Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2016 April 15 Largest-Ever Simulation of the Universe Revealed Back in 1970, Jim Peebles at Princeton University carried out a ground-breaking experiment. He used the new-fangled technology of computing to simulate the behaviour of a cluster of galaxies under the force of gravity. This simulation was tiny by modern standards: it involved just 300 ‘particles’.
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. ET. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5). The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700. The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.
6 Virtual Tours Of The Human Body For Free Interactive Anatomy Lessons When it comes to interactive virtual views, we have gone to space and around the globe. So, it’s not surprising that we are also going within ourselves on a virtual journey of the human body. One of the finest tools available online is Visible Body. Unfortunately, it’s not free anymore. Hubble data predicts Milky Way galactic collision When Galaxies Collide! It sounds like an early science fiction novel. However, analysis of Hubble measurements shows that our own Milky Way galaxy is moving toward a head-on collision with our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy (also known as M31). Embryo space colonization Embryo space colonization is a theoretical interstellar space colonization concept that involves sending a robotic mission to a habitable terrestrial planet transporting frozen early-stage human embryos or the technological or biological means to create human embryos.[1][2] The proposal circumvents the most severe technological problems of other mainstream interstellar colonization concepts. In contrast to the sleeper ship proposal, it does not require the more technically challenging 'freezing' of fully developed humans (see cryonics). Various concepts[edit] Embryo space colonization concepts involve various concepts of delivering the embryos from Earth to an extrasolar planet around another star system. The most straightforward concept is to make use of cryogenically preserved embryos. Mission at target planet[edit]
Earth has more than one moon, astronomers confirm There are at least two moons orbiting Earth at any given time Researchers at Cornell University say that what we know as the Moon is in fact not the only one orbiting our planet at any given time. Smaller objects regularly inhabit the Earth's orbit, usually leaving after a few months to continue on their celestial journeys.
A Better Way to Teach? Any physics professor who thinks that lecturing to first-year students is the best way to teach them about electromagnetic waves can stop reading this item. For everybody else, however, listen up: A new study shows that students learn much better through an active, iterative process that involves working through their misconceptions with fellow students and getting immediate feedback from the instructor. The research, appearing online today in Science, was conducted by a team at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, in Canada, led by physics Nobelist Carl Wieman.
Hubble Wallpaper Videos See the universe come to life via animations, scientific visualizations, expert commentary, and more. Self-replicating spacecraft The idea of self-replicating spacecraft has been applied — in theory — to several distinct "tasks". The particular variant of this idea applied to the idea of space exploration is known as a von Neumann probe. Other variants include the Berserker and an automated terraforming seeder ship. Theory[edit] Bitesize Astronomy Supernova 1987A: The Three Ring Circus Week of March 6, 2000 Last week's Snack talked about why the star that was to become Supernova 1987a (what astronomers call the precursor) exploded. I concentrated on the core of the star, because for supernovae that's where the action is. I mentioned the outer layers a few times because they play their role in the explosion too: they provide the pressure for the core so it can fuse elements, and in the end it's the ejection of those outer layers that creates the supernova event.