Stellary Starry Universe

 

This color-composite image of the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, was taken by the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope and is part of the Digitized Sky Survey. Credit: NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech

It’s an ideal time to break out your binoculars and explore the profusion of open or galactic star clusters.

With the waxing Moon not overly bright this week, it’s an ideal time to break out your binoculars and explore the profusion of open or galactic star clusters now evident in our evening sky. Such clusters represent aggregations of young, recently born stars. They are in our galaxy’s local spiral arm, into whose interior we are looking at this time of year. These stars condensed out of the interstellar gas in this part of our Milky Way system. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Some researchers believe life may have had a chance of survival on Mars. based on Phoenix lander data.

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

Missing asteroids may be the handiwork of rampaging giant planets.

Missing asteroids in our solar system may be the handiwork of rampaging giant planets as they migrated to their current positions, according to a new computer simulation.

Scientists have known that planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune migrated during the first several million years of early existence. The new simulation showed that the giant planets would have disturbed many asteroids as they fled the scene, leaving behind “footprints” that match the real-life patterns in the main asteroid belt. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

For the first time, a spacecraft from Earth has captured hi-resolution video of a solar eclipse while orbiting another world.

Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter accomplished the feat on Feb. 9, 2009, when the Sun, Earth and Moon lined up in a nearly perfect row. From Kaguya’s point of view, Earth moved in front of the Sun, producing an otherworldly “diamond-ring” eclipse. Click on the snapshot to launch a movie of the event recorded by Kaguya’s onboard HDTV camera. [...]

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article

 

 

A thunderstorm-related phenomenon may explain some UFO sightings.

Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites — flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms.

The dancing lights have appeared above most thunderstorms throughout history, but researchers did not start studying them until one accidentally recorded a sighting on camera in 1989. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article