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5 Reasons Why the James Webb Space Telescope Is Such a Big Deal Many scientists believe there's another planet like Earth somewhere in the universe, and the search to find it is underway. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is be more powerful than its predecessors and will be able to see further into space to discover distant planets in far-off galaxies. It will even give us the tools to search for indications of an atmosphere that could sustain life. Its current mission launched into space on December 25, 2021. There are certainly larger Earth-bound telescopes, but as its name implies, the JWST will roam above the atmosphere, providing more powerful unobstructed views of the heavens than even the historic Hubble Space Telescope could offer. Funded by NASA in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the infrared Webb telescope weighs 6 metric tons and will orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It boasts many new technological advan...

Black Holes Power Some of the Brightest Objects in the Universe, So Why Is Ours So Calm? Despite their reputation as all-consuming voids of darkness, it might come as a surprise to learn that black holes are responsible for the brightest known phenomena in the universe. This remarkable contrast is possible because of the violent forces that black holes generate, ripping apart all matter that approaches and turning gas clouds into searing beacons of light. Sometimes, as shown in the animation below from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, these light shows can be on an order of magnitude that's difficult to comprehend. On July 31, 2019, NASA's Spitzer telescope captured an orbital clash between two black holes that generated an explosion of light brighter than that of a trillion stars or more than twice the brightness of our own Milky Way galaxy! A hungry cosmic furnace Black holes are capable of generating these light shows due to the way they wreak havoc on everything that d...

10 Wonders of the Solar System These celestial marvels are truly out of this world. Our solar system is big. Way big. In fact, if Earth were the size of a marble, the solar system out to Neptune would cover an area the size of San Francisco. Within this vastness lies an array of celestial wonders: the sun with its surface of plasma, the Earth with its abundance of life and massive oceans, the mesmerizing clouds of Jupiter, to name a few. For this particular list, we've decided to highlight some well-known celestial wonders, as well as a few you might not know about. With new discoveries happening all the time, and so much left to explore, the cosmos is never short on beauty and astonishment. Below are just a few of the scattered jewels of our solar system. The impact crater of Utopia Planitia, Mars The largest recognized impact basin in the solar system, Utopia Planitia features a crater that stretches more than 2,000 miles (about 3,300 kilometers) across Mars' northern plains....

NASA's SWOT Mission Will Provide First Detailed Map of Earth's Surface Water The advanced radar satellite will provide unprecedented insights into our planet’s water cycle and impacts from climate change. NASA's $1.2 billion Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite (SWOT) successfully launched from California on December 16, marking the start of an unprecedented mission to map Earth's water bodies. “It’s a game changer,” Rosemary Morrow, oceanographer at the Laboratory of Space, Geophysical and Oceanographic Studies and one of the science leads for the mission, told Nature. “It will be like putting on a pair of glasses when you are short-sighted: things are sort of vague, and then suddenly everything comes into clarity.” Developed over nearly two decades as part of a joint project with the French National Centre for Space Studies, SWOT will use advanced radar to measure the elevation, extent, and movement of water across the planet. Such insights will help researche...

100 Trillion Bits of Old Satellites Circling the Planet, Scientists Call for Action on Space Junk A group of scientists want a legally-binding treaty to ensure Earth’s orbit isn’t irreparably harmed. Houston, we have a problem. The world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with landfills groaning under the stress. We've delivered more than 170 trillion plastic particles to the oceans and continue to do so at an alarmingly rapid rate. With land and sea literally littered with trash, where else do we have to turn? Well, the final frontier, of course. Space. NASA calls what's known as low Earth orbit (LEO) an orbital space junkyard, explaining that "most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds." There are no international space laws to c...