2008 Launch Calendar and Preview
2008 will be a busy year throughout the world and our solar system as various robotic and human missions are…
Radioactive Hot Spots on Earth’s Beaches May Have Sparked Life
We've heard about life being created in a puddle of primordial chemical soup, sparked by lightning strikes, or organic molecules…
Red Dwarfs Have Teeny Tiny Habitable Zones
As space telescopes get larger and more sensitive, the search for Earth-sized worlds surrounding other stars is about to get…
Gas Cloud on Collision Course with the Milky Way
Don't panic, but there's a giant cloud of hydrogen gas on a collision course with the Milky Way. When it…
Fat Black Holes Can Lurk in Thin Galaxies
Supermassive black holes are thought to lurk at the heart of most galaxies. Scientists have long believed that only the…
MESSENGER Flyby of Mercury January 14th
If you thought you were good at pool, think again: in a game of interplanetary billiards, the MESSENGER team has…
Super-Neutron Stars are Possible
When a star like our Sun dies, it'll end up as a white dwarf. And if a star contains 1.4…
Galaxy’s Arms are Rotating Backwards
As galaxies rotate, their spiral arms usually sweep back, trailing behind the rotation of the galaxy. But astronomers have found…
Death Echos of Material Destroyed Near a Black Hole
Greedy black holes can only consume so much material. The leftover matter backs up into an accretion disk surrounding the…
Black Holes Seen Spinning at the Limits Predicted by Einstein
The supermassive black holes that lurk at the hearts of the most massive galaxies might be spinning faster than astronomers…