Space

I thought I'd post this, because, though it is obvious to most people in the field -  there are many who still think that present day life on the surface of Mars is impossible because of UV…

In June of 2013, an exceptional binary containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed - the pulsar radio beacon vanished and the system…

Kepler-421b has been revealed as a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year - 704 days. For comparison, Mars orbits our Sun once every 780 days.  The farther a planet is from its star…

A new discovery that many small galaxies throughout the universe do not 'swarm' around larger ones like bees but instead 'dance' in orderly disc-shaped orbits is a challenge to our understanding of…

What creates the two gigantic donuts of radiation surrounding Earth called the Van Allen radiation belts? The Van Allen Probes launched in 2012 want to find out. The inner Van Allen radiation belt is…

Sometimes we have to wonder in amazement about things found out in the universe. Case in point: a slinky string of pearls twisted into a corkscrew shape. Nothing special about that. Except this…

As every Boy Scout knows, friction generates heat. A new study finds that friction could be the key to survival for some distant Earth-sized planets traveling in dangerous orbits. Earth-sized planets…

Olber's Paradox asks why the sky is not a sheet of white. Since just the galaxy we are in has 50 stars for every person currently on earth traveling to us at all time, how can it ever get dark when…

Planet Mercury's metal-rich composition is a puzzle in planetary science. According to a new simulation, Mercury and other unusually metal-rich objects in the solar system may be relics left behind…

Astronomers have studied the carbon monoxide in ALESS65, a galaxy over 12 billion light years away, and found that it's literally running out of gas. The future is not dark, it's 'red and dead'.…