Yesterday’s post on exomoons and their possibilities as abodes for life leads naturally to new work from René Heller (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics, Potsdam) and Rory Barnes (University of Washington). We’re finding planets much larger and more massive than Earth in the habitable zone, as the recent findings of the Planet Hunters project attest. What [...]
Because the sky is full of surprises, we can’t afford to be too doctrinaire about what tomorrow’s discovery might be. After all, ‘hot Jupiters’ were considered wildly unlikely by all but a few, and even here in the Solar System, probes like our Voyagers have turned up one startling thing after another — volcanoes on [...]
The American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Long Beach is going to occupy us for several days, and not always with exoplanet news. Brown dwarfs, those other recent entrants into the gallery of research targets, continue to make waves as we learn more about their nature and distribution. The hope of finding a brown dwarf closer [...]
Yesterday’s look at radiation and its effects on humans in space asked whether any Fermi implications were to be found in the work described at the University of Rochester. One answer is that expansion into the cosmos does not need to be biological, for biological beings can build robotic explorers equipped with enough artificial intelligence [...]
In a sobering start to the New Year, at least for partisans of manned missions to deep space, new work out of the University of Rochester indicates that galactic cosmic radiation may accelerate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by the university’s Kerry O’Banion, is hardly the first time that the impact of [...]
Now, call your friends, grab a beer and celebrate the end of the Maya Long Count calendar’s 13th b’ak’tun and the winter solstice. (Sorry doomsayers, I will not be giving you a reference for your post-doomsday interview, you did a crappy job of the Apocalypse.) Also, send your congratulations to my sister, Colette! IT’S HER [...]
A classified military space plane blasted off into orbit Tuesday (Dec. 11) on the third mission of t
This is a view of the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft during mating operations to the booster on Dec. 12, 20
Artist’s depiction of twin spacecraft (Ebb and Flow) that comprise NASA’s Gravity Recove
Beijing (XNA) Dec 17, 2012 - China’s space probe Chang’e-2 has successfully conducted a 
This composite image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3627, located about 30 million light years from Earth.
NASA announced that there will be another Mars rover to be launched in 2020. This provides some clea
“I’m only a four-dimensional creature. Haven’t got a clue how to visualise infinity. Even Einstein hadn’t. I know because I asked him.” — Sir Patrick Moore The Sky at Night: Curiosity at Mars (Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott): Patrick Moore interviews Carl Sagan (h/t @megschwamb): BBC News: Sir Patrick Moore: Chris Lintott’s tribute Discovery News: [...]
UPDATE 2: So it turns out that Curiosity does have data to suggest that organics and perchlorates may be present in the Mars soil. As NASA keeps reminding us, this is not “proof” of organics, it’s “promising data.” Regardless, the media has made up their own mind as to what it means. As for Voyager [...]
As the sols march on, NASA’s brand new nuclear-powered rover Curiosity has detected a dramatic change in its surrounding atmosphere. A once-clear vista of the distant rim of Gale Crater now looks smoggy — almost like the gray-brown-yellow stuff that hangs above Los Angeles on a hot summer’s day. So what’s causing this change in [...]