An international team of astronomers have announced the discovery of a new rocky planet the same size as Earth that could have liquid water on its surface. The potentially habitable planet, dubbed Kepler-186f, was discovered using data from NASA’s Kepler telescope and verified by the Gemini and Keck telescopes. “What makes this finding particularly compelling […]
Pivoting planets that lean one way and then change orientation within a relatively short time period might be surprisingly habitable. That’s according to NASA scientists who say the climate effects generated on these wobbling worlds could prevent them from turning into glacier-covered ice lockers, even if those planets are somewhat far from their stars. “Planets […]
2012 VP113, a newly discovered dwarf planet (pictured) in the distant Oort cloud region of our Solar System indicates the potential presence of an enormous as yet undiscovered planet, perhaps up to 10 times the size of Earth. Details of the discovery of 2012 VP113 and its intriguing orbital characteristics appear in Nature. Our Solar […]
For decades, astronomers have known that the atmospheres surrounding stars are often “polluted” with elements like carbon, silicon, and iron. How these elements came to be there has been an intriguing mystery that an international team of astronomers believe they have now solved. Led by Professor Martin Barstow, President-elect of the Royal Astronomical Society, the […]
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have witnessed for the first time the breakup of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces. The asteroid began coming apart early last year, but new pieces continue to emerge in the most recent images. The observations are reported in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. “Seeing this […]
Scientists have discovered that when tiny interplanetary dust particles are battered by the solar wind, the ion bombardment can free oxygen and hydrogen atoms from the dust, creating water molecules that can nurture microscopic life in space. The discovery, detailed in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was made by researchers from the University […]
The Herschel space observatory has used its far-infrared capabilities to capture a clear spectral signature of water vapor venting from the largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres. Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet. “This is the first time water vapor has been […]
Astronomers have discovered dozens of solitary stars that are moving fast enough to escape the gravitational grasp of the Milky Way galaxy. These cryptic hypervelocity stars appear to be traveling at speeds in excess of a million miles-per-hour, but scientists aren’t sure what force could have given them such a kick. An article describing these […]
After nearly a decade of development, construction, and testing, the world’s most advanced instrument for directly imaging planets around other stars is pointing skyward and producing its first images of planets outside our solar system. (The image at right shows the planet Beta Pictoris b, orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The star is hidden behind […]
Astronomers have discovered a unique stellar system of two white dwarf stars and a superdense neutron star, all packed within a space smaller than Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The closeness of the stars allows the scientists to make the most accurate measurements yet of the system’s complex gravitational interactions, measurements that might resolve one […]
