Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained new insights about the atmosphere of Pluto - (it's a dwarf now, get over it.) What stands out?   Large amounts of methane in the…

Astronomy as a profession is hyper-specialized.  What do you study-- planets, stars, galaxies, clusters, cosmology? Oh, if only it were that simple.  Say you study stars.  It doesn't…

I have read many works about black holes and one thing is possible to say for sure: nobody knows what really happens inside a black hole. There is a lot of theories about that. But they don’t have…

Interstellar space dust from a dead star identified by a research team led by The University of Nottingham could unlock some of the mysteries of the early universe. Dr Loretta Dunne and her team have…

A deep new image of the magnificent Helix planetary nebula has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows a rich background of distant galaxies, usually…

Sadly, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) had a launch failure, and is now spread out on Antarctica somewhere. Ironically, I'd written earlier today about the economics of the New Horizons mission…

Sending stuff into space requires it be lightweight and functional. And people seem to really like their lightweight, functional iPhones. But if we just sent an iPhone to Pluto, it wouldn't be able…

We're 54 days into the International Year of Astronomy, and what better way to celebrate than to peer at the heavens through your very own Galileoscope? Orders begin shipping in April. Until your…

On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars…

We hear a lot about 'going green' these days and it seems even the Universe can't endure one more moment of Al Gore putting his hands together, as if in prayer, and guilting us into investing in…