Stuck Home? Planets, Moon Providing Predawn Entertainment
Stuck at home this week? The planets and our moon are providing some early morning entertainment.
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astronomy
Distant Exoplanet Boasts Iron Rain
Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet planet nearly 390 light-years from Earth that features a most peculiar climate phenomenon: iron rain.
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Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in Universe Came From Black Hole
Astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe, originating from a super-massive black hole.
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Earth Captures a New ‘Mini Moon’
Earth has acquired a second “mini-moon” about the size of a car, according to astronomers who spotted the object circling our planet.
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Scientists Ask Public to Help Sift Through Galactic Data in Search for Life
Scientists are doubling down on efforts to encourage more galactic discoveries – including of extraterrestrial intelligent life – through new research partnerships and by releasing troves of data from space for the public to scour through.
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Kuiper Belt Object Reveals Secrets of Planetary Building Blocks
A trove of NASA spacecraft data from a visit to the farthest planet-like object in the solar system – a planetesimal in an icy region beyond the orbit of Neptune – reveals how planetary building blocks form over time, astronomers said in a trio of studies released Thursday.
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Scientists Quintuple Estimate of Time It Took to Form Mars
Evidence of violent collisions with miniature planets suggest that the formation of Mars may have taken much longer than scientists have previously believed.
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Telescope Catches Beautiful Outcome of Stellar Fight
Scientists have observed a faraway struggle between two stars that left both celestial bodies a little worse for wear.
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Explosive Origin of Super-Bright Supernova Revealed
One of the brightest supernovae ever recorded by astronomers gained its notable luminosity when a white dwarf star exploded and sent stellar material smashing into the shell of another star’s explosion, researchers revealed in a study released Thursday.
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Astronomers Trace Interstellar History of Essential Element of Life
Astronomers in Europe have mapped out the cosmic history of one of life’s most essential elements, phosphorus, tracing the mineral’s interstellar journey from the star-forming regions of space directly to DNA of life on Earth.
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New Map of Milky Way Reveals Giant Wave of Stellar Nurseries
The universe has become an even more humbling place after a team of Harvard University astronomers discovered a galaxy-wide, wave-shaped gaseous structure that happens to form one of the closest arms of the Milky Way.
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Astronomers Develop Method to Detect Oxygen on Faraway Planets
Scientists announced Monday a new method of detecting oxygen in distant planets that could help in the search for extraterrestrial life.
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‘Ring of Fire’ Eclipse Wows Across Asia
Skywatchers from Saudi Arabia and Oman to India and Singapore were treated to a rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse Thursday.
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New Technique Results in Discovery of Six Distant Planets
Astronomers announced Monday the discovery of six new planets orbiting three different stars, seen by using a new technique that is certain to help astronomers discover even more.
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Astronomers Reveal Black Hole Breakfast at Dawn of Cosmos
The largest observed black holes fed on the cool gas that lingered around the earliest galaxies in the universe.
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NASA Probe Charts Wind Circulation in Mars’ Upper Atmosphere
A NASA spacecraft recently achieved the remarkable feat of mapping the elusive winds that blow high above the surface of Mars – providing astronomers long-sought data for the first time in history, according to a new study.
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Stellar Discovery: Giant Planet Survived Death of Its Star
Astronomers have discovered a new hidden giant planet orbiting a white dwarf star, suggesting for the first time that a planet can survive its sun’s gradual demise, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.
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Scientists Spot Black Hole So Huge It ‘Shouldn’t Even Exist’ in Our Galaxy
Astronomers have discovered a black hole in the Milky Way so huge that it challenges existing models of how stars evolve, researchers said Wednesday.
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Reports of Demise of Jupiter’s Red Spot ‘Greatly Exaggerated’
While evidence over the last decade has shown a steady waning of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, researchers in California have found that the size and ferocity of the vortex remains unchanged, according to a study released Monday.
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Most Distant World Ever Explored Named Arrokoth
The most distant world ever explored, 4 billion miles away from Earth, finally has an official name: Arrokoth. It means “sky” in the language of the Native American Powhatan people, NASA said Tuesday.
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