Shannon Hall
New Image Captures one of the Brightest Volcanoes Ever Seen in the Solar System
Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io — with over 400 active volcanoes, extensive lava flows and floodplains of liquid rock — is…
Hubble Spots Farthest Lensing Galaxy Yet
Sometimes there’s a chance alignment — faraway in the universe, where objects are separated by unimaginable distances measured in billions of…
Surprise! Classical Novae Produce Gamma Rays
In a classical nova, a white dwarf siphons material off a companion star, building up a layer on its surface…
Numerous Jets Spied with New Sky Survey
Jets — narrow beams of matter spat out at a high speed — typically accompany the most enigmatic astronomical objects.…
Early Tidal and Rotational Forces Helped Shape Moon
The shape of the moon deviates from a simple sphere in a way that scientists have struggled to explain. But…
Mysterious Molecules in Space Named?
It’s a well-kept secret that the vacuum of space is not — technically speaking — a vacuum. Strong winds generated…
ALMA Observes Binary Star System with Wacky Disks
When it comes to exoplanets, we’ve discovered an array of extremes — alien worlds that seem more like science fiction…
GAIA is “Go” for Science After a few Minor Hiccups
In astronomy we throw around the term "light-year" seemingly as fast as light itself travels. And yet actually measuring this…
X-ray Glow: Evidence of a Local Hot Bubble Carved by a Supernova
I spent this past weekend backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park, where although the snow-swept peaks and the dangerously close…
The Little Rover that Could: Opportunity Reaches Odometer Milestone
NASA’s Opportunity mars rover now holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 25 miles of driving. Given that the…