Space

Renowned physicist, famous for his study of black holes, galaxies and for authoring a popular book on the origin of the universe, “A Brief History of Time”, recently arrived at Caltech, like every year, where he held a talk in front of 1,000 people who had waited in line for 12 hours to hear him speak. [...]

After much heated discussions, Hawaiian officials have granted a permit which will finally allow the highly anticipated Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to be built on the site of the Mauna Kea summit. Once completed it will stand as the largest optical telescope in the world, allowing astronomers to achieve things they’ve only dreamed about in the [...]

New observations have tracked the “rain” of charged water particles over Saturn spewing from its rings with unprecedented detail. The findings show that the rain is dispersed across a larger surface of the planet than previously thought, which might explain some peculiar meteorologic phenomenae. The study concludes that due to erosion, Saturn’s icy rings discharge [...]

Billions of dollars and decades worth of research have been invested in fusion propelling technology, so that one day we might breach current spaceflight limitations that offer little hope of straying too far from our planet. Researchers at Washington University have recently made great strides forward in this respect and have successfully tested each stage [...]

Billions of years ago, Mars had a much richer atmosphere than it has today, which is rather an understatement considering how thin it is. Some scientists hypothesize that once Mars was capable of holding liquid water at its surface, with recent evidence adding weight to these claims. Recent measurements made by Curiosity‘s instruments highlight a [...]

One of the most mysterious, and weirdest at the same time, phenomenae in quantum physics is quantum entanglement, in which two connected particles can share information instantly despite being separated, no matter the distance. Two particles, or so the theory holds, could be parted by light years in distance and still reflect each others’ stances instantly, [...]

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have come across the farthest supernova of its type found thus far - a type Ia supernova which exploded some 10 billion years ago. The discovery isn’t just about setting milestones, however. Supernovae act as beacons that help astronomers measure the expansion of the Universe, and this latest finding will help [...]

A magnetic solar ‘heartbeat’ beats deep down in the Sun’s interior, generating energy that leads to solar flares and sunspots. Solar flares and sunspots A solar flare is a large energy release in the form of a sudden brightening of the surface or the solar limb. The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms [...]

This is the first post in a series about types of galaxies; today, we’ll be finding out more about Seyfert galaxies. This galactic type has been described for the first time by Carl K. Seyfert in 1943, who noted that their central regions have peculiar spectra with notable emission lines. Basically, what makes them special [...]

A $1.6 billion cosmic ray experiment on the International Space Station has come across evidence of antimatter in space, a remarkable finding that was recently presented during a seminar at CERN and which might help probe the mysteries of dark matter – one of the major components that make up the Universe. The find was made using [...]