Star Wars Tatooine Planet May Be Common

Medicine & Technology Mar 31, 2015

One of the most iconic scenes ever filmed for Star Wars occurred when Luke walked outside his boyhood home on the rocky, desert planet of Tatooine and looked up at the two suns setting. Now, scientists believe that these Earth-like worlds with two suns in their sky may actually be more common than originally thought, throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

Dawn Spacecraft Arrives to Ceres—Hear What NASA Has to Say About the Mission

Mar 06, 2015

After more than seven years of drifting in space, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has finally achieved its primary mission of entering orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. Becoming the first ever mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet, mission controllers with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation this morning that the small orbiter had finally reached its destination.

Astronomers Discover Planet in Multiple Star System

Mar 05, 2015

Astronomers have discovered a new planet located in a system with three stars and another planet located in a system with not one, not two, not three, but four stars in the system.

Planets Outside Our Solar System May Be More Hospitable to Life Than Originally Believed

Jan 20, 2015

A study by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto suggests that exoplanets - planets that are outside our solar system - are more likely to have liquid water, and therefore may be more hospitable to life than researchers originally thought.

New Planets Hiding In the Shadow of Pluto

Jan 18, 2015

While space agencies and astronomers alike have found that the outer fringes of our very own solar system holds small asteroids and chunks of ice, as opposed to life, it turns out that our investigation of the relatively small solar system is far from over. In fact, a pair of new studies published just this week reveal that we may be adding new members to the roster as at least two new planets larger than Earth are likely hiding beyond Pluto.

New Study Reveals Prospective Planets Just Beyond Pluto—And There May Be More Than One

Jan 17, 2015

Though Pluto may have been demoted from the title of planet to “dwarf planet”, NASA’s newest mission New Horizons which plans a flyby next summer has sparked new interest in the farthest depths of our very own solar system. And it appears that we may not just stop there. According to a new study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers believe that even closer than our Oort cloud we may find at least two more planets circling our Sun far beyond Pluto’s vast expanses.

Meteorites and the History of Our Solar System: Not Everything Is As It Seems

Jan 15, 2015

Scientists have long believed that meteors were fundamental to the origins of our planets. Meteors contain minuscule spherical grains known as chondrules, and many have believed these chondrules collided with particles of dust and gas coalescing into protoplanets. However, according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature, this hypothesis may not be true.

Alien Earth with Red Sun Discovered Close to Home

Jan 07, 2015

Scientists have discovered eight more exoplanets with two planets located as little as 470 light years away that could, in fact, be much like Earth as we know it.

In Search of Life, Researchers Find Perfect Recipe for Earth-like Planets

Jan 07, 2015

It's been twenty years since the first exoplanet discovery, and now scientists are beginning to look at what these planets may be made of in the search for life outside of our solar system.

Up and Ready for Business—NASA’s New Horizons Probe Wakes 2.9 Billion Miles Away

Dec 09, 2014

It was a message from 2.9 billion miles away, yet NASA researchers heard it loud and clear. Early this Saturday, Dec. 6, researchers from NASA confirmed that the New Horizons Orbiter spacecraft had awakened from its hibernation state, and was ready begin the climax of its nine-year trip to Pluto.

Researchers Reveal Method for Magnetic Field Calculation of Exoplanets

Nov 22, 2014

Knowing the level of a planet’s magnetic field can be an important fact to know in the study of how they interact. But studying the fields of an exoplanet, outside of our solar system and orbiting a foreign star, can be a difficult task that researchers have not yet been able to achieve. Though in nearly two decades of looking past our solar system to investigate exoplanets, researchers have developed several methods to estimate magnetic fields at quite a distance.

What the Taurus Constellation Can Teach Us About Our Solar System’s Birth

Nov 07, 2014

There are creationist theories, Big Bang theories, and even more temporarily defined hypotheses about how the planets of our solar system came to be, but modern research has yet to find conclusive empirical evidence to show us exactly how our solar system’s birth happened, 4.5 billion years ago. That is, until now!

Binary Stars Merge and Beat Supermassive Black Hole

Nov 06, 2014

Nearly every Sci-Fi film about deep space has warned about the perils of coming up against a black hole. And if there’s anything we’ve learned, or that astronomy has taught us, it’s that these supermassive vortex’s have quite a strong pull—something most planets and stars cannot bare to go through. But as it so happens, it turns out that cosmic coupling may be one solution for solar systems looking to avoid certain death.

ALMA Imaging Reveals Emerging Planets in Nearby Taurus Constellation

Nov 06, 2014

Well it appears that the cosmic gestational period is over, and astronomers are catching a glimpse at what happens next. This week researchers at the Chilean Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory have revealed that in the constellation Taurus, that new life is forming—or at least new planets.