Ward: Society

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Artemis II Flight Crew, Teams Conduct Demonstration Ahead of Launch

NASA’s launch and mission teams, along with the Artemis II crew, completed a key test Dec. 20, a countdown demonstration test, ahead of the Artemis II flight around the Moon early next year. The astronauts, supported by launch and flight control teams, dressed in their launch and entry suits, boarde…

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ALMA datasets elucidate nearby galaxy NGC 1266's massive molecular outflow

By analyzing the archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has inspected the outflow of a nearby galaxy known as NGC 1266. Results of the new study, presented Dec. 11 on the arXiv pre-print server, could help us better understand…

210

Newly Found Organics in Enceladus’ Plumes

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

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Let Jules Verne crater on the moon be a new Point Nemo | Brief letters

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Russia sends 3 Iranian satellites into orbit, report says

Iran's state television says that Russia has sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit

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XRISM Finds Chlorine, Potassium in Cas A

This composite image of the Cassiopeia A (or Cas A) supernova remnant, released Jan. 8, 2024, contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), infrared data from Webb (red, green, blue), and optical data from Hubble (red and white). A study by the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft has ma…

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NASA’s Hubble Reveals Largest Found Chaotic Birthplace of Planets

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. For the first time in visible light, Hubble has revealed the disk is unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, with wisps of material stretching much farther above and below the…

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Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on December 28

See the moon phase expected for December 28, 2025 as well as when the next full moon is expected.

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Ultra-hot lava world has thick atmosphere, upending expectations

A Carnegie-led team of astronomers detected the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky planet beyond our solar system. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, used NASA's JWST to reveal an alien atmosphere in an unexpected place—an ancient, ultra-hot super-Earth t…

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Trump chooses to go back to the moon — and to do it this decade

All the stars are aligned.

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5 common mistakes beginner telescope users make — and how to avoid them

The simple mistakes every stargazing newbie makes — avoid these traps and you'll get the best out of your telescope from night one!

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Flaring black hole whips up ultra-fast winds

Leading X-ray space telescopes XMM-Newton and XRISM have spotted a never-seen-before blast from a supermassive black hole. In a matter of hours, the gravitational monster whipped up powerful winds, flinging material out into space at eye-watering speeds of
60,000 km per second.

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James Webb telescope spies a monstrous molecular cloud shrouded in mystery — Space photo of the week

In this James Webb telescope image, the gigantic molecular cloud near our galaxy's center appears as a canvas of pink and purple clouds set against a shadowy backdrop.

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Gemini and Blanco telescopes unlock clues to origin of longest gamma-ray burst ever observed

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most powerful explosions in the universe, second only to the Big Bang. The majority of these bursts are observed to flash and fade within a few seconds to minutes. But on 2 July 2025, astronomers were alerted to a GRB source that was exhibiting repeating bursts …

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Something fundamental about black holes may be changing

New observations reveal that the relationship between ultraviolet and X-ray light in quasars has changed over billions of years. This unexpected shift suggests the structure around supermassive black holes may evolve with time, challenging a decades-old assumption.

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Dark energy just got even weirder and why the Universe may end in a 'Big Crunch'

A mysterious force called Dark Energy might be changing, in a way that challenges our current understanding of the nature of time and space.

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Startups, NASA pursuing supersonic commercial flight

Nearly 20 years after the Concorde made its final commercial flight, new efforts are underway to make supersonic passenger travel viable again. Bill Whitaker reports.

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Uranus and Neptune may be 'rock giants,' not 'ice giants,' new model of their cores suggests

A new computational model suggests that Uranus' and Neptune's cores may be less icy than their "ice giant" nickname suggests.

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Astronomers explore the double nucleus of galaxy NGC 4486B

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed an elliptical galaxy known as NGC 4486B. Results of the observational campaign, published Dec. 16 on the arXiv preprint server, deliver important insights into the properties of the double nucleus of this …

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Was 2025 the year we found signs of past life on Mars?

Tantalising signs of past microbial life showed up on Mars this year, but to truly know whether they contain the answer to the biggest question in the universe, we will need to bring samples back to Earth