Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 1, 2023

NASA finds organic compounds seeping up from hidden ocean on Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede

NASA's Juno spacecraft has detected salts and organic compounds on the surface of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. The detection was made during a June 2021 flyby in which Juno analyzed Ganymede using its Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer, an instrument designed to study the chemistry and interactions within Jupiter's...

Jan 7, 2024

Space photo of the week: An eerie look at Io, the most volcanic world in the solar system

What it is: Io, a moon of Jupiter and the solar system's most volcanic world When it was taken: Dec. 30, 2023 Why it's so special: NASA's Juno spacecraft has captured the closest views of Io since NASA's Galileo spacecraft imaged the volcanic world in 2001. Passing within just 930...

Mar 4, 2024

Jupiter's moon Europa lacks oxygen, making it less hospitable for sustaining life

Europa, Jupiter's ice-cloaked ocean moon, contains far less oxygen than previously thought, making it a poor candidate for sustaining alien life. Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing data compiled from NASA's Juno mission. Calculations from a 2022 flyby of the Jovian moon revealed that Europa's frozen surface only produces...

Jul 28, 2011

How to Keep Lonely Exoplanets Snug: Just Add Dark Matter

Dark matter is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when considering how life can be supported on another planet, but to Dan Hooper and Jason Steffen of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics, dark matter could be a contributing factor in allowing life to evolve and survive...

Aug 20, 2012

Alien Planet Haul: NASA Space Telescope Spots 41 New Exoplanets

Astronomers have discovered 41 new alien planets in one sweep by analyzing how each world gravitationally yanks on its neighbors. The newly confirmed exoplanets were spotted by NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope, which has detected more than 2,300 potential alien worlds since its March 2009 launch. The new finds, announced...

Nov 9, 2012

Good Night, Exoplanet: Baby Name Book to Raise Science Funds

When new planets are discovered beyond the solar system, they often get boring designations such as HD 85512b or Gliese 667Cc. A startup hoping to liven up these names has launched a project to create a Baby Planet Name Book full of more colorful suggestions. The planet name project is...

Dec 6, 2012

Exoplanet Catalog Reveals 7 Possibly Habitable Worlds

A new catalog aims to list all the known planets in the galaxy that could potentially be habitable to life. The count is at seven so far, with many more to come, researchers said. The online listing, called the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, celebrated its first anniversary today (Dec. 5). When...

Jan 6, 2013

Double-Star Systems Can Be Dangerous for Exoplanets

Alien planets born in widely separated two-star systems face a grave danger of being booted into interstellar space, a new study suggests. Exoplanets circling a star with a far-flung stellar companion — worlds that are part of wide binary systems — are susceptible to violent and dramatic orbital disruptions, including...

Jan 25, 2013

Strange Exoplanet's 'Backwards' Orbit Explained by Extra Star, Planet

A perplexing alien planet locked in a backwards orbit around its parent star may finally be explained by the discovery of an extra planet and star near the oddball planetary system, scientists say. The discovery is centered on the so-called backwards planet HAT-P-7b, which orbits a star 1,040 light-years from...

Feb 5, 2013

Scientists Unveiling Exoplanet Discovery Wednesday: How to Watch Live

Scientists with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) will unveil the latest discovery in the search for Earth-like planet outside our own solar system on Wednesday (Feb. 6), and you can watch the announcement live online. A press conference at the center will begin at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT)...

Feb 11, 2013

Are You There, E.T.? SETI Finds No Alien Signals from Exoplanets

Intelligent alien life is likely relatively rare throughout our Milky Way galaxy, with fewer than one in a million solar systems harboring civilizations advanced enough to send out radio signals, a new study reports. A research team that includes famed alien hunter Jill Tarter — the model for astronomer Ellie...

Feb 20, 2013

Found! Tiny Moon-Size Alien World Is the Smallest Exoplanet

The discovery of a strange new world about the size of Earth's moon has shattered the record for the smallest known alien planet, scientists say. The newfound alien planet Kepler-37b is the first exoplanet discovered to be smaller than Mercury. It whips around its parent star every 13 days and...

May 13, 2013

Exoplanet View from its Moon | Space Wallpaper

This beautiful space wallpaper is an artist’s impression of an exoplanet seen from its moon. The diversity of exoplanets is large — more than 800 planets outside the Solar System have been found to date, with thousands more waiting to be confirmed. Detection methods in this field are steadily and...

Nov 20, 2013

Pink Exoplanet Discovery | Space Wallpaper

Glowing a dark magenta, the newly discovered exoplanet GJ 504b, as seen in this space wallpaper, weighs in with about four times Jupiter's mass, making it the lowest-mass planet ever directly imaged around a star like the sun. This image was released Aug. 5, 2013. Wallpapers Standard 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024...

Jan 7, 2014

New Exoplanet Imager Snaps 1st Photos of Alien Worlds

WASHINGTON — Astronomers have detected nearly 1,000 planets outside of our own solar system, but little is known about their composition. Now, the Gemini Observatory's Planet Imager enables scientists to image exoplanets directly. Current planet-imaging systems are only able to see gas giants about three or more times the size...