For almost 20 years, humans have maintained a continuous presence beyond Earth. The International Space Station has provided a habitat where humans can live and work for extended periods of time. Yet, despite having established a permanent base for life in space, terra firma is always in reach—within 254 miles, to be exact. If a…
UA Researchers On Winning Team In Lunar Exploration Competition
Pink Floyd aside, there isn’t actually a dark side of the moon—just a side you can’t see from Earth. That is, unless you’re a researcher like those at the University of Arizona and partnering institutions, who are setting out to investigate meteoritic impact on the far side of the moon. The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer,…
Stellar Corpse Sheds Light On Origin of Cosmic Rays
The origin of cosmic rays, high-energy particles from outer space constantly impacting on Earth, is among the most challenging open questions in astrophysics. Now new research published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society sheds new light on the origin of those energetic particles. Discovered more than 100 years ago and considered a potential…
NASA’s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During K2 Mission
An international team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates, scientists have confirmed 104 planets outside our solar system. Among the confirmed is a planetary system comprising four…
Newly Discovered Planet Has Three Suns
If you thought Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine, was a strange world with its two suns in the sky, imagine this: a planet where you’d either experience constant daylight or enjoy triple sunrises and sunsets each day, depending on the seasons, which happen to last longer than human lifetimes. Such a world has been discovered…
In A Hubble First, Astronomers Take Images Of An Exoplanet Changing Over Time
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers at the University of Arizona have taken the first direct, time-resolved images of an exoplanet. Their results were published today inThe Astrophysical Journal. The young, gaseous exoplanet known as 2M1207b, located some 160 light-years from Earth, is four times the mass of Jupiter and orbits a failed star, known…