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30th November 2021

Supermassive black holes predicted to collide

Astronomers have spotted the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever observed. The two objects will eventually merge into one giant black hole, about 250 million years from now. The study also reveals that supermassive black holes may be 30% more numerous than previously thought.

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4th November 2021

Water detected 12.9 billion light years away

Astronomers have reported the presence of water in a pair of galaxies nearly 12.9 billion light years from Earth. This is the most distant detection ever made of a required element for life in a regular star-forming galaxy.

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24th October 2021

Giant impact stripped away exoplanet's atmosphere

Astronomers have found evidence of a giant impact between an Earth-sized exoplanet and a smaller body, which stripped off part of one planet's atmosphere.

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16th October 2021

Lucy begins 12-year mission to Trojan asteroids

NASA has launched the first ever spacecraft to visit Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.

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17th September 2021

Alien life chances receive a boost

Three of the large organic molecules necessary for life to form have been detected around stars at up to 100 times the level predicted by models.

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4th September 2021

New class of supernova discovered

A new class of supernova has been observed for the first time. The dramatic event is triggered by a black hole or neutron star crashing into the core of a companion star.

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13th August 2021

Asteroid impact chances increased

A study by NASA has used precision-tracking data from its recent OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to more accurately plot the route of a potentially hazardous asteroid, Bennu, from now until the year 2300.

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11th August 2021

New observations of exoplanets in the L 98-59 system

New observations of the M-type star L 98-59 and its surrounding system have revealed a planet with half the mass of Venus, making it the lightest exoplanet ever to be measured using the radial velocity method. Alongside this are a likely water world, and a possible planet in the habitable zone.

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22nd July 2021

First clear detection of moon-forming disc around exoplanet

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have today reported the first clear detection of a moon-forming disc around an exoplanet.

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4th July 2021

Construction begins on the Square Kilometre Array

This week, construction officially began on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – set to become the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built – with first light scheduled for 2027.

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8th June 2021

First fully reusable, entirely 3D-printed rocket

Relativity Space has revealed a new rocket that is both 3D printed and fully reusable. The Terran R could serve as a competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

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19th May 2021

AI is thousands of times faster at simulating Universe

With machine learning, astrophysicists can now simulate vast, complex universes in a fraction of the time it takes with conventional methods.

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24th April 2021

Carbon dioxide turned into oxygen on Mars

This week, NASA's Perseverance rover performed a test of its MOXIE instrument to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen for the first time on Mars.

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30th March 2021

Asteroid collision ruled out for 100+ years

A collision between Earth and the asteroid 99942 Apophis can be ruled out, for at least the next century, based on new observations by NASA.

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17th March 2021

First model of physical warp drives

A theoretical way to create a sub-light warp drive has been described that does not require negative mass. This could enable fast travel through our Solar System and onwards to distant star systems.

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16th March 2021

Earth's oxygen will last another billion years

A new study calculates how long Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere will persist, with a most likely timeframe of 1.08 billion years until the planet is rendered uninhabitable for most life.

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15th March 2021

Engineers design "lunar ark" to save Earth's species

An ambitious project designed by a University of Arizona team aims to preserve humankind – and animal-kind, plant-kind and fungi-kind – in the event of a global crisis.

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23rd February 2021

Unusual concentration of black holes discovered

The core of NGC 6397, a globular cluster about 8,000 light years from Earth, has been found to contain an unusual concentration of black holes, based on new data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia observatory.

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30th January 2021

Rare system of six exoplanets discovered

Astronomers report the discovery of TOI-178, a rare system of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a complex "chain of resonance".

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7th December 2020

Radishes grown in space for first time

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have collected the first harvest of radishes grown on the station.

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16th November 2020

UK government to research space-based solar power

The UK government has commissioned new research into space-based solar power systems. These would use very large orbiting satellites to beam the Sun's energy to ground-based receivers.

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