March, 2016 Science Images
Study: Dinosaurs Roamed Before Saturn’s Moons and Rings Formed
A new study from researchers at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has found that most of Saturn’s 62 moons and perhaps even its celebrated rings may only be a hundred million years old. That’s more recent than when dinosaurs were roaming Earth. One of the study authors, Matija […]
Jupiter’s Northern Lights; Watching Stars Explode & Too Much Sitting Kills
Astronomers Study Jupiter’s ‘Northern Lights’ Earth’s Auroras – Borealis in the northern polar region and Australis in the south – are among the most beautiful and haunting light displays in nature. Now, for the first time, scientists have been able to study Jupiter’s auroras, in x-ray wavelengths thanks to NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Auroras both […]
Astronomers Find a Bunch of ‘Monster Stars’ in Star Cluster
A group of astronomers probing a young star cluster within the ultraviolet section of the light spectrum just found a bunch of huge ‘monster stars.’ The R136 star cluster, located in the Tarantula Nebula, inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, is about 157,000 light years from Earth. They chose to explore in the ultraviolet range since there are […]
Bright Spots of Ceres; Rotten Tomatoes Produces Energy; Black Hole Flashes Red
Earth Based Telescope Provides New Insight on the Bright Spots of Ceres The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt, which is a large collection of small to very large space rocks between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Among the features of the dwarf planet that’s fascinated a lot of […]
ESA’s LISA Pathfinder Lays Groundwork for Gravitational Wave Observatory in Space
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, launched last December, recently started its science mission after completing an intensive three month testing period. The LISA – which stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna – Pathfinder’s job is to test and establish crucial technologies and techniques that would make it possible for future mission such […]
Zika Kills Cells Crucial to Brain Development; Did Volcanoes Cause Mars to Tilt?
Study: Zika Virus Infects and Kills Fetal Cerebral Cortex Cells This birth defect can cause babies to be born with an unusually small head and inhibited brain development. The scientists, who made their findings based on experiments performed with lab-grown human stem cells, discovered that the Zika virus is attracted to and infects the cells […]
Antarctic Dinosaur Hunt; 60 Days in Bed For Science; Noise May Disturb Sea Floor Ecosystem
Did Some of Today’s Species Get Their Start in Antarctica? We know Antarctica is the land of snow and ice and is the coldest place on Earth. But believe it or not, this polar continent, was once quite warm, due to the different, earlier atmosphere. Antarctica was covered with lush vegetation and teeming with a […]
First Flight of NASA’s New Space Launch System Will Carry 13 CubeSats
NASA says the planned 2018 inaugural flight of its new and powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will test the performance of the SLS and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system before it can be used to send humans into space. This initial flight, called Exploration Mission-1 or EM-1, will also carry 13 CubeSats […]