Two things set the Sun apart from all other stars in the Universe: it does not belong to any constellation, and it is close enough to Earth to be observed and studied in exquisite detail with nothing more than modest … Continue reading
Active Region 1515 has now spit out 12 M-class flares since July 3. Early in the morning of July 5, 2012 there was an M6.1 flare. It peaked at 7:44 AM EDT. This caused a moderate — classified as R2 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather scale — radio blackout that has since subsided. Continue reading
Several million stars are vying for attention in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula nebula. 30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighbourhood and home to the most massive stars ever seen. Continue reading
With President Barack Obama proposing a relatively flat budget for NASA in 2013, a group professional astronomers is urging the White House and Congress to find a better balance between the space agency’s planetary science and exploration needs. Continue reading
Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Continue reading
The International Space Station may have to start operating without a crew in November if Russian engineers don’t figure out soon what caused a recent rocket failure, NASA officials announced today. The unmanned Russian cargo ship Progress 44 crashed just after its Aug. 24 launch to deliver 2.9 tons of supplies to the orbiting lab. Continue reading
NASA has picked seven private spaceflight companies, each working to build a commercial spaceship, as its transportation of choice for launching experiments to the edge of space and back. Continue reading
Wormholes are one of the stranger objects that arise in general relativity. Although no experimental evidence for wormholes exists, scientists predict that they would appear to serve as shortcuts between one point of spacetime and another. Continue reading