Space

Light Pollution Means Milky Way Hidden From One-third Of Humanity

When anti-science activists set out to drive astronomy from the state of Arizona by trumping up an environmental hazard, they were failing to prevent a problem that would creep across many places that don't want space science in their neighborhood- l ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2016 - 1:46pm

Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects May Lead The Way To Planet Nine- Or 10

In the race towards the discovery of another planet in our solar system, the ninth or tenth depending on how seriously you take the 2 percent of astronomers who demoted Pluto, scientists are striving to calculate its potential orbit using the tracks left ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 13 2016 - 11:47am

Chirality In Space: Prebiotic Molecule Detected In Interstellar Cloud

Chiral molecules, compounds that come in otherwise identical mirror image variations, like a pair of human hands--are crucial to life as we know it. Living things are selective about which "handedness" of a molecule they use or produce. For exam ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 15 2016 - 10:54am

Creating Venus: 'Electric Wind' Can Strip Planets Of Oceans And Atmospheres

Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping Earth's twin planet of its oceans, according to new results from ESA's Venus ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2016 - 7:30am

Tidal Disruption Event: Black Hole Eats Star, Beams Signal To Earth

Roughly 90 percent of the biggest black holes are dormant, meaning that they are not actively devouring matter and therefore not giving off any light or other radiation. Yet dormant is not dead, so when a star wanders too close, the ensuing feeding frenzy ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2016 - 12:53pm

Bewildering Dune Formation On Mars

Researchers have discovered a type of dune on Mars intermediate in size between tiny ripples and wavier dunes, and unlike anything seen on Earth. Because dunes can be preserved in rock over time, these mysterious sedimentary deposits may represent a way t ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2016 - 10:31am

Life On Venus? Greenhouse Earth? It Could Have Happened

If conditions had been just a little different an eon ago, there might be plentiful life on Venus and none on Earth. In Astrobiology, researchers note that minor evolutionary changes could have altered the fates of both Earth and Venus in ways that scient ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2016 - 7:05am

Move Over, Tatooine- Planet HD 131399Ab Has 3 Suns

Imagine a planet where you experience constant daylight or even triple sunrises and sunsets each day, because the seasons last longer than human lifetimes.  That's the case with HD 131399Ab, which has the widest known orbit within a multi-star system ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2016 - 10:06am

Will Astronauts Need To Augment Lunar Gravity? If So, How?

We might get our first humans living long term on the Moon by the 2020s. How will they cope with lunar gravity, and will it need to be augmented, and if so, how? There is a lot written about artificial gravity to counter health issues in zero gravity. but ...

Article - Robert Walker - Sep 3 2017 - 6:23am

Odds of Intelligent life on the TRAPPIST-1 planets: NOT Great.

A ccording to new work published recently the TRAPPIST-1 planets could have an atmosphere hospitable to life as we know it. Could that life be intelligent and technological if it is there?  Sadly, that is not likely.    At less than 50 light years away we ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jul 21 2016 - 4:23pm