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io9Could Life Have Emerged on Earth’s Near Twin?
Yesterday, NASA’s Kepler team announced the discovery of the most Earth-like planet yet. It may be larger than Earth, but this exoplanet is situated firmly within its star’s habitable zone—and it’s been there for a while. So could it actually sustain life? Here’s What We Know So Far Kepler 452b is located 1,400 light-years from … Continued
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io9
Updated Kepler Catalog Includes 521 New Possible Exoplanets
Earlier today, during the announcement of the most Earth-like planet ever discovered, researchers working on the Kepler mission released an updated catalog—which now includes 521 new candidate planets. Add that to the 4,175 already discovered by the space-based telescope. Above. An artist’s conception of habitable-zone planets with similarities to Earth: from left, Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, the … Continued
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io9
Another Way of Looking at Pluto
Data from the New Horizons mission have revised Pluto’s diameter to just 2370 kilometers across. That’s smaller than the moons Triton, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, Europa, and Titan, not to mention Earth’s own satellite. In more immediately relatable terms: Here’s what it would look like if someone plopped Pluto onto Australia. This striking scale render was … Continued
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io9
Glorious Photo Captures the Moon and a Two-Tailed Comet
Photographer Yuri Beletsky recently captured this stunning photo of comet C/2014 Q1 (Pan-Starrs) which is currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere. The photo — a High Dynamic Range (HDR) composite — was taken from a valley in northern Chile late last week. Beletsky had to climb a hill to get the exact shot because the … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The Hidden Cargo Aboard the Jason and the Argonauts’ Ship Constellation
This is the constellation known as Argo Navis, said to represent the ship of the same name that Jason and the Argonauts used in the quest for the Golden Fleece. And as the ship likely did, it houses some secrets of its own. The constellation was first identified by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in his … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Pluto’s Atmosphere is Billowing Away into Space
Pluto just can’t stop blowing our minds. Not only is it a geologically active world with ice mountains the size of the Rockies and frozen plains of methane and nitrogen, we’ve just learned that Pluto’s atmosphere is pouring away into space. It’s leaving a massive tail of charged plasma in its wake. That’s one of … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9
How Could We Destroy the Moon?
Nothing wrecks a beautiful night sky like that hideous, pockmarked skylight. What would it take to destroy our moon, and eliminate the enemy of stellar astronomy for all time? Top image: Using imagery collected by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA created this video of the Moon rotating 360° about its axis. Click on the photo … Continued
Fraser Cain — Universe Today -
io9
This Far-Off Solar System Bears a Startling Resemblance to Our Own
An international team of astronomers has detected a planet very similar to Jupiter orbiting at the same distance from a Sun-like star. And because the age and chemical composition of this system is similar to our own, it likely features an inner collection of rocky planets. Call it solar system 2.0. Ever since the first … Continued
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io9
Pluto Is a Geologically Active World, But We Don’t Know Why
Data is streaming in from New Horizons after yesterday’s historic flyby of Pluto — and it’s painting a picture of the dwarf planet that we could have scarcely imagined. Above: The icy mountains of Pluto. This is the bottom edge of the iconic Heart of Pluto. We’re looking at the boundary between the Heart — … Continued
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Tech News
Why It’ll Take New Horizons 16 Months to Send Us This Week’s Data
Early this morning, NASA rolled out the highest-resolution image of Pluto to date, taken 16 hours before today’s historic flyby. Tomorrow, we’ll receive a new set of images at a resolution ten times higher. And Pluto Christmas is just getting started, because it’s going to take NASA 16 full months to download all the data … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Here’s What We Just Learned About Pluto
At a NASA briefing this afternoon, Alan Stern, New Horizon’s principal investigator, answered questions from the media and the public on today’s historic flyby, discussing the team’s latest impressions of Pluto’s surface, how the data is being transmitted back to Earth, and much, much more! Here are all the key answers we got. How fast … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9
No, We Aren’t Heading Into a “Mini Ice Age”
Recent headlines are warning that the Earth will enter into a “mini ice age” in about 20 years because the sun is heading towards a period of very low output. Here’s why this scenario is extremely unlikely. Wouldn’t it be great if scientists could make their minds up? One minute they’re telling us our planet … Continued
Jim Wild — The Conversation -
io9
Astronomers Spot a Record-Breaking Supernova
An exceptionally bright supernova discovered last month appears to shine brighter than 500 billion Suns. That’s twice as luminous as the previous record—but because it’s low in hydrogen, scientists are confused as to where this exploding star got all its energy. Above: The remnant of star SNR E0519-69.0, a different supernova than the one recently … Continued
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io9New Horizons Has Made its Closest Approach to Pluto!
After nine years and over 3.26 billion miles, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto earlier today. Assuming it survived the encounter, the probe is now drifting away from the dwarf planet as it heads deeper into the Kuiper Belt. Above: NASA posted this image of Pluto earlier this morning to its … Continued
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io9
When We Discovered Pluto, It Changed How We Saw The Solar System
On the 23rd and 24th of January, 1930, a young astronomer working in Flagstaff, Arizona, scanned a small patch of the night sky. He was taking pictures of star positions, looking for anomalies that would signal movement somewhere at the edge of the solar system. He took the pictures then set them aside, not realizing … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Pluto’s Mysterious Dark Splotches Come Into Focus
At this point, it’s safe to say that we’re going to be receiving a new ‘highest resolution image ever’ of Pluto on a close to 24 hour basis. Yesterday, we got our first peek at geologic features on the dwarf planet’s surface. And today, New Horizons beamed back the best image to date of four … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
How Did We Get to Pluto So Fast?
On July 14th, the New Horizons spacecraft will make history when it sails past Pluto, formerly known as the ninth planet. Even more incredible is how fast we got there. The spacecraft traveled 3 billion miles in nine and a half years. That’s about a million miles a day for almost ten years. How the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
First Signs Of Geology Spotted On Pluto’s Surface
We’re so close to Pluto, we’re starting to see geologic features on the dwarf planet’s surface. In its latest portrait from the New Horizons spacecraft, scientists are able to pick out distant surface formations, including a polygonal band of terrain stretching east-northeast across the planet, and a dark band near the south pole that’s now … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
SciencePhysics & ChemistryThis Shower of Gamma Rays Is from a Flaring Blazar 5 Billion Years Ago
Five billion years ago, a blazar abruptly flared, triggered an intense rain of gamma rays. Racing across the universe for millennia, they finally slammed into NASA’s Fermi satellite over several days this June, setting a new record for the most luminous high-energy object we’ve ever seen. The monster black hole at the center of 3C … Continued