Category Astronomy/Space

The University of Chicago’s Sean Mills (left) and Daniel Fabrycky describe the complex orbital structure of the Kepler-223 expolanetary system in the May 11, 2016 Advance Online edition of Nature. Credit: Nancy Wong

The 4 planets of Kepler-223 star system seem to have little in common with planets of Earth’s own solar system. And yet a new study shows Kepler-223 system is trapped in an orbital configuration that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune may have broken from in the early history of the solar system. “Exactly how and where planets form is an outstanding question in planetary science,” said Sean Mills. “Our work essentially tests a model for planet formation for a type of planet we don’t have in our solar system...

This image from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on June 15, 1999, shows streaks of bright light. This represents material streaming out from the sun (which is obscured in this picture by the central red disk so that it cannot overwhelm the image of the fainter material around it). Two other NASA spacecraft measured this material closer to Earth to better understand what causes this regular outflow, known as the solar wind, from the sun. Credit: NASA/SOHO

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections explode in the sun’s hot atmosphere, the corona, sending light and high energy particles out into space. The corona is also constantly releasing a stream of charged particles, aka solar wind. Even the slowest moving solar wind can reach speeds of ~700,000 mph...

A 3D map of the Universe spanning 12 to 14.5 billion light years. Credit: NAOJ; Partial data supplied by: CFHT, SDSS

An international team has made a 3D map of 3000 galaxies 13 billion light years from Earth, and found that Einstein’s general theory of relativity is still valid. Since it was discovered in the late 1990s that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, scientists have been trying to explain why. The mysterious dark energy could be driving acceleration, or Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which says gravity warps space and time, could be breaking down.

To test Einstein’s theory, a team of researchers used FastSound Survey data on more than 3000 distant galaxies to analyze their velocities and clustering...

Scientists from Princeton University and NASA have confirmed that 1,284 objects observed outside Earth’s solar system by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft are indeed planets. It is the largest single announcement of new planets to date and more than doubles the number of confirmed planets discovered by Kepler so far to more than 2,000. Kepler, which launched in 2009 and ended data collection for its primary mission in 2013, precisely measured the brightness of many stars simultaneously in order to find the dimming caused by planets as they cross in front of their home star. This photo shows a section of the Milky Way galaxy that includes the Kepler field of view. Credit: Photo by Carter Roberts, NASA

It is the largest single announcement of new planets to date and more than doubles the number of co...