Seeing is believing, except when you don’t believe what you see. Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found a puzzling arc of light behind an extremely massive cluster of galaxies residing 10 billion light-years away. The galactic grouping, discovered by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, was observed when the universe was roughly a [continue reading]
Scientists map Shackleton crater, whose unusually bright floor may hint at the presence of ice. Shackleton is an impact crater at the south pole of the Moon, that may have water ice. The crater is more than 12 miles wide and two miles deep (21 km in diameter and 4.2 km deep). If [continue reading]
Astronomers will soon have access to a new map of the sky that accurately measures the brightness and position of over 42 million stars. APASS Data Release 6 coverage map. The survey has been underway for about two years, and has now achieved the milestone of covering the entire sky a minimum of two times, with [continue reading]
Black holes are extremely powerful and efficient engines that not only swallow up matter, but also return a lot of energy to the Universe in exchange for the mass they eat. When black holes attract mass they also trigger the release of intense X-ray radiation and power strong jets. But not all black holes [continue reading]