Space

True Colour Of Exoplanet Is Blue, Light Scattered From Drops Of Glass

For the first time, astronomers have measured the true colour of a planet in orbit around another star, and it is cobalt blue. This blue however, is probably the colour of a continuous rain of liquid glass, on a hot and windy planet. If you could make con ...

Blog Post - Robert Walker - Jan 19 2014 - 11:09am

S/2004 N 1: 14th Moon Discovered Around Neptune

A new moon, designated S/2004 N 1, has been discovered orbiting the distant blue-green planet Neptune, the 14th known to be circling the giant planet. S/2004 N 1 is estimated to be no more than 12 miles across, making it the smallest known moon in the Nep ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2013 - 1:27am

New Coronal Mass Ejection Will Pass Earth

On July 16th, 2013, at 12:09 a.m. EDT, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, sending billions of tons of particles into space. These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electr ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 10:19am

Coronal Loops And A Solar Optical Illusion

If the Sun's outer atmosphere- corona- is so hot, why does it always look so cool? The Sun's visible surface is 'only' 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but as you move outward the temperature shoots up to millions of degrees. It's like ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2013 - 4:45pm

Gas Cloud G2 Getting Ripped Apart By The Black Hole In The Center Of Our Milky Way Galaxy

In 2011 the Very Large Telescope (VLT) discovered a gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth accelerating towards the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.   The cloud is now so stretched that its front part has passed the closest point and ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 9:10am

There's Gold In Them Thar Colliding Dead Stars- 10 Moons Worth

Why do we value gold? It's not strong, it's not pretty, it's rare but in the 21st century, given enough energy we can turn lead into gold, the way alchemists once only dreamed about. It's not just rare on Earth, it's rare in the u ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 1:45pm

Snow Line In An Infant Solar System

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured the first ever image of the snow line in an infant solar system. Say what? On our planet, snow lines form at high altitudes where falling temperatures turn the moisture in the air into s ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2013 - 5:30am

Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae- Hubble Links Stars Ages And Their Orbits

The orbital motion of two distinct populations of stars in an ancient globular star cluster, 47 Tucanae, have offered proof they formed at different times and it provides a rare look back into the Milky Way galaxy's early days. The researchers combin ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2013 - 5:30am

Gigantic Coronal Hole Caught Hovering Over The Sun's North Pole

On July 18th, 2013, at 9:06 a.m. EDT, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured an image of a gigantic coronal hole hovering over the sun's north pole. Coronal holes are dark, low density regions of the sun's outermost atmosphere, t ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2013 - 6:00am

Ancient Snowfall On Mars?

There are valley networks branching across the Martian surface, which makes it reasonable to believe that water once flowed on the Red Planet. Where water might have come from would be another mystery. Whether it bubbled up from underground or fell as rai ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 23 2013 - 2:48pm