Astronomers Snap First Baby Picture of Newborn Exoplanet
An international group of astronomers has captured what is being called the first confirmed image of a planet forming near a young dwarf star. The group, led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, found the newborn planet making its way through a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas that […]
Oumuamua: It’s a Comet, It’s an Asteroid, No, wait, It’s a Comet
An odd rocky cigar-shaped object called Oumuamua made news late last year when it was determined to be of interstellar origin. It was touted as the solar system’s first visitor from another star system. Some scientists first pegged Oumuamua as a comet soon after its discovery. A few months later studies indicated that it was […]
Skeleton Mystery Solved (It’s Not an Alien)
An odd looking and tiny mummified skeleton, nicknamed Ata, was found in a deserted town located in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The entire skeleton is said to be only 15.24 centimeters long. It’s described as having an elongated skull and sunken, slanted eye sockets and tiny bones. Shortly after its discovery, in 2003, the Internet […]
Astronomers Image Birth of a Planetary Nebula in Sharp Detail
For the first time ever, a team of astronomers have captured stunning pictures of one of the universe’s most impressive sights: the birth of a bipolar ‘planetary nebula.’ The scientists gathered the images of nebula surrounding L2 Puppis using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope or VLT, in the Atacama Desert of northern […]
Move Over Saturn, Scientists Find Rings Around Miniature Planet
Whenever you think of a planet with rings around it, Saturn probably comes to mind first. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – the four outer giant planets – also have rings, but they’re not as bright, wide and colorful as Saturn’s. However, scientists in Chile now say they’ve discovered the first miniature planet with two rings circling it. The team […]
Milky Way Might Have Formed From Inside-Out
The Milky Way Galaxy may have formed from the inside-out, according to data from the Gaia-ESO Survey. Using data gathered by the ESO’s 8-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in Chile’s Atacama desert, astronomers were able to make their findings by tracking and studying the amounts of elements, such as magnesium, within the chemical composition of stars […]