Pluto, now blurry, will become clear with NASA flyby
The best picture we have of Pluto is a blurry, pixelated blob, but that is about to change when a NASA spacecraft makes the first-ever flyby of the dwarf planet.
View ArticlePHOTOS: Hubble's turn to smile, marks 25 years in orbit
Hubble, it's your turn to smile for the cameras!
View ArticleTidal tugs on Teflon faults drive slow-slipping earthquakes
Unknown to most people, the Pacific Northwest experiences a magnitude-6.6 earthquake about once a year. The reason nobody notices is that the movement happens slowly and deep underground, in a part of...
View Article20 ExoWorlds are now available for naming proposals
Although people have been naming celestial objects for millennia, the IAU has the task of assigning scientifically recognised names to newly discovered celestial bodies by its member countries. The...
View ArticleHow researchers listen for gravitational waves
A century ago, Albert Einstein postulated the existence of gravitational waves in his General Theory of Relativity. But until now, these distortions of space-time have remained stubbornly hidden from...
View ArticleSOFIA points telescope toward Pluto occultation
The Stratosphere Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that makes celestial observations with its German-built 100-inch telescope. The telescope is enhanced to...
View ArticleIs there life on Pluto?
First discovered in 1930, Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet in our Solar System for many decades. And though its status has since been downgraded to that of a dwarf planet, thanks to the...
View ArticleNASA reassures public that there is no asteroid threatening Earth
Numerous recent blogs and web postings are erroneously claiming that an asteroid will impact Earth sometime between Sept. 15 and 28, 2015. On one of those dates, as rumors go, there will be an...
View ArticleRobotic laser astronomy on the rise
The world's first robotic laser adaptive optics system, developed by a team led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa astronomer Christoph Baranec, will soon find a new home at the venerable 2.1-meter...
View ArticleHow dung beetles navigate
Researchers got right into the brains of dung beetles to find out how they use celestial cues such as the sun, the moon and the polarisation pattern of skylight to navigate their dung balls along...
View ArticleWho owns space? US asteroid-mining act is dangerous and potentially illegal
An event of cosmic proportions occurred on November 18 when the US congress passed the Space Act of 2015 into law. The legislation will give US space firms the rights to own and sell natural resources...
View ArticleWhat to look for when buying a telescope
I'm often asked what inspired me to become an astronomer, and I explain that a pivotal moment for me was stargazing through my grandfather's telescope.
View ArticleFrom microchips to moon rocks—how the world depends on counting atoms
What do ancient artefacts, fragments from celestial bodies, microchips and gunshot residue have in common? Their innermost secrets can all be unveiled with the same method. Rutherford backscattering...
View ArticleNASA's Stardust sample return was 10 years ago last week
It was less than an hour into the new day of January 15, 2006 (EST), when tens of thousands of miles above our planet, two cable cutters and two retention bolts fired, releasing a spring which pushed a...
View ArticleWhat makes a planet, a planet?
A ninth planet? Astronomer Rob Cockcroft has heard it all before.
View ArticleFixing the faults in our stars
The number 2016 divided by 4 equals 504, exactly – with no remainder, which makes the year 2016, like the upcoming years 2020, 2024 and 2028 (and beyond), a leap year. We will get an "extra" day,...
View ArticleWhen dung beetles dance, they photograph the firmament
The discovery that dung beetles use the light of the Milky Way to navigate in the world has received much praise. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now taken a new step in understanding the...
View ArticleDecoding light for clues about dark matter
An international team of researchers is developing an instrument that will decode the light of the night sky to understand the nature of dark matter.
View ArticleSaturn at opposition 2016
They're back. After a wintertime largely devoid of evening worlds, the planets are once again in the evening sky. First Jupiter, then Mars have crossed opposition over the past few months, and now...
View ArticleClose encounter between Mars and Earth
Mars and Earth got unusually cozy Monday night, drawing closer to each other than they have in more than a decade.
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