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)
SwRI researchers discover new evidence for complex molecules on Pluto's surface
The new and highly sensitive Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on Pluto's surface, providing new evidence that points to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on the surface. View More (2011-12-21)
City Lights Could Reveal E.T. Civilization
In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. In a new paper, Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Edwin Turner (Princeton University) suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights. "Looking for alien cities would be a long shot, but wouldn't require extra resources. And... View More (2011-11-04)
Spiral Arms Hint at the Presence of Planets
A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star has spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets. View More (2011-10-20)
Spiral arms point to possible planets in a star's dusty disk
A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star is the first to show spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets. View More (2011-10-20)
First comet found with ocean-like water
New evidence supports the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans, which scientists believe formed about 8 million years after the planet itself. View More (2011-10-06)
Stardust discovered in far-off planetary systems
The debris discs are remnants of the formation of the planets. "We are dealing with enormous accumulations of chunks of matter which create dust when they collide", Alexander Krivov says. View More (2011-09-30)
Caltech: Astronomers find ice and possibly methane on Snow White, a distant dwarf planet
stronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10-nicknamed Snow White-is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing volcanoes. View More (2011-08-23)
NASA's Hubble Discovers Another Moon Around Pluto
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny, new satellite - temporarily designated P4 -- was uncovered in a Hubble survey searching for rings around the dwarf planet. View More (2011-07-21)
How Iapetus got its ridge
For centuries, people wondered how the leopard got its spots. The consensus is pretty solid that evolution played a major role. View More (2010-12-13)
NASA's Hubble Harvests Distant Solar System Objects
Beyond the orbit of Neptune reside countless icy rocks known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). One of the biggest, Pluto, is classified as a dwarf planet. The region also supplies us with comets such as famous Comet Halley. Most TNOs are small and receive little sunlight, making them faint and difficult to spot. View More (2010-09-14)
Asteroid found in gravitational 'dead zone'
There are places in space where the gravitational tug between a planet and the Sun balance out, allowing other smaller bodies to remain stable. These places are called Lagrangian points. View More (2010-08-13)
Black hole blows big bubble
Combining observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope, astronomers have uncovered the most powerful pair of jets ever seen from a stellar black hole. View More (2010-07-08)
Scientists see billions of miles away
A large group of scientists, including Jay Pasachoff, Bryce Babcock, and Steven Souza at Williams College, reveal the character of one of the most distant objects in the solar system in a scientific paper to appear in the June 17 issue of the journal Nature. View More (2010-06-21)
Triton's Summer Sky of Methane and Carbon Monoxide
According to the first ever infrared analysis of the atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton, summer is in full swing in its southern hemisphere. View More (2010-04-08)
IBEX satellite finds ribbon-like structure at edge of heliosphere
The invisible structures of space are becoming less so, as scientists look out to the far edges of the solar wind bubble that separates our solar system from the interstellar cloud through which it flies. View More (2009-10-16)
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LAMP shedding light on permanently shadowed regions of the Moon
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18 of this year, has begun its extensive exploration of the lunar environment and will return more data about the Moon than any previous mission. View More (2009-09-18)
Caltech visiting associate champions the study of solar eclipses in the modern era
Championing the modern-day use of solar eclipses to solve a set of modern problems is the goal of a review article written by Jay Pasachoff, visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College. View More (2009-06-11)
Radio telescope images reveal planet-forming disk orbiting twin suns
Astronomers are announcing today that a sequence of images collected with the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA) clearly reveals the presence of a rotating molecular disk orbiting the young binary star system V4046 Sagittarii. View More (2009-06-11)
The lower atmosphere of Pluto revealed
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained valuable new insights about the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius. View More (2009-03-03)
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