Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2004

Grisly Sacrifices Found in Pyramid of the Moon

New discoveries at an ancient burial site near Mexico City suggest grisly sacrifices and a materialistic society, scientists said Thursday. Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Moon was built by an unknown group of people about 2,000 years ago. The surrounding ruins, a master-planned metropolis sprawling over 8 square miles, is thought...

Nov 30, 2007

Mars Clouds Drier Than Thought

Clouds over Mars contain less water than previously thought, according to new research using simulated clouds in a lab here on Earth. The clouds under study are made of water ice, like some clouds on Earth, said Tony Colaprete of NASA's Ames Research Center. However, they are forming at very...

Nov 30, 2007

International Robotic Rivalry in Space

GOLDEN, Colorado — It has to be some sort of record. At no time over the five decades of sending robot craft into the heavens have so many spacecraft been on duty at such a variety of far-flung destinations or en route to their targets. Ballistic buckshot of science gear...

Nov 30, 2007

Jets Spiral in 'Reverse Whirlpool' from Star

Astronomers have observed for the first time a jet of matter spiraling outward from an infant star, as if a lengthy strand of curly pasta. The enormous jet, which shoots out in two directions, is rocketing material away from the so-called protostar and into interstellar space at more than supersonic...

Aug 31, 2007

Search is on for Hot Young Stars

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. On average, at least three gamma-ray bursts occur somewhere in the heavens each day. Shri Kulkarni has trained his eyes up to these new wonders with his latest research in this emerging field. Kulkarni’s...

Jan 31, 2008

Titan Has More Oil Than Earth

Saturn's smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky on the miserable moon, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. This much...

Jan 31, 2008

Mysterious Haze Found on Venus

Bright hazes that mysteriously appear and then disappear on Venus in a matter of days have revealed a new dynamic feature of the planet?s cloudy atmosphere that is unlike anything on Earth. The European Space Agency's Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) captured a series of images showing the development of a...

Jan 31, 2008

How Groundwater Shaped Mars

Crusty, dusty and rusty describes the Mars of today. Surface features of the Red Planet, however, hint at a watery past where torrents of groundwater carved out deep canyons, formed sweeping fans of sediment and cemented together huge fault lines. Groundwater probably played a major role in shaping many of...

Dec 31, 2007

Young Planet Orbits Sun-Like Star

Astronomers say they have discovered the youngest planet to date circling a sun-like star, a discovery that will be a boon to the field of planet-formation theory. The extrasolar planet is an estimated 8 million to 10 million years old, a mere toddler compared to Earth, which is 4.5 billion...

Dec 31, 2007

Baby Versions of Milky Way Spotted

Astronomers have spotted small galaxies near the beginning of time that resemble ancestors of our own galactic home. The tiny galaxies are about one-tenth to one-twentieth the size of the Milky Way and have 40 times fewer stars. Light from the ancient clusters was emitted about 2 billion years after...

Dec 31, 2007

There's Got to Be an Invisible Sky

A new book brings cosmic objects close enough to touch — at least for the fingers of the blind. NASA this week debuted a new book that presents images from its Great Observatories in a new format that allows visually impaired people to experience them. About 10 million visually impaired...

Jun 30, 2009

Tough Microbe Has The Right Stuff for Mars

Biologists have found microbes that live in the hottest, coldest, driest and most unpleasant places on Earth. Many of these bugs don't adapt well to new surroundings, but one microbe is remarkable for withstanding a wide range of conditions. This quality might make this unique organism suitable for adapting to...

Jun 30, 2009

Comet Killed Ice Age Beasts

Space rocks that slammed into the glaciers of eastern Canada some 12,900 years ago likely helped wipe out mega-animals like woolly mammoths and possibly the continent's first human inhabitants called the Clovis people, according to a new study that adds to evidence that a trio of factors were involved. The...

Jun 30, 2009

Far-Out Photo: Sunrise in Space

Astronauts orbiting Earth see a lot more sunrises and sunsets that those of us stranded on the surface. They circle the planet every 90 minutes, and the sun just keeps coming. A new picture of a sunrise from space was taken with a handheld camera by astronauts Friday on the...

Dec 31, 2008

Stand Down: Black Holes Won't Destroy Earth

The world's largest, most powerful particle smasher probably won't generate any planet-gobbling black holes, according to a new analysis. That's contrary to suggestions in a news article Wednesday that invoked a possible doomsday scenario and said black holes created by the collider could stick around longer than predicted. The Large...