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What is dark energy? Exploding white dwarf stars may help us crack the case

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a small white-and-blue mottled orb next to a fiery red-and-orange orb, against a background of stars

There are a lot of ways for dead stars to blow their tops. Astronomers discovered this explosive diversity when they assessed 3,628 exploding white dwarfs during a next-generation sky survey conducted using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) between March 2018 and December 2020. That means that this dataset of nearby supernovas is several times larger … Read more

The case to build a new ISS: the International Solar Sunshade

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Imagine building a shield in orbit to protect Earth against environmental destruction — a fleet of cooperative satellites forming a massive umbrella that reduces solar energy reaching Earth, mitigating the impacts of climate change. This might sound like science fiction or a politically impossible dream, but it’s neither. It’s an engineering and governance challenge the … Read more