The Mystery of Ancient Space Superstorms

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March 09, 2023

This week, we're worrying—but not too much—about death from the skies. Our top story covers new research hinting that mysteriously (and terrifyingly!) strong episodes of cosmic radiation that struck Earth centuries and millennia ago may have come from sources other than our sun. If confirmed, this result may mean we have one more civilization-crushing celestial catastrophe to worry about. As if Earth-threatening asteroids weren't enough! Speaking of which, also this week we have a raft of stories about potentially hazardous space rocks—and how to deflect them. Elsewhere, we have coverage of a curious pair of colliding dwarf galaxies, shaky U.S. plans for long-term storage of nuclear waste, challenges to lunar-based astronomy, the most boring number in the world, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics

Planetary Science Mystery of Ancient Space Superstorms Deepens A fresh analysis of tree-ring data suggests barrages of cosmic radiation that washed over Earth centuries ago may have come from sources besides our sun By Katherine Kornei

Energy NASA's Latest Asteroid Explorer Celebrates Our Ancient Origins in Space and on Earth The Lucy spacecraft and its target asteroids show that the way that we name discoveries matters By Phil Plait

Planetary Science NASA's Asteroid-Bashing DART Mission Was Wildly Successful New studies have revealed the spacecraft's final moments and the remarkable aftermath of its impact By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Planetary Science Newfound Asteroid May Strike Earth in 2046, NASA Says Preliminary estimates suggest that a 50-meter space rock called 2023 DW has a roughly one-in-600 chance of colliding with our planet in 23 years By Brandon Specktor,LiveScience

Astronomy Are Telescopes on the Moon Doomed? Booming exploration and commercial activity could ruin the quiet, astronomy-friendly environment of the lunar far side By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Black Holes Colliding Dwarf Galaxies Reveal a Glimpse of the Early Universe Scientists may have spotted two pairs of merging dwarf galaxies, each pair with a duo of soon-to-collide black holes By Meghan Bartels

Mathematics The Most Boring Number in the World Is ... That prime numbers and powers of 2 fascinate many people comes as no surprise. In fact, all numbers split into two camps: interesting and boring By Manon Bischoff

Energy Nuclear Waste Is Piling Up. Does the U.S. Have a Plan? We needs a permanent national nuclear waste disposal site now, before the spent nuclear fuel stored in 35 states becomes unsafe By Allison Macfarlane,Rodney C. Ewing

Animals What Chernobyl's Stray Dogs Could Teach Us about Radiation A multiyear project studying stray dogs around Chernobyl aims to uncover the health effects of chronic radiation exposure By Freda Kreier,Nature magazine

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Good luck to telecommunications." Benjamin Pope, an astronomer at the University of Queensland in Australia, on the potentially disastrous effects of future 'Miyake events' on communications satellites and other vulnerable technologies

FROM THE ARCHIVE Are We Doing Enough to Protect Earth from Asteroids? Scientists lost one of their best tools with the demise of the Arecibo telescope By Sarah Scoles | June 2021

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