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Your online destination for news articles on planets, cosmology, NASA, space missions, and more. You’ll also find information on how to observe upcoming visible sky events such as meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, key planetary appearances, comets, and asteroids.
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These past two weeks saw the confirmation of the first Earth-sized exoplanets, the discovery of an active galaxy at the dawn of time, a young pulsar that's rotating slowly, beautiful images of the Saturn system, and more.
Published: December 30, 2011 |
 | An instrument aboard each spacecraft will measure the changes in their relative velocity precisely, and scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the Moon’s gravitational field.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 29, 2011 |
 | Scientists regularly make observations of saturnian satellite conjunctions to study the ever-changing orbits of the planet's moons.
By Cassini Imaging Central Lab, Boulder, Colorado, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Published: December 28, 2011 |
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A little-known meteor shower named the Quadrantids begins the new year’s skywatching activities, peaking January 4.
By Michael E. Bakich
Published: December 28, 2011 |
 | The galaxy GN-108036 is 12.9 billion light-years away and is producing stars at a high rate.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Published: December 27, 2011 |
 | After this comet survived a close encounter with the Sun, astronomers and imagers have snapped exceptional photos of the object.
By ESO, Garching, Germany
Published: December 27, 2011 |
 | The primary science objectives in this orbit are to learn about Vesta’s surface composition and to probe the interior structure of the asteroid by measuring its gravity.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Published: December 22, 2011 |
 | This discovery can help us learn about the future of planetary systems including ours.
By Iowa State University, Ames
Published: December 22, 2011 |
 | The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 21, 2011 |
 | Scientists discovered a young but slowly rotating pulsar in the remains of a supernova located in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
By Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Published: December 21, 2011 |
 | Research now indicates that our galaxy’s central bar developed from a massive rotating disk of stars.
By NOAO, Tucson, Arizona
Published: December 20, 2011 |
 | The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles.
By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 20, 2011 |
 | Named IGR J17091-3624 after the coordinates of its sky position, the binary system combines a normal star with a black hole that may weigh less than three times the Sun’s mass.
By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 19, 2011 |
 | Scientists conclude that small impacts might be more important in shaping the martian surface than previously thought.
By University of Arizona-Tucson
Published: December 19, 2011 |
 | The VLT survey telescope snaps wide-field view of NGC 253.
By ESO, Garching, Germany
Published: December 16, 2011 |
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Although astronomers expected it to die a fiery death, Comet Lovejoy passes within 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) of our star and re-emerges on the other side.
By Karri Ferron
Published: December 16, 2011 |
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This past seven days saw a comet survive a close encounter with the Sun, gamma rays detected around Tycho's supernova remnant, progress on understanding how early supermassive black holes formed, and more.
Published: December 16, 2011 |
 | The detection of the star gives astronomers another clue in understanding the origin of cosmic rays, subatomic particles that move through space at nearly the speed of light.
By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Published: December 16, 2011 |
 | The star has a mass about 15 times that of the Sun and is in the final stages of its formation.
By ESO, Garching, Germany
Published: December 15, 2011 |
 | Scientists’ early observations confirmed some assumptions about the physics of type Ia supernovae, but with this close-up look, they also found things nobody had dreamed.
By Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
Published: December 15, 2011 |
 | The Very Large Telescope spots cloud being disrupted by black hole.
By ESO, Garching, Germany
Published: December 14, 2011 |
 | Sloshing helps prevent cooling of the gas in the cluster’s core, setting limits on the growth of the giant elliptical galaxy and its supermassive black hole.
By Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Published: December 14, 2011 |
 | Scientists are in an excellent position to learn more about the secrets of Vesta’s surface and interior.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Published: December 13, 2011 |
 | Computer simulations show that thin streams of cold gas flow uncontrolled into the center of the first black holes, causing them to grow faster than anything else in the universe.
By Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Published: December 13, 2011 |
 | This also could be a major method of atmospheric loss for planets like Mars that are unprotected by a global magnetic field.
By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Published: December 12, 2011 |
 | Researchers have detected a rare type of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that have characteristics of both young and old AGNs.
By Centro de Astrofisicada Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Published: December 12, 2011 |
 | Scientists identified plentiful calcium and sulfur in the vein, in a ratio pointing to a hydrated calcium sulfate.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 9, 2011 |
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This past seven days saw an exoplanet discovered in its star's habitable zone, two record-breaking black holes, a look at asteroid Vesta's makeup, and more.
Published: December 9, 2011 |
 | The new map not only reveals the structure of the galactic magnetic field on large scales, but also small-scale features that provide information about turbulence in the galactic gas.
By Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany
Published: December 9, 2011 |
 | A young star in the Omega Nebula further supports the theory that a massive star contracts until it reaches a stable equilibrium at the end of its formation process.
By NOVA, Leiden
Published: December 8, 2011 |
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Although the Geminids battle a bright Moon this year, observers with clear skies should keep watch the night of December 13/14. And a second shower under moonless skies December 22/23 offers an additional treat this month.
By Richard Talcott
Published: December 8, 2011 |
 | In this new region, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our Sun has calmed, our solar system’s magnetic field piles up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 8, 2011 |
 | Astronomers now think that matter must be expelled from the SS Leporis system’s giant star as a stellar wind and captured by the vampire companion.
By ESO, Garching, Germany
Published: December 7, 2011 |
 | The distinct compositional variation at Vesta appears to derive from internal melting of the body shortly after formation, which separated Vesta into crust, mantle, and core.
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Published: December 7, 2011 |
 | Astronomers think this sun may have had a violent past and has been ejected from a double star system by its exploding companion.
By STScl, Baltimore, Maryland
Published: December 6, 2011 |
 | Scientists say it's too early to tell whether these two black holes are a rare find or just the tip of the iceberg.
By Gemini Observatory, Hilo, Hawaii
Published: December 6, 2011 |
 | The new world is 2.4 times the radius of Earth and orbits its home star in 290 days.
By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 5, 2011 |
 | This new bounty lends further support to the theory that planets grow from seed particles that accumulate gas and dust in a disk surrounding a newborn star.
By California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Published: December 5, 2011 |
 | The newfound galaxies are more than 60 times brighter in the infrared than they are at the reddest colors Hubble can detect.
By Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Published: December 2, 2011 |
 | Scientists are studying these supermassive stars and the shell surrounding them in order to learn how energy is transmitted in such extreme environments.
By University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Published: December 2, 2011 |
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These past two weeks saw the launch of a new martian rover, chronicles of a Saturn storm, a new lunar typography map, strange red galaxies, and more.
Published: December 2, 2011 |
 | Researchers have been scanning 25 nearby galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways in order to catch a few that are about to meet their end.
By Ohio State University, Columbus
Published: December 1, 2011 |
 | Astronomers have two theories, either the crash of debris into a neutron star or the merger of an exotic binary system, to explain the Christmas 2010 gamma-ray burst.
By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Published: December 1, 2011 |
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