Space

Pac-Man, The Sequel: Iconic Video Game Feature Spotted In Saturn's Moon Tethys

NASA's Cassini mission has spotted a second feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon Pac-Man, this time on Saturn's moon Tethys.The pattern appears in thermal data obtained by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer, with warmer area ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2012 - 7:31pm

Missing Jupiters May Have Brought Massive Comet Belts

Astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems – GJ 581 and 61 Vir – known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds.   Previously, scientists found that the dusty belt surrounding nearby star Fomalhaut must be maint ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2012 - 6:00pm

SDSS J1106+1939: Biggest Black Hole Blast Discovered

Quasars are the luminous centers of distant galaxies powered by huge black holes.  Although black holes are noted for pulling material in, most quasars also accelerate some of the material around them and eject it at high speed. Many theoretical simulatio ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2012 - 1:40pm

If You Think Winters Are Crazy Here, Check Out Seasons For Saturn's Moon Titan

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 so it has seen a lot- but it recently saw something that has not happened since 1997. Seasonal atmospheric circulation direction changes on Titan, technically only a moon but bigger than t ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2012 - 4:30am

Farthest Ever: Record-Setting X-Ray Jet From Quasar GB 1428

A jet of X-rays from the supermassive black hole in quasar GB 1428+4217, 12.4 billion light years from Earth, has been detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory- the most distant X-ray jet ever observed.  Giant black holes at the centers of galaxi ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2012 - 3:00pm

NGC 1277: Black Hole Size Might Make Galaxy Evolution Models Wobble

A monster black hole has been detected.  With 17 billion solar masses, it is significantly heavier than models predict and could be the most massive black hole known to date.   Astronomers believe there is a super-massive black hole at the heart of every ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2012 - 12:30pm

Abell 520 Relook Helps Dark Matter Dodge A Bullet

 Astronomers theorize that an as-yet-unidentified form of matter is responsible for 90 percent of the gravity within galaxies and clusters of galaxies but because it is detected via its gravity and not its light, they call it "dark matter."  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2012 - 2:30pm

Can Life Emerge On Planets Around Cooling Stars?

Astronomers find planets in strange places and wonder if they might support life. One such place would be in orbit around a white or brown dwarf. While neither is a star like the sun, both glow and so could be orbited by planets with the right ingredients ...

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

Radio Galaxy Hercules Gets A Multi-Wavelength View

Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a super massive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A are shown off by the combined imaging power of the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and the recently upgrad ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2012 - 6:30pm

Is There An Ocean Under The Icy Crust Of Titan?

A new analysis of topographic and gravity data from Titan, the largest moon orbiting Saturn,  indicates its icy outer crust is twice as thick as has generally been thought. Is there a vast ocean of liquid water lies under the crust?. The new study suggest ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2012 - 1:30pm