers study the Sun.

For weeks, a team from the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin has been stationed at Spain’s Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory, preparing to deploy a novel spectrometer ahead of the August 12 eclipse.

On that date, researchers will activate the Circular Slit Spectrometer (CISS), which the Turin-based team says will provide a unique new view of our life-giving star. Specifically, the device will focus on the corona, the outermost portions of the Solar atmosphere, and the hottest part of the Sun.

The 2026 Solar Eclipse: A Trio of Occurrences

This month, skywatchers will be treated to a trio of celestial events: a solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseids meteor shower on August 12, followed by a lunar eclipse between August 27 and 28. The total solar eclipse will be best viewed from parts of Spain, Portugal, Russia, Iceland, and Greenland, while observers across much of Europe, Africa, and North America will experience only a partial eclipse.

To take advantage of the event, the research team traveled from its home base in Padua, northern Italy, to Spain, where years of development work will culminate in the first field test of CISS. The scientists believe the new instrument could significantly improve observations of the Sun’s corona.

Opportunities Arise During the European Eclipse

Spectrometers are among astronomers’ most valuable tools, allowing researchers to analyze the composition of stars and even detect the atmospheres of distant exoplanets by examining subtle changes in starlight.

Closer to home, the Italian team believes CISS can separate the wavelengths of sunlight far more rapidly than existing instruments. That capability could prove especially valuable because the corona drives powerful space weather events capable of disrupting communications, power grids, and GPS systems on Earth and in orbit.

The researchers see the eclipse as the ideal opportunity to test their instrument, since the Moon’s passage in front of the Sun dramatically increases the contrast of the corona against the sky. For the team, the observation marks the culmination of more than two and a half years spent rethinking some of the fundamental design principles behind conventional spectrometers.

CISS: A Spectrometer Unlike Any Other

Unlike traditional spectrometers, which typically rely on a narrow rectangular slit, CISS uses a circular slit. This allows it to “capture the spectrum of the entire corona at a certain distance from the centre of the Sun in a single photograph,” according to principal investigator Federico Landini of the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin.

By redesigning the instrument’s aperture, the researchers say they have reduced the time needed to scan the corona from hours to just minutes. If successful, the eclipse demonstration could pave the way for incorporating the technology into future space missions designed to observe the Sun from closer vantage points.

For now, the team is focused on ensuring the best possible observing conditions. Researchers continue to monitor the weather, with current forecasts appearing favorable for eclipse viewing. To minimize the risk of equipment problems, the team transported CISS from Italy to Spain by van rather than by air, avoiding the need to disassemble the instrument and reducing the possibility of flight delays or cancellations.

Later this week, they will learn whether years of work have produced a breakthrough in solar observation—or simply the next step in refining a promising new technology.

Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org.

Teaching the beautiful and inspirational science of astronomy using only the conceptual framework offered by a traditional textbook – without incorporating the wealth of incredible resources, images and activities from NASA – falls short of the more modern, active learning experience that could better serve students evolving learning strategies. Three project teams from the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) program – NASA Community College Network (NCCN, led by the SETI Institute) and five of their expert community college instructors; Infiniscope (led by Arizona State University, ASU); and NASA Treks – set out to address this challenge. 

In June 2026, these teams gathered for a virtual workshop to lay the groundwork for incorporating active learning components drawn from NASA’s extensive education and visualization resource pool and the widely used but traditionally structured OpenStax Astronomy 101 textbook into Relevant Engaging Active Learning (REAL) courseware for introductory Astronomy, while preserving the core content and clear explanatory narrative of the text. 

Over the following two weeks, the instructors each adopted one of the opening five chapters of OpenStax, enhancing the content with active learning modules with an emphasis on materials developed by SciAct project teams, such as NASA Treks, Universe of Learning, and Cosmic Data Stories, to name a few. The results of their efforts were presented in a wrap-up presentation in July and will be field-tested in community college classrooms in Fall 2026.

This workshop served as a proof of concept for exploring whether an existing textbook can be effectively adapted into an active learning tool that will enhance students’ understanding of fundamental astronomical concepts. Next steps will include expanding the program and diving back into OpenStax to systematically reimagine the material into an active learning tool that covers the entire book – and therefore, the entire Universe! Importantly, this effort highlights new and highly impactful possibilities for the dissemination of NASA SciAct resources.

Special thanks to the five community college instructors and their invaluable wisdom, experience, and skills: Carver Bierson (Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale Arizona), Dan Chase (Modesto Community College, Modesto, California), Dennis Just (Pima Community College, Pima, Arizona), Steve Tuckey (Jackson College, Jackson, Michigan) and Sally Watt (Glendale Community College, Glendale, Arizona).

NCCN, Infiniscope, NASA Treks, and many of the projects that contributed learning materials are supported by NASA cooperative agreement awards and are part of the NASA Science Activation Program portfolio, which connects learners with authentic NASA science experiences through partnerships with educators and community organizations.

Stunning new imagery of the distant celestial object NGC 2392, better known as the “Lion Nebula,” has been obtained by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The cosmic vista captured by Webb reveals a colorful view of the ancient nebula, whose characteristic appearance resembles one of nature’s most respected apex predators, complete with a bushy-looking “mane” composed of hazy stellar gases and objects similar to comets.

The new high-resolution imagery offers one of the clearest and most detailed views of the Lion Nebula ever seen. Previous images captured by Webb’s predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, were obtained in 2000, featuring the same celestial feature in visible light.

With the added spectral ranges Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) can capture, the Lion Nebula now appears in colorful pinks and indigo hues, surrounded by distant galaxies blazing in brilliant orange from across vast cosmic distances, whose light has traveled billions of years to reach our Solar System.

A Lion Roars Across the Cosmos

A particularly striking feature about the new imagery is the way cosmic dust and regions of ionized gas are showcased in the new Webb imagery.

“It’s taken several thousand years for this collection of gas and dust to reach its current shape, and the nebula’s components continue to be altered,” read a portion of a statement released by the European Space Agency (ESA) that accompanied the new images.

One reason that helps account for the changing appearance of the Lion Nebula over time can be found at its center, where the remnants of a slowly dying white dwarf star (which effectively forms the nose in the lion’s face after which the nebula is named) continues to supercharge the surrounding cosmic structures made visible in the new Webb imagery.

The rest of the lion’s face is composed of an expanding bubble of ionized gas, the nature of which remains somewhat mysterious. Presently, astronomers are uncertain about what exact mechanisms give rise to the complex appearance of this gassy bubble and its internal structures, which are a recurring element in ancient nebulae such as this.

NGC 2392 isn’t the only celestial feature known as the “Lion Nebula.” An entirely separate diffuse nebula located in the Cepheus constellation, known as Sharpless 2-132, also shares this nickname due to its shape, which resembles a lion’s body seen from the side.

A Cosmic Visage Frozen in Time  

For now, the Lion Nebula is captured in the Webb imagery, which, despite its almost serene beauty, represents a highly active area of the cosmos, undergoing constant change as material is continually ripped away from the stellar central core.

Sometime in the next 10,000 years or so, this striking celestial feature will eventually be destroyed, once the white dwarf powering the nebula completely dies and the remnants of stellar material are completely dispersed into the surrounding space.

Until then, this remarkable cosmic feature will remain a target of study by astronomers, whose inquiries are helped significantly by the unprecedented clarity offered in the latest Webb images.

Additional information about the Lion Nebula (NGC 2392) can be found on NASA’s official page documenting the Webb MIRI imagery.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

A stunning new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals a comet-shaped cloud in the Carina Nebula hiding a cluster of about 70 young stars, including a rare giant of O-type nearly 19 times as massive as the Sun.

The post Webb Finds Stellar ‘Treasure Chest’ in Carina Nebula appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

An unusual dead star displaying one of the strongest magnetic fields astronomers have ever seen may offer the clearest evidence yet that regions of space appearing to be void of matter are anything but empty.

An international team of astronomers has revealed that the magnetar 1E 1547-5408 displays behavior consistent with vacuum birefringence, a phenomenon first predicted almost a century ago, but never directly observed—until now.

The findings, detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature, were the product of more than 140 hours of observations in 2025 using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), and Australia’s Murriyang radio telescope.

Spying on the Universe’s Most Extreme Objects

Ranking among the most extreme objects known to astronomers, magnetars are a variety of neutron stars that display unusually strong magnetic fields.

These extreme celestial objects pack more mass than our Sun into a region of space spanning only a few miles; yet they also manage to generate magnetic fields that are sometimes as much as trillions of times that of our planet.

For the recent study, scientists focused on 1E 1547-5408, a magnetar that spins once every two seconds. This magnetar is atypical since it also emits both intense X-rays and bright radio waves. Measuring the polarization of light it produces, researchers were able to discern that X-ray polarization was almost three times stronger than expected, based on current models that characterize the star’s surface, as well as the geometry of its magnetic field.

An Unusual Signal Emerges

The observed characteristics were unexpected, and to explain this, the researchers looked to the concept of vacuum birefringence, a phenomenon originally predicted in 1936. This predicts that magnetic fields possessing enough power could potentially alter the vacuum of space.

According to quantum theory, the vacuum of space isn’t truly empty—it is filled with fleeting “virtual” particles, and when subjected to the influence of such a strong magnetic field, the quantum vacuum is predicted to behave like an extremely large optical filter, whereby light that passes through it is subtly changed, with its polarization increasing.

Based on computer simulations, the researchers found that the proposed vacuum birefringence phenomenon produced results that appeared to be consistent with both the X-ray and radio observations.

Hoa Dinh Thi, a researcher at Rice University and the recent study’s co-lead author, said the team’s model “suggests that reproducing the observed X-ray polarization signatures, while also satisfying the constraints set by radio observations, requires the presence of vacuum birefringence in the neutron star’s environment.”

“This finding exemplifies how neutron stars enable us to test fundamental physics in environments not replicable in labs on Earth,” Thi added.

Although the team says further observations will be required to confirm their findings, their current results offer the strongest evidence to date for one of the longest-standing predictions in quantum physics.

If confirmed through future observations of magnetars, such findings could reveal the presence of other exotic phenomena that may provide astronomers with a unique opportunity to explore the fundamental nature of space itself—and potentially even more surprises in regions of the cosmos that were long assumed to be “empty.”

The recent study, “Vacuum birefringence and the polarized X-ray emission from a radio magnetar,” appeared in the journal Nature. 

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

On Aug. 10, 1990, the Magellan orbiter arrived at Venus and was inserted into orbit. Its goal was to map the surface of the planet, using radar to peer beneath the cloudy atmosphere. Launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1989, Magellan was the first deep space probe launched from a shuttle. Budget constraintsContinue reading "Aug. 10, 1990: Magellan enters venusian orbit"

The post Aug. 10, 1990: Magellan enters venusian orbit appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

An unexpected way to go for a star 20 times the size of our sun

The post This Supernova Death of a Star Broke All the Rules appeared first on Nautilus.

The economist John Maynard Keynes once remarked, “In the long run we are all dead.” From an astronomical standpoint, this is true for the Earth itself. In roughly 5 billion years, the Sun will exhaust the hydrogen at its core and enter the next phase of its life as a Red Giant, where it will swell up large enough to engulf and destroy the Earth.

Currently, the Sun is still in its main-sequence phase, where it fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. Although it remains relatively stable during this phase, it will gradually grow brighter with time. As the Sun shines brighter, the increased heat and radiation will raise Earth’s surface temperature, potentially pushing it past the threshold for life to survive. 

One of Earth’s geological processes that helps regulate its surface temperature is the carbon cycle. Over millions of years, carbon moves from the Earth’s interior into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or CO₂, where it functions as a greenhouse gas that traps heat. Plants take in this CO₂ through photosynthesis and move carbon through the biosphere. 

Meanwhile, rain and rock weathering draw carbon into the oceans and rocks. By pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere, the carbon cycle could mitigate Earth’s warming as the Sun brightens over time. Today, human activities are increasing atmospheric CO₂ and warming the planet. However, over billions of years, the carbon cycle could gradually remove enough CO₂ from the atmosphere that eventually too little would remain to support photosynthesis. 

With these challenges to life on Earth in mind, the researchers Jacob Haqq‐Misra and Eric Wolf investigated how long Earth’s biosphere could last in the distant future. The team used computer models to calculate the balance of energy that Earth would receive and emit over time, accounting for the effects of increasing sunlight and changing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. They followed this up with calculations using the ExoCAM model to determine the temperature and atmospheric conditions of future Earth across different latitudes. They related these conditions to a habitability metric to determine their impact on the biosphere.

To estimate the biosphere’s maximum possible lifespan, the team conducted 29 simulations representing the planet’s conditions over the next 2 billion years. In one set of simulations, the Earth’s carbon cycle contributed little to regulating surface temperature, with the atmosphere’s CO₂ concentration fixed at approximately modern levels of 400 parts per million (ppm) and surface temperatures continuing to increase. In another, the carbon cycle worked to keep Earth’s average surface temperature fixed at the modern average of approximately 59℉ (15℃), no matter how much it had to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. 

In the scenario with a fixed CO₂ concentration, the team found that in 1.7 billion years, Earth’s surface reached an average of 122°F (50°C), which is too hot for most land plants. After 1.9 billion years, it reached 149°F (65°), becoming too hot for all land plants to survive as temperatures continued to rise. 

They also found that in the fixed average surface temperature scenario, atmospheric CO₂ dropped below the 150 ppm level that most plants require for photosynthesis within 500 million years. After 1.4 billion years, CO₂ levels fell below 10 ppm, leaving only a few land photosynthesizers and aquatic plants alive. After about 1.8 billion years, atmospheric CO₂ dropped to 1 ppm, leaving only microbes capable of photosynthesis.

The researchers’ findings generally extend the estimated lifetime of Earth’s future biosphere compared with earlier, simpler models that suggested maximum lifespans of 100 million to 1.5 billion years. However, they clarified that other scientists should verify their results by running tests with other models, especially under extreme conditions of high incoming solar radiation and low atmospheric CO₂. 

Lastly, Haqq‐Misra and Wolf noted that their model did not account for major evolutionary changes that could help life adapt to future conditions. Over time, plants could evolve to tolerate higher temperatures or lower atmospheric CO₂ levels. Future humans or another intelligent species might also engage in large-scale geoengineering projects to prevent the end of life on Earth. If life on Earth proves adaptable enough, the biosphere may endure until a Red Giant fills the daytime sky.

The post The long-term fate of Earth’s biosphere appeared first on Sciworthy.