Space

Four billion years ago, a young Mars had enough water to bury its whole surface under 400 feet of ocean, but it is more likely that, as on Earth, it pooled. In the case of Mars, it probably formed an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemispher ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2015 - 8:30am

Giant Methane Storms Raging On Uranus

Most of the times we have looked at Uranus, it has seemed to be a relatively calm place. Well, yes its atmosphere is the coldest place in the solar system. But, when we picture the seventh planet in our solar system invariably the image of a calming blue ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 7 2015 - 1:00pm

Hellfire And Damnation: Just Another Day In The Heart Of The Milky Way

Researchers have detected about 20 rotating dust and gas discs in two clusters hosting exceptionally large and hot stars. The science mystery is how the rotating discs are able to withstand evaporation under such extreme conditions - if there is a Hell, th ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2015 - 1:04pm

Ganymede: Inferring An Underground Ocean On Jupiter's Largest Moon

Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, is thought to have once had more water than all the water on Earth's surface. But why? Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and the only moon with its own magnetic field. The magnetic field causes au ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2015 - 8:52am

The Lost Ocean Of Mars

I’ve probably lost count of the number of ‘WATER ON MARS’ and related headlines I’ve read over the years. It’s an interesting case study of how a scientific theory gains support as more evidence is collected, until it becomes something ‘that is known’. Bu ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 15 2015 - 9:32am

Chiron May Possess Saturn-Like Rings

When most people think of cosmic rings, they think of Saturn, but there are actually five bodies in our solar system known to have them. Rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune along with a "centaur", Chariklo, an homage ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 16 2015 - 10:06am

ISRO Successfully Tests Its GSLV Mk III Cryogenic Engine

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test on Saturday Mar. 14th to check the GSLV Mk III launch vehicle’s indigenous cryogenic CE-20 engine at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri, Tirunelveli district. “It ...

Blog Post - Tomasz Nowakowski - Mar 16 2015 - 3:02pm

Galactic Archaeologists Find New Milky Way Companions Hiding In Plain Sight

When we think of cosmology, we often imagine the largest telescopes peering into the deepest space, collecting the feeble light from exploding stars or the first galaxies. But for some cosmologists – like the Galactic Archaeologists – the focus is the loc ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 18 2015 - 8:00am

Titius-Bode Law: Planets In The Habitable Zone Around Most Stars

Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy using the Kepler satellite and many of them have multiple planets orbiting the host star. By analyzing these planetary systems, researchers from the Australian National University ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2015 - 1:58am

Watch The Solar Eclipse On Friday!

In the morning of March 20th Europeans will be treated with the amazing show of a total solar eclipse. The path of totality is unfortunately confined to the northern Atlantic ocean, and will miss Iceland and England, passing only over the Faroer islands- ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Mar 18 2015 - 5:29am