Astronomy
If Pigs Could Fly – A Quick Guide to Solar Halos and Other Curiosities
Call it a porcine occultation. It took nearly a year but I finally got help from the ornamental pig in…
UPDATE: NASA Senior Review Declines WISE Spacecraft Data Usage Idea
CORRECTION: This story corrects a previously stated misinterpretation of the NASA Senior Report that the WISE spacecraft itself was denied an…
Spitzer Mission Extension Not Approved In NASA Senior Review; Officials Say Budget Rewrite Possible
"Constrained budget conditions" have prompted NASA to not approve a funding extension for the 11-year-old Spitzer Space Telescope after fiscal…
Kepler Space Telescope Gets A New Exoplanet-Hunting Mission
After several months with their telescope on the sidelines, the Kepler space telescope team has happy news to report: the…
Hubble Sees Jupiter’s Red Spot Shrink to Smallest Size Ever
Earlier this year we reported that amateur astronomers had observed and photographed the recent shrinking of Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot. Now,…
Direct Image of an Exoplanet 155 Light Years Away
Chalk up another benchmark in the fascinating and growing menagerie of extra-solar planets. This week, an international team of researchers…
14 Red Dwarf Stars to View with Backyard Telescopes
They’re nearby, they’re common and — at least in the latest exoplanet newsflashes hot off the cyber-press — they’re hot.…
Where Are The Aliens? How The ‘Great Filter’ Could Affect Tech Advances In Space
"One of the main things we’re focused on is the notion of existential risk, getting a sense of what the probability…
NASA West Antarctic Ice Sheet Findings: Glacier Loss Appears Unstoppable
It’s a key piece of the climate change puzzle. For years, researchers have been eyeing the stability of the Western…
Saturn Disappears Behind the Full Flower Moon May 14 – Watch it Live
Funny thing. Skywatchers are often just as excited to watch a celestial object disappear as we are to see it make an…