Astronomy

Say hello to the Moon’s true “dark” side

If you’ve ever heard someone talk about the Dark Side of the Moon, there’s a decent chance they were actually referring to its far side — i.e. the face of the Moon that is permanently pointed away from Earth. If this was the case, they were actually using the term “dark side” incorrectly; the far…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why do some of the stars not move in this time-lapse video?

This beautiful time-lapse video was taken from the world’s highest revolving restaurant atop a mountain in the Swiss Alps. It shows the stately procession of stars as they move through the night sky. So why are some stars not moving? The answer, of course, is that some of these points of light only look like…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

And Now, an Elephant on Mars

In my eternal quest to find a massive optical illusion to rival the famous Face of Mars, we may have finally found a winner. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Elephant of Mars, as spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In case this partial view of the crater doesn’t convince you of its elephantine nature, you…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Imagine what it would be like inside this dense cluster of stars

This is globular cluster M53, one of the galaxy’s densest star clusters. It packs thousands of stars into a space about 220 light-years across. It’s hard even to imagine the eternally sparkling light show of a night sky you’d see inside M53. Located some 58,000 light-years from Earth and 60,000 from the center of the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Why we won’t find Earth-2 around a red dwarf star

Red dwarfs are by far the universe’s most common stars, but it really doesn’t seem like they’re made for supporting life. The latest simulations suggest that the tidal forces of these stars’ gravity would wipe out any chance of life. A few months back, we learned about how axial tilt – or the lack thereof…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Another solar system has more planets than ours…and here’s what we’re going to do about it!

We keep making amazing exoplanet discoveries, but our solar system has still had two big trump cards: we’re the only one known to have life (obviously), and we’ve got the most planets of any known solar system. Well, about that… HD 10180, located about 130 light-years away, was already known to have six planets, five…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

A breathtaking reminder of just how gigantic Jupiter really is

If you’re looking for a reminder of how impossibly huge Jupiter is, just take a gander at this image from Cassini. That tiny satellite in front is Io…which is almost the same size and relative distance as our own Moon. Of course, other than their closeness in size – Io and the Moon are the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Greatest Space Art Created by Children

Earlier this year, the 2012 Space Foundation Student Art Contest invited kids from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to submit original artwork of the Universe. The only requirements were that the students adhere to the theme, “Space is Infinite – Explore!” The contest wound up attracting more than 1,500 entries from 17 U.S. states, Turkey and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Holmdel Horn: The Most Important Radio Antenna Ever

In 1964, two researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories were desperately attempting to pin down a source of interference that their antenna kept encountering. Little did they know that their antenna, the Holmdel Horn, was picking up the first observable evidence of the Big Bang—cosmic background radiation. Horn antennas were first developed in 1941 by Alfred…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Search for strange new worlds won’t end in November after all

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission got a four-year boost to its funding yesterday, and the fields of astronomy and astrophysics breathed a collective sigh of relief. Originally scheduled to run out of money this November, the incredibly successful space observatory has been guaranteed enough cash to continue operating through 2016. The fact that there was any…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

“Cosmic leaf-blowers” help redirect the evolution of galaxies

A galaxy’s lifespan is a bit like the passing of the seasons. The spring and summer are full of new stars forming, but this gives way to a long winter of aging, dying stars. So what happens in between? Well, like a real autumn, leaf-blowers are involved to sweep away what were once signs of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Dark Energy Confirmed: How ancient sound waves shaped the entire universe

Just 30,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe started singing. Vast soundwaves rang out and expanded through the primordial cosmos, their ripples determining the universe’s large-scale structure. And this all fits perfectly with one particularly theory of dark energy. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, has just completed a massive survey of a…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How one gas giant split apart into two Earth-like planets

Just like our Sun will five billion years from now, KIC 05807616 ran out of hydrogen and expanded into a massive red giant, wreaking havoc on its solar system. The results might just be the planetary equivalent of cell division. We first noted the discovery of planets KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02 back in December.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Was This Ancient Monolith a Stone Age Astronomy Tool?

Is this two-meter-high slab of lichen-covered rock in a UK park an astronomical marker used by Neolithic people? Researchers from Nottingham Trent University are suggesting that may in fact be the case, based on the stone’s alignment, angle and proximity to other significant Stone and Bronze Age sites nearby. Top image: artq55/Flickr The angular rock,…

io9 Jason Major - Universe Today

Tonight, Venus puts on a cosmic light show — here’s how to see it

Once every eight years, a luminous Venus passes directly between Earth and an elusive cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. Tonight, you’ll have a chance to witness this event with your own eyes. The photo up top was taken a few days ago on the evening of March 31st, and showcases the two astronomical…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What would your voice sound like on Venus?

Let’s imagine that you and a friend could converse on the planet Venus — without having to worry about the lack of oxygen, crushing pressure, and beyond boiling temperatures. Your friend would sound so different that you’d actually see her differently. That’s one of the more intriguing conclusions from a team led by the University…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Neil deGrasse Tyson is behind the only major technical change in the Titanic re-release

It took James Cameron 60 weeks to prepare Titanic for its rerelease, but apart from remastering the original at 4k resolution and converting it to stereoscopic 3D, nothing about the movie has really changed. Well, almost nothing. According to Cameron: “Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Made James Cameron Update the Stars in Titanic 3D

No one asked James Cameron to trot out Titanic again with an annoying 3D makeover. But at least this time around the stars in scenes where the night sky is visible will all be in the right place. A few years ago physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked a question about bad science in movies,…

Movies Andrew Liszewski

Astronomers Found the Star Wars Galaxy

Those people who play with the Hubble telescope say that this galaxy looks “like a UFO.” I call bollocks. This doesn’t look like a UFO. This looks like the galaxy from a long, long time ago, the Star Wars galaxy! Just watch the movies, and you will see what I mean. Even the color palette…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

Pulsar stars could be the perfect interstellar GPS system

When humanity sends spacecraft beyond our solar system, those starships will have to know exactly where they are at all times. A newly proposed cosmic GPS system can track a spacecraft’s location to within five kilometers anywhere in the galaxy. The secrets to this system are pulsars, a special type of neutron star that rotate…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Say hello to the Moon’s true “dark” side

Why do some of the stars not move in this time-lapse video?

And Now, an Elephant on Mars

Imagine what it would be like inside this dense cluster of stars

Why we won’t find Earth-2 around a red dwarf star

Another solar system has more planets than ours…and here’s what we’re going to do about it!

A breathtaking reminder of just how gigantic Jupiter really is

The Greatest Space Art Created by Children

The Holmdel Horn: The Most Important Radio Antenna Ever

Search for strange new worlds won’t end in November after all

“Cosmic leaf-blowers” help redirect the evolution of galaxies

Dark Energy Confirmed: How ancient sound waves shaped the entire universe

How one gas giant split apart into two Earth-like planets

Was This Ancient Monolith a Stone Age Astronomy Tool?

Tonight, Venus puts on a cosmic light show — here’s how to see it

What would your voice sound like on Venus?

Neil deGrasse Tyson is behind the only major technical change in the Titanic re-release

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Made James Cameron Update the Stars in Titanic 3D

Astronomers Found the Star Wars Galaxy

Pulsar stars could be the perfect interstellar GPS system

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