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You just gotta love European engineers! They’re about to blast away the top of a Chilean mountain to create a site for the European Extremely Large Telescope. This telescope will, for the first time, allow astronomers to directly observe planets outside the solar system. The telescope will be called the European Extremely Large Telescope… which is really […]
Remember a few days ago, when I was telling you about the big conference NASA had planned for today? Well, they sure didn’t disappoint! The team of astrophysicists from the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center have just reported a major milestone: for the first time, they have found an Earth-sized planet at the right distance […]
NASA will host a news teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, April 17, to announce a new discovery made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope. NASA hosts conferences all the time, what makes this one so special? Well, two reasons: first of all, there’s a big paper published in the […]
It’s something that puzzled me for years now: consider a pair of identical twins; say, one gets a job as an astronaut and rockets into space. The other is also an astronaut, but he decides to skip this one and stay home. After a while, they reunite, but are they still identical? That’s exactly what NASA […]
The Red Planet is dear to many of us. There’s a sort of brethren feeling, something that relates Earth and Mars together which makes people fond of the planet, but also at the same time weary. Weary because it’s dead planet, and because people don’t want the same thing to happen to Earth. The Martian […]
Until just a few decades ago, there wasn’t any proof that there were any planets beyond those in our solar system, although of course everybody expected them to exist somewhere. After the Kepler Space Telescope was deployed, astronomers found not one, but a couple hundred exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars). In fact, our galaxy is […]
The photo right above was captured by the Curiosity Rover’s right-hand navigation camera , currently deployed on Mars and on route to Mount Sharp, which shows a striking flare of light seemingly torching near the horizon. Taken on April 4th, the photo somehow made its way to the general public (bad idea NASA) and stirred international […]
Scientists have been analyzing high-energy gamma rays originating from the center of our galaxy and they’ve reported that there’s a good chance that at least some of them come from dark matter. This is the best indication of dark matter to ever be found. What is dark matter? Think about our universe for a moment […]
Earth is not the only place in the solar system to hold watery oceans: Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons also holds a liquid ocean, albeit one that is covered by ice. However, Enceladus is still an extremely exciting place to find extraterrestrial life – not only because of the water it holds, but because water […]
A new massive computer model that simulates the formation of the solar system from its early days when all it used to comprise was a huge disk of matter to present day shows that Earth’s moon formed some 65 million years later than previous estimates led us to believe. The method provides a new way […]
A few weeks ago, following Russia’s invasion of Crimea that caused worldwide turmoil, I wrote a piece about the potentially dangerous consequences to manned space flight. In the article, I argue that seeing how the US space program, like many other in the rest of the world for that matter, is heavily reliant on Russian […]
When it comes to rings, we usually think about gas giants – Jupiter and Saturn have spoiled us that way. But astronauts have showed that asteroids can have rings too – at just 250 kilometres across, Chariklo is the smallest known body which has rings. Previously, only gas giants in our solar system have been […]
One of the biggest mysteries in solar physics is how is it possible that the sun’s surface is colder than its atmosphere. At first glance, it seems that the sun’s atmosphere, called the corona, is hotter than the heat source which is preposterous given the second law of thermodynamics. So, either the sun doesn’t care […]
An eminent team of US researchers found that it is highly unlikely that the moon ever once harbored important quantities of water, after studying a mineral called apatite. Generally speaking, scientists have always though the moon was water barren, a theory confirmed by the initial rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions, however in […]
If you’ve been living in a cave or just don’t care about science at all, then you don’t know what the International Space Station is, and I’ll explain here. The ISS is a a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It’s been launched in 1998, and since then, it has been continuously operating. Astronauts […]
We are detecting waves on a world 1,272,000,000 km away from Earth. An interesting world The signature of isolated ripples was observed in a sea called Punga Mare on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan; but before you get overly excited, you should know that these seas are not filled with water, but with hydrocarbons […]
The BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole reported the first ever piece of evidence that support the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe cam to be. Their data suggests that scientists have come across signals left over by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came […]
Future lunar missions may be fueled by gas stations in space, according to a new plan developed by MIT engineers. A spacecraft might dock at a propellant depot, somewhere between the Earth and the Moon, and pick up some more fuel before heading on to the moon. The carry load is still a major problem for […]
A new study has concluded that virtually all red dwarfs, the stars which make up at least three quarters out of all the stars in the Universe, have planets orbiting them. The study suggested that habitable-zone super-Earth planets (where liquid water, and therefore life as we know it can exist) orbit around at least a […]
Following Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the world political scene has been suddenly turned upside down. Many were surprised by this move, and harsh words and threats from the west were thrown down Putin’s alley. Talks of economic sanctions for Russia, in hope its military presence in Ukraine might be withdrawn, have been publically made. ZME […]
In light of recent NASA budget cuts, a lot of politicians, citizens and, frankly mostly non-science folks, reflect that money should be funneled to other more, immediate goals: education, health, fighting unemployment etc. The rhetoric goes by the familiar terms that there isn’t any reason for man to venture outside the planet, until he at […]
Astronomers have recently discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system, using a novel technique – they believe that this new method could reveal more and more planets which feature water; so far, all life as we know it, is based on water. They made their discovery on a Jupiter-like planet […]
A piece of rock traveling at at 61,000 km/h punched a crater 40 metres wide on the surface of the Moon, producing a flash that could be seen from Earth. I feel like Hollywood can ruin your expectations when talking about huge meteoritic impacts – we’re dealing with a meteorite here that’s way smaller than […]
A team led by astronomers at The Australian National University has discovered what they believe to be the oldest star in the known Universe – forming shortly after the Big Bang, some 13.7 billion years ago. This is the first time astrophysicists get the chance to study the chemistry of the oldest stars, giving scientists […]
Black holes have fascinated both researchers and laymen for decades. Without a doubt, they are the point of maximum interest in terms of astrophysical research – objects with an incredibly large mass – so large that even light itself can’t escape it… what secrets do these objects still hold? According to Carlo Rovelli at the […]
It takes the form of vapor plumes erupting into space and the theory the scientists have agreed upon is that the main cause could be the ice geysers on the planet surface functioning similarly to volcanoes. The scientific explanation of the fact is detailed in the journal Nature on January 22, where it is explained […]
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope recently completed one of its most thorough and ambitious mozaic projectes. Astronomers at Hubble, stitched together some 438 separate images, both in visible and infra-red light, to complete the most accurate picture of the Tarantula Nebula so far, spanning across no less than 600 light-years. The Tarantula nebula contains some 800,000 […]
A new map of a slice of the Universe was recently released by BOSS – Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey – and it’s the most accurate and comprehensive one so far. The map plots the location of some 1.2 million galaxies with an astonishing accuracy of 99%, nothing short of spectacular – remember, each of these […]
Captioned above is one of Hubble‘s most famous and beautiful space photos. The photo features NGC 609 – a magnificent star cluster, which Hubble captured complete with colored gas, dust and a slew of stars of various brightness. Pictures like these remind people of the tremendous gift they have – sight. How can one share […]
The European Space Agency‘s billion-dollar star surveyor ‘Gaia’ is now in its operational orbit around a gravitationally stable virtual point in space, at about 1.5 million km from Earth. Gaia has been traveling to reach that point since December 19, following a spectacular launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Last night, the surveyor […]
Good news everybody – the International Space Station won’t be sunk into the ocean in 2020! In case you don’t know what I’m taking about, in a previous article, we were telling you about the plans to sink the International Space Station in the ocean, in 2020. However, the ISS will be on at least […]
This year Hubble will embark on one its most ambitious projects yet, as it’s scheduled to glimpse farther away into the Universe than ever before. Six new “deep field” images are slated, and recently astronomers at Hubble have delivered the first to the public. The image reveals extremely faint, tiny galaxies that may be more […]
In the past few decades planet hunters have confirmed a couple hundred alien planets, with hundreds more on the waiting list. Think about it, hundreds or thousands of light years away a myriad of alien planets exist, maybe some similar to our very own Earth, which scientists are ferociously studying. There many technical limitations however. […]
A team of astronomers recently discovered a new exoplanet some 200 light years away whose mass is about the same as Earth’s – the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. Although very similar in mass, the planet is 60% larger in diameter suggesting it has a thick atmosphere. […]
I think many of us wanted, at some point in our lives, to become astronauts. Unfortunately, not so many of us actually make it – but that doesn’t mean we can’t help. With only a laptop or a tablet, YOU can help astronomers discover black holes from the comfort of your couch. An international team […]
There has been a debate over the number of spiral arms the Milky Way galaxies has, due to mixed results in the past. For years, it was believed the Milky Way had four spiral arms, but in 2008 readings from the Spitzer Space Telescope suggested it actually had only two. Wouldn’t you know it, a […]
In the past two decades alone, some 900 exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – have been identified, with some 2300 more in queue. Most of these were confirmed using the now discontinued Kepler space telescope. It’s remarkable how much scientists can find out about a distant plant, hundreds of light years away, simply […]
As the sun approaches the end of its 11-year-long cycle, scientists expect during one flash to change its polarity, ‘flipping’ upside down. You might think this would come at a cataclysmic expense, but there is absolutely no need to get alarmed. This happened every 11 years for as far as we can tell and each […]
Arguably, NGC 7293 is maybe the most stunning deep space photograph astronomers have captured thus far. The nebula, located approximately 700 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius, goes by the name of the Helix Nebula, but it’s also sometimes referred to as the Eye of God. It’s easy to understand why. A lot of planetary […]
Europa, Jupiter’s satellite, has emerged as one of the top locations in the Solar System in terms of its potential of hosting extraterrestrial life. Despite the fact that it lies so far from the Sun, scientists believe that a liquid ocean lies under its icy surface – and that ocean could very well host life. […]
Dating rocks is not really something new – it’s been conducted on Earth for decades now; researchers have also determined the age of rocks from outer space, but the experiments always took place on Earth. Now, for the first time, this procedure took place on Mars. The work, led by geochemist Ken Farley of the […]
NASA scientists have revealed new data on the ozone hole that forms each year above Antarctica and found that the decrease of chlorine in the atmosphere hasn’t had any significant positive impact. Chlorine is the most dangerous substance for the ozone layer. 20 years ago, the Montreal Protocol was installed. The Montreal Protocol on Substances […]
The clunky and heavy astronaut costumes used today are very useful and well thought – they provide oxygen, scrub CO2, and keep astronauts safe from radiation and outside negative factors. But they are, still, clunky and heavy, and not really suitable for the kind of intensive exploration astronauts have to conduct on Mars. Dava Newman, […]
Researchers have reported dark streaks near the equator of Mars, hinting at surprisingly large quantities of flowing water. If true, this could be extremely important for life on Mars, and potentially even establishing research bases. Water on Mars – yes If you don’t know that rivers and lakes were fairly common on Mars a long […]
NASA recently announced that it will be tasking the Curiosity rover, currently exploring Mars’ surface at the Gale Crater, with a new mission that wasn’t included in the initial plan. After Curiosity provided some of the most fantastic scientific clues in recent history when it found evidence that Mars could have supported certain kind of […]
The discovery of a giant planet orbiting its star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance baffled researchers. So far, they haven’t been able to explain how such a strange system came to be. The international team of astronomers was led by a University of Arizona graduate student. This is the most distant planet ever […]
NASA’s Curiosity rover has come up with yet another remarkable discovery – evidence of an ancient, freshwater lake, with water that was likely very similar to that of today’s Earth lakes. The feature is thought to be part of a longstanding aquatic environment which could have supported simple life forms. “In March, we did know […]
An established astrophysicist, but more known thanks to his popular science programs, Neil deGrasse Tyson is a sensation on the web and a hallmark figure that has inspired many to question, reason and pursue science. It’s no coincidence that this is exactly ZME Science‘s mission and as you might imagine, we appreciate and greatly cherish […]
We’ve written extensively before about the life harboring possibilities of Jupiter’s moon, the icy Europa. The moon is believed to be the likeliest candidate in our solar system, besides our own planet, capable of supporting life. Recently, a report compiled by researchers at University of Texas at Austin, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max […]
Chris Hadfield is a (now retired) Candian astronaut – the first Canadian to walk into outer space; on 19 December 2012, Hadfield launched in the Soyuz TMA-07M flight for a long duration stay on board the International Space Station as part of Expedition 35. He was the commander on the ISS until May 12 May […]
