compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

-BBC

Telescopes detect ‘biggest explosion since Big Bang’
The blast in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster left a cavity 15 times bigger than our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists have detected evidence of a colossal explosion in space – five times bigger than anything observed before. The huge release of energy is thought to have emanated from a supermassive black hole some 390 million light years from Earth. The eruption is said to have left a giant dent in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster…
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-BBC

Nasa’s InSight probe senses hundreds of ‘Marsquakes’
US space agency-led probe has detected over 450 significant seismic events since touching down in 2018. None are particularly big – at most, they’re only 3 to 4 on the magnitude scale, which you might feel if you were standing directly above the tremors…more

-NASA

NASA’s Deep Space Antenna Upgrades to Affect Voyager Communications
Starting in early March, NASA’s Voyager 2 will quietly coast through interstellar space without receiving commands from Earth. That’s because the Voyager’s primary means of communication will be undergoing critical upgrades for about 11 months…more

-BBC

Huge ‘space snowman’ is two merging stars
Researchers have discovered an unusual ultra-massive snowman-shaped star with an atmospheric composition never seen before. It is more massive than our Sun but only two-thirds the Earth’s diameter. The object is thought to have resulted from the merger of two so-called white dwarf stars that often explode as powerful supernovas…more

-BBC

ExoMars Rover mission delayed until 2022
The ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” vehicle was due to launch to the Red Planet in July/August but engineers aren’t able to get the vehicle ready in time. Because an Earth-Mars journey is only attempted when the planets are favourably aligned, the robot’s next opportunity won’t occur until 2022….more