Space

A Simpler Way To Define What Makes A Planet

In 2006, a tiny percentage of astronomers took it upon themselves to change the definition of "planet" and so Pluto was out. Chaos ruled, the 237 astronomers who made the ruling dug in their heels, and for the most part they were ignored. After ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2015 - 1:27pm

Phobos Is Slowly Falling Apart

The long, shallow grooves lining the surface of Phobos are likely early signs of the structural failure that will ultimately destroy this moon of Mars. Orbiting a mere 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above the surface of Mars, Phobos is closer to its plane ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 11 2015 - 7:00am

A 2 Meter Piece Of Junk Falling From Space

In a bit less than two days an orbiting object known with the peculiar name of WT1190F- but I'd like to rename it as WTF 1190 for obvious reasons- is expected to fall on Earth. The object was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in 2013 and little is ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Nov 11 2015 - 2:29pm

Bad Weather: 5000 MPH Winds On Planet HD 189733b

Research provides first ever weather map of a planet outside our solar system and it finds wind hurtling at speeds 20x faster than ever recorded on Earth- and seven times the speed of sound. The researchers measured the velocities on the two sides of HD 1 ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2015 - 2:17pm

Dark Matter Dominates In Triangulum II

Dark matter is "dark" because no one knows what it is and a blanket term for whatever outnumbers particles of regular matter by more than a factor of 10 is necessary. Because it can't be detected, dark matter is inferred by gravitational in ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2015 - 1:44pm

Tiny, Ultracool Star Is Super Stormy

Our Sun is a relatively quiet star that only occasionally releases solar flares or blasts of energetic particles that threaten satellites and power grids. You might think that smaller, cooler stars would be even more sedate. However, astronomers have now ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 23 2015 - 2:38am

Our Ethical Responsibilities To Baby Terraformed Worlds- Like Parents

Discussions of the  ethics of terraformin g often touch on   rights  of planets or extraterrestrial lifeforms, or near term utilitarian values. But what about our responsibilities to  terraformed worlds, and their long term future? I suggest that we are n ...

Article - Robert Walker - Jan 31 2019 - 1:43pm

Mysterious Radio Pulses From Outer Space Explained- Maybe

Fast Radio Bursts- bursts of energy from space that appear as a short flashes of radio waves to telescopes on Earth- have baffled astronomers since first detected a decade ago. Though only 16 have been recorded, there could be thousands of of these myster ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 2 2015 - 4:39pm

Monstrous Distant Baby Galaxies Cradled By...Dark Matter?

Astronomers discovered a nest of monstrous baby galaxies 11.5 billion light-years away and they speculate that the galaxies seem to reside at the junction of gigantic filaments in a web of dark matter.  Since dark matter is the umbrella term for matter th ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2015 - 12:29pm

What If There Were No Moon?

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science TV. The moon — it can appear full, shining like a beacon in the night or just a sliver of a nightlight. Still, it’s always there. Image Credit: NASA.gov But what if we didn't have a moon? Here’s the top five things we ...

Article - Inside Science - Dec 5 2015 - 9:30am