Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the vast stellar nursery called the Orion Nebula, astronomers searched for small, faint bodies. What they found was the largest population yet of brown dwarfs—objects ...
Astronomy
Jan 11, 2018
0
47
Everyone wants to go to Mars, or so it seems.
Earth Sciences
Dec 28, 2017
162
94
In the collective imagination, planets of a solar system all circle in the equatorial plane of their star. The star also spins, and its spin axis is aligned with the spin axes of the planetary orbits, giving the impression ...
Astronomy
Dec 18, 2017
7
62
How long might a rocky, Mars-like planet be habitable if it were orbiting a red dwarf star? It's a complex question but one that NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission can help answer.
Astronomy
Dec 13, 2017
1
83
The search for life beyond Earth is riding a surge of creativity and innovation. Following a gold rush of exoplanet discovery over the past two decades, it is time to tackle the next step: determining which of the known exoplanets ...
Astronomy
Dec 13, 2017
0
40
Since astronomers first measured the size of an extrasolar planet seventeen years ago, they have struggled to answer the question: how did the largest planets get to be so large? Thanks to the recent discovery of twin planets ...
Astronomy
Nov 27, 2017
11
445
A team working with ESO's High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile has found that the red dwarf star Ross 128 is orbited by a low-mass exoplanet every 9.9 days. This Earth-sized ...
Astronomy
Nov 15, 2017
36
880
In sunglasses and jumpsuits, a crew of European test astronauts is laying the groundwork for a Mars simulation in the barren expanse of the Omani desert, a terrestrial mission intended to pave the way to the red planet.
Space Exploration
Oct 30, 2017
1
133
If there are habitable conditions on Mars, they may be underground. Scientists from around the world are now testing how to live on other planets by venturing a kilometre beneath the surface in a UK mine. ESA astronaut Matthias ...
Space Exploration
Oct 20, 2017
1
76
When it lands on Mars in November of 2018, NASA's InSight lander will be carrying several science instruments—along with hundreds of thousands of names from members of the public.
Space Exploration
Oct 4, 2017
0
10
