Flyover of Jupiter’s north pole in infrared

See what scientists saw this week at a meeting in Vienna. It's a 3-D fly-around of Jupiter's north pole, showing its central cyclone and the 8 smaller cyclones encircling it.

In infrared, Io appears alive with volcanos

The Juno spacecraft, now orbiting Jupiter, acquired this infrared image of the giant planet's moon Io. Each fiery dot is an active volcano.

Tour the moon in 4K

Take a virtual tour of the moon in all-new 4K resolution - Ultra High Def - created from data provided by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

IAU approves names for Pluto’s moon Charon

NASA held a public naming contest in 2015, just before New Horizons' sweep past Pluto and Charon. The spacecraft mission team has used many of the Charon feature names since. Now the IAU gives the names the nod.

Cosmic gorilla effect could blind detection of aliens

Could it be that the more rational and methodical searches for extraterrestrial intelligence are overlooking "the gorilla in the room?" A new study suggests it's possible.

Whoa! New and giant telescopes ahead

Telescope technology has come a long way. Here are 4 new amazing machines for observing the universe, both from space and from Earth.

Goodbye Kepler, hello TESS: Passing the baton in exoplanet search

When NASA first started planning the Kepler mission, no one knew if the universe held any planets outside our solar system. Thousands of exoplanets later, the search enters a new phase.

Hubble finds an Einstein ring

The arcs you see at the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image are created by the light of distant galaxies, distorted to form what's called an "Einstein ring."

Giant sun tornadoes aren’t spinning

Two-dimensional images of these solar prominences make them look as if they're spinning, and astronomers have long assumed they were. But new research says no.

Cosmic cold front older than solar system

Astronomers were surprised to discover an enormous “cold front” millions of light years in extent and older than the solar system.

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