Category Astronomy/Space

This spectacular image of the Carina nebula reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before. The massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow. By contrast, other regions of the nebula contain dark pillars of dust cloaking newborn stars.
Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/M. Irwin/J. Lewis

VISTA gazes into one of the largest nebulae in the Milky Way in infrared. About 7500 light-years away, in the constellation of Carina, lies a nebula within which stars form and perish side-by-side. Shaped by these dramatic events, the Carina Nebula is a dynamic, evolving cloud of thinly spread interstellar gas and dust.

The massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that...

Depiction of a world completely covered with ocean.
Credit: NASA Kepler Mission/Dana Berry

Scientists challenges idea that life requires ‘Earth clone’. The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, according to a new paper from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University.

The scientific community has largely assumed that planets covered in a deep ocean would not support the cycling of minerals and gases that keeps the climate stable on Earth, and thus wouldn’t be friendly to life. But the study, published Aug...

An image from NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite that shows an example of a commonly believed Slinky-like shaped coronal mass ejection (CME) — in this case a long filament of solar material hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, or corona. This CME traveled 900 miles per second connecting with Earth’s magnetic environment and causing aurora to appear four days later on Sept. 3, 2012.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

As the saying goes, everything old is new again. While the common phrase often refers to fashion, design, or technology, scientists at the University of New Hampshire have found there is some truth to this mantra even when it comes to research...

The Great Red Spot is the dark patch in the middle of this infrared image. It is dark due to the thick clouds that block thermal radiation. The yellow strip denotes the portion of the Great Red Spot used in astrophysicist Gordon L. Bjoraker’s analysis.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Gordon Bjoraker

One critical question has bedeviled astronomers for generations: Is there water deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and if so, how much? Gordon L. Bjoraker, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, reported in a recent paper in the Astronomical Journal that he and his team have brought the Jovian research community closer to the answer.

By looking from ground-based telescopes at wavelengths sensitive to thermal radiation leaking from the depths of Jupi...