Hubble Telescope Image of the Week – Galactic Maturity
This striking image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, a powerful instrument installed on the telescope in 2009. WFC3…
Astronomy
Spitzer Space Telescope Captures Amazing Stellar Family Portrait
In this large celestial mosaic taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, there’s a lot to see, including multiple clusters of stars born from the same…
Map of the Entire Sky in X-Rays Recorded by NASA’s NICER
In this image, numerous sweeping arcs seem to congregate at various bright regions. You may wonder: What is being shown? Air traffic routes? Information moving…
Astronomers Discover ‘Forbidden’ Planet in the ‘Neptunian Desert’
A Neptunian planet has been found in what should be a ‘Neptunian Desert’ by telescopes run by the University of Warwick in an international collaboration…
Ancient Supernovae Prompted Human Ancestors to Walk Upright
Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap…
Unique Experiments Will Study Cosmic Clashes and Their Mysterious Aftermath
What happens when two supermassive black holes collide? Combining the observing power of two future ESA missions, Athena and LISA, would allow us to study…
Scientists Gain Better Understanding of Exotic Matter in Sun’s Atmosphere
Scientists from Ireland and France today announced a major new finding about how matter behaves in the extreme conditions of the Sun’s atmosphere. The scientists…
Hubble Image of the Week – Bucking the Trend
This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. As this latter moniker indicates, the galaxy was listed in the famous…
Astronomers Discover 18 Earth-Sized Planets Beyond Our Solar System
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), the Georg August University of Göttingen, and the Sonneberg Observatory have discovered 18 Earth-sized…
Strange Martian Mineral Deposit Likely From Volcanic Ash
Ashfall from ancient volcanic explosions is the likely source of a strange mineral deposit near the landing site for NASA’s next Mars rover, a new…
Comet Discovery Reopens Debate About The Origin of Earth’s Water
Where did the Earth’s water come from? Although comets, with their icy nuclei, seem like ideal candidates, analyses have so far shown that their water…
Scientists Believe Pluto May Have a Hidden Subsurface Ocean
Computer simulations provide compelling evidence that an insulating layer of gas hydrates could keep a subsurface ocean from freezing beneath Pluto’s icy exterior, according to…
Chandra Discovers New Signal for Neutron Star Collision
A neutron star merger without an observed gamma-ray burst has been discovered using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result gives astronomers another way to track…
Hubble Reveals Galaxy Blazing With New Stars Born From Close Encounter
The irregular galaxy NGC 4485 shows all the signs of having been involved in a hit-and-run accident with a bypassing galaxy. Rather than destroying the…
Scientists Reveal Massive Collision in the Milky Way’s Past
Our Milky Way galaxy has probably collided or otherwise interacted with other galaxies during its lifetime; such interactions are common cosmic occurrences. Astronomers can deduce…
NASA Publishes First Kuiper Belt Flyby Science Results
NASA’s New Horizons mission team has published the first profile of the farthest world ever explored, a planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object called…
Astrophysicists Publish a ‘Survival Guide’ for Exoplanets
Small, hardy planets packed with dense elements have the best chance of avoiding being crushed and swallowed up when their host star dies, new research…
Our Moon is Shrinking, Generating Wrinkles and Moonquakes
The Moon is shrinking as its interior cools, getting more than about 150 feet (50 meters) skinnier over the last several hundred million years. Just…