Monthly Archives: April 2018

Europa And The Search For Life

    While the search for life on Mars is still ongoing, another planet may be the first world to where extraterrestrial life is found: Europa. Europa is a rocky moon of Jupiter, and it is known to have vast oceans of liquid water under thick sheets of water ice. Given it’s substantial size, it … Continue reading Europa And The Search For Life Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Europa And The Search For Life

Europa And The Search For Life

    While the search for life on Mars is still ongoing, another planet may be the first world to where extraterrestrial life is found: Europa. Europa is a rocky moon of Jupiter, and it is known to have vast oceans of liquid water under thick sheets of water ice. Given it’s substantial size, it … Continue reading Europa And The Search For Life Continue reading

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Europa And The Search For Life

Milky Way Center Home to Thousands of Black Holes

Astrophysicists at Columbia University have discovered a dozen black holes surrounding Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that lies at the center of the Milky Way. The prevailing theory rests that there are supposed to be tens of thousands of black holes filling areas just light-years wide, detectable only from X-ray bursts that originate as … Continue reading Milky Way Center Home to Thousands of Black Holes Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Milky Way Center Home to Thousands of Black Holes

Interesting Pluto Facts

The “dwarf planet” we know and love got a whole lot more interesting after the New Horizons mission unveiled some interstellar gold on Pluto. Orbiting 3,117,640,853 miles from the sun, Pluto is a complex world with massive glaciers, mountain ranges as high as the Rockies, blue skies and red snow. Regardless of its size, Pluto has 5 … Continue reading Interesting Pluto Facts Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Interesting Pluto Facts

James Webb Space Telescope

In 1995, one of the most famous photos in astronomy was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr. Robert Williams instructed his team to point the lens at nothing in particular in the sky – only 0.9 arc seconds of the night sky. Over 10 consecutive days, Hubble took over 342 exposures and combined them … Continue reading James Webb Space Telescope Continue reading

Posted in Instruments | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on James Webb Space Telescope

The End of the World?

There are so many objects in the solar system that coexist with Earth in this universe. These objects range range from other planets, moons, asteroids and comets. But what would happen if they stopped playing nice with each other and ended up colliding? Specifically, what would happen if a comet hit the Earth? Well, that … Continue reading The End of the World? Continue reading

Posted in Small SS Objects, Terrestrials | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The End of the World?

Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed

Last week, a group of astronomers announced in Nature Astronomy that they had discovered the furthest star ever seen: a blue supergiant named Icarus that shone nearly 10 billion years ago, and located more than halfway across the universe. The astronomers were able to do this with the Hubble, and gravitational lensing. Per the lead author of … Continue reading Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed

Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed

Last week, a group of astronomers announced in Nature Astronomy that they had discovered the furthest star ever seen: a blue supergiant named Icarus that shone nearly 10 billion years ago, and located more than halfway across the universe. The astronomers were able to do this with the Hubble, and gravitational lensing. Per the lead author of … Continue reading Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed

Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons

We all are familiar with the Galilean Moons; those 4 largest moons orbiting Jupiter which Galileo discovered with his telescope, and which were subsequently named after his lovers. Three of these moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede) have created auroral bursts in Jupiter’s atmosphere, but Callisto had only yielded two potential footprints … until last month! We know how … Continue reading Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons

Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons

We all are familiar with the Galilean Moons; those 4 largest moons orbiting Jupiter which Galileo discovered with his telescope, and which were subsequently named after his lovers. Three of these moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede) have created auroral bursts in Jupiter’s atmosphere, but Callisto had only yielded two potential footprints … until last month! We know how … Continue reading Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Aurora Footprint of Jupiter’s Moons