Earth's Place in the Universe
- Earth
Scientists Say: Van Allen belts
Astronomers have detected these radiation belts around Earth and beyond. Jupiter’s belt is thousands of times as intense as Earth’s.
- Space
Fast, mysterious clouds swarm around our galaxy
Astronomers want to know the source — and importance — of these faint, fast-moving clouds that zoom beyond and toward our Milky Way’s disk.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Supermoon
This supersized lunar event occurs when a full moon or new moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — the point where it is the closest to Earth.
- Space
Scientists caught a black hole ringing like a bell
Two black holes merged, creating a new, bigger one. This event triggered the clearest ripples in spacetime ever observed.
- Space
Let’s learn about spooky ‘dark energy’
No one knows exactly what this stuff is, but it’s shaping our universe on the largest scales.
- Space
The Vera Rubin Observatory is set to revolutionize astronomy
Equipped with the world’s largest digital camera, this new telescope is poised to help solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries.
- Space
Analyze This: Ice around baby stars may hint at origins of Earth’s water
Scientists have now gotten a good look at the ice around a baby star. It might help them unravel the origins of the water needed for life on Earth.
- Space
Looking for aliens from the far side of the moon [COMIC]
Earth’s noise and light pollution can make it hard to detect signs of life on other planets. The solution? Telescopes that use the moon as a shield.
- Planets
The surface of Venus is morphing
Circular landforms speckling Venus' surface may be the work of tectonics — similar to the forces that reshape Earth’s surface.
- Space
A passing star could fling Earth out of orbit — or into the sun
Computer models show that a star's tug could send Mercury, Venus or Mars crashing into Earth — or let Jupiter eject our world from the solar system.
- Planets
A distant crumbling planet spills its guts
Based on the light being emitted by its shed minerals, astronomers can for the first time determine the internal composition of an exoplanet.
- Space
Comets may be the source of sandy dunes on Saturn’s largest moon
In an early reshuffling of the solar system, comet collisions and other space rocks could have sent dusty bits falling to Titan’s surface.
