SPACE.com: On Wednesday, an unexpectedly bright gamma-ray burst temporarily shut down NASA’s robotic spacecraft Swift. Launched in 2004 to detect and image bursts of radiation emitted from exploding stars (including, ironically, gamma-ray bursts), Swift carries three different telescopes that image in optical, x-ray, and gamma-ray wavebands. This particular burst occurred some 5 billion years ago. Although the unexpected burst temporarily blinded Swift, scientists were able to quickly put it back online and recover the data recorded.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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