Subsurface Oceans

“Not all of these satellites are known to have oceans, but we know that some do,” said lead author Max Rudolph, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis. “We’re interested in the processes that shape their evolution over millions of years, and this allows us to think about what the surface expression of an ocean world would be.”

Despite their liquid water and potential for habitability, these moons are very different environments from Earth. On Earth, the surface geology stems from underground rock activity: the hot core melts rock into lava, and tectonic plates shift. Icy moons, however, are shaped by the actions of ice and water rather than hot rocks.

The tidal forces from the planets they orbit provide the moons with subsurface heat, which keeps their oceans liquid. Since a planet like Saturn has many moons, those bodies can interact as they orbit, increasing or decreasing heating for a period. As the heat increases, the thick layer of ice covering the moon may begin to melt and thin, then thicken again as the heating subsides.

The Geology of Icy Moons

The researchers investigated the effects of this activity over time. Typically, the ice shell would thin or thicken from underneath. Since ice has a greater volume than liquid water, more water would be squeezed into a smaller space as the ice thickened. This means that the shell would be under increased pressure to contain the water beneath it, which may be a potential explanation for the “tiger stripes” seen on Enceladus.

However, the researchers also considered the opposite scenario, when the shell begins to melt. Surprisingly, this could cause the ocean to boil, the team says. With an increase in relatively low-density liquid water, the pressure beneath the shell would drop. On some smaller moons of Uranus’s Miranda and Saturn’s Mimas and Enceladus, that pressure drop could reach such an extreme that ice, liquid water, and water vapor could all co-exist at the same time.

The ridges and cliffs on Miranda, observed by the Voyager 2 space probe, may be the result of such ocean boiling, the researchers suggest. At a mere 250 miles wide, Mimas is a tiny moon nicknamed “Death Star” for a large, prominent crater that makes it reminiscent of the space station from the Star Wars films. Although observations suggest that Mimas is geologically dead, a wobble in the moon’s orbit is indicative of a subsurface ocean. The strange contradiction of a liquid ocean and geologically frozen surface is reconciled by the fact that its ice shell is estimated to be strong enough that tanning would not crack it.

Cracking the Shell

Larger moons fare far differently. The icy covering of Uranus’s moon Titania would likely experience cracks well before ice melt would allow water to reach the triple point, according to the team’s calculations. Therefore, the team believes that the surface geology on Titania is likely driven by the thickening and thinning of its ice shell.

The new paper shows how even within a relatively small category of objects within our local solar system, such as icy moons, very different conditions may be present. Geology explains the surface features of planets like our own as they develop over tremendous periods of time. In the new research, it is revealed that geology influenced by factors very different from our own can also explain an object’s surface evolution.

The paper, “Boiling Oceans and Compressional Tectonics on Emerging Ocean Worlds,” appeared in Nature Astronomy on November 24, 2025.

• 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, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

30-11-2025 om 17:56 geschreven door peter  

By Ashley Strickland

The latest images of an interstellar comet shared by NASA have captured how an array of spacecraft witnessed a flyby that was truly out of this world, revealing clues to the object’s composition.

Astronomers first detected the rare comet, known as 3I/ATLAS, on July 1. It’s only the third observed interstellar object, or ISO, to originate outside of our solar system and pass through it.

When the interstellar comet flew by the red planet in October, multiple NASA missions pivoted from their explorations to capture tantalizing images of the object that originated outside of our solar system.

Stacked images of 3I/ATLAS, taken by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft, show it speeding at 130,000 miles per hour in September. 

NASA/Lowell Observatory/Qicheng Zhang

The US space agency released the new observations on Wednesday since it had been unable to share them during the government shutdown.

While none of the spacecraft have cameras perfectly designed to spot comets zipping by at speeds up to about 153,000 miles per hour (246,000 kilometers per hour), astronomers didn’t want to miss what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“It’s a little bit as if our NASA spacecraft were at a baseball game, watching the game from different places in the stadium,” said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA. “Everybody has got a camera and they’re trying to get a picture of the ball and nobody has a perfect view, and everybody has a different camera.”

The Lucy spacecraft captured a faint halo of gas and dust around the comet on September 16. 

NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL

Missions capture images of a rare interstellar comet

Nearly 20 mission teams collaborated to capture images of the comet, said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Everything we’re learning about the comet is possible because of the distribution of all of the different instruments on our spacecraft with different capabilities,” Fox said. “We’ve even pushed our scientific instruments beyond the things that they were designed to achieve, to allow us to capture this amazing glimpse at this interstellar traveler.”

Ahead of the Martian flyby in September, the Lucy and Psyche spacecraft, en route to study asteroids, and solar-focused missions, like the Parker Solar Probe, SOHO and PUNCH, caught glimpses of the comet in action.

Combining the data from Lucy and Psyche with Earth-based telescopes can reveal more about the three-dimensional structure of the comet and the nature of the dust coming off of it due to the heat of the sun, Statler said.

“It’s a rare opportunity to compare ancient dust from a distant solar system to that from our own,” he said.

3I/ATLAS appears as a faint smudge against a background of stars from the Perseverance rover's perspective on October 4. 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Perseverance rover also tracked the comet as it zoomed past the red planet in October. The orbiter was the spacecraft physically closest to the comet, Fox said.

The comet arrived at its closest point to the sun when Earth was on the wrong side for ground-based telescopes to conveniently observe, but Mars had optimal viewing conditions, according to Statler. “Our Mars assets were able to observe the comet, and also several of our other spacecraft were on the correct side of the sun,” he said. “We could not get this view from the vantage point of the Earth.”

Two spacecraft that will study Jupiter and its moons, Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, and Europa Clipper, will also aim to capture the comet’s movements as it nears the orbit of Jupiter in the spring.

The comet came within about 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) of Mars on October 3. The ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which has been circling the red planet since 2016, was about 10 times closer to the comet than telescopes on Earth — and it captured images from an angle that Earth-based telescopes couldn’t see. The fresh perspective on 3I/ATLAS enabled scientists to predict the comet’s future path with a tenfold jump in accuracy.

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A multitude of other spacecraft, including the Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes, have also observed the object.

While scientists have been using telescopes around the world to study 3I/ATLAS, spacecraft missions provide some key observational advantages, said Dr. Theodore Kareta, planetary astronomer and assistant professor in the department of astrophysics and planetary science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Cameras and instruments on different spacecraft are geared toward various goals and measurements, and they can provide distinct vantage points that might be otherwise impossible to capture, he said.

“Comets are three-dimensional objects, and looking at them from different angles will give us a much clearer picture of not just where they are and the trajectory they’re on, but also how large the nucleus of the comet is and the nature of any structures or patterns we can see in its atmosphere,” Kareta said.

Scientists currently think the comet is anywhere from a couple of thousand feet to a couple of miles in diameter, but they are still refining their measurements, Statler said.

Psyche tracked 3I/ATLAS over the course of eight hours on September 8 and 9 when the comet was about 33 million miles from the spacecraft. 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

A comet’s behavior

NASA officials were also quick to address rumors that have swirled around the comet’s interstellar nature, including the idea that it’s an alien spacecraft.

“It looks and behaves like a comet, and all evidence points to it being a comet,” said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. “But this one came from outside the solar system, which makes it fascinating, exciting and scientifically very important.”

Fox said that NASA’s close monitoring of the comet since its discovery has not yielded any evidence that would lead them to believe it was anything other than a natural celestial object, like technosignatures — a signal that could be created by extraterrestrial life.

“But the super cool thing is not that it’s exactly like all the comets that we see in our solar system,” Fox said. “It’s the differences that are so tantalizing for us.”

Kshatriya said he was actually excited to see much of the world speculating about the comet while NASA was unable to share comment about it due to the constraints of the recent shutdown.

“It expanded people’s brains to think about how magical the universe could be,” he said. “In fact, we want very much to find signs of life in the universe. But 3I/ Atlas is a comet.”

Comparing 3I/ATLAS with more common comets

The comet made its closest approach of the sun on October 30, coming within 130 million miles (210 million kilometers) according to NASA.

A comet that originates within our solar system is like a dirty snowball. Its nucleus, or solid core, is a frozen mashup of rock, gas, dust and ice leftover from the formation of the stars, planets and other celestial bodies. As comets approach stars like our sun, they heat up, forming tails of sublimating material that streak behind them.

The MAVEN orbiter captured the comet in ultraviolet light, spying its hydrogen atoms on September 28. 

NASA/Goddard/LASP/CU Boulder

Because 3I/ATLAS is from another solar system, astronomers are eager to see how different or similar its composition is to the comets they are used to witnessing.

3I/ATLAS has been releasing more carbon dioxide than water, and more nickel than iron, compared with comets that originated in our solar system — something that is still being investigated, Statler said.

The comet has also shown increased activity, which has caused some observers to question whether the object broke apart during its close pass of the sun.

The “jets” observed releasing from the comet can mean there are particularly active areas on the surface of the comet where more material is evaporating than elsewhere, Statler said.

“Comets frequently show ‘jets’ or ’spiral’ features in their inner atmospheres related to which parts of their surfaces are active and releasing gas and dust, so taking a picture of them from one angle only can be challenging to interpret,” Kareta added.

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Astronomers discover two populations of unusual dark comets in our solar system

Now, the object is starting to reappear on the other side of our star for Earth-based telescopes. The object will swing within 168 million miles (270 million kilometers) of Earth on December 19 before beginning to make its way out of our solar system.

The SOHO mission spied the comet between October 15 and 16. 

Lowell Observatory/Qicheng Zhang

“The fact that so many NASA missions have tried observing this interstellar visitor should tell you how seriously we all take this opportunity,” Kareta said. “Interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS are fundamentally rare, and ISOs as bright as 3I should be rarer still — this object might very well be the ISO we learn the most about for many years to come.”

While the exact age of the comet is unknown, the object’s speed suggests it is much older than anything in our solar system, Statler said.

“3I/ATLAS is not just a window into another solar system, it’s a window into the deep past — and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our sun,” Statler said.

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29-11-2025 om 17:08 geschreven door peter  

Since the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered this past July — just the third confirmed object to arrive from another star — astronomers have been closely following its passage through our solar system.

As the icy visitor brightened on its coast toward the sun, the public narrative brightened too, with online rumors casting it as a possible alien spacecraft during the recent 43-day-long government shutdown when NASA could not comment on the object or release new images. Last week, with the shutdown over, NASA held a long-awaited briefing in which it shared observations and early analysis from more than 20 missions across the solar system, assembling the most complete picture yet of this rare visitor — and made one point immediately clear: 3I/ATLAS is of natural origin, not an example of alien technology.

"We very much want to find signs of life in the universe," NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said during the briefing. "But 3I/ATLAS is a comet."

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, imaged by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

3) A rare window into distant, older star systems

Scientists say that 3I/ATLAS has likely been traveling through interstellar space for a long time. Based on how fast it was moving upon entering the solar system, Statler said the circumstantial evidence points to the comet originating in a very old planetary system, possibly one older than our own.

That "gives me goosebumps to think about, frankly," he said, noting that 3I/ATLAS may reveal insights into cosmic history that predates the formation of both Earth and the sun.

"It is a new window into the makeups and histories of other solar systems," he said.

4) Intriguing chemical clues

So far, 3I/ATLAS has behaved exactly as a comet should as it warms near the sun, shedding water and carbon dioxide, but with some intriguing twists. Scientists have detected a higher-than-usual ratio of carbon dioxide to water compared with typical solar system comets, as well as gas unusually rich in nickel relative to iron. Both findings are scientifically compelling and worth further investigation, researchers said.

The dust around the comet also shows slightly atypical properties, suggesting its grain sizes differ from those of local comets. One especially curious behavior was the dust was initially blown toward the sunward side before solar radiation gradually pushed it back, a longer and less common sequence than scientists usually observe in homegrown comets.

"We're still learning even about what questions we still need to ask," said Statler. "And this, of course, is the scientific process in action."

Like this article? For more stories like this, follow us on MSN by clicking the +Follow button at the top of this page

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29-11-2025 om 16:47 geschreven door peter  

100,000 mph 'comet fragment' explodes in green fireball over Great Lakes, eerie videos show

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28-11-2025 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

An international team of researchers has managed to record electrical discharges on Mars for the first time. These discharges originate from dust devils.

Martian winds constantly stir up whirlwinds of fine dust, which regularly appear in photographs taken by rovers exploring the Red Planet. Scientists have long suspected that these whirlwinds are capable of generating electrical charges. The mechanism of the phenomenon is as follows. As a result of friction between tiny dust particles, they become charged with electrons and then release their charge in the form of electric arcs several centimeters long, accompanied by audible shock waves.

It is well known on Earth that dust particles can become electrically charged, especially in desert regions, although this rarely leads to actual discharges. On Mars, due to its thin atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, the probability of this phenomenon occurring is much higher. This is because the amount of charge required to form sparks is much less than on Earth.

In order to confirm the existence of electrical discharges on Mars, a team of French scientists analyzed data collected by the microphone of the SuperCam instrument installed on board the Perseverance rover. They managed to identify electromagnetic and acoustic signatures comparable to small static electricity discharges that can be experienced on Earth by touching a door handle in dry weather. Their source was two dust devils.

The discovery of electrical discharges radically changes our understanding of the chemistry of the Martian atmosphere. It shows that the atmosphere of the Red Planet can reach a sufficient charge level to accelerate the formation of highly oxidizing compounds. Such substances can destroy organic molecules on the surface, as well as numerous atmospheric compounds, thereby profoundly disrupting the photochemical balance. The discovery may explain the surprisingly rapid disappearance of methane on Mars, which has been the subject of scientific debate for several years.

The electrical charges required for these discharges likely influence dust transport on Mars, playing a central role in the Martian climate, the dynamics of which remain largely unknown. They may also pose a risk to the electronic equipment of current robotic missions and create a hazard for potential future human missions.

• According to CNRS

• Posted in News, Science

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28-11-2025 om 17:41 geschreven door peter  

Russian launch pad 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been damaged. This could disrupt the supply schedule for the International Space Station.

The accident occurred during the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket was damaged during lift-off from the launch pad. Judging by the live broadcast footage, the service cabin located under the launch pad and designed to provide access to the lower stages of the rocket collapsed. It is deployed during operations and retracted into a concrete niche before launch.

Launch pad number 31 is currently the only Russian launch complex suitable for manned launches of Soyuz spacecraft. It is also used to launch Progress supply vehicles.

At this point, it is unknown how serious the damage is and how it may affect the ISS. Prolonged repairs to the complex could disrupt the station’s supply schedule and crew rotation. The next launch from launch pad 31 (Progress MS-33) is scheduled for December 19.

It is worth noting that Roscosmos has acknowledged the accident. However, its official statement claims that all the necessary spare parts are available to repair the launch complex and that the damage will be repaired in the near future.

As for the Soyuz MS-28, it did not sustain any damage. The spacecraft has already successfully docked with the ISS.

• Posted in News, Tech

 { https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

28-11-2025 om 17:32 geschreven door peter  

The team’s discovery was reported on November 17 in a new paper that appeared in Geophysical Research Letters.

An antenna sticks out like whiskers from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in this artist’s concept depicting the spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. This antenna is part of SHARAD, a radar that peers below the Martian surface.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Discovery Below Martian Ice

In 2018, NASA first revealed the discovery of a mysterious feature beneath the Red Planet’s south pole, sparking a surge in interest over the possibility that a subsurface lake might exist there.

The discovery offered a tantalizing prospect, due primarily to the obvious associatio

However, new findings reported by a pair of MRO Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument scientists, Gareth Morgan and Than Putzig, throw cold water on the subsurface lake theory, pointing instead to the likelihood that this unusual feature hidden beneath the icy Martian south pole isn’t water at all, but instead a thick layer of rock and dust.

Based at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and in Lakewood, Colorado, Morgan and Putzig now say that their use of radar techniques made possible by SHARAD may be useful in future reconnaissance of the Red Planet, as scientists continue to search for subsurface resources like water that might not only be home to life, but which could be crucial for the survival of future crewed missions to Mars.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured this view of Mars’ south polar ice cap Feb. 25, 2015. Three years later, the spacecraft detected a signal from the area to the right of the ice cap that scientists interpreted as an underground lake.

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

A Special Rolling Maneuver

To obtain the recent data, the MRO performed a unique maneuver that involves rolling 120 degrees, which allows the SHARAD radar’s signal to penetrate deeper underground, and thereby producing enhanced imagery of the Martian subsurface regions it penetrates.

Use of this specialized technique has already proven to be effective enough in the past that scientists are now eager to use it at other sites on the Red Planet, including those where past observations may not have revealed promising indications of buried subsurface ice.

Previously, the researchers and their colleagues with the SHARAD team had unsuccessfully tried to observe the Martian South Pole region where the suspected lake existed. To overcome this, the SHARAD team went to the MRO’s operations team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to work on finding a way of increasing the size of the spacecraft’s rolls.

With the MRO’s radar antenna located near the back of the spacecraft, its body shields its view, which weakens the sensitivity of the instrument. However, JPL engineers were able to find a workaround with a little help from engineers at Lockheed Martin Space who built the spacecraft: this resulted in a series of commands that enabled the spacecraft to complete a 120-degree roll, allowing the MRO to direct its radar’s signal more effectively at the Martian surface

This map shows the approximate area where in 2018 ESA’s Mars Express detected a signal the mission’s scientists interpreted as an underground lake. The red lines show the path of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which flew both directly overhead as well as over an adjacent region.

Credit: Planetary Science Institute

Large Rolls Lead to Stronger Signals

The plan came to fruition earlier this year, when in late May SHARAD completed its initial very large roll, which successfully struck the target area. Penetrating nearly a mile of ice, the radar’s reflections revealed that the unusual subsurface feature that has intrigued scientists since its discovery in 2018 was likely not what they initially thought it might be.

“We’ve been observing this area with SHARAD for almost 20 years without seeing anything from those depths,” said Putzig in a statement. Now, with the data made possible by the MRO’s large roll, deeper radar penetration revealed a fainter signal than Putzig and Morgan expected, followed by no signal at all from an adjacent region they examined.

Their conclusion: something is causing the odd radar signal at the same location, revealed during past observations made using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Express orbiter.

“While this new data won’t settle the debate, it makes it very hard to support the idea of a liquid water lake,” said Putzig in a statement, acknowledging the work that went into formulating the subsurface lake hypothesis.

Since the Martian south pole features a large cap of ice positioned above the planet’s very cratered terrain, the region beneath the icy exterior revealed with the SHARAD data appears very uneven. One possibility that could account for the 2018 observations made by MARSIS could be a large smooth feature, such as the remnants of an ancient flow of lava.

Going forward, additional observations using the MRO’s new very large roll capability could help to resolve the mystery once and for all, in addition to revealing clues to other longstanding mysteries associated with sites like Medusae Fossae along the Martian equator, which is also known to produce little in the way of radar returns.

Morgan, Putzig, and their colleagues’ paper, “High Frequency Radar Perspective of Putative Subglacial Liquid Water on Mars,” appeared in Geophysical Research Letters on November 17, 2025.

• 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.

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28-11-2025 om 15:35 geschreven door peter  

Fluisteringen van het Heelal: Een Wetenschappelijke Verkenning van Extraterrestrische Signalen en Kosmische Mysteries

Inleiding

De menselijke fascinatie voor het buitenaardse en het onbekende is al even oud als de mensheid zelf. Sinds de vroege geschiedenis van de mythologie en de astronomische observaties is de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven en de mysteries van het heelal een universeel thema geweest. In het moderne tijdperk, gekenmerkt door technologische vooruitgang en uitgebreide wetenschappelijke onderzoeken, blijft deze fascinatie onverminderd. Het online artikel "Whispers of the Cosmos," gepubliceerd door Alienated Media op 27 december 2024, vertegenwoordigt een synthese van poëtische beschrijvingen en wetenschappelijke observaties, die samen een beeld schetsen van de recente ontdekkingen en de resterende raadsels die het heelal omhullen. In deze scriptie wordt het artikel kritisch geanalyseerd, waarbij de kernwetenschappelijke aspecten worden uitgelicht en gekoppeld aan bredere kosmische vraagstukken, inclusief andere kosmische raadsels en patroonmodellen die de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven en de aard van het universum kenmerken.

AFBEELDING GECREEERD DOOR ARTIEST

Signalen uit Kepler-186f: Een Voorbode of Simpel Toeval?

Een van de meest intrigerende elementen uit het artikel is de melding van 'fluisteringen' – zwakke radiofrequenties die van de exoplaneet Kepler-186f zouden komen. Deze planeet bevindt zich in de leefbare zone van een rode dwergster, op ongeveer 490 lichtjaar afstand van de aarde. De onderzoekers van het SETI-instituut meldden een laagfrequente, smalle-band-band emissie die herhaaldelijk werd waargenomen en niet kon worden toegeschreven aan bekende natuurlijke of menselijke bronnen.

De wetenschappelijke bron, artikel gepubliceerd in The Astrophysical Journal (juni 2024), geeft aan dat de herhaalde waarnemingen aanleiding geven tot optionele interpretaties; maar het blijft onzeker of deze signalen daadwerkelijk duiden op buitenaardse intelligentie. Dr. Maya Patel, die leiding geeft aan de onderzoeksgroep, geeft aan: “We hebben terrestrische interferentie en natuurlijke bronnen uitgesloten, maar de herkomst blijft ambigu.” Deze voorzichtigheid is kenmerkend voor de moderne wetenschappelijke houding – het bevestigen van het bestaan van buitenaardse communicatie vereist meer bewijs dan een enkele waarneming.

De zoektocht naar intelligente signalen uit exoplanetensystemen is niet nieuw. Sinds de beginjaren van SETI is men betrokken bij de poging om technologische signaturen te detecteren die niet natuurlijk kunnen worden verklaard. De verkenning van Kepler-186f voegt een nieuw hoofdstuk toe aan deze zoektocht, die vaak wordt gekleurd door populaire media en UFO-verhalen. Het onderscheid tussen serieus wetenschappelijk onderzoek en de volksverhalen over UFO’s en buitenaardse contacten blijft een breed debatpunt.

Illustratie van de aarde-achtige exoplaneet Kepler-186f. 

(Science)

Op een hoger abstractieniveau kunnen deze signalen worden geïnterpreteerd als een mogelijke component binnen het framework van SETI, dat de speurtocht naar technologische 'activiteiten' in het heelal betreft. Tegelijkertijd past deze waarneming binnen het patroon van signalen die worden aangemerkt als ‘possible communicatiesignalen’ of natuurlijke ruis, een proces dat zich herhaalt in verschillende exoplaneet-systemen. Daarmee wordt de vraag gesteld: is het mogelijke bewijs van buitenaards intelligent leven (BEL) een uitzondering, of een regel die we nog niet volledig kunnen plaatsen binnen onze wetenschappelijke paradigma's?

Donkere Materie en de Kosmische Raadsels

Een andere kernaspect uit het artikel is de verwijzing naar de ‘fluisteringen van donkere materie’, dat ongeveer 27% uitmaakt van de totale massa-energie van het heelal. Donkere materie is sinds de ontdekking van haar existentie in de jaren 1970 een van de grootste raadsels van de kosmologie. Ondanks uitgebreide observaties, waaronder de recente gegevens van de Euclid-telescope van het European Space Agency (ESA), blijft haar aard ondoorgrondelijk.

De gravitational lensing-effecten die door Euclid zijn gemeten, verstrekken gedetailleerdere inzichten in de verdeling en aanwezigheid van donkere materie, maar vormen geen aanwijzingen voor haar bestaan als een deeltje dat interactie heeft met licht of materie op een directe wijze. Dr. Luis Ortega van CERN wijst op de limieten van onze kennis: “We kunnen de voetsporen zien, maar de dader blijft verborgen.”

De invloed van donkere materie op de structuurvorming in het heelal is enorm. Zonder haar zou het universum niet de grote kosmische structuur kunnen hebben ontwikkeld zoals wij dat nu waarnemen. Hoewel donkere materie niet rechtstreeks lijkt te opereren binnen de context van UFO-rapportages (die doorgaans betrekking hebben op zichtbare, verdachte of niet-natuurlijke verschijnselen), stimuleert haar mysterieuze aard bredere speculaties over onbekende krachten en dimensies die verder gaan dan de huidige wetenschappelijke modellen.

Naast donkere materie kun je het patroon van zogenaamde ‘onverklaarbare verschijnselen’ op grote schaal binnen het universum opmerken, waaronder de waarnemingen van anomalieën in de kosmische achtergrondstraling en mogelijk zelfs fenomenen die wijzen op extra dimensies of multiversa. Deze theorieën bieden een kader waarin de onverklaarbare en onzichtbare aspecten van het heelal worden geïntegreerd, en bieden wellicht een breder kosmisch raamwerk waarin de ‘fluisteringen’ en mysteries kunnen passen.

Nieuwe Horizons en de Voortdurende Ontdekkingen

De rol van de ruimteverkenner New Horizons in deze context is cruciaal, hoewel niet direct gericht op het detecteren van buitenaardse bewijzen. Sinds diens succesvolle flyby van Pluto in 2015 verzamelt de missie data over de uiterste regionen van ons zonnestelsel en de Kuiper-asteroïdenbelt. De uitgebreide instrumentatie, ontworpen voor het meten van elektromagnetische signalen en fysische kenmerken, wordt beschouwd als een basislijn voor het detecteren van afwijkingen die kunnen wijzen op natuurlijke of artificiële bronnen.

Mission manager Emily Zhang benadrukt dat deze missie, ondanks haar oorspronkelijke doelstellingen, waardevolle gegevens levert die kunnen worden gebruikt om het elektromagnetische landschap van het heelal nader te bestuderen. De mogelijkheid dat buitenaardse signalen zich kunnen manifesteren als fonkelende zwaluwen in het elektromagnetisch spectrum wordt door haar en andere astrofysici niet uitgesloten.

Hoewel New Horizons niet specifiek is ontworpen voor UFO-detectie, illustreert haar rol het belang van langdurige, diepe-ruimte verkenningen waarin anomalieën kunnen worden gedocumenteerd en begrepen. Door systematisch gegevens te vergelijken en anomalieën te rangschikken kunnen wetenschappers patronen ontdekken die wellicht passen binnen groter kosmisch raamwerk, inclusief patronen die nu nog als ‘ongeïdentificeerd’ worden beschouwd.

Patroon herhaling en kosmische resonantie: nieuwe mustertheorieën

Naast de genoemde thema's is het belangrijk om in deze context ook andere patroonmodellen te overwegen die de kosmische raadsels kunnen verrijken. De wetenschap heeft zich bijvoorbeeld verdiept in de concepten van ‘kosmische resonantie’ en ‘patroonherhaling’ op grote schaal.

Het idee van resonantie in het heelal stelt dat bepaalde frequenties en patronen zich herhalen op verschillende schaalniveaus, van kwantummechanica tot galactische structuren. Het bekende voorbeeld hiervan is de ‘Galactische Ring’, een structureel patroon dat opnieuw lijkt te verschijnen in verschillende galactische schema’s, vergelijkbaar met muzikale resonanties die zich in verschillende toonhoogtes manifesteren. Sommige wetenschappers speculeren dat dergelijke patronen mogelijk verbonden zijn met onderliggende fundamentele natuurkrachten – of zelfs met hogere dimensies en multiversa – en dat zij als 'kosmische signalen' kunnen fungeren die wij willen interpreteren als mogelijke communicatie of raadsels.

Daarnaast worden patronen zoals de ‘delende fractalen’ in de structuur van het universum, en de herhaalde patronen in de kosmische achtergrondstraling, vaak aangevoerd als bewijs dat het heelal mogelijk is ingericht volgens een ‘cosmisch architectonisch patroon’. Hoewel deze theorieën nog controversieel blijven, geven ze ruimte voor nieuwe interpretaties waarin het universele patroon zich uitstrekt tot het onzichtbare en het onbekende, en wellicht zelfs tot verborgen communicatie met buitenaardse intelligenties.

Conclusie

De analyse van het artikel "Whispers of the Cosmos" onthult dat hoewel de recente wetenschappelijke observaties – van de exoplaneet Kepler-186f tot dark matter en de buitenplanetaire verkenningen met New Horizons – veel vragen oproepen, zij vooral de complexiteit en de mysterieuze aard van ons heelal onderstrepen. De waarnemingen van potentiële buitenaardse signalen blijven voorlopig in de sfeer van probabilistische plausibiliteit; ze vereisen meer bewijs en gedegen analyse voordat zij kunnen worden bestempeld als bewijs van buitenaards intelligent leven.

Tegelijkertijd weven deze waarnemingen zich in de bredere context van kosmische raadsels en patroonmodellen die het universum mogelijk volgens hogere ordeningen of resonantieprincipes laten functioneren. Donkere materie en energie, de patronen in de kosmische structuren, en de onbestemde signalen uit exoplaneet-systemen maken onderdeel uit van een groter intellectueel mozaïek dat nog lang niet volledig doorgrond is.

De rol van technologische instrumenten zoals New Horizons wijst op een belangrijke factor – dat systematisch, langdurig en geïntegreerd onderzoek noodzakelijk is voor het ontmaskeren van het onbekende. Gelijktijdig onderstrepen these ontdekkingen dat de meest waardevolle kennis voortkomt uit een combinatie van poëtische nieuwsgierigheid en rigoureuze wetenschappelijke methodologie.

De voortdurende zoektocht naar antwoorden op deze kosmische fluisteringen vereist niet alleen technologische vooruitgang en fundamenteel wetenschappelijk onderzoek, maar ook een open geest en een bereidheid om de patronen in het heelal te ontdekken die misschien meer vertellen dan wij nu kunnen vermoeden. Het is vooral aan de menshheid om de juiste vragen te blijven stellen en de antwoordende fluisteringen van het heelal te blijven luisteren.

Bronnen:

• The Astrophysical Journal, juni 2024
• Euclid Space Telescope Data, European Space Agency
• Interviews met Dr. Maya Patel (SETI Institute) en Dr. Luis Ortega (CERN)
• Observaties van New Horizons, NASA/ESA
• Theoretische modellen over kosmische patronen en resonanties

{ PETER2011 }

27-11-2025 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled as a mysterious halo of red light appears over a small Italian town for the second time in 3 years

• READ MORE: Dark matter is seen for the first time in eerie image  

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have been baffled by a mysterious halo of red light that has appeared over a small Italian town for the second time in three years.

An incredible image captures the bizarre UFO–like ring floating above Possagno, a tiny town in the foothills of the Italian Alps.

The photograph was taken by photographer Valter Binotto, who watched as the glowing structure flashed in the sky at 10:45 local time on November 17.

Strangely, this ring bears a striking resemblance to another red halo that was spotted by Mr Binotto in the same location in March 2023.

This year's halo was estimated to be 150 miles (200 kilometres) across and hovered at an altitude of around 60 miles (100 kilometres).

However, Mr Binotto does not believe that there are any extraterrestrial forces to blame.

Instead, these rings are likely to be a rare lighting–related phenomenon called an 'emission of light and very low–frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources', or ELVEs for short.

These glowing rings are so rare that they were only discovered by NASA in the 1990s, making spotting two over the same tiny town extremely unlikely.

A photographer has captured a baffling image of a red UFO–like halo floating over the small Italian town of Possagno (pictured)

Scientists believe that ELVEs are triggered when enormously powerful lightning bolts send an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) shooting through the upper atmosphere.

These pulses collide with a part of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere, which stretches between 50 and 400 miles (80–644 kilometres) above the ground.

Here, the electromagnetic radiation excites charged particles of nitrogen, causing them to give off a red glow.

This is a similar process to how electromagnetic radiation from the sun causes the glow of the Northern Lights.

However, ELVEs are enormously difficult to photograph because they only last for one thousandth of a second.

That is 100 times less time than it takes for you to blink.

For this reason, Mr Binotto says he has to use a specialised camera setup to record extremely high–framerate video and start recording as soon as the right conditions arise.

When the lightning has passed, he is then able to select the few frames when the ELVE is visible.

This is the second time that a red ring has appeared over the town, with a similar structure appearing in March 2023

But, even with all this preparation and years of attempts, Mr Binotto has only ever captured an ELVE on three occasions.

Mr Binotto told Daily Mail: 'It is a very rare phenomenon. Only a few lightning strikes are capable of generating it, and sometimes they occur when conditions are not suitable for photographing them – because it is daytime, the sky is covered with clouds, or simply because I am asleep.

'With the first one, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had seen others in photos, but never so powerful and well–defined. Even with the others, the emotion was immense.'

Given that these events are so rare and difficult to spot, it might seem unusual that two have been seen above Possagno in just two years.

However, this strange coincidence likely has less to do with any special characteristics of Possagno and more with Mr Binotto's skills as a photographer.

ELVEs are extremely large and appear at very high altitudes, meaning they can be seen from hundreds of miles away.

For example, Mr Binotto's 2023 ELVE was actually caused by a lightning strike near Vernazza, around 185 miles (300 kilometres) to the south.

Likewise, this latest halo was the product of a storm above Ancona, which is roughly 174 miles (280 kilometres) to the southeast.

This ring is likely a structure known as an 'emission of light and very low–frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources', or ELVEs for short. These are rings of red or green light created by electromagnetic pulses produced by powerful lightning strikes 

ELVEs are just one part of a class of strange phenomena known by scientists as transient luminous events (TLEs), which include so–called 'red sprites' that sometimes appear above storms. Pictured: Red Sprites seen from the International Space Station

Since these halos only need a powerful lightning strike to occur, there is nothing preventing them from being seen over any town in the world.

Read More

• Radical new theory of consciousness could finally explain what happens when you die 

ELVEs are just one part of a class of strange phenomena known by scientists as transient luminous events (TLEs).

These events are rarely seen, poorly understood, and extraordinarily tricky to study.

Some of the strangest TLEs include 'sprites', which appear like gigantic red jellyfish reaching their tendrils above the clouds.

The largest sprites can extend up to 60 miles (96 kilometres) above the cloud tops of large storms, but are so faint they can only be seen at night or from space.

WHY DOES LIGHTNING STRIKE?

Lightning occurs when strong upward drafts in the air generate static electricity in large and dense rainstorm clouds.

Parts of the cloud become positively charged and others negatively charged.

When this charge separation is large enough a violent discharge of electricity happens — also known as lightning.

'Lightning is a major hazard that claims many lives every year,' the UN's World Meteorological Organization says

Such a discharge starts with a small area of ionised air hot enough to conduct electricity.

This small area grows into a forked lightning channel that can reach several miles in length.

The channel has a negative tip that dispels charges to the ground and a positive tip that collects charges from the cloud. 

These charges passes from the positive end of the channel to the negative end another during a lightning flash, causing the charge to be released. 

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

27-11-2025 om 18:33 geschreven door peter  

UN confirms planetary defenses will observe interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it races through our solar system

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

The United Nations (UN) has confirmed that Earth's planetary defenses will be observing the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it races through our solar system. 

Starting on November 27, a global team of scientists with the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will kick off a two–month campaign to track the comet as it nears our planet.

'While it poses no threat, comet 3I/ATLAS presents a great opportunity for the IAWN community to perform an observing exercise due to its prolonged observability from Earth and high interest to the scientific community,' the UN explains on its website. 

'This 3I/ATLAS campaign is the 8th IAWN observing exercise since 2017 – IAWN holds these exercises roughly once a year.'

While 3I/ATLAS was only discovered in July 2025, the UN explained that this 'comet campaign' has long been planned. 

'IAWN had been planning to do a Fall 2025 comet campaign since 2024 to exercise capabilities for measuring the position of comets, which pose additional astrometric challenges as they appear as fuzzy extended objects compared to point–like asteroids in a telescope's field of view,' it added. 

The news comes shortly after NASA put claims that the object could be an alien spacecraft to bed once and for all. 

'We want very much to find signs of life in the universe... but 3I/ATLAS is a comet,' said Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, at a press conference. 

Stargazers recently captured brand new clear images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS using lower quality telescopes compared to those used by NASA

NASA's sophisticated HiRISE camera was supposed to provide a detailed image of the interstellar object near Mars, but the photo shown on Wednesday was blurry and vague

Since it was first spotted in July, the object – dubbed 3I/ATLAS – has captivated scientists and internet users alike, even prompting Kim Kardashian to ask NASA for answers.

Many scientists maintained it was merely a comet visiting us from a different solar system. 

However, others – including a member of US Congress and a Harvard researcher – were convinced that the object was an alien spacecraft. 

Last week, NASA released photos snapped by three of its Mars spacecraft as they passed just 18 million miles away from the object. 

These pictures finally put any speculation to rest, as they confirmed the object's identity.

And unfortunately for alien hunters, the US space agency says that 3I/ATLAS is a comet.  

The one man holding on to hope that the object could be extraterrestrial is Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who has shared new amateur telescope images of the interstellar object, captured between November 22 and November 24.

The photos reveal a glowing, fuzzy 'head' called a coma, along with a narrow tail stretching over 600,000 miles and pointing toward the sun instead of away from it like a typical comet.

Recent telescope images have produced clearer views of the object than the photos shared by NASA on November 19

NASA maintained that 3I/ATLAS was a comet with no signs of extraterrestrial life

One appears to reveal the shape of 3I/ATLAS, showing a cone–like object covered in a bright haze.

The images came from everyday skywatchers using small backyard telescopes around the world, including in Japan, Spain, and Chile.

Professor Loeb noted that a clear shot of the object on November 22, which showed its bright green body and long 'anti–tail,' was taken by Mitsunori Tsumura using a common 20–inch backyard telescope used by stargazers worldwide.

Another caught a sharp image of the interstellar visitor over Spain that same night using a 12.4–inch telescope - a very popular size used by hobbyists in their backyards.

Perhaps the sharpest picture Professor Loeb highlighted came from Paul Craggs of Canada, who was able to capture a clear image of the comet's current shape while traveling over North America on November 21.

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

27-11-2025 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

The Kuiper Belt is a vast ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, home to Pluto and countless smaller objects. Astronomers have long known that this belt is not uniform, and that it contains subtle clumps and gaps, like the rings of Saturn seen from far away. One of these clumps is called the “kernel,” a tight crowd of small, cold, almost circular orbits centered around 44 times Earth’s distance from the Sun (44 astronomical units, or AU).

In the new study, the astronomy team from Princeton report evidence for a second, similar crowd just inside that one, at about 43 AU, which they dub the “inner kernel.” The objects in this inner kernel move on nearly circular paths, with low tilts relative to the Solar System’s main plane. According to the researchers, these traits mark these curious bodies as members of the “cold classical” Kuiper Belt, a population thought to have stayed relatively undisturbed since the early days of the Solar System.

Across a catalog of 1,650 tracked Kuiper Belt Objects, the inner kernel appears as a real concentration of orbits: it spans about 42.4–43.6 AU in distance, and its members have especially low “free” eccentricities (a measure of how stretched their orbits are once after you strip away planetary gravity effects). The team estimates that objects in this inner kernel may make up around 7–10 percent of all so‑called classical Kuiper Belt objects, and roughly 14–21 percent of the coldest, most undisturbed ones.

So a big question now remains. Is the “kernel” and the “inner kernel” one large structure out there in the dark expanse of space, or are they separate?

The orbits of these objects are very stable. Their closest approaches to the Sun stay well above a theoretical “stability boundary” near 37 AU, and even in the most extreme case their paths don’t dip inside about 40 AU. That suggests they have not been violently scattered inward by Neptune, but instead survived more or less where they formed, or were gently moved there.

Compared with the outer kernel at 44 AU, the inner kernel looks “colder” in one key respect: its free eccentricities are smaller on average, meaning the orbits are more nearly circular when planetary influences are factored out. That difference could make the inner kernel a better example of how much shaking and shuffling the Kuiper Belt has experienced. If giant planets like Neptune migrated outward in jumps, as some models suggest, each jump could have left behind gravitational gaps in the belt’s structure. The presence of two closely spaced, cold clumps might be telling the story of how smooth or violent that process really was.

The main part of the Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune’s orbit

(Image: NASA).

There is also a strange piece of orbital context. The structure’s orbit has a particular resonance with Neptune. In simple terms, between the two clumps of Kuiper Belt objects, there is a special region where Neptune’s gravity keeps time with them in a steady rhythm called the 7:4 resonance. While Neptune goes around the Sun seven times, the objects in the belt goes around four times. In places like this, those repeated tugs can either sweep objects away or herd them together, a bit like a parent pushing a child on a swing in just the right rhythm, so the lack of objects between the two clumps might be caused by this resonance, although the researchers are not yet sure that this is really the reason.​​

This was an interesting find, according to the researchers, as it points to a possible cause of the “inner kernel” structure. 

Beyond the discovery of this new structure inside the belt, the study is notable because the researchers turned to tools more familiar from data science than from traditional astronomy.

First, they re‑described each orbit in a way that tries to peel away the steady, predictable nudges from the giant planets. The raw orbital elements of a Kuiper Belt object, its eccentricity (how elongated the orbit is) and inclination (how tilted it is), are a mix of a “forced” part set by the collective gravity of the planets and a “free” part that reflects the object’s own history. Using established mathematical techniques from celestial mechanics, the team calculated these free components for each of the 1,650 objects in a recent catalog of classical Kuiper Belt objects.

They then fed each object’s distance from the Sun, free eccentricity, and free inclination  into a clustering algorithm called DBSCAN (Density‑Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise). DBSCAN looks for dense swarms of points in a cloud of data, marking them as clusters, while treating isolated points as noise.

Because DBSCAN’s behavior depends on how you tune its settings, the team adopted a conservative strategy. They only trusted results from runs where the algorithm clearly picked out a “kernel‑like” feature matching the known 44 AU kernel, and then asked whether, under those same settings, another cluster appeared.

In every such case, the inner kernel popped out at about 43 AU. Changing the parameters slightly sometimes caused the algorithm to merge the inner and outer kernels into one broader cluster, underlining the ambiguity of whether these are two distinct structures or two peaks in a single large one.

“There are two alternative explanations that we cannot distinguish between: either the kernel is significantly larger than previously thought, or there is an additional distinct structure in the cold classical Kuiper belt,” the authors explained. “In either case, the inner kernel, as described here, is the additional component.”

For now, the authors are cautious. The inner kernel clearly shows up in the data as they have processed it, but it is not yet clear whether it is a truly separate structure or simply the inner edge of a larger, more complex kernel. It’s especially cold orbits, however, hint that it might carry a slightly different history, and that makes it valuable for testing models of how Neptune moved and how the outer Solar System settled into its current shape.

The real test will come with more data. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), due to begin full operations later this decade, is expected to discover and track thousands more Kuiper Belt objects. With that flood of new orbits, astronomers will be able to see whether the inner kernel sharpens into a well‑defined band or blurs into a broader structure.

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{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

27-11-2025 om 15:57 geschreven door peter  

The Speed of Light

Based on present-day physics, scientists know the speed of light is the greatest speed at which anything in our universe can travel. That astronomical rate is clocked at 186,000 miles per second. Due to the immense distances separating points in outer space, scientists have adopted the distance light travels in one year, 5.88 trillion miles, as a universal measurement scale.

Proxima Centauri is the star nearest to our own, even though that cosmic neighbor is 4.2 light-years away from Earth. Over four years of light-speed travel would be required to cross such a distance.

For shorter distances in space, scientists rely on astronomical units, which are equal to the distance between Earth and the Sun. Although humanity has yet to conquer light-speed travel, Voyager 1 still manages to zip along at the relatively quick 11 miles per second. This adds up to 3.5 AU each year as the craft continues its journey.

Communications Challenges

Somewhere in the middle of these two ends of the cosmic measuring scale is the less commonly used figure known as the “light day,” denoting the distance light travels in a single Earth day.

That distance has begun to add up and impact the effectiveness of communications with Voyager, which are maintained through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Mission engineers spent weeks last November dealing with just one episode of technical difficulties due to communications lag. At billions of miles from Earth, the commands and responses took 23 hours to travel in each direction from Voyager 1 to Earth.

During that event, silicon dioxide from a rubber diaphragm had accumulated in a fuel tank, cutting off a crucial fuel thruster tube. Thrust was drastically lowered, as the liquid hydrazine fuel was impeded from flowing freely. It took 40 small thrusts from the obstructed system to even push Voyager into proper alignment for effective communication with Earth.

In the end, the mission engineers elected to return to a set of thrusters that had themselves been turned off years earlier due to malfunctions, although of a less severe sort than those plaguing the system last year. At one point during the operation, power was so low that the mission team had to take the calculated risk of turning off Voyager 1’s heater in deep space to power the systems required to bring the old thrusters back online.

The Future of Voyager 1

Despite the challenges of communicating over such a massive distance, NASA plans to maintain contact with Voyager 1 as it crosses the monumental 16.1 billion-mile threshold to reach one full light-day from Earth.

The celebration may be bittersweet, though. Three radioisotope thermoelectric generators power the craft, which are expected to run out of energy in the next decade. Many of Voyager 1’s systems are no longer functional, as those generators are even now providing much less power than the craft utilized at launch. Over the years, many concessions have been made, reverting to backup thrusters, disabling instruments, and cutting power to keep the mission continuing long past its expected lifespan.

As such, the one light day milestone may be the last outstanding achievement for humanity’s farthest step into the cosmos.

• 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, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

27-11-2025 om 15:39 geschreven door peter  

Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.

Here's the biggest science news you need to know. 

• The 'other' comet ATLAS C/2025 K1 has exploded and is disintegrating in real time.
• Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may have a course-altering encounter with Jupiter before it leaves our solar system.
• A new study claims to provide the first direct evidence of dark matter.

RIP 'other ATLAS': Watch the doomed comet explode into pieces in incredible new images

By Harry Baker  

Stunning new photos show the pieces of the "other ATLAS," C/2025 K1, breaking apart in space after the golden comet suddenly exploded earlier this month.

A new animation shows the gradual disintegration of comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), which began to break apart on Nov. 13. 

(Image credit: Michael Jäger)

In space, death can be a beautiful thing. That's certainly the case for the recently deceased "other" comet ATLAS, which is slowly breaking apart after meeting its explosive end earlier this month, stunning new images reveal.

C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) is a comet originating from the Oort Cloud beyond Neptune that was discovered in May by astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). It reached its closest point to the sun, or perihelion, on Oct. 8, coming within 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) of our home star. But the comet largely went under the radar until earlier this month, when it developed a rare golden glow in its coma and tail.

It has become known as the "other ATLAS," thanks to its shared surname with the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which has been dominating headlines since it was first spotted shooting through the solar system in July. The two comets have no relation, other than being detected by the same telescope network around the same time.

On Nov. 13, astronomers noticed that C/2025 K1 had broken apart into several pieces. Austrian astrophotographer Michael Jäger has been keeping a close eye on C/2025 K1 since it began to fall apart, and he has now shared a stunning timelapse animation that shows the fragments of the comet slowly separating from one another.

"Following brightness surges in early November, we have been able to observe this comet splitting into three brighter fragments for the past two weeks," Jäger told Spaceweather.com. "The animation shows it on November 12, 14, 18, 19, and 20th."

The comet was not expected to survive its perihelion — astronomers predicted that the close proximity of its journey around the sun would place a huge amount of gravitational strain on the object. After its solar flyby, initial observations suggested that it had emerged unscathed. However, following a sudden brightening event, the comet then broke apart into three distinct pieces.

More recent photos have shown that a smaller fourth fragment also splintered from the comet, according to Spaceweather.com. However, this part of the comet is not visible in the new animation.

C/2025 K1 was one of just a handful of comets that have ever been seen with a golden hue (see below), which is likely the result of a surprising lack of carbon-bearing molecules, such as dicarbon, carbon monoxide and cyanide in its nucleus. In fact, only two other known comets have ever had fewer of these molecules, astronomer David Schleicher of Arizona's Lowell Observatory recently reported.

Researchers had hoped to learn more about the comet and its surprising composition during its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday (Nov. 25). However, this now seems unlikely.

But the comet's fragments will still be visible in the constellation Leo to anyone with a decent telescope or a pair of stargazing binoculars.

Other ATLAS(s)

C/2025 K1 is not the first comet to bear the name ATLAS. In fact, dozens of other comets have been found by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System — a NASA-funded robotic survey, which has been scanning the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii, South Africa and Chile since 2015.

Over the last few years, several ATLAS comets have made the news, including C/2024 G3, which appeared in spectacular snaps by astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year, as well as a doomed sungrazer comet, the Halloween ATLAS comet and Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which all shone brightly in 2024.

But the most famous of the ATLASs is 3I/ATLAS, an alien comet that is traveling past us after being ejected from its own star system, potentially long before the solar system was born.

3I/ATLAS is currently on its way back out of the solar system, having reached its own perihelion on Oct. 29, and will reach its closest point to Earth on Dec. 19, when it will reach a minimum distance of 168 million miles (270 million km) from our planet. And despite what some people claim, the astronomical community is very much in agreement that it is not an alien spacecraft.

Only time will tell what wonders the future ATLAS comets will have in store for us.

3I/ATlAS shrugged

We’re still tracking comet 3I/ATLAS after last week’s headline-grabbing NASA stream revealing the agency’s images of the potentially 7-billion-year-old interstellar visitor.

Astronomers are racing to learn everything they can about the comet as it approaches its closest point to Earth on Dec 19., with some even having devised a new way to measure the size of the comet’s nuclei.

And another preprint paper suggests that the comet’s trajectory could be altered by gravitational interactions with the gas giant Jupiter as it zips out of our solar system, with an ideal potential observation window for the Juno spacecraft sometime in March 2026.

Dark matter revealed?

Good morning science fans, did you miss us? We’re back with big news, or for now just a very big claim, that an astrophysicist working with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have found the very first direct evidence for the existence of dark matter.

Dark matter is one of the universe's most mysterious components. It makes up 27% of our universe, with ordinary matter only accounting for 5%, but because it does not interact with light, it can't be detected directly.

But characteristic flashes spotted in this new study could be a smoking gun pointing to dark matter being made up of weakly interacting massive particles, or wimps, which are 500 times heavier than protons.

Much more work is needed to rule out other explanations, so astronomers are responding to the claims with characteristic caution. But if they can finally unveil the mass-ter of disguise, it will offer a major boost for our best theory of the universe.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

26-11-2025 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

26-11-2025 om 18:23 geschreven door peter  

Dark matter is seen for the first time: Eerie image shows first direct evidence of the elusive substance that makes up 25% of the universe

• READ MORE: Scientist explains what happens if you walked into a black hole 

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have captured the first–ever direct evidence for dark matter, the elusive substance that makes up more than a quarter of the universe.

Using NASA's Fermi telescope, researchers have detected powerful gamma–ray radiation emerging from a 'halo–like' structure surrounding the Milky Way.

Its frequency and intensity suggest that this could be dark matter.  

According to the study's author, Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo, this eerie image is the first time that humanity has been able to 'see' the mysterious substance. 

For almost two decades, scientists have known that there is a glow of gamma–ray radiation coming from the heart of the Milky Way called the galactic centre (GC) excess.

However, the so–called 'halo signature' surrounding our galaxy is something that no scientist has ever seen before.

Speaking to Daily Mail, Professor Totani explained: 'While the GC excess is concentrated at the very centre of the Galaxy, my halo signal is thinly spread across the halo region.

'I believe it strongly suggests radiation from dark matter.'

Scientists have captured the first–ever direct evidence for dark matter, the elusive substance that makes up more than a quarter of the universe 

The invisible influence of dark matter helps explain everything from the rotation of galaxies to the expansion of the universe.

But, despite its enormous importance to modern physics, scientists have only been able to observe dark matter indirectly by measuring its gravitational effects.

Now, Professor Totani believes he has finally found a way to change this.

Many scientists believe that dark matter is made up of something called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

WIMPS are much larger than normal particles like protons, but don't interact with conventional matter – making them almost impossible to detect.

However, when two WIMPs collide, they are annihilated and release a burst of photons in the form of gamma–ray radiation.

Using 15 years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma–ray Space Telescope, Professor Totani looked at a region of the galaxy where dark matter was thought to collect.

There, he found that gamma rays with an 'extremely large amount of energy' extend in a large halo–like structure, emerging from the galactic centre.

Scientists have known for almost two decades that there is a glow of gamma radiation emerging from the centre of the galaxy. Now, a scientist has found an even more powerful signal that could be caused by dark matter 

Even after blocking out the glow of the galactic centre, data from NASA's Fermi telescope shows a 'halo–like' region of powerful gamma ray radiation that could be caused by colliding particles of dark matter 

What is dark matter?

Dark matter outweighs visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27 per cent of the universe. 

Unlike normal matter, dark matter does not interact with the electromagnetic force. 

This means it does not absorb, reflect or emit light, making it extremely hard to spot.

In fact, researchers have been able to infer the existence of dark matter only from the gravitational effect it seems to have on visible matter. 

Source: CERN 

This energy was emerging from the exact place where previous studies had predicted dark matter would be most concentrated.

Even more excitingly, this energy level is exactly what some scientists had predicted colliding particles of dark matter should produce.

This could very well be the first time that scientists have found a way of looking at dark matter itself.

Professor Totani told Daily Mail: 'Since we are directly observing the gamma rays emitted by dark matter, I personally believe it can be considered "direct observation".'

Importantly, the halo signature is completely distinct from previous observations of the GC excess.

Not only is the halo signature more spread out, but it is also 10 times more powerful than the gamma radiation found in the GC excess.

This is critical because there are no known types of stars or black holes which produce this type of energy.

Dr Moorts Muru, a dark matter expert from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics who was not involved in the study, told Daily Mail: 'None of the known stellar objects radiates energy at such high levels, and thus, Totani leans strongly towards the dark matter hypothesis.'

The energy produced by this halo signal is 10 times more powerful than the gamma–ray radiation coming from the galactic centre, and matches the signal researchers expected to find from dark matter (illustrated). The red and blue lines show the predicted signal from dark matter, while the circles show the data points collected by Fermi

While Dr Muru says this is not 'definitive proof', he adds that it is a 'significant boost to understanding dark matter'.

However, not everyone is convinced.

Professor Joe Silk, a dark matter researcher from Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the study, told Daily Mail he thinks the claim of dark matter detection is 'premature'.

Firstly, Professor Totani's predictions for how much energy a WIMP should produce are much higher than some scientists' calculations.

'Of course, our predictions could be wrong, but if he is correct, we should have seen a gamma ray signal from nearby dwarf galaxies that are dark matter–dominated,' says Professor Silk.

Additionally, Professor Silk argues that these strong gamma rays could be the product of a huge explosion that emanated from the galaxy's central black hole about 10 billion years ago.

This explosion created the massive structures known as the 'Fermi bubbles' that extend on either side of the galaxy, but could have also started a powerful chain reaction.

Professor Silk says: 'What he did not consider is the fact that such an explosion that caused the Fermi bubbles is associated with violent shock fronts with turbulent magnetic fields that are known to be giant particle accelerators.

Not everyone is convinced by these findings, as some scientists suggest the gamma ray radiation could be emerging from 'energetic particles' trapped in the 'Fermi bubble' (highlighted) that emerges above and below the galactic plane 

Read More

• The Milky Way as you've NEVER seen it: Scientists reveal largest low-frequency radio colour image 

'So they could have injected many energetic particles whose subsequent diffusion and interaction with the ambient gas would have generated an additional gamma ray glow. In which case, we have no evidence for dark matter.'

In his paper, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Professor Totani acknowledges that more observations will be needed to prove this really is dark matter.

If other regions that should have lots of dark matter, like nearby dwarf galaxies, have similar gamma–ray signatures, it would be strong evidence for his claim.

However, the researcher remains confident that more data in the future will only provide more evidence that gamma–rays originate from dark matter.

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26-11-2025 om 17:39 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, continues to operate and set records. It is already the first man-made object to reach interstellar space and is currently the furthest spacecraft from Earth. But at the end of 2026, it will reach a new milestone: traveling one light-day away from our planet.

One light day is the distance that light or a radio signal travels in 24 hours. Voyager 1 is currently more than 25 billion km away, and a signal from Earth takes almost 23.5 hours to reach it. According to NASA calculations, in a year, on November 15, 2026, the spacecraft will reach a distance of 25.9 billion km. At that point, each transmission from our antennas will take exactly 24 hours to reach it.

Unique mission and challenges

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the longest-running missions in NASA history. It is remarkable that their equipment has millions of times less memory and computing power than modern smartphones. However, outdated electronics do not prevent them from continuing to help science. It was Voyager 1 that took the iconic photo of Earth – “Pale Blue Dot” – showing our planet as a tiny speck in the vastness of space.

But at such great distances, communication with the spacecraft becomes increasingly difficult. It takes a whole day for a command from Earth to reach it, and another day for the response to return. Its nuclear power source will only last for a few more years. But even when the Voyagers fall silent, they will forever remain humanity’s first messengers in interstellar space.

Earlier, we reported on how NASA named this year the “death” of the Voyager probes.

• According to Interesting Engineering

• Posted in News, Tech

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26-11-2025 om 16:54 geschreven door peter  

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have announced the discovery of gamma rays produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles. If confirmed, this will be the first time that humanity has “seen” this mysterious substance.

The hidden mass of the Universe

Back in the early 1930s, astronomer Fritz Zwicky discovered an anomaly in the motion of galaxies, which could be explained by the fact that their actual mass was much greater than the mass of the observable matter. This led him to conclude that there must be some invisible structure—dark matter—holding the galaxies together.

Almost a century after Zwicky’s discovery, dark matter remains largely a mystery. Until now, scientists have only been able to observe it indirectly, by studying its effects on observable matter. For example, through its ability to generate enough gravity to hold galaxies together. The reason why dark matter cannot be observed directly is that the particles it consists of do not interact with electromagnetic radiation and do not emit it. In other words, dark matter does not absorb, reflect, or emit light.

Annihilation of dark matter

There are many hypotheses explaining the nature of dark matter. According to one of the most popular theories, it consists of so-called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), which are heavier than protons but interact very little with other matter. Despite the lack of interaction, when two such particles collide, they annihilate each other and release other particles, including gamma-ray photons.

For many years, scientists have been trying to find these specific gamma rays, focusing on areas where dark matter is believed to be most concentrated. According to Professor Tomonori Totani of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo, he has finally succeeded in solving this problem. After analyzing the latest data from the Fermi space telescope, he has found gamma rays whose characteristics match those predicted.

“We detected gamma rays with a photon energy of 20 gigaelectronvolts (or 20 billion electronvolts, which is an extremely high energy) propagating in a halo-like structure toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The gamma-ray component corresponds exactly to the shape expected from a dark matter halo,” said Totani.

The observed energy spectrum, or gamma-ray intensity range, corresponds to the radiation predicted as a result of the annihilation of hypothetical WIMPs, whose mass is approximately 500 times greater than that of a proton. The annihilation rate, estimated from the measured gamma-ray intensity, is also within the range of theoretical predictions.

“If this is true, then, as far as I know, this will be the first time that humanity has ‘seen’ dark matter. And it turns out that dark matter is a new particle not included in the current standard model of particle physics. This represents a significant breakthrough in astronomy and physics.”

Although Totani is confident that his gamma-ray measurements detect dark matter particles, his results must be verified by independent analysis by other researchers. Even with this confirmation, scientists will need additional evidence that this radiation is indeed the result of dark matter annihilation and not coming from some other astronomical phenomenon.

Additional evidence of collisions in other locations with high concentrations of dark matter would support these initial findings. For example, the detection of gamma rays of the same energy from dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way halo would confirm the results of the study.

• According to UTokyo

• Posted in News, Science

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26-11-2025 om 16:43 geschreven door peter  

Professor Says Mysterious Interstellar Object May Be Releasing Sentinels Around Jupiter

By Victor Tangermann

NASA / Futurism

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is expected to make its closest pass of the Earth just under a month from now, coming within around 170 million miles of us.

Three months later, it’s expected to get even closer to Jupiter as it continues on its highly eccentric path through the solar system.

And as Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb — who has long championed the theory that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft, to the increasing dismay of the mainstream research community — points out on his blog, recent “non-gravitational acceleration” seems to have nudged it toward a fascinating region of Jupiter’s orbit.

Specifically, it’s going to zip right past Jupiter’s Hill radius, the boundary inside which the gas giant can keep an object in its own orbit without it being stolen by the Sun.

In the Earth’s vicinity, Lagrange points L1 and L2 are close to the boundary of our planet’s Hill radius, a perfect place of equilibrium for satellites and other human-made objects, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, to orbit the Sun while using minimal amounts of fuel.

Loeb suggests that if it is indeed an alien spacecraft, 3I/ATLAS could be passing through Jupiter’s Hill radius to “seed” the planet with “technological devices” — a hypothesis, you have to admit, that sounds strikingly similar to the plot of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“If we find technological satellites of Jupiter that we did not send, it would imply that Jupiter is of interest to an extraterrestrial civilization,” Loeb wrote.

But not everybody’s on board, including NASA. In light of considerable evidence that the mysterious visitor is a comet made of ice and dust, NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya preemptively shut down Loeb’s theorizing during a recent announcement, angering him in the process.

During its closest approach to the Sun last month, 3I/ATLAS got a push in the form of “non-gravitational acceleration.” While a more conventional explanation would suggest the Sun’s radiation heated the object up, causing it to lose more mass and thereby accelerate, Loeb suggested at the time that it could “be the technological signature of an internal engine.”

Intriguingly, that extra push will allow it to get within around 53 million miles of Jupiter on March 16, which also happens to be within just 160,000 miles of the planet’s Hill radius.

“In other words, the non-gravitational acceleration introduced a small course correction of exactly the magnitude needed to bring the minimum distance of 3I/ATLAS from Jupiter to the value of Jupiter’s Hill radius,” Loeb wrote. “3I/ATLAS would have missed the edge of the Hill sphere otherwise.”

Therefore, Loeb suggested that 3I/ATLAS’ “level of non-gravitational acceleration was finely tuned” with the help of thrusters to meet the “radius of Jupiter’s gravitational influence.”

The astronomer reiterated that NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, should have a closer look at 3I/ATLAS in the spring.

Loeb also argued that scientists should remain humble and not jump to conclusions by arguing that the only possibility is that 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet. For one, if we were to find “technological satellites” in the orbit of our solar system’s largest planet — and not around Earth — it could serve as a “blow to our ego, akin to attending a party where nobody is interested in dancing with us.”

“Perhaps this is because the human species arrived late to the party — only a few million years ago, whereas Jupiter — the biggest planet in the Solar system, was visible to the senders of 3I/ATLAS when the mission was launched billions of years ago,” he concluded.

More on 3I/ATLAS: 

• Scientist Identifies Something Strange About New Image of Mysterious Interstellar Visitor

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25-11-2025 om 18:58 geschreven door peter  

The clustering algorithm detected an area of increased density in the Kuiper belt. Scientists do not know why there are more objects concentrated in this area than elsewhere. In addition, the objects here have orbits closer to a circle.

New regions of the Kuiper belt

A large region of our solar system called the Kuiper belt extends from Neptune’s orbit to approximately 50 astronomical units. This region consists mainly of icy objects and small rocky bodies such as Pluto. Scientists believe that Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) are remnants left over from the formation of the solar system.

Now, a new paper describes a recently discovered region that appears to be completely different from other parts of the Kuiper belt, but some uncertainty remains.

Core of the Kuiper Belt

Back in 2011, a group of astronomers noticed a denser region of objects located in the Kuiper belt at a distance of about 44 AU. The group named this region the “core” and found that the objects in it have a low inclination to the ecliptic and eccentricity compared to other KPOs.

In other words, their orbits were more circular and lay closer to the plane of the Solar System rather than at an angle. The core itself lies within another distinct population of KPO, called the “dynamically cold” population, in which all objects tend to have lower eccentricities and inclinations.

Since the initial observation of the nucleus was visual in nature, it may not have captured some fine details. Some researchers have wondered whether a more in-depth study of the data on these objects might reveal new features in the nucleus or other parts of the Kuiper belt.

Clustering algorithm and new questions

To find individual structures in the Kuiper belt, the authors of a new preprint article decided to test a clustering algorithm called Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN). This algorithm has already been used for other astronomical datasets, but not for the Kuiper belt. First, the team calculated the barycentric free orbital elements, such as the semi-major axis, eccentricity, and inclination, for 1,650 classical KPOs and applied DBSCAN to them to search for other clusters of similar objects.

Their algorithm detected not only the core, but also another separate structure next to it, approximately 43 AU away, which they simply call the inner core. The inner core stands out as potentially separate because its eccentricity distribution is narrower than that of the core, indicating a separate population. They claim that the inner core contains 7-10% of classical KPOs.

However, the team notes that the distinction between the core and the inner core depends on the clustering parameters. This leaves some doubt as to whether the inner core is truly separate.

Theories about the structure of the Kuiper belt

At present, the existence of the inner belt as a separate structure remains unclear. However, new data from the Vera Rubin Observatory will soon be published, which should shed more light on this issue. These and other studies may clarify the nature of these structures and provide more information about their origin.

However, for the authors of the study, the inner belt remains important. Scientists note that there are two alternative explanations, between which it is impossible to choose: either the core is much larger than previously thought, or there is an additional separate structure in the cold classical Kuiper belt. In any case, the inner core, as described here, is an additional component.

• Provided by phys.org

• Posted in News, Science

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24-11-2025 om 18:27 geschreven door peter  

Radar satellites operating in Mars’ orbit regularly detect strange bright reflections under the planet’s ice caps. These are usually interpreted as pools of meltwater, but scientists have recently begun to question this interpretation.

MARSIS radar discovery

Ancient Mars boasted abundant water, but the cold and dry conditions of today make liquid water on the Red Planet seem far less probable. However, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) detected strong radar reflections from a 20-kilometer-wide area over the base of Mars’s southern polar ice cap, hinting at the possibility of liquid water below the icy surface. Such a finding would have major implications for the planet’s possible habitability.

But sustaining liquid water underneath the ice might not be feasible without very salty brines or localized volcanic heat. Scientists have deliberated about other possible “dry” explanations for the bright reflections detected by MARSIS, such as layers of carbon dioxide and water ices or salty ice and clay causing elevated radar reflectivity.

Penetrating signals of the SHARAD device

Aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) uses higher frequencies than MARSIS. Until recently, though, SHARAD’s signals could not reach deep enough into Mars to bounce off the base layer of the ice where the potential water lies – meaning its results couldn’t be compared with those from MARSIS.

However, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team recently tested a new maneuver that rolls the spacecraft on its flight axis by 120° – whereas it previously could roll only up to 28°. The new maneuver, termed a “very large roll,” or VLR, can increase SHARAD’s signal strength and penetration depth, allowing researchers to examine the base of the ice in the enigmatic high-reflectivity zone.

Most likely not liquid water

Gareth Morgan and colleagues, for their article published in Geophysical Research Letters, examined 91 SHARAD observations that crossed the high-reflectivity zone. Only when using the VLR maneuver was a SHARAD basal echo detected at the site. In contrast to the MARSIS detection, the SHARAD detection was very weak, meaning it is unlikely that liquid water is present in the high-reflectivity zone.

The researchers suggest that the faint detection returned by SHARAD under this portion of the ice cap is likely due to a localized region of smooth ground beneath the ice. They add that further research is needed to reconcile the differences between the MARSIS and SHARAD findings.

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24-11-2025 om 18:12 geschreven door peter