Using data from the retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)—a joint project of NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR—Southwest Research Institute scientists have discovered, for the first time, ...
Astrobiology
Feb 12, 2024
1
5485
A new study using the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has pieced together the first detailed, wide-area map of water distribution on the moon. SOFIA was a joint project of NASA and the ...
Space Exploration
Mar 27, 2023
0
132
Gas clouds in the Cygnus X Region, a region where stars form, are composed of a dense core of molecular hydrogen (H2) and an atomic shell. These ensembles of clouds interact with each other dynamically in order to quickly ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2023
0
233
In the absence of direct observations of extraterrestrial life, scientists often focus on searching for biosignatures, chemical by-products of life, that can be detected with remote sensing. Although Mars has received the ...
Astrobiology
Dec 2, 2022
1
108
Sofia Bergman, Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) and Umeå University, will defend her doctoral thesis on low-energy ions around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 26 November. Observing low energy ions is notoriously ...
Astronomy
Nov 24, 2021
0
59
In the southern sky, situated about 4,300 light years from Earth, lies RCW 120, an enormous glowing cloud of gas and dust. This cloud, known as an emission nebula, is formed of ionized gases and emits light at various wavelengths. ...
Astronomy
Apr 13, 2021
0
417
Messier objects are some of the most imaged objects in the universe. In part that's because many of them are so visibly appealing. A good example of that is the Whirlpool galaxy, M51, which recently received an even more ...
Astronomy
Jan 19, 2021
0
14
Black holes are thought to gobble up so much surrounding material that they put an end to the life of their host galaxy. In that process they create a highly energetic object called a quasar which was previously thought to ...
Astronomy
Nov 27, 2020
31
6284
As Carl Sagan famously said, "We're made of star stuff"—but how do stars distribute their essential "stuff" for life into space? NASA's telescope on an airplane, SOFIA, is finding some answers by watching pulsating stars ...
Astronomy
Aug 6, 2020
0
8
Observations from Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) indicate that the magnetic field near our galaxy's core is strong enough to control the material moving around the black hole, even in the presence ...
Astronomy
Jun 2, 2020
22
3608
