Science Art: Artist’s impression of JWST, European Space Agency, 2013
Click to embiggen This is an artist’s conception of the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble. The European Space Agency is working […]
astronomy
New astronomy from old sources: Planetary system found in a photographic plate from 1917.
Science Daily reveals how a century-old spectrographic analysis is probably the first ever evidence of an alien planetary system: bout a year ago, the review’s […]
Why *is* there a huge mountain on Ceres?
I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’re already regularly checking out Bad Astronomy, but just in case you missed it, Phil Plait is asking a […]
SONG: Janssen
SONG: “Janssen.” ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “Scientists just analyzed the atmosphere of a ‘super-Earth’ for the first time,” Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2016, as […]
Alien atmospheres
Washington Post unveils our first observations of the atmosphere on an Earth-like planet outside the solar system: For the first time ever, scientists are sniffing […]
Awfullest science headline of the month: “The aliens are silent because they’re dead.”
Science Daily clinches it – not because of inaccuracy, but because of the sheer despair in considering that we’re not hearing anyone in our galaxy […]
Science Art: PIA18353: Janus and Tethys by Cassini (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Click to embiggen A big moon and a little moon, orbiting Saturn. Moons like Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) are large enough that […]
Not exactly Nibiru, but… Planet Nine?
Nature surveys the growing body of evidence of *something* very big orbiting at the fringes of the solar system: “If I read this paper out […]
A really, really big black hole.
Science Daily reports that Japanese observers have just found the second-largest black hole in the Milky Way – by looking at clouds of gas: Astronomers […]
Science Art: Flaming Storms on the Sun’s Face
First found on dthorne books. I’m guessing this came from a very old Scientific American (maybe 1930s?), but can’t really say for sure. Welcome, 2016.
Science Art: XLII: Milky Way from Mythographi Latini by Thomas Munckerus/Hyginus, 1681.
Click to embiggen This is the Early Modern Milky Way, as appearing in an edition of the ‘Poeticon Astronomicon‘ by the Latin author Hyginus (although […]
*Is* there something past Pluto?
Ars Technica looks at something funny out beyond the orbit of Pluto – a thing that’s practically invisible, but that maybe a really, really big […]
How do you say “Hubble” in Hindi? “Astrosat” – sort of.
First Post shows how NASA’s not the only one with big space news today. India has just launched their own space observatory from Sriharikota spaceport: […]
Science Art: To Scale: The Solar System by Wylie Overstreet.
To Scale: The Solar System from Wylie Overstreet on Vimeo. I like the desert in Nevada already because of the sense of perspective – such […]
Science Art: Experience the Gravity of a Super Earth, NASA/JPL Exoplanet Travel Bureau
Click to embiggen Apparently, since last December at least, NASA has been creating vintage-style travel posters for exoplanets – the planets we’ve been discovering around […]