Science News

A recent study proposes the galaxy is crowded with nomad planets adrift in space. If this is the case, nomad planets may play a dynamic role in the universe.

On 1994 July 16-22, over twenty fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (image below) collided with the planet Jupiter.

Many of us remember playing pinball at the local arcade while growing up; it turns out that some stars like it as well.

There are several videos circulating showing a comparison of the largest stars. I like these kind of things, and I wanted to try one myself. Probably because I also watched "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan as a kid.

Signs of a shock wave in front of an extrasolar planet may be the result of a magnetic field. Earth's magnetic field protects the planet from charged particles, a factor that aided the emergence of life. Finding signs of magnetic fields may help scientists identify exoplanets with conditions suited for life.

SPACE exploration may have a new direction. In the 1960s, humans did the exploring but since the last moon landing in 1972, NASA's only explorers beyond low Earth orbit have been semi-autonomous robots. Now the agency is pondering a third approach, sending astronauts who would remain in orbit around alien worlds and explore via robotic rovers.

Using classical physics, the laws of thermodynamics and mechanics, Hofmeister, with assistance from Criss, presents an accretion model that assumes a three-dimensional (3-D) gas cloud. This pre-solar nebula collapses and forms the Sun and planets at essentially the same time, with the planets contracting toward the Sun.

NASA's Dawn probe, now orbiting Vesta in the asteroid belt, has found some surprising things on the giant asteroid--things that have prompted one researcher to declare Vesta "the smallest terrestrial planet."

Astronomy | Jupiter | The Pic du Midi observatory in France is renowned for its very stable atmospheric conditions, allowing high resolution pictures to be taken.