interstellar

A Huge Beam of Antimatter Has Been Caught Streaming From This Runaway Pulsar

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A runaway dead star zooming through space at breakneck speeds has left behind a huge trail of matter and antimatter particles. The star is a pulsar called PSR J2030+4415 or J2030 for short; it’s around 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter, and it’s speeding through space at a breakneck velocity of around 450 kilometers per … Read more

Rogue planets: How wandering bodies in interstellar space ended up on their own

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Joanna Barstow, Ernest Rutherford Fellow, The Open University We now know of almost 5,000 planets outside the solar system. If you were to picture what it would be like on one of these distant worlds, or exoplanets, your mental … Read more

Researchers unlock the keys to designing an interstellar sail

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How do you design a sail that can get a spacecraft to another solar system?  NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, which launched in the 1970s, remain the only two human-made objects ever to leave our solar system. While the pair have defied expectations and are still operational, researchers continue to devise new missions … Read more

When the next interstellar object comes, James Webb Space Telescope will be there to study it

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The next time a space rock races through our solar system from beyond, humans will be a little more prepared to unlock its secrets. To date, astronomers have identified two interstellar objects that came from other neighborhoods and rushed through the solar system. In 2017, there was ‘Oumuamua, and in 2018, Borisov followed, giving scientists … Read more

Two New Studies Just Outlined The Basics of Building an Interstellar Light Sail

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For centuries, people have dreamed of being driven at speed across the vast oceans of space by winds of light. As whimsical as the idea sounds, nudging reflective sails slowly towards the speed of light using nothing more than the punch of photons might be our only plausible shot at reaching another star inside of … Read more

Radical Idea Shows Laser Propulsion Could Rapidly Accelerate Trips to Mars

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NASA and China plan to mount crewed missions to Mars in the next decade. While this represents a tremendous leap in terms of space exploration, it also presents significant logistical and technological challenges.   For starters, missions can only launch for Mars every 26 months when our two planets are at the closest points in … Read more

Could a spacecraft ‘catch up’ to interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua in just 26 years?

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Could we send a spacecraft to the giant, cigar-shaped interstellar interloper ‘Oumuamua? Should we? In 2017, astronomers detected a space rock from another solar system whizzing through our cosmic neighborhood for the first time ever. The rock, called ‘Oumuamua, passed us by and sailed through our solar system leaving behind questions that remain to this … Read more

Will we ever know the true nature of ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor?

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Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of “Ask a Spaceman” and “Space Radio,” and author of “How to Die in Space.” Sutter contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. On Oct. 19, 2017, Robert Weryk, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at … Read more