NASA and NSF-Funded Research Finds First Potentially Habitable Exoplanet

A team of planet hunters from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington has announced the discovery of a planet with three times the mass of Earth orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone."

Descubrimiento del primer planeta potencialmente habitable tiene a la ciencia espectante

Un equipo de astrónomos del Instituto Carnegie y la Universidad de California han descubierto un planeta fuera del Sistema Solar que tiene un tamaño comparable a la Tierra y que se encuentra en una zona que podría ser habitable, osea que se encontraría a una distancia de su estrella que le permitiría tener una temperatura adecuada para que haya agua líquida en su superficie. Se trata del Gliese 581g, a solo 20 años luz de distancia y en la constelación de Libra, según publicación de la revista 'Astrophysical Journal'.

NASA's WMAP Project Completes Satellite Operations

After nine years of scanning the sky, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission has concluded its observations of the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. The spacecraft has not only given scientists their best look at this remnant glow, but also established the scientific model that describes the history and structure of the universe.

Voyager 2 at 12,000 Days: The Super-Marathon Continues

NASA's plucky Voyager 2 spacecraft has hit a long-haul operations milestone today (June 28) -- operating continuously for 12,000 days. For nearly 33 years, the venerable spacecraft has been returning data about the giant outer planets, and the characteristics and interaction of solar wind between and beyond the planets. Among its many findings, Voyager 2 discovered Neptune's Great Dark Spot and its 450-meter-per-second (1,000-mph) wind.

Spirit Encuentra Pistas Sobre el Pasado de Marte y el Ambiente Para Albergar Vida

Las rocas examinadas por el rover Spirit de la NASA contienen evidencias de un antiguo ambiente húmedo y no ácido que puede haber sido favorable a la vida. La confirmación de estos rastros minerales llevó a los científicos cuatro años de análisis. Un afloramiento de rocas que Spirit examinó a finales de 2005 reveló concentraciones altas de carbonatos, que se originan en condiciones casi neutras, húmedas, pero se disuelven en ácido. El agua antigua detectada en estos análisis no es ácida.

Hubble Images Suggest Rogue Asteroid Smacked Jupiter

Without warning, a mystery object struck Jupiter on July 19, 2009, leaving a dark bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. The spot first caught the eye of an amateur astronomer in Australia, and soon, observatories around the world, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, were zeroing in on the unexpected blemish.
Astronomers had witnessed this kind of cosmic event before. Similar scars had been left behind during the course of a week in July 1994, when more than 20 pieces of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere. The 2009 impact occurred during the same week, 15 years later.

Backwards Black Holes Might Make Bigger Jets

PASADENA, Calif. - Going against the grain may turn out to be a powerful move for black holes. New research suggests supermassive black holes that spin backwards might produce more ferocious jets of gas. The results have broad implications for how galaxies change over time.

This artist’s concept shows a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its core. The black hole is shooting out jets of radio waves. Image credit: NASA/ JPL- Caltech.

"A lot of what happens in an entire galaxy depends on what's going on in the miniscule central region where the black hole lies," said theoretical astrophysicist David Garofalo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Garofalo is lead author of a new paper that appeared online May 27 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Other authors are Daniel A. Evans of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and Rita M. Sambruna of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.