NGC 6357: A cosmic ‘winter’ wonderland
Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, ... The post NGC 6357: A cosmic ‘winter’ wonderland appeared first on RocketSTEM.
View ArticleCold brown dwarfs blur line between stars and planets
In 2011, astronomers on the hunt for the coldest star-like celestial bodies discovered a new class of such objects using NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope. But until...
View ArticleRadio bursts discovered from beyond our galaxy
Astronomers, including a team member from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have detected the first population of radio bursts known to originate from galaxies beyond our own Milky...
View ArticlePlanets rich in carbon may be waterless worlds
Planets rich in carbon, including so-called diamond planets, may lack oceans, according to NASA-funded theoretical research. Our sun is a carbon-poor star, and as result, our planet Earth is made up...
View Article‘Witch head’ brews baby stars
A witch appears to be screaming out into space in this image from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, named after its resemblance to...
View ArticleGhostly specter haunts ‘coldest place in universe’
At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang nebula is the coldest known object in the universe — colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of the Big Bang,...
View ArticleLiftoff for ESA’s billion-star surveyor
ESA’s Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of 1% of the total population of roughly 100 billion stars, it...
View ArticleWISE discovers black hole duo merging together
Two black holes are entwined in a gravitational tango in this artist’s conception. Supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies are thought to form through the merging of smaller, yet still...
View ArticleSpitzer: Not a politician; Not a carbonated beverage
Most blog readers are no doubt familiar with the world of space telescopes. But have you ever gone to your friends and asked them what comes to mind when they hear the word “Spitzer?” Chances are, they...
View ArticleHow engineers revamped Spitzer to probe exoplanets
Passing its 10th anniversary, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has evolved into a premier observatory for an endeavor not envisioned in its original design: the study of worlds around other stars, called...
View ArticleThe Spitzer Space Telescope: 10 years of viewing the Universe’s dark side
More than ten years have now passed since NASA’s fourth “Great Observatory” – the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRFT) – was boosted into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., atop a...
View ArticleMeet NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – Launch Date: 2018
In a 1.3 million cubic-foot cleanroom at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md., 18 gold-coated primary mirror segments await installation on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Those...
View ArticleScientists detect gravitational waves from birth of the Universe
Astronomers are announcing today that they have acquired the first direct evidence that gravitational waves rippled through our infant universe during an explosive period of growth called inflation....
View ArticleSpace sunflower may help telescopes snap pictures of planets
A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars. The prototype deployable structure, called a starshade, is being...
View ArticleKepler finds nearest twin to Earth yet
Using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the “habitable zone” — the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on...
View ArticleFirst exomoon possibly found
Titan, Europa, Io and Phobos are just a few members of our solar system’s pantheon of moons. Are there are other moons out there, orbiting planets beyond our sun? NASA-funded researchers have spotted...
View ArticleColdest brown dwarf found nearby
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest brown dwarf known – a dim, star-like body that surprisingly is as frosty as...
View ArticleAstronomers find a new type of planet: The ‘mega-Earth’
Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of planet – a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn’t form because anything so hefty...
View ArticleM16: The Eagle Nebula
The Eagle Nebula is located in the constellation Serpens and is one of the most iconic star forming regions in our galaxy. The nebula is also known as Messier 16 or M16 in the catalog of celestial...
View ArticleCassiopeia: The Queen
Cassiopeia is a prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere which is very easily recognised as a W or M in the night skies. In most of Continental America and all of Europe it is visible year...
View ArticleAn explosive quartet: Supernova ‘multiplied’ by galaxy
Whilst looking closely at a massive elliptical galaxy and its associated galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 — whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us — astronomers have spotted a strange and rare...
View ArticleA new look in 3D at the Pillars of Creation
New study suggests that iconic structures more aptly named the Pillars of Destruction The original Hubble Space Telescope image of the famous Pillars of Creation was taken two decades ago and...
View ArticleOmega Centauri
This issue it was a coin toss for the spotlight object between The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and Omega Centauri. Omega Centauri won as it is the largest by far of the Globular Clusters and it...
View ArticleNGC 1333: Stellar sparklers that last
While fireworks only last a short time here on Earth, a bundle of cosmic sparklers in a nearby cluster of stars will be going off for a very long time. NGC 1333 is a star cluster populated with many...
View ArticlePlanets may rejuvenate around dead stars
For a planet, this would be like a day at the spa. After years of growing old, a massive planet could, in theory, brighten up with a radiant, youthful glow. Rejuvenated planets, as they are nicknamed,...
View ArticleKepler has found Earth’s older, larger cousin
Some of the very fundamental questions about our existence – why we are here, what is out there, if we will ever find another planet similar enough to ours to live on – have come another step closer to...
View ArticleNearest star has planet in habitable zone
Earth-mass world spotted in orbit around Proxima Centauri Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima...
View ArticleSee the first-ever image of a black hole
Until now, everything we’ve known about black holes — celestial objects with intense gravitation — has been from theories and illustrations. Now, thanks to an international collaboration called the...
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Three reasons why black holes are the scariest things in the Universe
Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but nothing in the Universe is scarier than a black hole. Black holes – regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can...
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James Webb Space Telescope: How to send a giant telescope to space – and why
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to head to space on Dec. 22, 2021. With it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to form in the universe, will search for Earthlike atmospheres around...
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