Science

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Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail

Work is ongoing to refine images NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured of Europa as scientists prepare for exploration of Jupiter's icy moon.

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In this gallery of three newly reprocessed Europa images, details are visible in the variety of features on the moon's icy surface. This image of an area called Chaos Transition shows blocks that have moved and ridges possibly related to how the crust fractures from the force of Jupiter's gravity.

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Challenging a Plasma Assumption

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How can we improve our models of space plasmas like the solar wind?

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Can rain trigger a volcanic eruption

The notion that rain could lead to a volcanic eruption may seem strange, but scientists from the University of Miami in the USA, have used information from satellites, including the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, to discover that a period of heavy rainfall may have triggered the four month-long eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018.

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Kilauea eruption 2018.

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NASA’s Webb Telescope to Unravel Riddles of a Stellar Nursery

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This color-composite mosaic of the central part of the Orion Nebula is based on 81 images from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The famous Trapezium stars appear near the center, amid the Trapezium Cluster, the very crowded home of more than a thousand young stars. Researchers will train Webb on this region to study phenomena associated with the birth of stars and planets.

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Spins Point to How Black Hole Binaries Formed

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The Hanford (top) and Livingston (bottom) LIGO facilities, which work together to detect gravitational-wave signals.

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Sun Is Less Magnetically Active Than Similar Stars

An analysis of 369 solar-like stars shows that solar brightness variations are extremely weak

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Not very active: comparison of the brightness variations of the Sun with those of a typical Sun-like star.

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NASA Scientists Tapped to Mature More Rugged Seismometer System to Measure Moonquakes

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A next-generation seismometer could be deployed autonomously, unlike the systems deployed in the past. In this photo, Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean carries the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package to its deployment site on the Moon.

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Newly Discovered Exoplanet Dethrones Former King Of Kepler-88 Planetary System

Hawaii Astronomer Discovers Massive Extrasolar Planet with Maunakea Telescope

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An artist’s illustration of the Kepler-88 planetary system.

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New Insight Into Parker Solar Probe's Early Observations

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Realignment of open and closed magnetic field lines on the Sun, called interchange reconnection, could explain the magnetic "switchbacks" observed by Parker Solar Probe.

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Hubble Captures Breakup of Comet ATLAS

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with the sharpest view yet of the breakup of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). The telescope resolved roughly 30 fragments of the fragile comet on 20 April and 25 pieces on 23 April.

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Hubble Captures Breakup of Comet ATLAS