Space

Feb 02, 2012 Blogs

GRAIL’s first video shows moon’s far side

Twin spacecraft – named Ebb and Flow, part of NASA’s GRAIL mission – are orbiting the moon. Ebb has captured a video of the moon’s far side.

Kepler-35 system. Artist: Lynette Cook / extrasolar.spaceart.org

Feb 02, 2012 Blogs Leave a comment

Kepler satellite and planets of double stars

Thanks to the Kepler satellite, we now know of three planets orbiting in double star systems.

Jan 31, 2012 Blogs 3 Comments

Asteroid Eros at its closest since 1975 on January 31

Asteroid 433 Eros passed closer to Earth on January 31, 2012 than it had since 1975.

Star survey revealed something new about the growth of our Milky Way galaxy.

Jan 31, 2012 Interviews 2 Comments

Judy Cheng: Milky Way grew from inside out

Astronomer Judy Cheng of UC Santa Cruz was part of a survey of stars called SEGUE-2 that found the inner disk of our Milky Way galaxy grew differently than the outer disk.

The Sun in extreme ultraviolet, false color green

Jan 30, 2012 Blogs 24 Comments

Ten things you may not know about stars

Here’s a collection of 10 unexpected, intriguing facts about the stars of our universe – including our sun – you probably didn’t know!

Simulation of a galaxy's dark matter halo

Jan 30, 2012 Interviews 3 Comments

Sukanya Chakrabarti maps dark matter from ripples of passing satellites

Mapping the unseen dark matter halo of a galaxy, using gravitational ripples caused by passing satellite galaxies.

Smog-enshrouded Titan behind Saturn's F-ring. (Cassini)

Jan 29, 2012 Blogs Leave a comment

Dune fields on Titan, Saturn’s large moon

Scientists using radar to peer through Titan’s dense clouds see vast fields of sand dunes, not unlike those on Earth. See the newest images.

Jan 28, 2012 Blogs 28 Comments

Coincidence that sun and moon seem same size?

The sun and moon appear the same size in Earth’s sky because the sun’s diameter is about 400 times greater – but the sun is also about 400 times farther away.