Is Nearby Star Forming Planets Like Those in our Solar System?

Is Nearby Star Forming Planets Like Those in our Solar System?

  Using ESA’s Herschel Space Telescope, astronomers including Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have used a new method to determine the mass of the planetary nursery around the star TW Hydrae. At a distance of merely 176 light-years from Earth, this is the closest star that is currently forming [continue reading]

New Definition of Habitable Zones Around Stars

New Definition of Habitable Zones Around Stars

  Researchers searching the galaxy for exoplanets that could pass the litmus test of sustaining water-based life must find whether those planets fall in what’s known as a habitable zone. New work, led by a team of Penn State researchers, will help scientists in that search. A new definition of the habitable zone around stars, [continue reading]

Anne's Picture of the Day: Emission Nebula NGC 2467

Anne’s Picture of the Day: Emission Nebula NGC 2467

January 31, 2013 NGC 2467, an emission nebula in Puppis Image Credit: ESO NGC 2467 (sometimes referred as the “Skull and Crossbones”) is an emission nebula with an age of a few million years at most, located some 13,000 – 17,000 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Puppis (the Stern). It is [continue reading]

Prehistoric Humans Not Wiped Out by Comet

Prehistoric Humans Not Wiped Out by Comet

  Comet explosions did not end the prehistoric human culture, known as Clovis, in North America 13,000 years ago, according to research published in the journal Geophysical Monograph Series. Dennis Stanford with Clovis stone points from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The Clovis culture is named after the town in [continue reading]

Anne's Picture of the Day: Colliding Galaxies NGC 520

Anne’s Picture of the Day: Colliding Galaxies NGC 520

January 30, 2013 NGC 520, a pair of colliding galaxies in Pisces Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and B. Whitmore (STScI) NGC 520 (also known as Arp 157) is a pair of highly disturbed colliding spiral galaxies of more than 100,000 light-years across, located some 90.7 million light-years away in the [continue reading]

Io's Volcanism Controls Jupiter's Auroral Activity

Io’s Volcanism Controls Jupiter’s Auroral Activity

  Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io spews out volcanic gas, which reaches its atmosphere and becomes ionized, forming what is known as the Io plasma torus. This plasma torus can interact with Jupiter’s magnetosphere, possibly affecting auroral activity there. This ultraviolet image of Jupiter was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on 26 [continue reading]