Nov 30, 2011 Did pieces of stone really carve these holes? Rockwood Provincial Park lies alongside the Grand River in the Niagara Escarpment region of Canada. Numerous geological features are located in the park and all are attributed to glacial … Continue reading →

Nov 29, 2011 A ring of gas is said to be orbiting the center of our galaxy. In a previous Picture of the Day, a twisted ring of material within the nucleus of Centaurus A was discussed: active galaxies display … Continue reading →

Nov 28, 2011 Consensus opinions state that a star in the latter stages of its life will undergo violent upheavals as its supply of hydrogen fuel diminishes and the “ash” of heavier elements accumulates in its core. Before stars reach … Continue reading →

Nov 24, 2011 Are carbonaceous asteroids the precursors of life or the wreckage of life? NASA plans to launch the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer mission, also known as OSIRIS-REx, in 2016. The spacecraft will orbit the … Continue reading →

Nov 23, 2011 The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way, is called a nursery for new stars. The growing awareness of plasma should make it also a nursery for new ideas to … Continue reading →

Nov 22, 2011 Water has been reportedly found inside rocks brought back from the Moon. If it is there, where did it come from? In previous Picture of the Day articles, the presence of frozen water on the Moon was … Continue reading →

Nov 21, 2011 Without a theory of electricity in space, astronomers must explain cosmic lightning with theories of falling gas. To get x-rays from falling gas, the gas must be attracted to a source of gravity with orders-of-magnitude more force … Continue reading →

Nov 18, 2011 Do the features on Europa indicate subsurface lakes? I care not what the sailors say: All those dreadful thunder-stones, All that storm that blots the day Can but show that Heaven yawns; Great Europa played the fool … Continue reading →

Nov 17, 2011 A thin mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide has been found above Saturn’s moon Rhea. A NASA press release states that the atmosphere on Rhea is 100 times less dense than that found on Europa by the … Continue reading →