[ad_1] This holiday season will be even brighter thanks to three astonishing astronomical events in December – including the best meteor shower of the year and a “double planet” sighting! Geminid meteor shower The Geminid meteor shower will peak on the evening of December 13-14. AccuWeather described it as the best meteor shower of the … Read more
[ad_1] Here is the Stingray Nebula seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996 (left) and 2016 (right). The Stingray is located towards the southern constellation of Ara. What makes it go away so fast? Image via NASA / ESA / B. Balick / M. Guerrero / G. Ramos-Larios. Twenty years is a failure on … Read more
[ad_1] The Islands of the Four Mountains, a small group of volcanic islands in the central Aleutian Islands, may actually be part of a single, undiscovered giant volcano in the same category as Yellowstone, new research shows. Oblique aerial photo of the volcanoes of the Four Mountain Islands, Alaska, taken in July 2014. In the … Read more
[ad_1] The most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way to date reveals the secrets of our galaxy. Looking deep into the anticenter – the opposite direction from the galactic center – helps astronomers piece together the Milky Way’s wild past. The European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, launched in 2013, has been working for years … Read more
[ad_1] Jupiter and Saturn will get close enough to form the first visible ‘double planet’ in nearly 800 yearsThe Washington Post Worlds line up for rare ‘Christmas star’: look for Jupiter, Saturn in the sky in DecembermsnNOW Later this month, look up to see Jupiter and Saturn appear closer than they have been since the … Read more
[ad_1] Search box title Astronomers caught a rare glance at a rapidly fading shroud of gas around an aging star. Archival data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the Hen 3-1357 nebula, nicknamed the Stingray Nebula, has been precipitously erased over the past two decades. To witness such a rapid rate of change in … Read more
[ad_1] The best available map of the Milky Way just got even better. The latest update to Gaia’s Space Observatory – which tracks over a billion stars across the galaxy – provides not only a static picture, but a picture of how the stars will move over time. The data will support studies ranging from … Read more
[ad_1] The ibis and kiwi are relentless diggers, probing the sand and soil for worms and other buried prey. Sandpipers can also be seen along the shore poking around at small creatures with their beaks. These birds have long been thought to use trial and error to find their prey. But the scientists then discovered … Read more
[ad_1] WASHINGTON – NASA has awarded prizes to four companies worth an exact $ 25,001 to obtain lunar samples, as part of the agency’s effort to set a precedent for the ownership and use of resources space. NASA announced on December 3 that it had awarded awards to ispace Europe, ispace Japan, Lunar Outpost and … Read more
[ad_1] The statistical chances of being another intelligent life in the universe are “exceptionally rare,” according to a new study from the University of Oxford. In the article, scientists at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford theorize that as life evolved on earth it depended in many cases on a series of unlikely “revolutionary … Read more