Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. What’s more, three of them are… Read more “3 Earth-like exoplanets discovered”

Astronomers have created the most detailed computer simulation to date of our Milky Way galaxy’s formation, from its inception billions of years ago as a loose assemblage… Read more “Recreating Our Galaxy in a Supercomputer”

Pale Red Dot campaign reveals Earth-mass world in orbit around Proxima Centauri Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting… Read more “Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star”

“That’s one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.”- Neil Armstrong Apollo’s Goals The national effort that enabled Astronaut Neil Armstrong to speak those… Read more “The Apollo Missions Part 1”

Like a pair of human hands, certain organic molecules have mirror-image versions of themselves, a chemical property known as chirality. These so-called “handed” molecules are essential for… Read more “Chiral molecule detected”

Is there life beyond our solar system? If there is, our best bet for finding it may lie in three nearby, Earth-like exoplanets. For the first time,… Read more “Planets might host life forms adapted to infrared worlds”

The Moon used to spin on a different axis and show a slightly different face to the Earth, a new study suggests. Using data collected by Nasa’s… Read more “Moon used to spin ‘on different axis’”

A massive rogue planet has been discovered in the Beta Pictoris moving group. The planet, called PSO J318.5338-22.8603 (Sorry, I didn’t name it), is over eight times… Read more “Massive Rogue Planet Discovered”

  Like countless so-crazy-it-just-might-work schemes, this one began with a gripe session. In the fall of 2011, Roberto Abraham and Pieter van Dokkum were commiserating at a… Read more “Discover a Galaxy with a Telephoto Lens”

Three months ago, news broke that a giant “alien megastructure” could exist around a bizarre-looking star 1,500 light-years away. While the prospect of aliens was first launched… Read more “Bizarre-looking star just got a lot weirder”

Anything that gets sucked into a black hole is gone forever, including light. But occasionally, black holes may experience a phenomenon in which the substances falling into… Read more “Black Hole Seen With A Telescope For The First Time”

  As if the prospect of billions of potentially habitable exoplanets wasn’t enough to get people excited, what about all those watery exo-moons too? The question arises… Read more “Enceladus and Water Worlds”

  KIC 8462852, also known as TYC 3162-665-1 or 2MASS J20061546+4427248, is a main-sequence star located in the constellation Cygnus, around 1,480 light-years away. NASA’s Kepler Space… Read more “Unusual Star Swarmed by Exocomets”

  Using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered the first gamma-ray pulsar in a galaxy other than the Milky Way. The object… Read more “Gamma-Ray Pulsar in the Tarantula Nebula”

NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND—Astronomers have found the most distant object ever in our solar system, three times farther away than Pluto. The dwarf planet, which has been designated… Read more “Most distant object in the solar system could point to other rogue planets”

Some of the dark sandstone in an area being explored by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows texture and inclined bedding structures characteristic of deposits that formed as… Read more “Mars panorama from Curiosity shows petrified sand dunes”