Oct 13, 2014 Galaxies are electrically active. The image at the top of the page is a composite. It is made up of optical data from the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory and one from the Hubble Space Telescope. The highlighted red features are areas that are thought…
Oct 10, 2014 Was the innermost planet once wracked by explosive vulcanism? The MESSENGER spacecraft has been a satellite of Mercury for a little more than three years. Its arrival on March 18, 2011 marked one of the longest voyages to cover the shortest distance of any mission. MESSENGER flew…
Oct 08, 2014 What caused the mass concentrations on the Moon? Consensus scientific theories postulate that the Moon experienced extreme selenological activity early in its history. Cataclysmic devastation occurred at some time in the past. Giant craters, wide and deep valleys, and multi-kilometer long rilles crisscross its surface. The tacit…
Oct 07, 2014 Ionic rain from Saturn’s rings. Saturn’s plasmasphere is an electrical environment, causing everything from dark-mode plasma discharges to lightning bolts that flash across the ring plane. When Cassini entered orbit around the giant planet, mission specialists were shocked to discover lightning of immense power, up to a million times more powerful than anything…
Oct 06, 2014 The largest galaxy cluster is said to contain a majority of dark matter. “One can show the following: given any rule, however ‘fundamental’ or ‘necessary’ for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite.” —…
Oct 3, 2014 Space and time do not bend or warp. In September 1998 astrophysicists documented an inexplicable “tug” acting on the now defunct Ulysses spacecraft as it traveled through the Solar System in an orbit over the Sun’s poles. When radio signals from Earth were returned from an…
Oct 02, 2014 Enceladus continues to confirm the electrical nature of its topography. Saturn’s moons are difficult to categorize, let alone explain. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, they vary in composition, orbital inclination, size, and mass. With 61 moons now identified, Saturn appears more like a miniature Solar…
Oct 1, 2014 Pulsars are more like oscillating circuits. On July 4, 1054 CE, Chinese astrologers saw a “guest star” near Zeta Tauri in the constellation Taurus. They record that it was bright enough to shine in daylight, but lasted only about a year before fading out. John Bevis…
Sep 30, 2014 A black hole in the center of NGC 2110 is said to be spawning new star clusters Previous Picture of the Day articles repeatedly take issue with the idea that black holes are part of the Universe. It is a common expression in astronomical reports that…
Sep 29, 2014 Supernovae might not be what astrophysicists claim. Type 1A supernovae are important to astronomers for two reasons: their light-curves, or graphs of their intensity over time, are considered to be so predictable that they can be used as cosmic measuring rods, with a theoretical accuracy of…
