Category Astronomy/Space

NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO Oceanic sediment contains an iron isotope that ancient bacteria accumulated 2.2 million years ago when debris rained on Earth from a supernova explosion. Shown are the remnants of a much younger supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, shown in a composite image from three NASA observatories.

A team from Germany and Austria has found possible evidence of iron from a supernova in sediment cores taken from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The study began when team members came across information regarding magnetotactic bacteria during internet searches. It is a type of bacteria that lives in ocean sediments and absorbs tiny amounts of iron. As sediment builds, the bacteria die leaving behind bits of iron in the layers of sediment...

Venus approaches the Sun in a 2012 transit visible from Earth. Credit: NASA

A team of researchers with NASA, Uppsala University, Columbia University and the Planetary Science Institute has created several simulations of conditions on Venus billions of years ago using Earth climate models and has found some instances that suggest the planet may at one time have been capable of harboring life.

Venus is extraordinarily hot, volcanically active and has an atmosphere that is mostly carbon dioxide. But the simulations created by the research team suggest it may not have always been that way. They started with the idea that Venus and Earth were probably similar billions of years ago—a time when Earth’s atmosphere was also mostly carbon dioxide...

The observed (open circles) and theoretical (solid line) light curve of V921 Her. Theoretical light curve without contaminated by the third light is plotted with dashed line. Credit: Zhou et al., 2016.

China’s Chang’e-3 mission landed on the moon in Dec 2013 and deployed lunar rover Yutu or Jade Rabbit; it also carried a robotic telescope designed to observe various celestial objects such as galaxies, active galactic nuclei, variable stars, binaries, novae, quasars and blazars in the near-ultraviolet band. The Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) was recently used by a team of Chinese astronomers to observe a peculiar binary star designated V921 Her.

LUT is the first robotic astronomical telescope deployed on the lunar surface...

Scientists study the evolution of Saturn’s great storm of 2010-2011 This series of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn shows the evolution of a great storm of 2010-2011. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft has made plenty of groundbreaking discoveries, outstandingly improving our knowledge of Saturn and its moons, including our understanding of violent atmospheric processes. Now, new research details the dynamics and evolution of Saturn’s great storm of 2010-2011, marks another important study based on the data provided by Cassini’s scientific instruments.

Saturn experiences quasi-periodic planet-encircling storms. The latest significant, well-observed storm started on Dec. 5, 2010 and lasted until the end of 2011...