Astronomers Find Unknown Treasure Trove of Planets Hiding in Dust
The first unbiased survey of protoplanetary disks surrounding young stars in the Taurus star-forming region turned up a higher-than-expected number of disks with features suggesting…
University Of Arizona
Drying, Less Predictable Climate May Have Spurred Human Evolution
A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research…
New Study Reveals Mercury’s Crust Is Thinner Than Anyone Thought
Mercury is small, fast and close to the sun, making the rocky world challenging to visit. Only one probe has ever orbited the planet and…
HOSTS Survey Paves Way for Exoplanet Missions
By studying dust in the habitable zones of nearby stars, the HOSTS Survey — led by UA astronomers and performed with Arizona telescopes — is…
Astronomers Track Multiple Disk Gaps and Rings Generated by a Single Super-Earth
By combining two-fluid global hydrodynamics simulations with a radiative transfer code, astronomers from the University of Arizona track and investigate the observational signatures of super-Earths….
Astronomers Provide the First Detection of Diffuse Hydrogen in a Halo Surrounding the Milky Way
Astronomers from the University of Arizona report the first detection of diffuse hydrogen in a vast halo surrounding the Milky Way. Sometimes it takes a…
New Impact Craters Help Unlock Clues About Mars
Astronomers use new craters on Mars to see beneath the dust blanket and determine the underlying rock compositions and textures. Mars is a dynamic planet….
HiRISE Views Impact Ejecta on the Surface of Mars
NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) gets a closer look at impact ejecta on the surface of Mars. Impact ejecta is material that is…
Astronomers Discover a Planet in a Triple Star System
Using direct imaging, a team of astronomers has discovered a young Jovian exoplanet within a triple-star system. If you thought Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine,…
Hubble Measures Rotation of ‘Super-Jupiter’ Exoplanet 2M1207b
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has measured the rotation rate of an extreme exoplanet by observing the varied brightness in its…
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Reveals Recurring Water Streaks on Mars
This new image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dark streaks on the walls of Garni Crater on Mars. Astronomers believe these recurring streaks are…
How Bombardier Beetles Produce an Explosive Chemical Jet
An newly published study form MIT reveals how bombardier beetles superheat liquid and expel it in an intense, pulsating jet as a defensive mechanism. Bombardier…
Astronomers Discover Ultraluminous Quasar with a 12 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole
A newly published study details the discovery of the brightest quasar in the early universe, powered by the most massive black hole yet known at…
New Clues About Hidden the Interior of Uranus Revealed
Using images NASA’s Voyager-2, astronomer Erich Karkoschka has uncovered features in Uranus’ atmosphere that reveal an unexpected, strange rotation pattern and point to the possible…
Young Star Systems May Reveal How Our Own Solar System Came To Be
Astronomers from the University of Arizona have discovered two dust belts surrounded by a large dust halo around young star HD 95086, providing researchers with…
Astronomers Discover First Evidence of Water Ice Clouds Outside Our Solar System
Using the FourStar imager at Las Campanas Observatory, scientists have discovered evidence of water ice clouds on a newly discovered brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (W0855)…
Physicists Discover How to Change the Crystal Structure of Graphene
A team of researchers has discovered how to change the crystal structure of graphene, a finding that could lead to smaller and faster microprocessors. A…
Astronomers Solve Decades Old Space Mystery
An international team of astronomers has solved a decades old space mystery, revealing a new theory for how collapsed stars become polluted. Scientists from the…