Nomads of the galaxy
Recently, a study was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society proposing planets simply adrift in space may be something of a common phenomenon. View More (2012-05-24)
Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands
A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. View More (2012-05-11)
UF astronomer: Some giant planets in other systems most likely to be alone
"Hot Jupiter-type" planets are most likely to be alone in their systems, according to research by a University of Florida astronomer and others, made public today. View More (2012-05-08)
Hubble to use moon as mirror to see Venus transit
This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our moon. View More (2012-05-07)
Science nugget: Lightning signature could help reveal the solar system's origins
Every second, lightning flashes some 50 times on Earth. Together these discharges coalesce and get stronger, creating electromagnetic waves circling around Earth, to create a beating pulse between the ground and the lower ionosphere, about 60 miles up in the atmosphere. View More (2012-05-04)
Record-Breaking Radio Waves from Ultra-Cool Star
Penn State University astronomers using the world's largest radio telescope, at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have discovered flaring radio emissions from an ultra-cool star, not much warmer than the planet Jupiter, shattering the previous record for the lowest stellar temperature at which radio waves were detected. View More (2012-04-30)
Some Stars Capture Rogue Planets
New research suggests that billions of stars in our galaxy have captured rogue planets that once roamed interstellar space. View More (2012-04-18)
AGU: Uranus auroras glimpsed from Earth
For the first time, scientists have captured images of auroras above the giant ice planet Uranus, finding further evidence of just how peculiar a world that distant planet is. View More (2012-04-16)
ALMA Reveals Workings of Nearby Planetary System
A new observatory still under construction has given astronomers a major breakthrough in understanding a nearby planetary system that can provide valuable clues about how such systems form and evolve. View More (2012-04-13)
UF-led team uses new observatory to characterize low-mass planets orbiting nearby star
University of Florida astronomers have found compelling evidence for two low-mass planets orbiting the nearby star Fomalhaut, just 25 light years from Earth. View More (2012-04-13)
Organics probably formed easily in early solar system
Complex organic compounds, including many important to life on Earth, were readily produced under conditions that likely prevailed in the primordial solar system. View More (2012-04-02)
Much faster than a speeding bullet, planets and stars escape the Milky Way
Idan Ginsburg, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Department of Physics and Astronomy, studies some of the fastest moving objects in the cosmos. View More (2012-03-30)
Oceanographers develop method for measuring the pace of life in deep sediments
Life deep in the seabed proceeds very slowly. But the slow-growing bacteria living many meters beneath the seafloor play an important role in the global storage of organic carbon and have a long-term effect on climate. A team of scientists from Aarhus University (Denmark) and the University of Rhode Island have developed a new method for measuring this slow life deep down in the seabed. View More (2012-03-28)
TARA OCEANS completes 60 000-mile journey to map marine biodiversity
The two-and-a-half-year TARA OCEANS expedition finishes on 31 March when the ship and crew reach Lorient, France. View More (2012-03-28)
Many billions of rocky planets in the habitable zones around red dwarfs in the Milky Way
This first direct estimate of the number of light planets around red dwarf stars has just been announced by an international team using observations with the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. View More (2012-03-28)
Elsevier Journal contributes to global sustainability policy
Elsevier today published a special issue of its journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. The issue publishes papers on the topics of several policy briefs that are on the agenda of the annual United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development: energy, food and water security, green economy, health and well-being. View More (2012-03-27)
Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities
On March 17, the tiny MESSENGER spacecraft completed its primary mission to orbit and observe the planet Mercury for one Earth-year. View More (2012-03-22)
Data from MESSENGER spacecraft reveals new insights on planet Mercury
Thanks to the MESSENGER spacecraft, and a mission that took more than 10 years to complete, scientists now have a good picture of the solar system's innermost planet. View More (2012-03-22)
Super-Earth unlikely able to transfer life to other planets
While scientists believe conditions suitable for life might exist on the so-called "super-Earth" in the Gliese 581 system, it's unlikely to be transferred to other planets within that solar system. View More (2012-03-21)
Microbiologists can now measure extremely slow life
"Mud samples boiled in acid sounds like witchcraft," admits microbiologist Bente Lomstein from the Department of Bioscience when explaining how she and an international group of researchers achieved the outstanding results being published today in the journal Nature. View More (2012-03-20)
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