The Hubble Space Telescope, arguably the jewel in the crown of NASA's science missions, was launched 29 years ago. It has been providing scientists and the public with a steady stream of previously unimagined insights about the cosmos -- plus those jaw-dropping, very high-resolution images like the one above -- pretty much ever since. It …
15,000 Galaxies in One Image
Here's an image to fire your imagination: Fifteen thousand galaxies in one picture -- sources of light detectable today that were generated as much as 11 billion years ago. Of those 15,000 galaxies, some 12,000 are inferred to be in the process of forming stars. That's hardly surprising because the period around 11 billions years …
Of White Dwarfs, "Zombie" Stars and Supernovae Explosions
White dwarf stars, the remnant cores of low-mass stars that have exhausted all their nuclear fuel, are among the most dense objects in the sky. Their mass is comparable to that of the sun, while their volume is comparable to that of Earth. Very roughly, this means the average density of matter in a …
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Some Spectacular Images (And Science) From The Year Past
This is a golden era for space and planetary science, a time when discoveries, new understandings, and newly-found mysteries are flooding in. There are so many reasons to find the drama intriguing: a desire to understand the physical forces at play, to learn how those forces led to the formation of Earth and ultimately us, …
Continue reading "Some Spectacular Images (And Science) From The Year Past"
Some Spectacular Images (And Science) From The Year Past
This is a golden era for space and planetary science, a time when discoveries, new understandings, and newly-found mysteries are flooding in. There are so many reasons to find the drama intriguing: a desire to understand the physical forces at play, to learn how those forces led to the formation of Earth and ultimately us, …
Continue reading "Some Spectacular Images (And Science) From The Year Past"
More Evidence of Water Plumes On Europa Increases Confidence That They’re For Real
Europa is a moon no bigger than our own and is covered by deep layers of ice, but it brings with it a world of promise. Science fiction master and sometimes space visionary Arthur C. Clarke, after all, named it as the most likely spot in our solar system to harbor life, and wrote a …
How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?
An earlier version of this article was accidently published last week before it was completed. This is the finished version, with information from this week's AAS annual conference. Let's face it: the field of exoplanets has a significant deficit when it comes to producing drop-dead beautiful pictures. We all know why. Exoplanets are just too …
Continue reading "How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?"
How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?
An earlier version of this article was accidently published last week before it was completed. This is the finished version, with information from this week's AAS annual conference. Let's face it: the field of exoplanets has a significant deficit when it comes to producing drop-dead beautiful pictures. We all know why. Exoplanets are just too …
Continue reading "How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?"
Enceladus and Water Worlds
As if the prospect of billions of potentially habitable exoplanets wasn't enough to get people excited, what about all those watery exo-moons too? The question arises as the Cassini mission makes its final pass near the now famous geysers at the south pole of the moon Enceladus. The plumes are currently in darkness and …
Enceladus and Water Worlds
As if the prospect of billions of potentially habitable exoplanets wasn't enough to get people excited, what about all those watery exo-moons too? The question arises as the Cassini mission makes its final pass near the now famous geysers at the south pole of the moon Enceladus ,scheduled for Saturday. The plumes are currently in …
Many Worlds 