Space

WAG: Cracks In Charon Might Mean It Had An Underground Ocean

Pluto orbits the sun more than 29 times farther away than Earth, with a surface temperature estimated to be about 380 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The environment on Pluto, which 2 percent of astronomers voted on no longer being really a planet anyway, ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 13 2014 - 3:54pm

How Much Water Does Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Produce?

In May, NASA's Swift satellite imaged comet Siding Spring, which is going to play a bit of a game of chicken with  Mars later this year.  "Fresh" comets like Siding Spring, which is formally known as C/2013 A1, contain some of the most anci ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2014 - 12:08pm

Dwarf Galaxies But They Pack A Big Star-Forming Punch

New observations made using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show that dwarf galaxies are responsible for forming a large proportion of the universe's stars. The result supports a decade-long investigation into whether there is a link between a gal ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2014 - 5:00am

Zero Gravity: It May Not Be What You Think

A misconception arises when we ask people about the role that gravity plays in space.  If you watch movies set in space — or for that matter, read statements from NASA —you will be led to think that gravity is absent in space. After all, people often refe ...

Article - Jeffrey Bennett - Jun 28 2014 - 11:27am

Mysterious Magic Island On Titan- Now You See It, Now You Don't

IAstronomers have discovered a bright, mysterious geologic object in  radar images of Ligeia Mare, the second-largest sea on Saturn's moon Titan. on Scientifically speaking, this is a transient feature. They want to call it a magic island and so do w ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2014 - 3:22pm

Is The Mysterious X-Ray Signal In The Perseus Cluster Evidence Of Dark Matter?

We can't even define dark matter, other than it being some blanket term for something that must exist due to unexplainable gravitational influence on the movements and appearance of stars or galaxies.  Based on indirect evidence, astronomers believe ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2014 - 10:31am

The Solar Atmosphere Is Much Larger Than Previously Thought

Surrounding the sun is a vast atmosphere of solar particles, through which magnetic fields swarm, solar flares erupt, and gigantic columns of material rise, fall and jostle each other around.  We call it the corona. This corona, is even larger than though ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 7:34pm

The Invisible World Of Electric Asteroids

Space looks empty the same way that nature sounds quiet. Unlike nature, space actually is a soundless vacuum, but it's not a void. Invisible to human eyes, space flows with electric activity. NASA is developing plans to send humans to an asteroid, an ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 5:54pm

Just In Time For The World Cup, The Cosmos Scores A Dark Matter Own Goal

We don't know what dark matter is but we know it must be. And now, computer hypothetically, we know it a little better, thanks to new supercomputer simulations showing a possible evolution of our corner of the cosmos, the Local Group, from the Big Ba ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 7:44pm

How Saturn's Moon Titan Is Like Earth

At first glance, Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has little in common with Earth. Titan's surface temperature dips tp nearly 300 F below zero, its seas slosh with liquid methane, and its sky is a murky shade of creamsicle. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 30 2014 - 10:07am