Ancient Life Survived Snowball Earth
Approximately 2.3 billion years ago, bacterial life had generated enough oxygen to make the air breathable for larger creatures. Unfortunately,…
Hubble View of NGC 5866
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this magnificent view of disk galaxy NGC 5866, seen nearly edge on from our vantage…
How Super Earths Might Form
Although our Solar System only contains a "regular Earth", astronomers predict that other systems could contain "super Earths"; rocky planets…
Large Amounts of Carbon Around a Distant Star
Astronomers have discovered a solar system with an unusually high amount of carbon; it could be at the stage where…
First Images From Cloudsat
Meteorologists and scientists have a new tool at their disposal; NASA's new CloudSat satellite, which is capable of building 3-D…
Tau Scorpii’s Magnetic Fields Blaze X-Rays
Magnetic field lines at the surface of Tau Scorpii. Image credit: M. M. Jardine/J. F. Donati. Click to enlarge Our…
Amazing Astrophotos in the Forum
I just wanted to draw your attention to the Astrophotography section of the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum. Members have been…
Supernova Remnant Isn’t Dusty Enough
Dusty supernova remnant. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Click to enlarge A supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud is only 1,000…
Mini Satellites Inside the Space Station
Flight test of a prototype droid by MIT undergrads. Image credit: MIT. Click to enlarge MIT engineers recently delivered a…
Extreme Galaxies Help Explain the Early Universe
The center of our Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge Astronomers are studying nearby "luminous infrared galaxies"…