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Exoplanet smaller than Earth, only 33 light-years away
The little exoplanet UCF-1.01 might be the nearest world to our solar system that's smaller than our home planet.
July 18, 2012
Auroras widely seen July 14. Chance on July 15, too
A powerful X-flare on the sun on July 12 was aimed directly toward Earth. Its effects arrived July 14 with shimmering auroras. Aurora alert!
July 15, 2012
Jupiter, Saturn and Venus might have lightning sprites, too
Lightning sprites on alien worlds like Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. Cool!
July 13, 2012
X-flare from giant sunspot group 1520
Giant sunspot group 1520 - which spans about 10 Earth diameters on the sun's surface - emitted an X-flare on July 12 at 1653 UTC.
July 12, 2012
Frank Hill: Future sunspot drop, but no new ice age
Frank Hill told EarthSky that -- while his team did suggest a drop in solar activity beginning around 2019 -- they did not suggest Earth would cool as a result.
July 12, 2012
Cassini finds a south pole vortex at Titan
A Cassini images shows a swirling mass appears to execute one full rotation in about nine hours - much faster than Titan's 16-day rotation period.
July 10, 2012
Stars are really dim!
The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is about as bright as a 100-Watt incandescent light bulb viewed from a distance of more than 5 miles. Stars are really dim.
July 10, 2012
Magnetic portals between Earth and sun
Observations by NASA's THEMIS spacecraft and Europe's Cluster probes suggest that these magnetic portals open and close dozens of times each day.
July 9, 2012
X-flare from active region 1515 on sun
After releasing a barrage of M-class flares over the past few days, sunspot 1515 released an X-flare on July 6. Its effects might deliver a glancing blow to Earth on July 8 or 9.
July 7, 2012
Middleweight black hole found
A middleweight black hole - with a mass perhaps 20,000 times that of our sun - has reveled itself to astronomers by as it feeds on a star that has come near it.
July 6, 2012
