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There was Evidence for Europa’s Geysers Hiding in Plain Sight in Old Spacecraft Data From 1997 Jupiter’s moon Europa continues to fascinate and amaze! In 1979, the Voyager missions provided the first indications that an interior ocean might exist beneath it’s icy surface. Between 1995 and 2003, the Galileo spaceprobe provided the most detailed information to date on Jupiter’s moons to date. This information bolstered theories about how life could exist in a warm water ocean located at the core-mantle boundary. Even though the Galileo mission ended when the probe crashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere, the spaceprobe is still providing vital information on Europa. After analyzingRead More →

Gaia Turns Up 13,928 White Dwarfs Nearby the Sun, Including Several Formed Through Mergers In 2013, the European Space Agency (ESA) deployed the Gaia mission, a space observatory designed to measure the positions of movements of celestial bodies. For the past four years, Gaia has been studying distant stars, planets, comets, asteroids, quasars and other astronomical objects, and the data it has acquired will be used to construct the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made, totaling 1 billion objects. The second release of Gaia data, which took place on April 25th, 2018, has already resulted in a number of impressive discoveries. TheRead More →

If There is a Multiverse, Can There be Life There Too? The Multiverse Theory, which states that there may be multiple or even an infinite number of Universes, is a time-honored concept in cosmology and theoretical physics. While the term goes back to the late 19th century, the scientific basis of this theory arose from quantum physics and the study of cosmological forces like black holes, singularities, and problems arising out of the Big Bang Theory. One of the most burning questions when it comes to this theory is whether or not life could exist in multiple Universes. If indeed the laws of physics changeRead More →

Pros and Cons of Various Methods of Interstellar Travel It’s a staple of science fiction, and something many people have fantasized about at one time or another: the idea of sending out spaceships with colonists and transplanting the seed of humanity among the stars. Between discovering new worlds, becoming an interstellar species, and maybe even finding extra-terrestrial civilizations, the dream of  spreading beyond the Solar System is one that can’t become reality soon enough! For decades, scientists have contemplated how humanity might one-day reach achieve this lofty goal. And the range of concepts they have come up with present a whole lot of pros andRead More →

Recovered Asteroid 2010 WC9 Set to Buzz the Earth Tomorrow The orbit of asteroid 2010 WC9. Credit: NASA/JPL Incoming: The Earth-Moon system has company tonight. The Asteroid: Near Earth Asteroid 2010 WC9 is back. Discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey outside Tucson, Arizona on November 30th, 2010, this asteroid was lost after a brief 10 day observation window and was not recovered until just earlier this month. About 71 meters in size, 2010 WC9 is one of the largest asteroids to pass us closer than the Earth-Moon distance. A closeup of the passage of asteroid 2010 WC9 through the Earth-Moon system on May 15th. Credit:Read More →