Astronomers discover largest and most distant reservoir of water yet

ScienceDaily (2011-07-22) -- Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. Looking from a distance of 30 billion trillion miles away into a quasar -- one of the brightest and most violent objects in the cosmos -- the researchers have found a mass of water vapor that's at least 140 trillion times that of all the water in the world's oceans combined.

Quantum Gravity

"Gamma ray bursts - those terrific and mysterious flashes of high-energy light now considered to be probes to the farthest reaches of the Universe and earliest moments of time - may have yet another secret to reveal: quantum gravity."

Cassini Mission to Saturn

CASSINI MISSION from Chris Abbas on Vimeo.

New planets feature young star and twin Neptunes

ScienceDaily (2011-07-14) -- Scientists have discovered 10 new planets. Amongst them is one orbiting a star perhaps only a few tens of million years old, twin Neptune-sized planets, and a rare Saturn-like world.

 

Dark fireworks on the sun

On June 7, 2011, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only "M" (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption--that is, until researchers looked at the movies.

The Center of the Milky Way Galaxy. This photo is a composite of the visible, x-ray, and infrared images. If you go to this page you can see each of the photos individually.

The universe may have been born spinning?

A new study found an excess of counter-clockwise rotating or "left-handed" spiral galaxies like this one,

compared to their right-handed counterparts. This provides evidence that the universe does not have mirror symmetry. Credit: NASA, ESA

A gigantic storm is raging on Saturn.

Storm on Saturn