Icy ridges found on Pluto

more »
Using a model similar to what meteorologists use to forecast weather on Earth and a computer simulation of the physics of evaporating ices, a new study has found evidence that snow and ice features previously only seen on Earth, have been spotted on Pluto.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Nano-chimneys can cool circuits

more »
Researchers show that tweaking graphene to place cones between it and nanotubes grown from its surface would form 'nano-chimneys' that help heat escape. The discovery offers a strategy to channel heat away from nano-electronics.
via Science Daily

Fast radio burst tied to distant dwarf galaxy, and perhaps magnetar

more »
Since first detected 10 years ago, fast radio bursts have puzzled astronomers. Unlike pulsars, they flash irregularly, most only once, and only for milliseconds. And they seem to come from outside the galaxy, meaning they are very energetic. A team of astronomers has now localized the only repeating burst, to a distant dwarf galaxy. The researcher who created the rapid data collection and analysis software sees a connection to magnetars.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Astronomers Trace Brief Signals to a Faraway Galaxy

more »
The short bursts of radio waves, though, don’t appear to be communications from an alien civilization.
via New York Times

Op-Ed Contributor: Why Vera Rubin Deserved a Nobel

more »
And why, despite discovering dark matter, she didn’t win one.
via New York Times

Hidden secrets of Orion's clouds

more »
This spectacular new image is one of the largest near-infrared high-resolution mosaics of the Orion A molecular cloud, the nearest known massive star factory, lying about 1350 light-years from Earth. It reveals many young stars and other objects normally buried deep inside the dusty clouds.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Clouds of Andromeda

more »
The beautiful Andromeda Galaxy is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. Also known as M31, the nearest large spiral galaxy is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by blue starlight. A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data, this colorful, premier portrait of our neighboring island universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view. Still, the ionized hydrogen clouds likely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They could be associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-years above our own galactic plane. If they were located at the 2.5 million light-year distance of the Andromeda Galaxy they would be enormous, since the Andromeda Galaxy itself is 200,000 or so light-years across.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old