Pre-Solar System Dust Found in the Atmosphere
A research team led by the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology say they have discovered the remains of the formation of the solar system in some interstellar dust. The dust particles, which were gathered in Earth’s atmosphere by NASA aircraft, are thought to have been cast off from […]
Einstein Proven Correct; Gravitational Waves Detected; Super Hot Planet
Einstein Theory Confirmed Again In his 1915 Theory of General Relativity, physicist Albert Einstein proposed that mass can bend space time. And he predicted that when a distant star’s light passed by a large object en route to the observer, the object’s gravity can bend and brighten the starlight like a magnifying lens. This effect, called […]
NASA Creates New Office to Protect Us from Asteroid and Comet Impact
NASA is taking the potential threat posed by near earth objects (NEO’s), such as asteroids and comets, more seriously than ever and has established the new Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The space agency says the new office will oversee all of its efforts in finding and characterizing all celestial objects that travel close to […]
Hormone Cuts Sugar Craving; inSight Launch Delayed; Space Telescope Mirrors
Hormone Cuts Sugar Craving in Mice For those of us with an active “sweet tooth”, it can be really difficult to resist sweet treats like candy, cake and cookies. But with diseases and conditions associated with eating sugary foods like diabetes, heart disease and obesity at or near epidemic levels it’s important not to overindulge […]
Mercury’s Surface ‘Painted’ With Carbon from Comets
A first glance, the planet Mercury looks a lot like our Moon, both gray and pockmarked with craters after being bombarded with meteorites and blasted by the solar wind over the millennia. Some take the similarity further, referring to them as “twins.” The color of Mercury’s surface though is much darker than the moon, so […]
About Half of the Water You Drink is Older than the Sun
New research reveals that as much as one half of all of Earth’s current water supply is older than the Sun. An international team of scientists led by Ilse Cleeves at the University of Michigan looked back into creation of Earth and our solar system to find out where all of the water came from. […]
Vast Oceans Detected Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface
New evidence suggests there might be oceans of water far beneath Earth’s surface. Northwestern University geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, along with University of New Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt, found evidence of water in pockets of hot magma about 645 km beneath North America within the transition zone between Earth’s upper and lower mantle. “It alters our […]
Rare and Spectacular Meteor Shower May Light Up the Skies Over North and Central America
If you live in North or Central America, you just might have front row seats to a rare and spectacular meteor shower. Scientists said that the view might even better if you happen to be in the northwestern United States or in southern Canada NASA said the shower — dubbed the May Camelopardalids, which can […]
Hubble Watches and Records Rare Asteroid Disintegration
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured some amazing and breathtaking images since it began scanning the cosmos in 1990. But, from late last year into early this year, the space telescope was able to capture and record something that, until now, had never been seen before; the breakup of an asteroid located in the asteroid […]
Astronomers Spot Snow in Deep Space
New fallen snow on a crisp winter morning can be a beautiful and inspiring sight. But astronomers using the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile got really got a real thrill recently when they saw and imaged a snow fall in a very young solar system some 175 light years from Earth. The […]