Massive Gas Halos Surround Most Galaxies
ESA's XMM-Newton observatory has turned up hot gaseous halos around several spiral galaxies. These ghostly veils have been seen surrounding…
Buffy the Kuiper Belt Object
An international team of astronomers have discovered a new large object in the Kuiper Belt; a region of the Solar…
Strange Bulge in Saturn’s Rings
NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this surprising photograph of Saturn's rings precisely edge-on. What's unusual is the strange bulge right at…
Plasma Engine Could Open Up Space Exploration
The European Space Agency is developing a new thruster based on the same physics that power the northern and southern…
Spitzer Finds More than 100 New Star Clusters
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found more than 100 new star clusters hidden within the dusty areas of our own…
Sirius’ White Dwarf Companion Weighed by Hubble
The brightest star in the nighttime sky is Sirius, aka the Dog Star. But did you know it has a…
Thousands of Auroras on Mars
On Earth we have the Northern and Southern Lights, and there's a similar phenomenon on Mars too. But instead of…
What’s Up This Week – December 12 – December 18, 2005
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It's "mid-time of night and the stars in their orbits shone pale through the light of the…
Detailed Dark Matter Maps
Even through scientists have no idea what dark matter really is, they're able to see its effect on regular matter,…
Dione and Rhea in the Same Frame
Two of Saturn's moons, Rhea and Dione posed for Cassini in this photograph. The lower moon is Dione, which has…