Space

EPIC: Nearby M Star Has 3 Earths, One In The Goldilocks Zone

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has been hobbled by the loss of critical guidance systems but can still find good stuff- most recently a star with three planets only slightly larger than Earth, one in the "Goldilocks" zone, a region where surf ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 16 2015 - 2:06pm

Galactic 'Hailstorm' 13 Billion Years Ago

Two teams of astronomers have used computer models to look back nearly 13 billion years, when the Universe was less than 10 percent its present age, to determine how quasars- extremely luminous objects powered by supermassive black holes with the mass of ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 23 2015 - 12:30pm

Extraterrestrial Dust On The Ocean Floor At Odds With Supernovae Hypotheses

Scientists have analyzed extraterrestrial dust hat has settled on ocean floors to determine the amount of heavy elements created by the massive explosions. The dust is thought to be from supernovae, exploding stars way beyond our solar system, and their co ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 20 2015 - 10:14pm

Hidden Magnetic Messages From Space Discovered

Geologists have discovered hidden magnetic messages from the early solar system in meteorites measured using the PEEM-Beamline at the BESSY II synchrotron located in The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB).  The information captures ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 21 2015 - 1:45pm

Oceans Give New Insights On Elements Made In Supernovae

By Anton Wallner, Australian National University Our understanding of heavy element production in supernovae, exploding stars way beyond our solar system, may need to change following some discoveries we have made looking not to the skies, but deep under ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 24 2015 - 9:01am

Jupiter's Triple Transit For 2015

Jupiter's moons are giving us a show not seen since 2013: The orbital path of the moons is tilting edge-ion to the Earth and the sun, making it possible to watch the moons pass in front of each other, an occultation, or pass through another moon' ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 24 2015 - 7:35am

ESA Scientists Recollect the Historic Landing on Titan 10 Years Ago

Ten years ago, on Jan. 14, 2005, some orange-y image, showing an alien scenery with lots of pebbles in the horizon, was at the center of ESA scientists’ attention. The snapshot of a distant world’s landscape was truly amazing. It was Saturn’s moon Titan w ...

Blog Post - Tomasz Nowakowski - Jan 25 2015 - 11:27am

Planet With Rings Found Outside Solar System- And They Are Bigger Than Saturn

Astronomers have discovered a ring system eclipsing the very young Sun-like star J1407. And it is huge, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system, the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system, was discovered in 2 ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 26 2015 - 1:46pm

Cometary Globule CG4- From God's Hand To The Mouth Of The Beast

What exactly is cometary globule CG4?  That's still a bit of a mystery. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with comets. In 1976, several elongated comet-like objects were discovered in pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Bec ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 28 2015 - 3:00am

2004 BL86- 'Near Miss' Asteroid Even Has Its Own Moon

The first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL86, which made its closest approach today at 8:19 a.m. PST- a distance of only 745,000 miles (3.1 times the distance from Earth to the moon)- reveal that it even has its own small moon. The closeness did not take a ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 27 2015 - 2:21am