Solar System Mimics Ours; The Big Empty; Closest Human Relative?
Nearby Planetary System Mimics our Solar System A group of scientists using NASA’s airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA recently completed a study that confirmed their previous findings of a young and nearby planetary system. The researchers found that the system surrounding the star Epsilon Eridani, which is about 10.5 light years away […]
Dark Matter Imaged; Shoe-String Theory; Metal in Mars Atmosphere
Dark Matter Filaments of Cosmic Web Imaged Two Canadian researchers say that they have constructed a composite image of dark matter filaments that make up what cosmologists call the cosmic web. Scientists have been finding evidence that our universe may be anything but random and that everything is actually organized and connected to each other […]
February 2017 Science Images
Exoplanet Bonanza; Good Sleep = Less Stress; Help Find Planet 9
7 Earth-Like Planets Found Orbiting Single Star Scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have found the largest group of earth-like planets circling a single star. A total of seven planets were observed orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a star located only about 40 light years from Earth. The discovery also set a record for the number of planets that were […]
Biggest Wave Spotted; Walking Heel-to-Toe; Newborn Exoplanets
New Record for Biggest Wave Measured by Buoy The UN’s World Meteorological Society says the biggest wave ever to be measured by a buoy was identified at 0600 universal time on February 4, 2013. The colossal 19-meter swell was spotted in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the UK. The previous highest wave recorded […]
Pluto Flyby Data Feed Complete; Nearby Exoplanet May Have Oceans
New Horizon’s Sends Final Data of Pluto Flyby The final bits of data gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby of Pluto were received this week by its mission operations center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. More than 50 gigabytes of observational data was stored on the […]
Oxygen on Exoplanet; Smaller Universe; Intergalactic Tan
Nearby Exoplanet’s Atmosphere May Contain Oxygen In November 2015, scientists discovered a Venus-like planet that’s only 39 light years away, called Gliese 1132b. The planet is thought to have an atmosphere, despite having a blistering temperature of more than 230° degrees Celsius, since it orbits its red dwarf star from a distance of only 2.25 […]
Black Hole Awakens; Mozart Lowers B.P.; Baby Planet Found
Scientists Observe Awakening of Dormant Super Massive Black Hole Scientists say that, in the known universe, about 90% of the biggest black holes are dormant, which means they aren’t ravenously devouring matter. Because they’re dormant these black holes aren’t pumping out radiation or any kind of light. But all it takes is for a star […]
Did our Sun Snatch Planet 9 from Another Solar System?
Is it possible that the new-found theoretical Planet 9 is actually an exoplanet, a planet from another solar system? According to astronomers at Sweden’s Lund University, it’s “highly likely” that Planet 9 was actually “snatched” from another solar system by our young sun some 4.5 billion years ago, or within 100 million years after its formation. […]
Trio of Planets Found Circling “Ultra-cool” Star Might Support Life
An international team of astronomers has discovered three exoplanets that could possibly host alien life. The trio of planets are circling an “ultra-cool” brown dwarf that’s located about 40 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Aquarius. “Ultra-cool” dwarf stars are those that that are much cooler and redder than our Sun, and only […]