Space

Why ET Populations Can't Continue To Expand For More Than A Few Millennia

Science fiction stories often suggest that ETs, and our future selves also, would be expansionist, colonizing the galaxy, taking over worlds, and so forth. It's natural enough, because we are expansionist ourselves. But it's actually quite easy ...

Article - Robert Walker - Aug 1 2017 - 4:36am

Planet PSO J318.5-22: A Giant Bag Of Hot Dust And Molten Rain

Weather patterns in a mysterious world beyond our solar system called PSO J318.5-22 have been revealed for the first time. Layers of clouds, made up of hot dust and droplets of molten iron, have been detected on a planet-like object found 75 light years f ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2015 - 8:08am

How To Grow Food In Space

In the film version of "The Martian", the main character is trapped on the red planet and is forced to figure out how to grow food. He declares he is going to "science the s--t out of" the issue before instead engaging in regular old a ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 3 2015 - 3:54pm

Protostar Growth Spurts Imaged

Astronomers have discovered an adolescent protostar that is undergoing a rapid-fire succession of growth spurts. Evidence for this fitful youth is seen in a pair of intermittent jets streaming away from the star's poles. Known as CARMA-7, the protost ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 5 2015 - 8:30am

"Imaginary Bullshit Planet" Nibiru- Lens Flares, Sun Mirages, Hoaxes & Just Plain Silly

I got many comments on last week's Nibiru article from some very scared people. They needed a lot of reassuring that it was indeed a hoax and not real, and brought up many topics to discuss such as lens flares, hoaxes, double sun videos, rare sun mir ...

Article - Robert Walker - Nov 14 2016 - 9:48am

Dying, Giant Radio Galaxy Discovered 9 Billion Light Years Away

A team of astronomers have discovered an extremely rare galaxy of gigantic size. The galaxy,  J021659-044920 and located about 9 billion light years away towards the constellation Cetus, emits powerful radio waves and has an end to end extent of a whoppin ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2015 - 3:00am

SETI Listens: KIC 8462852 Says Nothing. The Odds of Aliens Go Down.

SETI has listened to KIC 8462852 for two kinds of signals and found nothing stronger than an intensity of 100 Jy (Jansky). They looked for purposefully broadcast narrow band signals and a wide band omnidirectional signal not purposefully sent.  Their first ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Nov 6 2015 - 6:15pm

Pluto- When Is A Dwarf Planet Not A Planet?

Let's declare Pluto as a dwarf or sub dwarf planet AND a planet! This is about the vexed question of whether Pluto is a planet or not. Yes the International Astronomical Union "settled the question" but I'm not sure their decision is o ...

Article - Robert Walker - Dec 31 2016 - 11:52am

A Simpler Way To Define What Makes A Planet

In 2006, a tiny percentage of astronomers took it upon themselves to change the definition of "planet" and so Pluto was out. Chaos ruled, the 237 astronomers who made the ruling dug in their heels, and for the most part they were ignored. After ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2015 - 1:27pm

Phobos Is Slowly Falling Apart

The long, shallow grooves lining the surface of Phobos are likely early signs of the structural failure that will ultimately destroy this moon of Mars. Orbiting a mere 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above the surface of Mars, Phobos is closer to its plane ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 11 2015 - 7:00am