Astronomy

Watch the assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope — live via Webb cam!

Bad puns aside, this is actually pretty cool. NASA has set up two webcams in the cleanroom of Goddard Space Flight Center, where engineers are busy assembling the James Webb Space Telescope — the deep space imaging apparatus that will allow us to see farther into space than ever before. The cameras update every sixty…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Behold a galaxy twice the size of the Milky Way!

Our Milky Way is just a spiral galaxy, but NGC 1232 here is a grand spiral galaxy, its diameter twice as long as ours. Everything is bigger in NGC 1232, including the giant satellite galaxy warping it out of shape. Technically speaking, NGC 1232 is a grand design spiral galaxy, so named of its extremely…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Deadly gamma-rays from an exploding star might have caused a mass extinction

In theory, a supernova thousands of light-years away could release gamma-rays that would fry most life on Earth. But the star must be positioned exactly right for this to ever happen, and there’s no way to prove it. Until now. The Ordovician Extinction of 450 million years ago isn’t nearly as famous as the K-T…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Astronomers have discovered the first four exoplanets of 2012

2011 was a great year in the search for exoplanets, and it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be pretty fruitful, as well. Yesterday morning, just four days into the new year, astronomers announced the discovery of four massive new alien worlds, each one orbiting a star of its own. And here’s something else…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Omega Nebula is a galactic Rorschach test

These stars, though still shrouded in dust and hydrogen gas, are some of the youngest and most massive stars in the galaxy. They’re part of the Omega Nebula, which for 200 years has been a sort of cosmic inkblot test. Just about every astronomer who observes this nebula comes away with a different sense of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How to Best Watch the First Meteor Shower of the Year

This spectacular fireball is an early shot of the first meteor shower of the year, captured on January 2 by Brian Emfinger. If you want to catch your own, get ready! The peak activity will be tomorrow. Here’s how to enjoy them: Where to look at? The Quadrantids radiate from the constellation Bootes (The Herdsman),…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

How to catch tonight’s Quadrantid meteor shower

Tonight’s Quadrantid meteor shower is not only the first of 2012, it also has the potential to be one of the most spectacular cosmic light shows of the year — so long as you’re prepared. Here’s what you need to know to catch as many shooting stars as possible. The first thing you should know…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

China is sending an astronaut to the Moon

China continues to make headway in its efforts to become one of the world’s foremost spacefaring nations. In a white paper issued last week, the Chinese government officially announced its intentions to place a manned spacecraft on the moon. According to the announcement, a manned lunar mission would be just one stage in the country’s…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

There is a full moon hidden in this photograph — can you find it?

It might take you a few moments to spot, but there is actually a full moon looming entirely within the frame of this picture, hidden in plain sight. In fact, the photographer who captured this image couldn’t see the Moon at all (at least not with his naked eye); but he did know where to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This nebula might be home to the universe’s hottest star

This is AB7, a binary star system found in one of the nearby Magellanic Cloud galaxies. The two stars are constantly venting massive amounts of stellar material. That process is heating up one of the stars to absolutely unimaginable temperatures. We can’t be absolutely sure which star is the hottest. There are stars born in…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

NASA gears up for its journey to the center of the Moon

NASA’s on a mission to uncover the secrets of the Moon’s formation, and they’ll have to journey to its core to do it. But there wont be any drilling on this expedition. Instead, the agency will employ two identical, orbiting spacecraft — dubbed GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B — to take precise measurements of the Moon’s gravitational…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011

From law-violating subatomic particles to entirely new, earth-like worlds, 2011 was an incredible year for scientific discovery. In the past 12 months, scientific breakthroughs in fields ranging from archaeology to structural biochemistry have allowed humanity to rewrite history, and enabled us to open to brand new chapters in our development as a species. Here are…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The storm clouds of Saturn are bigger than our entire planet

This striking image from the Cassini orbiter shows Saturn’s northern hemisphere engulfed in a massive storm that has raged for well over a year. This storm was bigger than Earth when it began, and it’s since gotten even more massive. This storm is an apparent example of the Great White Spot, a recurring super-storm that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Long, Strange Search for Earth’s Second Moon(s)

For some people, one moon just isn’t good enough. The quest to find a second Moon has roped in Jules Verne, the man who discovered Pluto, and a pair of deluded astronomers. But here’s the thing: there really is a second moon… sort of. Frédéric Petit and the Moon of 1846 In 1846, the director…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Eye of Satan Is Watching You From Space

Repent, sinners! SATAN EXISTS! And his evil eye is looking at you from space! I mean, if there is an Eye of God* in space, there has to be an Eye of Satan in a permanent staring contest, right? At least, it looks like a really evil eye to me. It’s a photo of the…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

Bizarre star is seemingly older than the explosion that created it in the first place

There’s something very wrong about pulsar SXP 1062. This neutron star was created in the aftermath of a massive supernova. All the evidence says this star formed 40,000 years ago…but its slow spinning tells a far different, much older story. When massive stars go supernova, two things can happen to their remnants. If they are…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

This is the most stunning video of comet Lovejoy we’ve seen yet

By now you’ve probably heard about Comet 2011/W3 (more commonly known as Lovejoy) — the audaciously bold comet that, to the surprise of many, recently survived an exceptionally close encounter with our Sun. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-comet-lovejoy-or-the-silver-surfer-about-to-p-5868428 https://gizmodo.com/watch-comet-lovejoy-playing-with-fire-and-surviving-5868817 Since its brush with fiery fate, Lovejoy has been garnering some pretty serious media coverage, not to mention the interest…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Have we discovered fuel on Pluto?

One lure of space travel is the possibility that we might find a source of energy on another world. Now, a study published this month in The Astronomical Journal suggests that remote, frozen planetoid Pluto may harbor complex hydrocarbons like ethane and butane that are used as fuel here on Earth. These hydrocarbons, if confirmed,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

I Would Sell My Soul To See This Scene With My Own Eyes

The little grey ball is Dione, the third largest Saturn moon. The large brown sphere with the ethereal haze is Titan, the largest. On the background, that’s Saturn and its rings. Never an astronomy picture looked so painterly to me. This image is natural color, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. [NASA]

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

Absolutely Stunning Photos of Saturn’s Moon Titan

The Cassini mission to Saturn has been bountiful with the gorgeous pictures in the past — including one gorgeous shot that wound up in the last Star Trek movie. But these newly released images of Titan might be the most arresting Cassini pictures yet. As Cassini’s Carolyn Porco writes in an announcement of these images,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Watch the assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope — live via Webb cam!

Behold a galaxy twice the size of the Milky Way!

Deadly gamma-rays from an exploding star might have caused a mass extinction

Astronomers have discovered the first four exoplanets of 2012

The Omega Nebula is a galactic Rorschach test

How to Best Watch the First Meteor Shower of the Year

How to catch tonight’s Quadrantid meteor shower

China is sending an astronaut to the Moon

There is a full moon hidden in this photograph — can you find it?

This nebula might be home to the universe’s hottest star

NASA gears up for its journey to the center of the Moon

Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011

The storm clouds of Saturn are bigger than our entire planet

The Long, Strange Search for Earth’s Second Moon(s)

The Eye of Satan Is Watching You From Space

Bizarre star is seemingly older than the explosion that created it in the first place

This is the most stunning video of comet Lovejoy we’ve seen yet

Have we discovered fuel on Pluto?

I Would Sell My Soul To See This Scene With My Own Eyes

Absolutely Stunning Photos of Saturn’s Moon Titan

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