From the “ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE” department. NASA to Hold Media Call on Evidence of Surprising Activity on Europa NASA will host a teleconference…
Category: Astronomy
WORLDS COLLIDE: Earth may have collided with Mercury sized planet in the past – carbon tells the tale
From RICE UNIVERSITY: Earth’s carbon points to planetary smashup Element ratios suggest Earth collided with Mercury-like planet HOUSTON — (Sept. 5, 2016) — Research by Rice University Earth scientists suggests…
Rare Moon and Earth eclipse of the Sun seen from the SDO
Early in the morning of Sept. 1, 2016, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, caught both Earth and the moon crossing in front of the sun. SDO keeps a constant…
Earth sized planet found orbiting our sun’s nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri
From Nature (h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard) Astronomers have discovered evidence of a small, rocky planet orbiting our nearest star – and it may even be a bit like Earth.…
New find of 100+ exoplanets suggests Earth-like planets might be present
NASA’s Kepler confirms 100+ exoplanets during its K2 mission The largest haul of confirmed planets obtained since the space observatory transitioned to a different mode of observing includes a planetary…
Al Gore's revamped "Triana" satellite catches the Moon photobombing Earth
From NASA Goddard: NASA Camera Shows Moon Crossing Face of Earth for 2nd Time in a Year For only the second time in a year, a NASA camera aboard the…
Surface composition determines temperature and therefore habitability of a planet
Astronomers from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere of an exoplanet has major consequences for the temperature on the planet. This temperature,…
Move over Tatooine – a planet with triple suns has been discovered
A team of astronomers have used the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope to image the first planet ever found in a wide orbit inside a triple-star system.…
A second set of gravitational waves have been detected
Readers may recall when we covered the first detection of gravitational waves from space, heralding a new era in astronomy. It was big news. Now, a second detection has been…
NASA confirms discovery of 'Tatooine' planet
Largest crowdsourced astronomy network helps confirm discovery of ‘Tatooine’ planet. Led by Lehigh University professor Joshua Pepper, team includes nearly 40 members in 10 countries across 4 continents; Measurements by…
Milky Way now hidden from one-third of humanity
From the UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER and the “I blame Edison” department. The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since…
The morality of METI – should we broadcast to let aliens know "we're here" ?
Dr. Leif Svalgaard advises us of this paper via email. Apparently some people want to ring the “cosmic dinner bell” by broadcasting powerful radio transmissions to get the attention of possible…
Star with different internal driving force than the sun discovered
From the UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN – NIELS BOHR INSTITUTE A star like the Sun has an internal driving in the form of a magnetic field that can be seen on the…
Are we alone? A new twist on the famous Drake Equation ups the odds that we aren't
From the UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question– summed up in the famous Drake equation — has for a half-century been one of…
Hubble captures birthday bubble
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, released to celebrate Hubble’s 26th year in orbit, captures in stunning clarity what looks like a gigantic cosmic soap bubble. The object, known…
Black hole with the mass of 17 billion suns discovered
From NASA Goddard: Behemoth black hole found in an unlikely place Astronomers have uncovered a near-record breaking supermassive black hole, weighing 17 billion suns, in an unlikely place: in the…
NASA data leads to rare discovery: Earth's moon wandered off axis billions of years ago
Ancient lunar ice indicates the moon’s axis slowly shifted by 125 miles, or 6 degrees, over 1 billion years. Earth’s moon now a member of solar system’s exclusive ‘true polar…
Hubble telescope unveils never before seen 'monster stars'
An international team of scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has combined images taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) with the unprecedented ultraviolet spatial resolution of the…
Hubble telescope sees 13.4 billion years into the past
Hubble team breaks cosmic distance record By pushing NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, an international team of astronomers has shattered the cosmic distance record by measuring the farthest…
A first! Hubble images a distant planet 160 light years away, sees clouds
Last week it was the discovery of gravity waves, this week it’s seeing clouds on a distant planet for the first time. What an exciting time in astronomy! In a…
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