Home

On:

Dark matter: all mass and no substance, this theoretical type of matter is used by physicists to explain why the universe acts as if it has five times more mass than we can see–basically if galaxies only had the mass that is represented by the visible matter in them, the strain that their rate of spin puts on them would cause them to fly apart. And this strange, invisible substance that doesn’t seem to interact at all with ordinary matter should be distributed as evenly as the rest of the matter in the universe… except that astronomers have recently found a galaxy that contains no dark matter at all, demonstrating that its theoretical presence isn’t as ubiquitous as we thought.
read more

On:

A new analysis of a small rock called the Hypatia Stone, presumed to be a fragment from a comet, reveals that it might either be from outside the Solar System, or older than the Sun itself.

Discovered in 1996 in the same region of the Eastern Sahara as the odd phenomenon known as Libyan Desert glass, a 2013 analysis of the Hypatia Stone discovered that it was of extraterrestrial origin, and was hypothesized to be a fragment of a cometary nucleus. However, a new analysis has found that the stone’s odd atomic composition doesn’t even match any known meteorite samples, implying that it is either from outside the Solar System, or it predates the formation of the Solar System itself.
read more

On:

One of the founders of the Breakthrough Listen Project, Yuri Milner, has announced that they will be investigating the Solar System’s first recorded interstellar visitor, the asteroid ‘Oumuamua, for any potential artificial signals originating from the object. Although Milner admits that it’s unlikely that their investigation will find anything, ‘Oumuamua’s characteristics are strange enough to warrant a look.
read more

On:

In a recent interview with Russian News Service TASS, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov discussed the presence of microbes that were found on the outside of the hull of the International Space Station, that were not present after the launch of the ISS’s modules. According to Shkaplerov, "it turns out that somehow these swabs reveal bacteria that were absent during the launch of the ISS module."

"That is, they have come from outer space and settled along the external surface."
read more