China has successfully launched a mission to bring back sample from the far side of the Moon – the first attempt to do so. Chang’e-6 was launched at 17:27 p.m. local time today by a Long March 5 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. If the landing is successful, the craft is expected to collect and return to Earth up to two kilograms of soil from an area not previously sampled. China has made considerable progress in lunar exploration in recent years, which began in 2007 with the launch of the lunar orbiter Chang’e-1. Since then it has carried out four further uncrewed ..read more

Humanity has a remarkable drive for exploration. We have sent astronauts 384,400 kilometres out into space to walk on the Moon; delivered rovers and helicopters roughly 225 million kilometres away to survey Mars; and sent probes a whopping 24.3 billion kilometres out to the furthest reaches of our solar system. It is remarkable, then, that when it comes to our own home, we have literally only scratched the surface – the deepest hole ever dug reached less than 1% of the distance to the centre of the Earth. The question of how we get to grips with the other 99% of what lies under our feet – not ..read more

Following almost three decades of planning and construction the world’s highest observatory has begun operations. The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO), which is located at an altitude of 5640 m on the summit of Cerro Chajnantor at Atacama in northern Chile, officially opened today. The infrared telescope will be used to better our understanding of the universe as well as the origin of life. At such a height, the clear skies and little water vapour in the atmosphere make Atacama one of the best places in the world for ground-based infra-red astronomy.  Built by the University ..read more

The lack of observed gamma rays from a recent supernova has cast doubt on the generally-accepted idea that exploding stars are a major source of cosmic rays. The observation was made using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Cosmic rays are high-energy charged particles (mostly protons) that arrive at Earth from beyond the solar system. Their exact origins are a long-standing mystery because their trajectories are deflected by the magnetic fields that they encounter along the way. The particle’s high energies suggest that they are born in violent astrophysical events such as supernovae (ex ..read more

A novel detector designed to search for so-called “dark” photons has placed unprecedented constraints on where this type of dark matter might be found. The detector uses a coaxial dish antenna to trap and funnel photons, and its US-based developers say it could easily be scaled up and made more sensitive in the future. Current theories of physics suggest that dark matter makes up roughly 85% of the universe’s mass. This form of matter may have played an important role in the formation of galaxies thanks to its gravitational pull, but we have not been able to detect it directly as yet. Indeed ..read more

In 1983 officials from San Diego City Council in California voted to install high-pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights that emitted a full spectrum of visible light. The existing, low-pressure sodium (LPS) streetlights gave off only a narrow, yellowish band, and it was hoped that the HPS lights would brighten streets and reduce crime. Makes sense, right? However, astronomers at the 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain, about 100 km away, were appalled, saying light pollution would blind their instrument. While they could readily filter out the narrow band of wavelengths from LPS ligh ..read more

New observations of the flavour composition of atmospheric neutrinos have revealed no conclusive evidence for the minuscule, short-lived black holes that have been predicted by some theories of quantum gravity. The study was done by researchers using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole and the result places some of the tightest constraints ever on the nature of quantum gravity. Developing a viable theory of quantum gravity is one of the greatest challenges in physics. Today, gravity is described very well by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which is incompatible w ..read more

A new theoretical model could solve a 50-year-old puzzle on the entropy of black holes. Developed by physicists in the US, Belgium and Argentina, the model uses the concept of quantum-mechanical wormholes to count the number of quantum microstates within a black hole. The resulting counts agree with predictions made by the so-called Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula and may lead to a deeper understanding of these extreme astrophysical objects. Black hole thermodynamics Black holes get their name because their intense gravity warps space-time so much that not even light can escape after enteri ..read more

Dark matter makes up about 85 percent of the universe’s total matter, and cosmologists believe it played a major role in the formation of galaxies. We know the location of this so-called galactic dark matter thanks to astronomical surveys that map how light from distant galaxies bends as it travels towards us. But so far, efforts to detect dark matter trapped within the Earth’s gravitational field have come up empty-handed, even though this type of dark matter – known as thermalized dark matter – should be present in greater quantities. The problem is that thermalized dark matter travels much ..read more

NASA is seeking alternative designs for its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which is meant to bring back soil and rocks gathered by the agency’s Perseverance rover. But with the MSR beset by cost hikes and delays, NASA concedes that the current design is “too expensive” and that its aim of returning material by 2040 is “unacceptably too long”. A partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), the MSR is designed to return samples collected by Perseverance since 2021 at the Jezera crater on Mars. The material, once back on Earth, will boost our understanding of the red planet’s ..read more