First Detection of Helium in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Scientists say for the first several hundred thousand years or so after the Big Bang, there were virtually only two elements in the universe, hydrogen, and helium. A hydrogen atom is made of only one proton and one electron, and a helium atom has two each of protons, electrons, and neutrons. Hydrogen and then helium are […]
A Galaxy is Missing Its Dark Matter
Scientists say that the invisible and mysterious dark matter makes up about 27% of all material in the universe. Regular or normal matter that you see and touch every day takes up 5% and the remaining 68% comes from an enigmatic form of energy called dark energy. According to NASA, dark matter serves as a type of […]
More Testing Needed: NASA Delays Launch of Webb Space Telescope
Have you been anxiously waiting to see some of the new and more dazzling views of space that NASA promises will be provided by the new James Webb Space Telescope? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you’re going to have to wait a little longer. The US space agency says they must delay sending the more powerful […]
Lots of Water Detected in Exoplanet WASP 39b Atmosphere
Scientists, who studied a “hot Jupiter-like” exoplanet with NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, were able to detect signs of water in its atmosphere. And, they didn’t just find signs of a little water – but a lot of water, three times the amount of water on our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter. The exoplanet they […]
Hubble Tracks Mysterious Storms on Neptune
When NASA’s Voyager 2 visited Neptune, in 1989, scientists noticed immense dark storms swirling in its atmosphere. Since then only the Hubble Space Telescope has had the ability to spot and track these mysterious storms. Hubble found a pair of these dark storms in the mid-1990s and then noticed they later had disappeared completely. The […]
Hot Monster Planet; No Fountain of Youth; Sunscreen Snow on Exoplanet
Hot Monster Planet Found Orbiting Small Star British astronomers say they discovered a “monster” planet orbiting a tiny star, but, according to planet formation theory, the planet should not even exist. The theory suggests a planet of its size could not be formed around such a small star. Located about 600 light years from Earth, […]
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 […]
Researchers Doubt the Existence of Dark Energy
According to NASA, the universe is composed of three things. About 4.6% of it is normal (visible) matter, 24% is dark matter and the remaining 71.4% is made up of dark energy. In other words, hypothetically speaking, around 95% of everything in the universe can’t even be seen. Now a Hungarian and American team of […]
Mars Makes Closest Approach to Earth in More Than a Decade
Do you want to get a good look at Mars? Well now is the time to catch the Red Planet as it makes its closest approach to Earth in the past eleven years. Every 26 months in an event called an opposition by astronomers – Mars and the Sun happen to be on opposite sides […]
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 […]