From NASA JPL: Water Ice confirmed at the moon’s poles In the darkest and coldest parts of its polar regions, a team of scientists has directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon’s surface. These ice deposits are patchily distributed and could possibly be ancient. At the southern pole, most of the ice…
A bizarre rogue planet without a star is roaming the Milky Way just 20 light-years from the Sun. And according to a recently published study in The Astrophysical Journal, this strange, nomadic world has an incredibly powerful magnetic field that is some 4 million times stronger than Earth’s. Furthermore, it generates spectacular auroras that would put our own northern lights…
From MIT: New data may explain star’s mysterious dimming. For nearly a century, astronomers have puzzled over the curious variability of young stars residing in the Taurus-Auriga constellation some 450 light years from Earth. One star in particular has drawn astronomers’ attention. Every few decades, the star’s light has faded briefly before brightening again. In…
A comet that could become visible to the naked eye in August has just exploded in brightness. Amateur astronomer Michael Jäger of Austria reports that Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) brightened 16-fold during the late hours of July 2nd, abruptly increasing in magnitude from +12 to +9. He took this picture of the comet’s expanding green atmosphere…
A martian dust storm that started in late May, silencing NASA’s Opportunity rover, has now wrapped itself around the entirety of Mars, radically transforming the appearance of the Red Planet. Amateur astronomers are taking pictures of the storm through backyard telescopes, and even naked-eye observers say they can see changes in the planet’s color. …
UCR researchers have identified 121 giant planets that may have habitable moons RIVERSIDE, Calif.– We’ve all heard about the search for life on other planets, but what about looking on other moons? In a paper published Wednesday (June 13) in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Southern Queensland…
From Greenbank Observatory Nanoscale gemstones source of mysterious cosmic microwave light For decades, astronomers have puzzled over the exact source of a peculiar type of faint microwave light emanating from a number of regions across the Milky Way. Known as anomalous microwave emission (AME), this light comes from energy released by rapidly spinning nanoparticles –…
NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars Discovery adds to evidence suggesting that Mars was at one time habitable. NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the…
Guest commentary by David Middleton Back in March, Eric Worrall authored a nice post about “climate scientists running for congress.” Eric’s subject was a really goofy Clean Technica article about Joseph Kopser, touted as some sort of climate scientist. Clean Technica even spelled his name wrong (Kosper instead of Kopser). Yesterday, Mr. Kopser won the runoff election…
In ancient rocks, scientists see a climate cycle working across deep time. A repeating shift in Earth’s orbit spans hundreds of millions of years From THE EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Scientists drilling deep into ancient rocks in the Arizona desert say they have documented a gradual shift in Earth’s orbit that repeats regularly every…