Shimmering Sights While Battling South Pole Boredom
It continues to grow darker. More stars and planets have become visible and the first auroras — pale green wisps of light — have made their presence known. They shimmer and pulse through the night sky, swooping here and there in long bends like a figure skater lost in thought. SOUTH POLE JOURNALRefael Klein blogs […]
Laser Cloaking Device; New Device Spots Exoplanets; Malaria Older Than We Thought
Lasers Could Hide Earth from Aliens Scientists have been scanning the skies and conducting numerous studies in a search for extraterrestrial intelligent life or ETI’s. Back in 2010 renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking warned that it might be too dangerous for humans to interact with ETI’s. While we’re looking for signs of intelligent […]
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 […]
India OK’s New Observatory; Japan’s X-Ray Telescope; Long-Lasting Eclipse Detected
LIGO Scientific Collaboration to Build New Observatory in India Just days (2/11/16) after announcing the first detection of Einstein’s theorized gravitational waves, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration has been granted approval in principle by India to build an Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory there. LIGO currently operates two observatories in the United States; one in Hanford, […]
Science Images of the Week
Astronomers May Have Spotted A Moon Orbiting an Extrasolar Planet
According to NASA, more than 1,000 extrasolar planets have been confirmed in recent years. There are also thousands more potential planets beyond our solar system that are waiting to be discovered. Now, an international group of astronomers think they may have found the first exomoon, or moon circling an exoplanet, some 1,800 light years away […]
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 […]
Scientists Discover Universe’s Largest Known Structure
Scientists have found the largest known structure in the universe, a cluster of galactic cores so vast it would take four billion years for a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light to cross it. The sighting challenges a theory from Einstein which suggests such a massive object shouldn’t exist in the universe. A quasar […]