A group of astronomers have shown that the fastest-moving stars in our galaxy – which are travelling so fast that they can escape the Milky Way – are in fact runaways from a much smaller galaxy in orbit around our own. 07.05.2017 The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used data from the Sloan Digital[…]
Relative positions of distant spacecraft. / NASA, JPL Caltech By Dr. Michael Strauss / 02.22.2017 Professor of Astrophysical Sciences Princeton University As an astrophysicist, I am always struck by the fact that even the wildest science-fiction stories tend to be distinctly human in character. No matter how exotic the locale or how unusual the scientific[…]
An illustration of Cassini diving between Saturn and the planet’s innermost ring. NASA/JPL-Caltech By Dr. Tanya Hill / 09.04.2017 Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne Senior Curator, Astronomy Museums Victoria The Cassini space probe mission came to an end this month when the probe made its final destructive plunge in to Saturn. It spent the past thirteen years studying the planet,[…]
‘A movie camera to watch the whole universe’; an artist’s conception of the LSST inside its dome / Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Christopher Kochanek / 07.19.2017 Professor of Astronomy Ohio State University For most of human history, the distant ‘celestial sphere’ was regarded as perfect and unchanging. Stars remained in place, planets moved predictably, and[…]
Footage from the Apollo 11 moonwalk that was partially restored in 2009. / NASA 07.20.2017 July 1969. It’s a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out. It is only seven months since NASA’s made a[…]
Detail from an impressionistic poster of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. / Amanda Smith, IoA By Dr. Amaury Triaud and Dr. Michaël Gillon / 05.02.2017 Triaud: Kavli Institute Fellow in Exoplanets, University of Cambridge Gillon: FNRS Researcher, University of Liège Written speculation about life beyond the confines of Earth dates back thousands of years, to the time of the Greek philosophers[…]
The Pancam on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took the component images of this enhanced-color scene during the mission’s “walkabout” survey of an area just above the top of “Perseverance Valley,” in preparation for driving down the valley. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ. 06.23.2017 NASA’s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is examining rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater[…]
NASA’s Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star. / NASA, JPL-Caltech 06.19.2017 NASA’s Kepler space telescope team has released a mission catalog of planet candidates that introduces 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and[…]
This artist’s concept shows planet KELT-9b orbiting its host star, KELT-9. It is the hottest gas giant planet discovered so far. / NASA, JPL-Caltech A newly discovered Jupiter-like world is so hot, it’s being vaporized by its own star. With a dayside temperature of more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,600 Kelvin), KELT-9b is a planet[…]
Artist’s conception of two merging black holes, spinning in a nonaligned fashion. LIGO/Caltech/MIT/Sonoma State (Aurore Simonnet) By Dr. Sean McWilliams / 06.01.2017 Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy West Virginia State University For the third time in a year and a half, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory has detected gravitational waves. Hypothesized by[…]
Working with image data from NASA’s Cassini mission, researchers have found evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have tipped over, reorienting itself so that terrain closer to its original equator was relocated to the poles. This phenomenon is known as true polar wander. / NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Cornell University 05.30.2017 Saturn’s icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus may have[…]
A team of astronomers at The Ohio State University watched a star disappear and possibly become a black hole. Instead of becoming a black hole through the expected process of a supernova, the black hole candidate formed through a “failed supernova.” / Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson “Massive fails” like this one in a[…]