Amino acetonitrile, an important ingredient in life as we know it, has been found in space.
Astronomy news // 19 March, 2008 07:03:51
A team of astronomers led by Mark Swain of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another star. The breakthrough, made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our solar system.
Astronomy news // 18 March, 2008 08:11:00
Spring is aurora season. For reasons not fully understood by scientists, the weeks around the vernal equinox are prone to Northern Lights. Canadians walking their dogs after dinner, Scandinavians popping out to the sauna, Alaskan Huskies on the Iditarod trail—all they have to do is look up and behold, green curtains of light dancing across the night sky.
Astronomy news // 18 March, 2008 07:03:43
Saturn: jewel of the solar system, taker of breaths, ringed beauty. Even veteran astronomers can't help but gasp when they see her through a small telescope.
Astronomy news // 17 March, 2008 07:03:12
Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered large amounts of simple organic gases and water vapor in a possible planet-forming region around an infant star, along with evidence that these molecules were created there. They've also found water in the same zone around two other young stars.
Astronomy news // 11 March, 2008 07:03:33
A team of scientists and engineers led by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will study how to design a telescope on the Moon for peering into the last unexplored epoch in the Universe's history. NASA has announced that it will sponsor a series of studies focusing on next-generation space missions for astronomy.
Astronomy news // 05 March, 2008 04:03:47
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.
Astronomy news // 19 February, 2008 09:02:58
Tonight, Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.
Astronomy news // 18 February, 2008 07:02:56
Astronomers have discovered that terrestrial planets might form around many, if not most, of the nearby sun-like stars in our galaxy. These new results suggest that worlds with potential for life might be more common than we thought.
Astronomy news // 14 February, 2008 08:02:02
A team of international astronomers reports in the Feb. 15 issue of Science the discovery of a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away containing scaled-down versions of Jupiter and Saturn. Their findings suggest that our galaxy could conceivably contain many star systems similar to our own. The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored the research.
