Space

The most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang – found something a little odd.  The information extracted from Planck’s new map…

Electrically charged lunar dust near shadowed craters can get lifted above the surface and 'jump' over the shadowed region, bouncing back and forth between sunlit areas on opposite sides.  This…

On Jupiter, cloudless patches are so rare that the larger visible ones get the special name 'hot spots.' How do these clearings form and why they are they only found near the planet's equator? It's…

A team of international scientist has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size like planet beyond our solar system.   The planet is one of four gas giants…

Scientists have discovered another rare triple quasar system.  Quasars are extremely bright and powerful sources of energy that sit in the center of a galaxy, surrounding a black hole. In…

The gravitational field surrounding the massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 68 acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies.…

Gas looks so pretty in space, don't you agree? This particular stellar gas is named planetary nebula ESO 456-67 . Do not get the wrong idea reading 'planetary'. This celestial object has nothing to…

Earth's radiation belts, called Van Allen belts, were discovered after the very first launches of satellites in 1958 by James Van Allen. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts but what…

Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova. A supernova discovered Feb. 6th exploded about 450…

Astronomers using new data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array - NuSTAR - and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray satellites have measured  the supermassive black hole at…