Space

HD 95086 B Is Lightest Exoplanet Directly Imaged (So Far)

A team of astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope has imaged a faint object moving near a bright star. With an estimated mass of four to five times that of Jupiter, this exoplanet, named HD 95086 b, would be the lightest planet to be directly observe ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2013 - 9:36am

Want To Hunt For Planets? This Rare Proxima Centauri Stellar Alignment Is For You

In October 2014 and February 2016 Proxima Centauri, the red dwarf star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from N ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2013 - 11:01am

TW Hydrae- Maybe Our Sun Was A Feisty Toddler Too

Astronomers can look back in time by gathering light from distant stars that was sent billions of years ago. Another way to learn about the past is to study similar stars to our own, but at a much younger age. New work  studying the young star TW Hydrae, ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 6 2013 - 8:30am

Cat's Paw Nebula: NGC 6334 Is Experiencing A "Baby Boom" Of Stars

While the Orion Nebula is one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth and that makes for great viewing in backyard telescopes, it is not the most prolific star-forming region in our galaxy. That distinction may go to the Cat's Paw Nebula, otherwise ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2013 - 12:30pm

Putting a TARDIS in Space?

I am used to odd looks when I say I'm flying a satellite to convert the ionosphere to music.  The field of art/science hybrids is hard to assess.  What's your call on putting a TARDIS in space? I call it a mash-up of current cultural trends.  You ...

Blog Post - Project Calliope - Jun 6 2013 - 10:38am

Oph-IRS 48 Is A Comet 'Factory'

While the universe is littered with planets, comets and lots of other rocky bodies, how tiny grains of dust in the disc around a young star grow bigger and bigger, to eventually become rubble and even boulders well beyond a meter in size, is a mystery. Co ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2013 - 10:16am

METI: Should We Be Shouting At The Cosmos?

David Brin first wrote this in 2006, summarizing a controversy that was then emerging among members of the community engaged in SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent civilizations. Since I am covering a new effort at METI- Messaging Extra-Ter ...

Article - David Brin - Jun 13 2013 - 2:21pm

Mystery Of How Black Holes Produce So Many X-Rays Solved?

The gap between hypothesis and observation is never more evident than efforts to figure out howblack holes produce so many high-power X-rays. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 16 2013 - 12:43pm

Unusual Supernova SN 2011fe- Move Along, Nothing To See Here

In August of 2011, astronomers witnessed the dazzling appearance of the closest and brightest Type Ia supernova since Type Ia's were established as the "standard candles" for measuring the expansion of the universe. The visual of SN 2011fe ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 19 2013 - 10:22am

Solar Plasma Splashdown Helps Understand Accretion Rates Of Growing Stars

Check out this June 7th, 2011 eruption showing dark filaments of gas blasting outward from the Sun's lower right. The solar plasma appears dark against the Sun's bright surface but it actually glows at a temperature of about 18,000 degrees Fahre ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 21 2013 - 2:45pm