John Wenz

2 weeks ago | astronomy.com | John Wenz

The same side of the Moon always faces us. This means that we never get a chance to see the other side of it unless a spacecraft flies there. If we could see it in the night sky, though, it would be like a whole different world. Where the lunar face we’re used to, the nearside, has deep craters known as mare, the farside has comparatively few large craters. Instead, it’s covered in a series of small craters, which makes it look a bit more like a golf ball. Why are the two sides different?

1 month ago | astronomy.com | John Wenz

Be careful out there, astronomers: There could be a dark galaxy in our midst. In research published today in Science Advances, researchers from the Chinese National Academy of Sciences discovered that a fast-moving cloud of gas near the Milky Way may not be a cloud at all, but rather a small galaxy made mostly of dark matter. AC G185.0-11.5 is part of the larger AC-I Complex, which is what astronomers call a high-velocity cloud (HVC).

1 month ago | astronomy.com | John Wenz

Since it began collecting data, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shined a light on the early universe, helping us better understand the timeline of events that led to our modern-day cosmos. In a paper published March 26 in Nature, a University of Copenhagen-led team reports finding a galaxy right at a crucial moment in the early universe known as the Epoch of Reionization.

2 months ago | astronomy.com | John Wenz

Astronomers have finally identified the source of mysterious radio waves from deep space, tracing the signals back to an unusual stellar pair locked in a swift orbit, flashing out their location for the universe to hear. In research published March 12 in Nature Astronomy, a team of astrophysicists finally found the source of strange, minute-long radio bursts. Called ILT J1101 + 5521, the source sends out bursts lasting between 30 and 90 seconds every two hours.

2 months ago | astronomy.com | John Wenz

We’ve always known Mars as the Red Planet — but it turns out, we may have had the reason why wrong. If so, it could revise much of what we know about the history of our smaller neighbor planet. In a study published Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, researchers tied the nature of Mars’ red tint to a particular species of iron mineral. While it’s never been in doubt that Mars’ red was a consequence of iron and water interacting, exactly how and when it happened has proven more elusive.