Astronomy

A report published in the scientific journal Nature of results from the Cassini probe indicates the discovery of the existence of liquid water on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and with it the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Analysis of ice particles once thought to be emitted by geysers from the moon revealed the presence of sodium salt in [...]

NASA recently publish first images (or “first lights”, as astronomer says) taken from Kepler spacecraft. It is the mission specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars [...]

Galaxies and the giant black holes at their hubs fit together as if they were made for one another. Did the holes come first and guide the formation of their galaxies, did the galaxies come first and build up holes, or did some common factor sculpt both? As reported on March 2009 edition of Scientific American [...]

Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s most luminous explosions. Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star’s core collapses into a black hole, jets of material — powered by processes not yet fully understood — blast outward at nearly the speed of light. The jets bore all the [...]

This color composite image of Centaurus A reveals the lobes and jets emanating from the active galaxy’s central black hole. Centaurus A is our nearest giant galaxy, at a distance of about 13 million light-years in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It is an elliptical galaxy, currently merging with a companion spiral galaxy, resulting in [...]

Mars, it seems, is not quite dead. A team of observers has found methane in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. This finding proves either that Mars has (or once had) life — or that the planet’s interior occasionally burps. By carefully observing the planet throughout several Mars years with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck [...]

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing spectroscopic observations with NASA’s space-based Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) of the white dwarf KPD 0005+5106. The team of German and American astronomers who present these observations show that this white dwarf is among the hottest stars known so far, with a temperature of 200 000 K at its surface. It [...]

This image of the northern polar region of Saturn shows both the aurora and underlying atmosphere, seen at two different wavelengths of infrared light as captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Auroras are caused by charged particles streaming along the magnetic field lines of a planet into its atmosphere. Particles from the sun cause Earth’s auroras. Many, [...]

After operating for more than five months, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased its communications with Earth controller. This marks end of almost six month of successful mission on red planet – nearly twice than expected. Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered [...]

Have you ever heard the sound of stars? Scientists have recorded the sound of three stars similar to our Sun using France’s Corot space telescope. A team writing in Science journal says the sounds have enabled them to get information about processes deep within stars for the first time. If you listen closely to the sounds [...]