Google Maps is both amazing and a little terrifying at times. Not content to just map out almost every corner of the Earth, Google has now added the ability to explore 12 other worlds in our little corner of the galaxy.
Continue Reading
Astronomers have observed an occultation of a distant star to get a better look at the little-known dwarf planet Haumea, which orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. Scientists were able to pin down the planet’s size, shape and density, and make a surprising new discovery: Haumea has a rocky ring around it.
Continue Reading
Astronomers have discovered a brand new celestial object: an active binary asteroid. Body 288P is the first known hybrid of two rare types of asteroid: a binary that’s made up of two rocks orbiting each other, and an active asteroid that acts more like a comet, leaving a trail of gas.
Continue Reading
Thousands of exoplanets have been spotted by looking for “transits” as light from the host star dips when a planet passes in front of it. Now scientists have examined whether Earth could be detected by other civilizations using the same technique, and 68 known exoplanets are in prime positions.
Continue Reading
A new study using data from ESA's Gaia satellite has tracked the movement of more than 300,000 stars relative to the Sun, and discovered that some will pass close enough to disturb the vast cloud of comets that make up the Oort Cloud.
Continue Reading
An all-star cast of spacecraft has teamed up from across the Solar System. After a CME erupted from the Sun in October 2014, its journey through space was tracked by Curiosity, Rosetta, Cassini, New Horizons and possibly even Voyager 2, allowing astronomers to study the phenomenon in detail.
Continue Reading
Forty years ago, two explorers set out to shed light on the mysteries of the Solar System, getting up close and personal with our distant neighbors. Today both pioneers are still operating and heading out of our solar system to explore further than any spacecraft ever launched.
Continue Reading
The most commonly accepted theory for the creation of the Earth is that it was formed from an aggregate of rocky meteors and asteroids that built up over time. But new research indicates that far from being a stony conglomerate, the proto-Earth may have been a huge ball of churning, warm, wet mud.
Continue Reading
NASA has just released two spectacular flyover videos, of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, created from the New Horizons data offering us the most intimate look yet at our distant icy friends.
Continue Reading
Since the 1980s, astronomers have been searching for the Sun’s “evil” twin, dubbed Nemesis. Lately, the hypothesis has fallen out of favor after sky surveys have turned up no trace, but a new mathematical model from UC Berkeley suggests that almost every star is born with a buddy, including our Sun.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning