Massive Galactic Battle Results in Spectacular Fateful Embrace
This Hubble image shows two galaxies locked in a fateful embrace. Caldwell 60 (NGC 4038) and Caldwell 61 (NGC 4039) are known as the Ringtail…
Astronomy
NASA Is Designing a Venus Rover Concept and Wants Your Help
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under a grant from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, is running a public challenge to develop an…
Habitable-Zone Planet Finder Validates Sub-Neptune Sized Planet
A signal originally detected by the Kepler spacecraft has been validated as an exoplanet using the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph built by…
Surprising New Data From Hubble Shows Sombrero Galaxy’s Halo Conceals a Turbulent Past
Surprising new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope suggests the smooth, settled “brim” of the Sombrero galaxy’s disk may be concealing a turbulent past. Hubble’s…
Planet on Edge of Destruction – Gas Giant Discovered Rapidly Orbiting a Dangerously Close Star
Astronomers from the University of Warwick have observed an exoplanet orbiting a star in just over 18 hours, the shortest orbital period ever observed for…
MIT Engineers Devise the Best Way to Deflect an Incoming Planet-Killer Asteroid
MIT engineers devise a decision map to identify the best mission type to deflect an incoming asteroid. On April 13, 2029, an icy chunk of…
Secrets of Titan’s Atmosphere Revealed – Galactic Cosmic Rays Affect Saturn’s Largest Moon
Planetary scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) revealed the secrets of the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The team found…
Hubble Spots a Majestic Spiral or a Smudged Fingerprint
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is no stranger to spiral galaxies. The telescope has brought us some of the most beautiful images ever taken of…
10 Amazing Discoveries About the Sun From NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
In February 2020, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — SDO — is celebrating its 10th year in space. Over the past decade the spacecraft has kept…
Solar Orbiter Science Instrument Sends First Measurements to Ground Control
First measurements by a Solar Orbiter science instrument reached the ground on Thursday February 13, 2020, providing a confirmation to the international science teams that…
Rare Corona of the Planet Jupiter Caught in Stunning Image
Stars are surrounded by something known as a corona — a diffuse aura of plasma that appears to surround them in the sky. For the…
Astronomers Discover Eleven Dangerous Asteroids That Could Impact the Earth
Three Leiden astronomers have shown that some asteroids that are considered harmless for now, can collide with Earth in the future. They did their research…
Looking for Aliens Who Might Be Looking for Us – Advanced Civilizations May Exist in Our Galaxy
Data from a massive search for cosmic radio emission released February 14, 2020, by the Breakthrough Listen Initiative — the most comprehensive survey yet of…
Very Large Telescope Captures Unprecedented Dimming of Betelgeuse
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have captured the unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. The stunning…
‘Pale Blue Dot’ Revisited – Iconic View of Earth From 3.7 Billion Miles Away Updated
A recent update to this historic portrait shows Earth as a tiny speck surrounded by the vastness of space. For the 30th anniversary of one…
Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Breakthrough Listen Releases 2 Petabytes of Data From SETI Survey
Analysis of a portion of the data looks at nearby stars that could see Earth transiting sun. On Friday (February 14, 2020), the Breakthrough Listen…
Bizarre Cosmic Pairing Discovered by Citizen Scientists Puzzles Astronomers
Brown dwarfs traversing space together, but separated by billions of miles, puzzle scientists. Citizen scientists have uncovered a bizarre pairing of two brown dwarfs, objects…
Hubble Space Telescope Spots Ghostly Spiral With Open Arms
The spiral galaxy NGC 2008 sits center stage, its ghostly spiral arms spreading out towards us, in this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space…