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 […]
Astronomers Find Newborn Stars Near Supermassive Black Hole
A star being consumed by a black hole may seem quite common. But, news of stars being formed alongside a black hole could be something to notice! But that’s just what a UK-led group of astronomers say they recently discovered. While they were studying the ongoing collision of two galaxies, known jointly as IRAS F23128-5919, […]
Study: Lakes On Ancient Mars; Scientists Say They Know Why Elephants Rarely Get Cancer
New Caltech Study Finds That Mars Once Had Lakes A couple of weeks ago the science world was all a twitter after NASA announced that its scientists had found evidence of flowing water on Mars. The excitement raised expectations that life may exist on the Red Planet since, as some say, where there’s water, there’s life. […]
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 […]
Mars Once Abundant With Water
Past observations made by a number of Mars probes, such as the Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, have suggested that Mars once had an abundance of water flowing over its surface. Now, an international team of scientists say their recent research suggests that an ancient ocean that held more water than Earth’s Arctic […]
Science Images of the Month – January, 2015
Astronomers Capture 3D Images of Mysterious Intergalactic Matter
For the first time, 3D images have been captured of a cosmological entity called the intergalactic medium (IGM). Until now, the structure of IGM had been theoretical. The discovery could provide astronomers with a new understanding of galactic and intergalactic dynamics. The images were captured with an instrument built at the California Institute of Technology […]
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 […]
Ultra-Light Planet Found Outside Solar System
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered what appears to be the lightest planet ever to be directly observed outside of our Solar System. Astronomers made the discovery using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in Chile, which captured the faint object moving near a bright star about 300 light years from Earth. The possible […]