Five engineering students from the University of Arizona tested their senior design project in a simulated Martian environment in the Utah desert.
Although cosmic rays were discovered 100 years ago, their origin remains one of the most enduring mysteries in physics. Now, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector in Antarctica, is honing in on how the highest energy cosmic rays are produced.
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula 170,000 light-years away, comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos. NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute are releasing the image to celebrate Hubble's 22nd anniversary. Hubble was launched on April 24, 1990 by the space shuttle Discovery.
University of Florida astronomers have found compelling evidence for two low-mass planets orbiting the nearby star Fomalhaut, just 25 light years from Earth.
Using a combination of powerful observatories in space and on the ground, astronomers have observed a violent collision between two galaxy clusters in which so-called normal matter has been wrenched apart from dark matter through a violent collision between two galaxy clusters.
One of the world's largest astronomy archives, containing a treasure trove of information about myriad stars, planets, and galaxies, has been named in honor of the United States Senator from Maryland, Barbara A. Mikulski. Called MAST, for the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, the huge database contains astronomical observations from 16 NASA space astronomy missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The archive is located at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md.
Analysis of data from the 10-meter South Pole Telescope is providing new support for the most widely accepted explanation of dark energy — the source of the mysterious force that is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.
A study led by a University of Utah astrophysicist found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that wander too close.
Complex organic compounds, including many important to life on Earth, were readily produced under conditions that likely prevailed in the primordial solar system. Scientists came to this conclusion after linking computer simulations to laboratory experiments.
A new chemical analysis of lunar material collected by Apollo astronauts in the 1970s conflicts with the widely held theory that a giant collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object gave birth to the moon 4.5 billion years ago.
A new X-ray study of the remains of an exploded star indicates that the supernova that disrupted the massive star may have turned it inside out in the process. Using very long observations of Cassiopeia A (or Cas A), a team of scientists has mapped the distribution elements in the supernova remnant in unprecedented detail. This information shows where the different layers of the pre-supernova star are located three hundred years after the explosion, and provides insight into the nature of the supernova.
Astronauts living on the International Space Station show small effect on cardiovascular health when accompanied by an exercise regimen.
An odd, previously unseen landform could provide a window into the geological history of Mars, according to new research by University of Washington geologists.
More than 400 years after Galileo’s discovery of Io, the innermost of Jupiter’s largest moons, a team of scientists led by Arizona State University (ASU) has produced the first complete global geologic map of the Jovian satellite.
In a challenge to current astrophysical models of the universe, researchers have found that current estimates of the interiors of so-called ice giant planets within and without the solar system overstate water’s compressibility by as much as 30 percent, forcing revisions in estimates of other elements.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found several examples of galaxies containing quasars, which act as gravitational lenses, amplifying and distorting images of galaxies aligned behind them.
Two teams of astronomers have used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes to map the distribution of dark matter in a galaxy cluster known as Abell 383, which is located about 2.3 billion light years from Earth. Not only were the researchers able to find where the dark matter lies in the two dimensions across the sky, they were also able to determine how the dark matter is distributed along the line of sight.
A panel of experts took part in a Secure World Foundation-sponsored discussion on the International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. A draft Code was published by the European Union (EU) in 2008, with a revised draft released in September 2010.
Thanks to the presence of a natural “zoom lens” in space, University of Chicago scientists working with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a uniquely close-up look at the brightest gravitationally magnified galaxy yet discovered.
A decade ago, Houston businessman and philanthropist George P. Mitchell was so certain there were big discoveries to be made in physics and astronomy and that they should come out of Texas A&M University, he put money on it, endowing the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy to bring the world’s most eminent minds in physics and astronomy to Aggieland.
Two scientists from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space are available to discuss the implications of the recent powerful solar flare and the sun’s increasing activity.
Two-thousand-degree temperatures, supersonic solar particles, intense radiation – all of this awaits NASA’s Solar Probe Plus during an unprecedented study of the sun. The team crafting the spacecraft for this extreme environment has been given the nod from NASA to continue design work on the probe.
Astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Telescope have observed what appears to be a clump of dark matter left behind from a wreck between massive clusters of galaxies. The result could challenge current theories about dark matter that predict galaxies should be anchored to the invisible substance even during the shock of a collision.
Three prominent researchers -- Harvard's Avi Loeb, Caltech's Richard Ellis, and Cambridge's George Becker -- discuss how recent and exciting discoveries are moving scientists closer to understanding how the first stars and galaxies formed.
Members of a student club at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a unique 360-degree video chronicling a weather balloon’s 89,777-foot ascent into space.
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole. This result has important implications for understanding how this type of black hole behaves.
A NASA-funded collaborative research team led by Steven Powell, Cornell senior engineer in electrical and computer engineering, launched a sounding rocket from Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8:41 p.m. Alaska Standard Time (Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012 at 12:41 a.m. EST) to collect data straight from the heart of an aurora.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may have found evidence for a cluster of young, blue stars encircling HLX-1, one of the first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered. Astronomers believe the black hole may once have been at the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy. The discovery of the black hole and the possible star cluster has important implications for understanding the evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies.
Astronomers are watching a delayed broadcast of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, an event initially seen on Earth nearly 170 years ago.
Jonathan Lunine, Cornell University professor of astronomy, adviser to NASA, and principal investigator for a mission to sail one of the three great seas of Titan, comments on the proposed 2013 federal budget unveiled by President Obama.
A team of scientists from The University of Alabama in Huntsville is working with the Japanese space agency to develop new rules to protect spacecraft from lightning.
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics launches national collaboration on deepest questions of dark energy, dark matter and cosmic inflation.
The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be vaporizing and devouring asteroids, which could explain the frequent flares observed, according to astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
A team of astronomers aimed Hubble at one of the most striking examples of gravitational lensing, a nearly 90-degree arc of light in the galaxy cluster RCS2 032727-132623. Hubble's view of the distant background galaxy, which lies nearly 10 billion light-years away, is significantly more detailed than could ever be achieved without the help of the gravitational lens.
Boston University astrophysicist Elizabeth Blanton led a team of researchers in the discovery of vast clouds of hot gas "sloshing" in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth. The scientists are studying the hot (30 million degree) gas using X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The team’s findings were first published in the August 20, 2011 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Improving fire-fighting techniques in space and getting a better understanding of fuel combustion here on Earth are the focus of a series of experiments on the International Space Station, led by a professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Discoveries made in some underwater caves by Texas &M University at Galveston researchers in the Bahamas could provide clues about how ocean life formed on Earth millions of years ago, and perhaps give hints of what types of marine life could be found on distant planets and moons.
A potent and unexpected solar flare observed yesterday morning by a NASA satellite could cause disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next few days, according to scientists at the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center (SSC).
A new Hubble Space Telescope image centers on the 100-million-solar-mass black hole at the hub of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, or the Andromeda galaxy, one of the few galaxies outside the Milky Way visible to the naked eye and the only other giant galaxy in the Local Group. This is the sharpest visible-light image ever made of the nucleus of an external galaxy.
The smallest exoplanets yet discovered orbit a dwarf star almost identical to Barnard’s star, one of the Sun’s nearest neighbors. The similarity helped the astronomers calculate the size of the distant planets.
The uncontrolled re-entry of Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is expected to occur early next week, perhaps between January 15-16. Secure World Foundation experts are available to discuss orbital debris, space situational awareness, space traffic management, space sustainability, and associated topics.
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have solved a longstanding mystery on the type of star, or so-called progenitor, that caused a supernova in a nearby galaxy. The finding yields new observational data for pinpointing one of several scenarios that trigger such outbursts.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has looked deep into the distant universe and detected the feeble glow of a star that exploded more than 9 billion years ago. The sighting is the first finding of an ambitious survey that will help astronomers place better constraints on the nature of dark energy: the mysterious repulsive force that is causing the universe to fly apart ever faster.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a large, rare population of hot, bright stars in the core of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Astronomers used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to find roughly 8,000 of the ultra-blue stars in a stellar census made in ultraviolet light, which traces the glow of the hottest stars.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction — the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five tiny galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, existing just 600 million years after the universe's birth in the big bang.
A team of astrophysicists from the University of Rochester and Europe has discovered a ring system in the constellation Centaurus that invites comparisons to Saturn. This is the first system of discrete, thin, dust rings detected around a very low-mass object outside of our solar system.
NASA's Kepler Mission has helped astronomers discover two Earth-sized planets that survived their star's red-giant expansion. The discovery is published in the Dec. 22 edition of the journal Nature.
University of Toulouse and University of Montreal researchers have detected two planets of sizes comparable to Earth orbiting around an old star that has just passed the red giant stage. This planetary system is located near Lyra and Cygnus constellations at a distance of 3900 light years. This discovery, to be published by in Nature on December 22 2011, may shed new light on the destiny of stellar and planetary systems.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope focuses on a star-forming region in the Milky Way galaxy that resembles a soaring, celestial snow angel.
Like an international relay team with telescopes, astronomers worldwide are working together to continuously watch several cooling stars for clues that may help reveal one of our galaxy’s deepest secrets: its age.
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