Kepler Data Suggests 17 Billion Earth-Sized Worlds in the Milky Way
According to a new study presented at the American Astronomical Society, one in six stars has an Earth-sized planet in an orbit of 85 days…
Space News
Nearby Star Is at Least 13.2 Billion Years Old
Astronomers have discovered one of the oldest stars in the known universe. They believe it is at least 13.2 billion years old and formed shortly…
GALEX Data Reveals NGC 6872 as the Largest-Known Spiral Galaxy
Based on data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission, a team of international astronomers has declared barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 the largest-known spiral galaxy….
The Possibility of Life on Extrasolar Moons
A new study examines the probability of life existing on extrasolar moons, identifying tidal heating as a criterion for exomoon habitability and devising a theoretical…
Asteroid Apophis Will Make a Record Setting Close Approach to Earth
Using the Herschel Space Observatory, scientists gathered new data on the asteroid Apophis, an asteroid that will make a recording-setting close approach to Earth and…
Hubble & Spitzer See Weather Patterns in a Brown Dwarf
By using the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope to simultaneously view the brown dwarf planet 2MASSJ22282889-431026, a team of astronomers has created a…
Hubble Reveals 2,000 Year Long Elliptical Orbit for Fomalhaut B
A new Hubble image has allowed scientists to calculate the orbital motion of the planet Fomalhaut b, finding that the orbit takes the planet as…
Health Problems Future Mars Astronauts May Face
A newly published study found that astronauts going to Mars could have trouble sleeping, become lethargic, and have problems with mental tasks over the course…
NuSTAR Images of Spiral Galaxy IC 342 & Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array is providing scientists with greater sensitivity and imaging capability and giving them new information on a wide array of cosmic…
Massive Outburst in Spiral Galaxy NGC 660 Surprises Astronomers
While using the 305-meter William E. Gordon Telescope at Arecibo, researchers discovered an outburst in spiral galaxy NGC 660 that was ten times brighter than…
Volunteers Discover 15 New Planet Candidates in Habitable Zones
By looking for a dip in the brightness as planets pass in front of their parent stars, volunteers have discovered 15 new planet candidates orbiting…
Curiosity Returns Images of “Snake River” & Explores “Yellowknife Bay”
Over the holidays, NASA’s Curiosity rover returned new images of “Snake River” and is now in a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay.” This is the…
Hubble Views Galaxies NGC 5011B and NGC 5011C
A new Hubble image shows galaxy NGC 5011C, which astronomers now believe is a dwarf galaxy and not a member of the distant Centaurus Cluster…
Asteroid Impacts Leave Carbonaceous Material on Vesta
New images from NASA’s reveal that large impacts of asteroids may have altered Vesta’s shape and transferred carbonaceous material to the protoplanet and inner solar…
Supersonic Outflows Contain a Million Times the Energy of an Exploding Star
In a newly published study, an international team of astronomers describe how they detected and mapped outflows of charged particles from the center of our…
“Black Beauty” – Scientists Discover a Water-Rich Martian Meteorite
Researchers discovered a new class of Martian meteorite in the Sahara Desert that contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins,…
At Least 100 Billion Planets Populate the Milky Way
By analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32, astronomers at Caltech estimate that there are at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy. Look up…
ALMA Views a Key Stage in the Birth of Giant Planets
Using the ALMA telescope, scientists have made the first direct observations of the streams of gas that flow across a gap in the disc of…
