Space

Fomalhaut B Status As Planet Both Challenged And Reaffirmed

Does the nearby star Fomalhaut host a massive exoplanet? It depends on who you ask.  A new paper says that the planet, named Fomalhaut b, is a rare and possibly unique object that is completely shrouded by dust. Wasn't it already a planet? ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 25 2012 - 7:45pm

Giant Asteroid Vesta Gives Itself A Makeover

The giant asteroid Vesta is constantly stirring its outermost layer, according to data from NASA's Dawn mission that show that a form of weathering that occurs on the moon and other airless bodies we've visited in the inner solar system does not ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2012 - 4:55pm

Asteroid Belts: Why Complex Life Is Unique In The Universe (So Far)

Solar systems with life-bearing planets are, so far, unique.  There is only one.  But they would be rare anyway, if they are dependent on the presence of asteroid belts of just the right mass, according to two US astronomers. Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan F ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 1 2012 - 4:58pm

Solar System Gets A Revised Birth Certificate

We're not that special, says  new research led by the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. About 4.567 billion years ago, our solar system's planets spawned from an expansive dis ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2012 - 4:30am

CFBDSIR2149-0403- Planet Gone Rogue

Astronomers have identified a body that is very probably a planet wandering through space-  without a parent star. This is the closest such object to oue Solar System,  a distance of about 100 light-years and its comparative proximity and the absence of a ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2012 - 9:56am

W44: Stellar Life And Death In The Constellation Of Aquila

A new image of supernova remnant W44, which combines far-infrared and X-ray data from ESA’s Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories, shows the aftershock of a stellar explosion rippling through space. W44 is about 10,000 light-years away, in the dense ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2012 - 6:30am

Zombie Star: Sol, This May Be Your Future

The planetary nebula Abell 30 is located 5,500 light-years from Earth and it has given astronomers a lookl at a dying Sun-like star that came briefly back to life after giving up the stellar ghost, mimicking the possible fate our own Solar System faces in ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2012 - 5:02pm

A Sudden Burgeoning Into Space? From Astronomy To SETI And The Commercialization Of Space...

The Exoplanet next door:  Astronomers have discovered the  lowest-mass planet yet orbiting a Sun-like star. But the even-more exciting news is that it orbits α Centauri B, a member of the stellar system that is our Solar System’s nearest neighbour. Althou ...

Article - David Brin - Nov 20 2012 - 3:21pm

No Atmosphere On Makemake

The dwarf planet Makemake is about two thirds of the size of Pluto and farther from the Sun- but closer than Eris, the most massive so-called dwarf planet in the Solar System after the confusing reconfiguration by the International Astronomical Union that ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 21 2012 - 7:59pm

Are We Alone In The Cosmos, Cursed By Fermi's Paradox?

And now the news from Alpha Centauri … (Oh, I’ve waited for so long to utter those words!  News. From Alpha Centauri. Wow!) ...

Article - David Brin - Dec 1 2012 - 8:15pm