Space

Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova. A supernova discovered Feb. 6th exploded about 450 million years ago while the second, discovered Nov. 20th, ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2013 - 10:57am

A Third Van Allen Radiation Belt Discovered Circling Earth

Earth's radiation belts, called Van Allen belts, were discovered after the very first launches of satellites in 1958 by James Van Allen. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts but what causes such dynamic variation in the belts has rema ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 1 2013 - 3:20pm

Saturday in Space: Stellar Gas

Gas looks so pretty in space, don't you agree? ...

Blog Post - Bente Lilja Bye - Mar 3 2013 - 2:11pm

Gravitational LensIng Around Abell 68 Creates A Cartoon Of A Space Invader

The gravitational field surrounding the massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 68 acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. Like a fun house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscap ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2013 - 9:22pm

Second Triple Quasar Found

Scientists have discovered another rare triple quasar system. Quasars are extremely bright and powerful sources of energy that sit in the center of a galaxy, surrounding a black hole. In systems with multiple quasars, the bodies are held together by grav ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2013 - 12:26pm

Rossby Waves And The Moving 'Hot Spots' Of Jupiter

On Jupiter, cloudless patches are so rare that the larger visible ones get the special name 'hot spots.' How do these clearings form and why they are they only found near the planet's equator? It's a mystery, by Jove, but using images ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 15 2013 - 10:21am

HR 8799c- Water Signature In Distant Planet Shows Clues To Its Formation

A team of international scientist has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size like planet beyond our solar system. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 14 2013 - 8:16pm

Leaping Lunar Dust! On The Moon!

Electrically charged lunar dust near shadowed craters can get lifted above the surface and 'jump' over the shadowed region, bouncing back and forth between sunlit areas on opposite sides. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2013 - 10:47am

Is The Universe Perfect?

The most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang – found something a little odd. The information extracted from Planck’s new map provides an excellent confirmation of the standard model of cosmo ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 21 2013 - 12:39pm

NGC 2547- Blue Babies And Red Giants

Most stars do not form in isolation, but are in clusters ranging from dozens to thousands of stars. Even in our galaxy, the Milky Way, with stars more than 13 billion years old, has a lot of young, hot action: new objects form and others are destroyed. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 27 2013 - 10:34am