Hubble Telescope Views a Glittering Ball of Stars
This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our…
Space News
Astronomers Probe Four Newly Discovered Milky Way Neighbors
Ultra-faint, dwarf galaxies are the smallest, most dark matter dominated, and least chemically enriched stellar systems in the universe and are important targets for understanding…
NASA Extends Chandra X-Ray Observatory Operations
NASA has awarded a contract extension to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to continue operations and science support for the agency’s Chandra…
Juno Spacecraft Views Jovian Swirls
Clouds in a Jovian jet stream, called Jet N5, swirl in the center of this color-enhanced image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. A brown oval known…
Scientists Discover Why Some Supernova Explosions Produce More Manganese and Nickel
Researchers have found white dwarf stars with masses close to the maximum stable mass (called the Chandrasekhar mass) are likely to produce large amounts of…
NASA Reveals Sustainable Campaign to Return to Moon and Beyond
In December of 2017, President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1, in which the president directed NASA “to lead an innovative and sustainable program of…
NASA Exploring Ways to Search for Life Advanced Enough to Create Technology
Since the beginning of civilization, humanity has wondered whether we are alone in the universe. As NASA has explored our solar system and beyond, it…
SDO Image Shows Our Sun in Different Wavelengths
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory views our Sun in ten different wavelengths because each wavelength reveals different solar features. This September 21, 2018, view of the Sun uses…
HiRISE Spots Opportunity Rover on the Slopes of Perseverance Valley
NASA still hasn’t heard from the Opportunity rover, but at least we can see it again. A new image produced by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera…
Martian Moon Phobos May Have Formed From Impact With Home Planet
The weird shapes and colors of the tiny Martian moons Phobos and Deimos have inspired a long-standing debate about their origins. The dark faces of…
NASA Spots Dust Storms on Titan for the First Time
Data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed what appear to be giant dust storms in equatorial regions of Saturn’s moon Titan. The discovery, described in…
Study Shows Ancient Mars Had The Right Conditions For Underground Life
A new study shows evidence that ancient Mars probably had an ample supply of chemical energy for microbes to thrive underground. “We showed, based on…
Hubble Image of the Week – Warped and Distorted
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image contains a veritable mix of different galaxies, some of which belong to the same larger structure: At the middle…
Hayabusa2 Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu
A pair of robot rovers have landed on an asteroid and begun a survey, Japan’s space agency said Saturday, as it conducts a mission aiming…
Study Shows Sun-Like Stars Rotate Differentially
Like our sun, distant stars are rotating spheres of hot gas. Stars, however, do not rotate like solid spheres: regions at different latitudes rotate at…
Astronomers Measure Precise Rotation Pattern of Sun-Like Stars
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi reveal that sun-like stars rotate up to two and a half times faster at the equator than at higher latitudes,…
Gaia Mission Helps Improve Classification Scheme for Exoplanet Sizes
There are about 4433 exoplanets in the latest catalogs. Their radii have generally been measured by knowing the radius of their host star and then…
XMM-Newton Observes Matter Falling Into a Black Hole
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in…