Are We Missing Alien Lighthouses?

Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence has so far meant primarily focusing on one particular type of signal - and that signal has normally been based on what our own current cutting edge technology is. But what if that’s the wrong way to look for signs of an alien intelligence? What if a resource-conscious civilization decided it was too complicated to send femto-second lasers in high energy bursts out across the universe. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, from researchers Dániel Apai, Chia-Lung Lin, and Kevin Wagner, suggest that might actually be what happens, and that we should start looking for long-duration pulsing interstellar beacons.

Juno Measures the Heat Below Io's Restless Surface

Juno's Microwave Radiometer (MWR) was built peer deep down into Jupiter's massive atmosphere. But during the spacecraft's extended mission, it's been studying the Galilean moons. During two flybys of volcanic Io, the spacecraft its MWR to measure the heat flowing from deep within the moon.

Mars Express Captures 'Metallic' Waves Rolling Across an Ancient Martian Crater

When we think of Mars as the “Red Planet”, the image that comes to mind is just that - a lot of red. That comes from the oxidization of the dust and rocks that cover the planet's surface, but there are some instances where the Red Planet still has a few visual tricks up its sleeve. One such trick was recently captured by the European Space Agency’s venerable Mars Express orbiter, which captured what seems to be a set of metallic waves inside a giant impact basin. But on closer inspection, it becomes clear they aren’t liquid metal or some sort of alien architecture, but a manifestation of Mars’ complex environment.

Spin-Reversing Comet May Face Self-Destruction

Comets are known for providing breathtaking observations of their long and shiny tails when they travel too close to the Sun. This happens because comets are made of ice and primarily orbit far from the Sun, but as their icy core heats up it evaporates, resulting in the aforementioned breathtaking observations. But while evaporating comets make for great public photos, scientists who study comets are focused on these snowballs of gas and dust and how they are remnants of the origins of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

Hubble Discovers the First "Missing" Black Hole in this Famous Star Cluster

Combining over 20 years of archival data from Hubble with new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has found the first of the "missing" black holes.

Chandrasekhar and the Limits of Physics, Part 4: Vindication

The collapsing stars Eddington swore couldn't exist turned out to be everywhere, and half a century later the world handed Chandrasekhar his Nobel. How the 1.4 solar mass limit became one of the most important numbers in modern astronomy.

Probing the Universe's Missing Matter With Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts

Astronomers aren't certain where Fast Radio Bursts come from. But they still have utility. They can use them to find the Universe's "missing matter."