Space & Physics

Twin Stars Are Closer to Earth Than Thought

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:49:18 GMT

Imagine if you could see a car’s headlights from more than 20 miles away. Those must be some headlights! It might even throw your whole understanding of headlights into question – how could there be any this bright? But then, you realize that the car wasn’t 20 miles away, but just 2; instantly, things make sense again. This is how scientists solved an astronomical mystery involving not headlights, but a double star system named SS Cygni. It’s a kind of system known as a dwarf nova, which

How 3D Printers Could Feed Astronauts and Mine Asteroids

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:25:57 GMT

If you judged by the recent buzz in the media world, you might think that 3D printers are good for one thing only: creating untraceable guns, on demand, in the privacy of your home. What makes the 3D printer such an intriguing technology, though, is the extremely broad nature of their applications. They can be used to print replacement auto parts (or maybe, someday, entire vehicles). They are great for cranking out rapid prototypes of new kinds of objects--anything from sculptures to false teeth

Citizen Science Ventures Into Space

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:04:38 GMT

by Kiki Sanford Inside a nondescript office building in Mountain View, California, a gathering took place recently that might have been a glimpse into the future. At first, the people, like the building, didn’t offer many hints of what that future might look like. They came from all walks of life: young, old, students, businesspeople, men and women. Then they started talking. Rockets, microgravity, space planes, moon bases, gas stations in orbit – if you didn’t know better, you

Fierce Winds Seen in Neptune and Uranus Jet Stream

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:05:06 GMT

In news that’s sure to delight young boys everywhere, scientists now have a better grasp on the impressive winds of Uranus. Neptune too. In a Nature study published today astronomers find that the most obvious weather patterns on the two ice giants are relatively shallow, only about 1,100 kilometers (683 miles) deep at most. The finding helps researchers understand the internal dynamics on Uranus, Neptune and similar exoplanets. The two farthest planets from our sun might seem familiar to

Hubble Finds Hunks of Planet Orbiting Dead Stars

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:35:39 GMT

Pollution is a growing concern here on Earth, but in a nearby star cluster pollution is actually proving pretty useful. Astronomers analyzing Hubble data have found that a pair of white dwarfs — the tiny, final form most of the universe’s stars will assume — show signs of “pollution” from asteroid and planet-like debris falling upon them. The discovery not only underscores just how widespread rocky worlds are, but also opens the way to a new way of studying planet formation. The two white

Physicists Show Time Flows Asymmetrically at the Electron Level

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:00:00 GMT

Direct evidence of time reversal had been considered impossible — until now.

Your Biggest Cosmic Questions, Answered (Part 1)

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:36:57 GMT

Fifteen years ago, a small cabal of researchers took some of the most firmly held notions about how the universe works and turned them on their head. Until then, everyone was sure that the expanding universe was born in an explosive Big Bang and had been slowing down ever since, dragged by the gravitational pull of untold billions of galaxies. But in fact the expansion is speeding up. Everyone was sure that matter was what dominated the overall behavior of the universe. But in fact it seems that

Watch This: Cassini Captures Saturn's Wild Polar Hurricane

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:54:59 GMT

The Cassini spacecraft has provided NASA with the first visible-light glimpse of a massive weather system circling Saturn’s north pole. The spinning storm is 20 times larger than the average hurricane on Earth. Cassini detected a vortex-like weather phenomenon inside a mysterious, hexagonally shaped jet stream near Saturn’s north pole shortly after arriving at the planet in 2004, but Saturn’s winter prevented any visible light viewing. Since its equinox in 2009, however, Saturn has been r

A Meteorite Curator Coaxes Secrets from Martian Rock

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Carl Agee finds ways to get his hands on samples of Earth's hellish interior and the exotic surfaces of other worlds.

Best Glimpse Yet of Comet ISON Provided by Hubble Telescope

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:57:58 GMT

Astronomers are expecting a lot out of Comet ISON. Due to pass incredibly close to the sun on November 28 of this year (700,000 miles from the star's surface), the frozen rock will make for a stunning sight, potentially outshining even the full moon. A Hubble Space Telescope photo released yesterday provides the clearest view of the comet so far and suggests a few surprises. This image of ISON was snapped while the comet was about 286 million miles from the sun (slightly closer than Jupit

May Sky: Clock of the Gods

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Saturn, visible all night this month, is among the most beautiful of planets. But ancient observers saw it as a symbol of mortality.

Update: The Battle Over Who Gets to Name Planets

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:13:27 GMT

Last Thursday, a team of scientists working with NASA's Kepler space telescope described three intriguing new planets circling distant stars. They are just slightly larger than Earth and orbit in the "habitable zone" where temperatures could be right for liquid water and for life. The names of these amazing worlds? Kepler 62f, Kepler 62e, and Kepler 69c. Not to be confused with other much-celebrated recent discoveries like Kepler 64b, Kepler 22b, or Gliese 581g. Alan Stern, a former NASA

Watch This: Wringing out a Wet Washcloth in Zero Gravity

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:00:27 GMT

What happens when you take a soaking wet washcloth in zero gravity and try to squeeze out all the water? Probably not what you'd expect. Hint: it has to do with surface tension. And it's totally trippy. To find out for sure, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield conducts an experiment aboard the International Space Station. The process of getting the washcloth wet is entertaining enough, but the actual outcome is a bizarro sight to see. http://youtu.be/o8TssbmY-GM Video courtesy of th

Potentially Habitable Exoplanets Found Orbiting Nearby Star

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:26:57 GMT

Exoplanets have found a permanent place in the public imagination, probably because of the possibility of finding an Earth twin: a planet where life as we know it (either extraterrestrial or, eventually, our own) could survive. While we’re not there, yet, a NASA press conference today suggests we’ve come closer to this goal: the first known planets that could plausibly support life. A nearby star named Kepler-62 turns out to harbor five worlds, two of which are the smallest exoplanets kno

Want to Have a Planet Named After You?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:32:39 GMT

Or perhaps you would like to name it "Tatooine" or "Wrigley's Pleasure Planet"? If so, you are in luck--all you need to pay a small fee and keep voting. A startup company called Uwingu is holding a "people's choice contest" to pick a name for the nearest planet outside our solar system. It orbits Alpha Centauri B, an orange star located just 4.3 light years from Earth, and currently has the ungainly name Alpha Centauri Bb. For $4.99 you can propose a name of your own, and for $0.99 you can vote

What Does Dark Energy Mean for the Fate of the Universe?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:00:00 GMT

A mysterious dark energy dating back to the dawn of the universe could be poised to rip it apart.

What Science Can Learn from "American Idol"

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:11:35 GMT

Although it's been fading steadily in the TV ratings (despite the best efforts of Nicki Minaj), American Idol remains a cultural touchstone, and for good reason. It casts a wide net in the search for quality; it creates intense performance pressure that weeds out weak performers; and it rewards contestants who are able to connect with a broad audience. For those reasons, I thought that American Idol would be the perfect template for a symposium on how to help scientists do a better job communica

Watch This: The Year's Best Views of Earth From Space

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:49:27 GMT

T minus two weeks until Earth Day! In case you need one more reason to be amazed by the blue marble we live on, check out these views of Earth taken from space over the course of the last year. The video illustrates just how dynamic our planet can be, no text or narration required. From melting glaciers to fluctuations in salinity, NASA uses colorful time-lapse imagery to show how much our world changes in a single revolution of the sun. In certain shots, the surface of the Earth seems to writh

The Explosive Truth About Cosmic Rays

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:52:17 GMT

What are those strange particles raining down on our planet from the depths of outer space? Physicists have been wrestling with that question for a century now, but the past couple months have seen remarkable progress toward a meaningful answer. It's taken so long because researchers have had to overcome a lot of obstacles along the way. Even the name of the thing they are studying is confusing. The particles are formally known as cosmic rays even though they are not rays at all, but frag

New Technique May Help Find Galaxy's 100 Billion Earth-Like Planets

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:57:15 GMT

Finding Earth-like planets is hard. For years, astronomers searching for worlds beyond our solar system found mostly gas giants like Jupiter, since those are bigger and easier to detect, even though smaller planets might actually be more common. But a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests a new way of looking for exoplanets may help find the estimated 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way. The new technique, which is actually just an improvement