Astronomy

Habitable worlds may be far more common than thought, Israeli study says

Published in the peer-reviewed The Astrophysical Journal, the research focuses on tidally locked planets, worlds that always show the same face to their star.

|ByPESACH BENSON/TPS
Life beyond Earth may exist in far stranger places than scientists once thought, a new study suggests. January, 22.
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838.

Astronomers spot white dwarf star creating a colorful shockwave

In the shockwave, a red hue represented hydrogen, green represented nitrogen, and blue represented oxygen residing in interstellar space.

|ByREUTERS
New information regarded as strong evidence Mars had ‘vacation beaches’. Illustration.

NASA rover detects electrical discharges - 'mini-lightning' - on Mars

The six-wheeled rover, exploring Mars since 2021 at a locale called Jezero Crater in its northern hemisphere, picked up these electrical discharges in audio and electromagnetic recordings.

|ByREUTERS
This image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera, July 21, 2025.

NASA releases images of comet 3I/ATLAS, rejects alien spacecraft 'rumors'

While the comet's precise point of origin remains unclear, the NASA scientists said they believe it hails from a solar system older than our own, which formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

|ByREUTERS

New steps in measuring the age of the universe discovered - study

Scientists have confirmed the shape of a Kolovae, which may be the next step in dating the Universe's creation.

FEBRUARY 18, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Pleiades, an open cluster consisting of approximately 3,000 stars at a distance of 400 light-years (120 parsecs) from Earth.

Israeli scientists shed light on mysterious matter jets in space - study

Researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan have re-examined the data and now apparently solved the puzzle.

FEBRUARY 2, 2023ByJUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
An example of a pulsar, a neutron star emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation (Illustrative).

ESO scientists capture new stunning image of stellar nursery

The nebula in question is known as the Sh2-54 nebula and is one of the many awe-inspiring cosmic structures located within the tail of the snake constellation Serpens.

JANUARY 4, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Sh2-54 nebula in the infrared with VISTA.

Christmas Eve: Spot Mercury, Venus and the Moon without binoculars

Stargazers can look forward to seeing Mercury and Venus, as well as the moon that orbits around our planet, without binoculars or a telescope.

DECEMBER 23, 2022ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
The planet Venus

'Hot Jupiter' alien planet spiraling to its doom around aging star - study

The discovery will serve as a "celestial laboratory for years to come" and will help astronomers better understand tidal dynamics.

DECEMBER 19, 2022ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
An artist's concept of the Kepler-1658 system. Kepler-1658b, orbiting with a period of just 3.8 days, was the first exoplanet candidate discovered by Kepler.

Israeli scientist helps discover the universe's first stars - Cambridge study

Astrophysicists managed for the first time to statistically characterize the first galaxies in the universe.

DECEMBER 4, 2022ByJUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
The first full-color image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a revolutionary apparatus designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the universe, shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, in a composite made from images at different wavelengths.

New space observatory helps solve mystery involving enormous black holes

Using data from the recently deployed Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) orbiting observatory, researchers were able to answer more unexplained questions.

NOVEMBER 23, 2022ByREUTERS
The IXPE spacecraft, at right, observes a blazar, a black hole surrounded by a disk of gas and dust with a bright jet of high-energy particles pointed toward Earth, called Markarian 501 in an undated illustration

World's first disabled astronaut named by European Space Agency

The announcement came as ESA appointed a new set of astronauts for the first time since 2009 after whittling down 22,500 valid applications.

NOVEMBER 23, 2022ByREUTERS
European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts pictured inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX Shannon recovery ship shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Tampa, Florida, US, May 6, 2022

Most energetic gamma-ray burst confirms Israeli researchers' predictions

Gamma-ray bursts are a phenomenon in which a massive amount of X-rays and gamma rays are emitted within seconds in a single pulse or in multiple subsequent pulses.

NOVEMBER 18, 2022ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
The GRB221009A burst as recorded about an hour after the first one was documented by the SWIFT telescope

South Africa's new ground station to help NASA track space flights

Close to key communication and transport infrastructure, the remote site was chosen due to its geographic location with clear skies and low radio interference.

NOVEMBER 8, 2022ByREUTERS
NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B as rain clouds move into the area before its rescheduled debut test launch for the Artemis 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US September 2, 2022.