Hubble Spots Tiny Moon “That Shouldn’t Be There”
Astronomers call it “the moon that shouldn’t be there.” After several years of analysis, a team of planetary scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has…
Astronomy
ESA’s Gaia Satellite Discovers Billion-Year-Old River of Stars
Astronomy & Astrophysics published the work of researchers from the University of Vienna, who have found a river of stars, a stellar stream in astronomical…
TRAPPIST-1 Exposed to Heavy Bombardment of Charged Particles
TRAPPIST-1 is a system of seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star about 120 light-years away. The star, and hence its system of planets,…
Chandra Solves the Universe’s “Missing Mass” Problem
New results from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory may have helped solve the Universe’s “missing mass” problem. Astronomers cannot account for about a third of the…
Hubble Captures Herbig-Haro Objects of a Newborn Star
In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the smoking gun of a newborn star, the Herbig–Haro objects numbered 7 to 11 (HH…
New NASA Mission Will Explore the Origins of Universe
NASA has selected a new space mission that will help astronomers understand both how our universe evolved and how common are the ingredients for life…
Scientists Reveal Possibility of Recent Underground Volcanism on Mars
A study published last year in the journal Science suggested liquid water is present beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. Now, a new…
ESO Image of the Week – Worlds With Many Suns
This week’s Picture of the Week highlights another of the 20 images to come out of ALMA’s first Large Program, the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP)….
NASA’s Van Allen Probes Begin Final Phase of Exploration
Two tough, resilient, NASA spacecraft have been orbiting Earth for the past six and a half years, flying repeatedly through a hazardous zone of charged…
HiRISE Spots Sand Dunes Near Nili Patera on Mars
In this image many sand dunes are visible. They have an elongated crescent form and are called “barchan dunes.” They are formed by the continuous…
New HiRISE Image Reveals The Red Planet’s Layered History
The geologic history of a planet is written in its layers. Erosion of the surface reveals several shades of light toned layers, likely sedimentary deposits,…
Hubble Image of the Week – Adding to Uranus’s Legacy
One of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s many scientific objectives is to study the planets within the Solar System — and in past years, our…
Latest Discoveries From Zwicky Transient Facility, Supernovae, Stars, and More
The results are rolling in from Caltech’s newest state-of-the-art sky-surveying camera, which began operations at the Palomar Observatory in March 2018. Called the Zwicky Transient…
SOFIA Observations of Supernova 1987A Surprise Astronomers
Dust particles form as dying red giant stars throw off material and become part of interstellar clouds of various sizes, densities and temperatures. This cosmic…
New Horizons Captures Incredible Image Sequence of Ultima Thule
An evocative new image sequence from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft offers a departing view of the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) nicknamed Ultima Thule – the…
ALMA Discovers Ordinary Table Salt in Disk Surrounding Massive Star
New ALMA observations show there is ordinary table salt in a not-so-ordinary location: 1,500 light-years from Earth in the disk surrounding a massive young star….
Scientists Show Sun’s Magnetic Waves Behave Differently Than Believed
New research undertaken at Northumbria University shows that the Sun’s magnetic waves behave differently than currently believed. Their findings have been reported in the latest…
Kepler’s Final Image Reveals A Galaxy Full Of Possibilities
NASA’s Kepler space telescope may be retired, but the discoveries continue to rack up for this historic planet-hunting mission. Kepler rang in the new year…