astronomy

A new analysis of Cassini observations of Jupiter shows that an "inverse energy cascade" mechanism could be supplying the energy that powers and maintains the intense jet streams that typically rip through Jupiter's atmosphere at the same speeds as much shorter-lived hurricanes and tornadoes do...

Characterizing seasonal variations in Titan's volatile system is a primary goal of the Cassini spacecraft's Equinox and Solstice missions. Two related studies report new observations by the Cassini radar instrument peering through Titan's thick atmosphere with repeat coverage. Images of the...

The Herschel Space Observatory has produced spectacular new images of interstellar material in our galaxy, using the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) camera in tandem with Herschel's other camera, Photodetector Array Camera & Spectrometer (PACS). The new pictures, made during...

The most ambitious attempt yet to trace the history of the universe has seen "first light." The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), took its first astronomical data September 14-15 after years of preparations. That night...

A bright spot in the latest imaging Humans have now had three views of the bright area shown near the top center of this image. The first view was as a mere tiny bright spot seen in telescopic images of Mercury obtained from Earth by astronomer Ronald Dantowitz. The second view was obtained by...

A newly released set of images, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope before the recent Servicing Mission, highlights the ongoing drama in two galaxies in the Virgo Cluster affected by a process known as "ram pressure stripping" that can result in peculiar-looking galaxies. An extremely...

This summer, University of Florida (UF) astronomers inaugurated the world's largest optical telescope on a nearly 8,000-foot mountaintop. But it was a far more modest observatory, located just above sea level in rural Levy County and just down the road from the UF campus that proved key to a...

September 25, 2009 Astronomers using the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii recently explored one of the most compact dust disks ever resolved around another star. If placed in our own solar system, the disk would reach nearly to Jupiter's orbit. An outer disk that...

New data from the Deep Impact spacecraft and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an instrument aboard India's recently ended Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, provide, for the first time, clear evidence that water exists on the surface of the Moon. "The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only...

Astronomers have witnessed odd behavior around a young star. Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing around a clump of planet-forming material. The observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, offer a rare look into the early stages of planet formation...

An international group of astronomers have succeeded in the first joint observations between the LOFAR stations in The Netherlands and Germany. This constitutes the "first light" of the LOFAR telescope as an international array. The bright quasar 3C 196, located almost 10 billion light-years...

A dramatic new vista of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory exposes new levels of the complexity and intrigue in the galactic center. The mosaic of 88 Chandra pointings represents a freeze-frame of the spectacle of stellar evolution, from bright young stars...

NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings were almost flat, but new images reveal the heights of some newly discovered bumps in the rings are as high as the...

European Southern Observatory (ESO) unveiled the second of three images from its GigaGalaxy Zoom project. It is a new and wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our home galaxy as seen from ESO's Paranal Observatory with an amateur telescope. This 34°-by-20°-wide image...

The Planck mission has captured its first rough images of the sky, demonstrating the observatory is working and ready to measure light from the dawn of time. Planck — a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with significant NASA participation — will survey the entire sky to learn more about the...

A team of international scientists led by Mirjam Langhans, from the German Aerospace Center Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), presented the first results of a global analysis of spatial patterns, occurrence, and origin of river channels on Titan at the European Planetary Science...

German scientists investigating the complex chemical mixture thought to be present in early Earth's oceans have found that amino acids can be 'cooked' into many other important chemical building blocks of life when embedded in salt crusts. Approximately 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago, a salty...

Studies of features in Jupiter's spectacular and rapidly changing aurorae have given new insights into the complex electromagnetic interactions between the giant planet and two of its innermost moons. As Ganymede and Io orbit Jupiter, they interact with regions of plasma and generate...

The first of three images of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO's observing sites in Chile — is now available. The project allows stargazers to explore and experience the universe as it is seen...