After decades of peering into the cosmos, the Hubble Space Telescope is experiencing a major computer issue and is running in safe mode.
Hubble Telescope to Search For New Kuiper Belt Objects
Launched in early 2006, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with dwarf planet Pluto in a little over one year. The observatory will fly within 6,200 miles of Pluto, gathering data on the dwarf planet and its companion…
Hubble Space Telescope: Deep Field Image Brightened With Ultraviolet Light
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) is one of the most iconic and impressive images ever taken of deep space. The image, taken of a tiny section of the southern sky, shows thousands of galaxies, putting the vastness of space…
Hubble Spots Cloudy Atmospheres on Two Nearby Exoplanets
On the eve of a new year, astronomers have just revealed that two nearby exoplanets are covered in an atmosphere thick with clouds. Two new papers, both to be published in the journal Nature, examine the planets GJ 436b and…
Water Vapor Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Europa
New research published this week in the journal Science Express has revealed that there is water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter‘s moon Europa. The vapor was detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope over the moon’s south pole. Though the…
Ultra Bright Black Hole Discovered
An ultraluminous black hole that exists in the neighboring Pinwheel Galaxy has been discovered by astronomers, which shines twice as bright as previously thought possible. The ultra-bright object, which exists in a system called ULX-1, that resides about 22 million…
Three Ancient Galaxies Spotted Merging
Astronomers this week revealed that they have spotted three ancient galaxies that appear to be merging. The observations, which were made using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) are recorded in a paper to…
Hubble Finds Young Milky Way-Like Galaxies
Astronomers this week detailed findings showing how our own galaxy, the Milky Way, may have looked when it was first forming. The research, published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, shows that the Milky Way was likely once a blue-hued, gas-filled,…
Hubble Telescope Spots Six-Tailed Asteroid
Astronomers today announced that an asteroid with six “comet-like” tails has been discovered. The asteroid, currently named P/2013 P5, was imaged twice in September by the Hubble Space Telescope. Its strange tails were seen changing position over the course of…
Neptune’s 14th Moon Was Discovered on July 1st
Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun at nearly 2.8 million miles, or 30 times as far away as earth, and makes a rotation around the sun every 165 years. It was the first planet to be located through…