'Super-Earth' may offer clues about atmospheres on distant worlds
Scientists have spotted a planet orbiting a star relatively near our solar system that may offer a prime opportunity to study the atmosphere of a rocky Earth-like alien world — the type of research that could aid the hunt for extraterrestrial life. The researchers said ...
Oddly shaped celestial body Arrokoth sheds light on planet formation
A vaguely hourglass-shaped icy object called Arrokoth residing in the far reaches of the solar system — the most distant body ever explored by a spacecraft — is giving scientists intriguing clues about the formation of the planets including Earth. Scientists on Thursday offered the ...
Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth are common in the cosmos, suggesting life also is
A new way of studying planets in other solar systems — by doing sort of an autopsy on planetary wreckage devoured by a type of star called a white dwarf — is showing that rocky worlds with geochemistry similar to Earth may be quite ...
Japanese scientist puts forward theory to solve 50-year moon rock mystery (it's not cheese)
The moon was formed when it was washed out of the right eye of the god of the land while he was bathing. Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, the moon god of Japanese folklore, then lived forever in the heavens after climbing a giant celestial ladder from his ...
Scientists track star to confirm Albert Einstein's supermassive black hole theory
A team of international scientists observing a star in the Milky Way have for the first time confirmed Einstein's predictions of what happens to the motion of a star passing close to a supermassive black hole. Einstein's 100-year-old general theory of relativity predicted that light ...
Much of world to see 'blood moon' for 21st century's longest lunar eclipse Friday
A blood moon will appear in the night sky around much of the world on Friday night as the moon moves into the shadow of the earth for the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st Century. The total eclipse will last 1 hour, 42 minutes ...
A SpaceX Dragon capsule headed back to Earth on Wednesday, filled with more than 1,678 kilograms (3,700 pounds) of experiment results and cargo from the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed. It was the first return load from the station in a year, ...
Debris spotted floating around silent Hitomi X-ray satellite
The U.S. Joint Space Operations Center on Sunday said it has spotted five objects floating near Japan's brand new Hitomi X-ray astronomy satellite that lost communication with Earth the previous day. In a Twitter post, the center, which tracks objects in orbit, said it identified ...
Earth believed protected by magnetic field starting much earlier than previously thought
Earth's magnetic field has been a life preserver, protecting against relentless solar winds, streams of charged particles rushing from the sun, that otherwise could strip away the planet's atmosphere and water. "It would be a pretty barren planet without it," said University of Rochester geophysicist ...
Nagaoka, illustrator for Earth, Wind & Fire, other bands, dies at 78
Shusei Nagaoka, an illustrator best known for making the imaginative, fantasy-based album covers for Earth, Wind & Fire, Electric Light Orchestra and other bands in the 1970s and '80s, died of a heart attack Tuesday at a hospital in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, his family ...
A SpaceX rocket is scheduled on Sunday to launch a U.S. satellite from deep storage to deep space, where it will keep tabs on solar storms and image Earth from nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) away. The Falcon 9 rocket is targeted for ...
