Comet Lovejoy does the polar plunge

Lots of towns hold a polar plunge fundraising event in the winter. Duluth, Minnesota's version, where participants jump in Lake Superior every February, might just be the coldest. Comet Lovejoy's a season behind, but sure ...

Giant telescope takes close look at Jupiter's moon Io

With the first detailed observations through imaging interferometry of a lava lake on a moon of Jupiter, the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory places itself as the forerunner of the next generation of Extremely Large ...

Astronomers probe inner region of young star and its planets

Astronomers have probed deeper than before into a planetary system 130 light-years from Earth. The observations mark the first results of a new exoplanet survey called LEECH (LBT Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt), and are published ...

Monster black hole discovered at cosmic dawn

Scientists have discovered the brightest quasar in the early universe, powered by the most massive black hole yet known at that time. The international team led by astronomers from Peking University in China and from the ...

Telescope to seek dust where other Earths may lie

The NASA-funded Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI, has completed its first study of dust in the "habitable zone" around a star, opening a new door to finding planets like Earth. Dust is a natural byproduct ...

Huge asteroid to whip past Earth on Monday

An asteroid up to 1,800 feet (550 meters) across is headed Earth's way. But don't worry: It will miss us by 745,000 miles, about three times the distance between Earth and the moon.

How to find and make the most of comet Lovejoy

Comet Q2 Lovejoy passed closest to Earth on January 7th and has been putting on a great show this past week. Glowing at magnitude +4 with a bluish coma nearly as big as the Full Moon, the comet's easy to see with the naked ...

European astronomers spot faint asteroid

European experts have spotted one of the faintest asteroids ever found – a chunk of space rock thought to be about 100 m in diameter beyond the orbit of Mars.

Why tool-wielding crows are left- or right-beaked

New Caledonian crows—well known for their impressive stick-wielding abilities—show preferences when it comes to holding their tools on the left or the right sides of their beaks, in much the same way that people are left- ...

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