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)
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)
Experients may force revision of astrophysical models of the universe
In a challenge to current astrophysical models of the universe, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories Z machine and the University of Rostock in Germany have found that current estimates of ice-giant planetary interiors overstate water's compressibility by as much as 30 percent. View More (2012-03-20)
The helix in new colors
ESO's VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. View More (2012-01-20)
NASA's Voyager spacecraft that toured outer planets nearing solar system edge
In 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, Elvis died, Virginia park ranger Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning a record seventh time, and two NASA space probes destined to turn planetary science on its head launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. View More (2011-12-14)
Giant planet ejected from the solar system
Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. View More (2011-11-11)
Invisible world discovered
Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because it suggests that another world is nearby. View More (2011-09-09)
Astronomers discover, image new planet in planetary system very similar to our own
An international team of astronomers has discovered and imaged a fourth giant planet outside our solar system, a discovery that further strengthens the remarkable resemblances between a distant planetary system and our own. View More (2010-12-09)
Pounding particles to create Neptune's water in the lab
We know 'icy' Neptune is partially comprised of water molecules but until now we have had little means to test how water behaves in the extreme conditions that Neptune presents. View More (2010-07-22)
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)
Diamond is one tough cookie
Most people know that diamond is one of the hardest solids on Earth, so strong that it can easily cut through glass and steel. View More (2010-01-27)
First Earth-like planet spotted outside solar system likely a volcanic wasteland
When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life. View More (2010-01-06)
First super-Earths discovered around Sun-like stars
Two nearby stars have been found to harbor "super-Earths"― rocky planets larger than the Earth but smaller than ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune. Unlike previously discovered stars with super-Earths, both of the stars are similar to the Sun, suggesting to scientists that low-mass planets may be common around nearby stars. View More (2009-12-15)
Primitive asteroids in the main asteroid belt may have formed far from the sun
Many of the objects found today in the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter may have formed in the outermost reaches of the solar system. View More (2009-07-16)
Water acts as catalyst in explosives
The most abundant material on Earth exhibits some unusual chemical properties when placed under extreme conditions. View More (2009-03-23)
Predicted Planet Seen-First Since Neptune 162 Years Ago
In 2006, astronomer Alice Quillen of the University of Rochester predicted that a planet of a particular size and orbit must lie within the dust of a nearby star. That planet has now been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, making it only the second planet ever imaged after an accurate prediction. View More (2008-12-10)
Jupiter's rocky core bigger and icier, model predicts
Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by a University of California, Berkeley, geophysicist who simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. View More (2008-11-26)
UBC researchers develop breakthrough technique to unlock the secret of plasmas
University of British Columbia researchers have developed a technique that brings scientists a big step closer to unlocking the secrets of the most abundant form of matter in the universe. View More (2008-11-24)
Solar System's Young Twin Has Two Asteroid Belts
Astronomers have discovered that the nearby star Epsilon Eridani has two rocky asteroid belts and an outer icy ring, making it a triple-ring system. The inner asteroid belt is a virtual twin of the belt in our solar system, while the outer asteroid belt holds 20 times more material. Moreover, the presence of these three rings of material implies that unseen planets confine and shape them. View More (2008-10-28)
Melting ice under pressure
The deep interior of Neptune, Uranus and Earth may contain some solid ice. Through first-principle molecular dynamics simulations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists, together with University of California, Davis collaborators, used a two-phase approach to determine the melting temperature of ice VII (a high-pressure phase of ice) in pressures ranging from 100,000 to 500,000... View More (2008-09-24)
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