Space

21st Century Sunspots A Lot Like The 18th Century

Some people believe we are in a new Enlightenment, with science making food plentiful and likely to make energy cheap enough to be unnoticeable in the next few decades as well. We share one other thing in common with the 18th century- solar activity. Scien ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 10 2015 - 9:30am

The Universe May have Existed Forever…Or Maybe Not

Yesterday, phys.org posted a story titled, “No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning.” Coauthors Ahmed Farag Ali and Saurya Das, “have shown in a paper published in Physics Letters B that the Big Bang singularity can be resolved by ...

Blog Post - Steve Schuler - Feb 11 2015 - 7:13am

Cosmic Microwave Background And The Dynamic Side Of The Universe

The Planck collaboration has released data from four years of observation by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Planck spacecraft. The aim of the Planck mission is to study the Cosmic Microwave Background, the light left over from the Big Bang. The me ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2015 - 10:30am

These Twin Stars May Need A Cosmological C-Section

Most people don't realize it, but the majority of stars in our galaxy arrive in pairs. These fraternal twins tend to be somewhat equal partners when it comes to mass, but in a quest to find mismatched star pairs called extreme mass-ratio binaries, as ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 12 2015 - 10:58am

Let’s Send a Private Mission to Europa, Expert Says

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa puzzles astrobiologists and sparks the imagination of extraterrestrial life seekers. It is believed that the moon has a subsurface ocean of liquid water, where life could possibly be similar to microbial life forms on Earth. The ...

Blog Post - Tomasz Nowakowski - Feb 15 2015 - 11:11am

Massive Clouds Shot 100 Miles Into The Mars Atmosphere, And No One Knows Why

Plumes that reached over 100 miles above the surface of Mars, reported by citizen scientist astronomers in March and April 2012, continue to puzzle scientists. In the past, similar events had been seen, but only up to around 50 miles.   The features develo ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 16 2015 - 11:32am

Beta Pictoris: The Best Look Yet At The Disk Distorted By Its Embedded Giant Planet

What is hiding in the large disk of gas and dust encircling the 20 million-year-old star Beta Pictoris?  In 1984 Beta Pictoris was the very first star discovered to be surrounded by a bright disk of dust and debris. Since then, Beta Pictoris has been an ob ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2015 - 8:30am

Buy New Textbooks Again? Pluto May Go Back To Planet Status

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will arrive at this dwarf planet on March 6, 2015. Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper belt, and NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will arrive at this dwarf planet on July 15, ...

Article - The Conversation - Feb 26 2015 - 10:30am

Cruithne: Earth's Other 'Moon' Could Reveal Mysteries Of The Solar System

3753 Cruithne's wacky orbit around the Sun. Image: YouTube, CC BY-SA We all know and love the moon. We’re so assured that we only have one that we don’t even give it a specific name. It is the brightest object in the night sky, and amateur astronomer ...

Article - The Conversation - Feb 26 2015 - 2:30pm

It's Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It

A new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on Earth. This hypothetical cell membrane, modeled by a team of researchers, is composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liqui ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2015 - 9:35pm