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New planetary neighbor

By Stephen Ornes / November 5, 2012

Astronomers have found that our closest stellar neighbor has an Earth-sized planet orbiting it. This illustration shows what the pair might look like. Credit: ESO

Nearest star system has a world that’s Earthly in size, but too hot for human visitors

Posted in Space | Tagged aliens, Alpha Centauri, astronomy, Debra Fischer, exoplanet, extrasolar planet, Geoff Marcy, getinvolved, HARPS, rocky world, Santa Cruz, space, Stéphane Udry, telescopes, University of California, Yale University

Curiosity’s watery find

By Stephen Ornes / October 18, 2012

This jagged Martian rock formation contains pebbles that were moved by water billions of years ago. Credit: JPL-Caltech/NASA

Mars rover finds rocks that show where water once flowed

Posted in Space | Tagged aliens, California Institute of Technology, Curiosity, extraterrestrial, getinvolved, John Grotzinger, Mars, NASA, Pasadena, Planetary Science Institute, plate, Rebecca Williams, red planet, rover, topstories, Tucson, water, water in space

Super star-maker

By Stephen Ornes / September 4, 2012

This artist’s drawing shows what the central galaxy of the Phoenix cluster might look like. The small blue dots represent new stars forming. Credit: NASA.gov

A distant galaxy cluster churns out stars at a whopping rate

Posted in Space | Tagged astronomy, astrophysics, black hole, energy, galaxy, galaxy cluster, gas, getinvolved, matter, Milky Way, MIT, Phoenix cluster, physics, South Pole Telescope, space, star formation, stars, telescope, University of Cambridge

The first moon walker

By Janet Raloff / August 29, 2012

Neil Armstrong made history in 1969 when he planted his feet — and a flag — on the moon

Posted in Space | Tagged Apollo 1, Apollo 11, Barack Obama, Buzz Aldrin, Charles Bolden, cosmonauts, Eagle lander, Edward White, feature, Michael Collins, moon walk, NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Neil Armstrong, Roger Chaffee, Sea of Tranquility, topstories, Virgil Grissom, Vladimir Komarov, X-15

Curiosity lands on Mars!

By Janet Raloff / August 8, 2012

NASA successfully delivered a $2.5 billion robotic vehicle to Mars, one that will explore for signs that the planet might once have hosted life

Posted in Space | Tagged Adam Steltzner, alien, Charles Bolden, Charles Elachi, Curiosity, feature, Gale Crater, John Grotzinger, Mars, Mount Sharp, Nadia Drake, NASA, plutonium, rover, Savannah McCoy, Tomas Martin-Mur, topstories

An invisible cosmic bridge

By Stephen Ornes / July 23, 2012

It’s impossible to see with the naked eye, but astronomers say a bridge made of dark matter connects two galaxy clusters. This picture shows hot gas around and between the two clusters, Abell 222 (blob at top) and Abell 223 (bottom blob). The yellow is the hottest part of the gas, where the galaxies reside, and the red is cooler.

Credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ EPIC/ ESO (J. Dietrich)/ SRON (N. Werner)/ MPE (A. Finoguenov)

Astronomers find strange stuff in the space between two clusters of galaxies

Posted in Space | Tagged Abell 222, Abell 223, dark matter, galaxy cluster, getinvolved, gravity, Jörg Dietrich, University Observatory Munich

Life beyond Earth

By Stephen Ornes / June 27, 2012

Are we alone? Scientists search for an extraterrestrial answer

Posted in Space | Tagged alien, Allen Telescope Array, Arecibo Radio Telescope, Douglas Vakoch, Europa, exoplanets, extraterrestrial, extremophiles, feature, Frank Drake, Jamie Foster, Jill Tarter, Kepler, SETI

Galactic mashup

By Stephen Ornes / June 18, 2012

A show of swirling lights will fill the night sky as the Andromeda galaxy collides with the Milky Way in 4 billion years. Since you won’t be there to see it, here’s an artist’s illustration of what the mashup might look like. Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), and A. Mellinger

Save the date: The Milky Way will merge with its nearest large neighbor in about 4 billion years

Posted in Space | Tagged Andromeda, getinvolved, Milky Way, Space Telescope Science Institute, supermassive black hole

Black hole’s big gulp

By Stephen Ornes / May 25, 2012

This computer simulation gives some idea of what might happen when a star gets too close to a black hole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/UCS

Astronomers say a bright flare in space shows where a black hole tore apart a star

Posted in Space | Tagged astronomers, black hole, elliptical, getinvolved, gravity, light year, mass

Dark matter search turns up empty

By Stephen Ornes / May 8, 2012

A blue cloud of dark, or invisible, matter surrounds the swirl of the Milky Way galaxy in this illustration. A new study suggests our galaxy’s dark matter may have a shape other than a sphere. Credit: L. Calçada/ESO

Star study suggests our cosmic neighborhood may be lacking invisible matter

Posted in Space | Tagged astronomy, Chile, dark matter, galaxy, getinvolved, gravity, Milky Way

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