Carbon footprint of huge astronomy observatories raises climate change concerns
Astronomers in the future may not be able to build large complex power-hungry observatories if they want to reduce their carbon footprint in line with greenhouse gas emission requirements, a study...
NASA Selects Mission to Study Black Holes, Cosmic X-ray Mysteries
NASA has selected a science mission that will allow astronomers to explore, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects, such as stellar and...
Small Satellite Deployed From the Space Station
A satellite is ejected from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer on the International Space Station on Dec. 19, 2016. The satellite is actually two small...
Top Astronomy News Stories of 2016
The discovery made headlines worldwide and even appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After more than a half-century of searching, physicists finally detected gravitational waves — ripples...
New Year’s Fireworks from a Shattered Comet
Earth will pass through a stream of debris from comet 2003 EH1 on January 3, 2017, producing a shower of meteors known as the Quadrantids. According to the International Meteor Organization and...
Space Timekeeping: NASA’s SDO Adds Leap Second to Master Clock
On Dec. 31, 2016, official clocks around the world will add a leap second just before midnight Coordinated Universal Time — which corresponds to 6:59:59 p.m. EST. NASA missions will also have to...
Hubble Gazes at a Cosmic Megamaser
This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it hosts a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in...
A Total Solar Eclipse in 2017
The “Big One” is coming. In astronomical circles there is no greater, more spectacularly stellar event than a total solar eclipse. And at long last, we will have one in the United States in 2017. It...
