In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet

Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 3, 2023 • ~7 min

Astronomers detect the closest example yet of a black hole devouring a star

The event was spotted in infrared data — also a first — suggesting further searches in this band could turn up more such bursts.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
April 28, 2023 • ~8 min

Scrappy SBUDNIC satellite hitched a ride to space

Students got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to design and build their own satellite to be launched into space. They call it SBUDNIC.

Juan Siliezar-Brown • futurity
March 22, 2023 • ~9 min

Detailed images from space offer clearer picture of drought effects on plants

J-WAFS researchers are using remote sensing observations to build high-resolution systems to monitor drought.

Carolyn Blais | Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab • mit
March 20, 2023 • ~8 min

How to use free satellite data to monitor natural disasters and environmental changes

Time-lapse animations that once took days to create are now easy to build with publicly available satellite images and free online tools.

Qiusheng Wu, Assistant Professor of Geography and Sustainability, University of Tennessee • conversation
March 14, 2023 • ~7 min

Satellite and radar combo better predicts thunderstorms

Satellite and radar data may offer a better way to predict when and where thunderstorms will occur, according to a new study.

Matthew Carroll-Penn State • futurity
March 10, 2023 • ~6 min

Study: Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer

MIT chemists show the Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 percent in 2020.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
March 8, 2023 • ~8 min

Radio interference from satellites is threatening astronomy – a proposed zone for testing new technologies could head off the problem

Many telescopes use the radio spectrum to learn about the cosmos. Just as human development leads to more light pollution, increasing numbers of satellites are leading to more radio interference.

Mariya Zheleva, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University at Albany, State University of New York • conversation
March 3, 2023 • ~11 min

3Q: What we learned from the asteroid-smashing DART mission

Saverio Cambioni discusses new results revealing the redirected asteroid Dimorphos to be a dust-trailing rubble-pile.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
March 2, 2023 • ~7 min

Night skies are getting 9.6% brighter every year as light pollution erases stars for everyone

With the help of thousands of citizen scientists, a new study measured exactly how much brighter night skies are getting every year.

Connie Walker, Scientist, National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory • conversation
Feb. 23, 2023 • ~6 min

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