Space and astronomy news
Here’s Hydra! The New Horizons team spotted the tiny moon of Pluto in July, about six months ahead of when they expected to. You can check it out in the images below. The find is exciting in itself, but it also bodes well for the spacecraft’s search for orbital debris to prepare for its close …
Continue reading “New Horizons Sights Tiny Pluto Moon As Spacecraft Races Toward Dwarf Planet”
There are few environments more hostile than a planet circling two stars. Powerful tidal forces from the stars can easily destroy the rocky building blocks of planets or grind a newly formed planet to dust. But astronomers have spotted a handful of these hostile worlds. A new study is even suggesting that these extreme systems …
Continue reading “One Planet, Two Stars: A System More Common Than Previously Thought”
I spent this past weekend backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park, where although the snow-swept peaks and the dangerously close wildlife were staggering, the night sky stood in triumph. Without a fire, the stars, a few planets, and the surprisingly bright Milky Way provided the only light to guide our way. But the night sky …
Continue reading “X-ray Glow: Evidence of a Local Hot Bubble Carved by a Supernova”
Data from NASA’s crippled Kepler space telescope has unleashed a windfall of hot Jupiters — sizzling gas giants that circle their host star within days — and only a handful of Earth-like planets. A quick analysis might make it seem as though hot Jupiters are far more common than their smaller and more distant counterparts. …
Continue reading “First Exoplanet Discovered Beyond the “Snow Line””
Jupiter is like a jawbreaker. Dig down beneath the swirling clouds and you’ll pass through layer after layer of exotic forms of hydrogen. What’s down there, deep within Jupiter? What’s inside Jupiter? Is it chameleons? Candy? Cake? Cheddar? Chemtrails? No one knows. No one can ever know. Well, that’s not entirely true… or even remotely …
As readers of Universe Today know, exoplanets are one of the hottest topics in astronomy today. In just the past six months, astronomers have announced the discovery of more than 700 planets orbiting other stars, bringing the total to more than 1700. These discoveries include the first Earth-size planet found in what’s called the habitable …
Continue reading “Join the Live Discussion: The Hunt for Other Worlds Heats Up”
On a clear night, you might be able to spot the red dwarf star Gliese 832 through a backyard telescope, as it is just 16 light years away. Today, astronomers announced the discovery of super-Earth planet orbiting this nearby star and say it might be the best candidate yet for habitable world. Gliese 832c was …
Continue reading “Nearby Super-Earth is Best Habitable Candidate So Far, Astronomers Say”
Goodbye Moon. Every year, the Moon slips a few centimeters away from us, slowing down our day. Why is the Moon drifting away from us, and how long will it take before the Earth and the Moon are tidally locked to each other? We had a good run, us and the Moon. Grab your special …
Saturn has 53 confirmed and named moons, though as many as 150 may exist. This makes it second only to Jupiter in terms of the number of natural satellites it has orbiting it
It’s truly a “eureka” moment for Kepler scientists: the first rocky Earth-sized world has been found in a star’s habitable “Goldilocks” zone, the narrow belt where liquid water could readily exist on a planet’s surface without freezing solid or boiling away. And while it’s much too soon to tell if this really is a “twin …
Continue reading “Kepler Has Found the First Earth-Sized Exoplanet in a Habitable Zone!”