A New Pluto Wonder? Possible Ice Volcanoes Spotted (Video)
The more scientists learn about Pluto, the more interesting the dwarf planet gets. Two of the towering mountains observed by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its historic July 14 flyby of Pluto — the 13,000-foot-high (3,960 meters) Wright Mons and the roughly 18,000-foot-high (5,500 m) Piccard Mons — appear to be ice volcanoes , mission […]
Ultrastrong Magnetic Fields Beat at the Heart of Dying Stars
Stars like the sun puff up and become red giants towards the end of their lives. The red giants (‘old’ suns) of the same mass as the sun do not show strong magnetic fields in their interior, but for stars slightly more massive, up to 60 percent host strong magnetic fields.Credit: University of Sydney KISSIMMEE, […]
Galaxy Cluster IDCS 1426
Astronomers have made the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster using three of NASA’s Great Observatories. To source
Black Holes Set the Clock for Life on Earth
There is a chance – just a chance – that if black holes rule the universe, they could have “switched on” habitable planets, such as Earth, allowing them to support complex life. It’s an unavoidable implication of the work of astrophysicist Paul Mason, who is examining the role of the super high-energy particles from black […]
Ice Volcanoes On Pluto? New Imagery Points To It | Video
Much like volcanoes on Earth, a 100 mile-wide, 13,000 foot-high mountain on the cold dwarf planet sports a deep depression (35 mi. across). Its features are. If this is indeed a volcano, it is a cryovolcano, which may erupt with cold volatiles such as liquid nitrogen or, perhaps, water. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI To source
NASA’s Next Major Space Telescope Project Officially Starts in February
WFIRST was the No. 1 rated large-scale mission in the 2010 decadal survey for astrophysics. Credit: NASA illustration KISSIMMEE, Fla. — NASA’s next flagship astronomy mission after the James Webb Space Telescope will become a formal project in February thanks to increased funding and direction from Congress, even as the agency looks to make cuts […]
China's Moon Rover Finds New Kind of Lunar Rock
Group shot of China’s Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover.Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences Data gleaned by China’s Yutu rover on the moon has identified a new type of lunar rock, shedding insight on lunar volcanism. As noted by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the new type of basaltic rock was discovered at a fresh […]
The future of 3D printing
Watch materials technology specialist Tommaso Ghidini’s talk from the inaugural TEDxESA event To source
Quadrantid Meteors Seen From Edge of Space | Video
A helium balloon-borne color camera, launched by astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), captured stratospheric altitude video of numerous space rocks slamming into Earth’s atmosphere in January 2016. Credit: UCM team: Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, Carlos Tapia, Francisco Ocaña / Daedalus Team: Miguel Angel Gomez, David Mayo, Fernando Ortuño, Aitor Conde, Pedro León […]
Student-Built Experiment Integrated onto NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission
The Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) will determine elemental abundances on the surface of asteroid Bennu. To source
Nearby Black Holes Spied Gobbling Gas in Andromeda Galaxy (Photo)
NASA’s black-hole-hunting NuSTAR X-ray space telescope has found 40 new black holes and neutron star binaries in the Andromeda galaxy. The inset at top shows the X-ray view of a section (see main image) of Andromeda.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC A NASA observatory has zoomed in on the Andromeda galaxy with X-ray vision, revealing 40 black holes and […]
First 'Twins' of Mysterious Erupting Star Found
Hubble view of M83 — the only galaxy known to host two potential “Eta twins.” Its high rate of star formation increases the chances of finding massive stars that have recently undergone an Eta Carinae-like outburst. Bottom: Hubble data showing the locations of M83’s Eta twins.Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and R. […]
[JAXA President Monthly Press Conference] JAXA President Monthly Regular Press Conference December 2015
JAXA President Monthly Regular Press Conference Date and time: From 11:00 – 11:25 a.m. on Dec. 17 (Thu.), 2015Venue: JAXA Tokyo Office Presentation Room (B1 floor)MC: Shigeki Kamigaichi, JAXA Public Affairs Department Director It’s already the year end, and I can summarize that 2015 was a very busy year for JAXA. The new Basic Plan […]