cosmos

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Rare Planetary Event to Grace Night Skies in June
Ever See 5 Planets
Lined Up Before?
Here's Your Chance
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Ever See 5 Planets Lined Up Before? Here's Your Chance

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn will all be aligned in June

(Newser) - Get ready for a planetary sky show not seen since "Hey Ya!" topped the charts and Mark Zuckerberg was launching Facebook out of his college dorm room. Throughout the month of June, those on the US mainland will be able to see, sans telescope, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,...

Milky Way's Black Hole Is Unveiled
Milky Way's
Black Hole
Is Unveiled

Milky Way's Black Hole Is Unveiled

Astronomers offer first look at 'gentle giant' Sagittarius A*

(Newser) - The world got a look Thursday at the first wild but fuzzy image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, per the AP . Astronomers believe nearly all galaxies, including our own, have these giant black holes at their center, where light and matter...

Among Nobel Winners: Guy Who Proved Einstein Wrong

Physics honor will be split between 3 scientists for their work on black holes

(Newser) - Three physicists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for black hole discoveries and will split the $1.1 million award. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Tuesday that Briton Roger Penrose will receive half of this year's prize "for the discovery that black hole...

Remnants of Halley's Comet Back in the Skies

The annual Orionid meteor shower is peaking

(Newser) - The annual Orionid meteor shower is back, and night owls should get a peek Monday and Tuesday night. Space.com recommends trying between 11pm and 12:30am local on Monday night, and from 11pm until 1:30am on Tuesday night. Under the best of circumstances, sky watchers can see between...

The Universe May Have Just Lost a Couple of Billion Years

Latest research suggests it may be much younger than previously thought, but there are big caveats

(Newser) - The universe is looking younger every day, it seems. New calculations suggest the universe could be a couple of billion years younger than scientists now estimate, and even younger than suggested by two other calculations published this year that trimmed hundreds of millions of years from the age of the...

Aussie Student Solves Heavy Cosmic Mystery

She finds the 'missing' mass astrophysicists have been seeking

(Newser) - An Australian aerospace engineering student has cracked a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. ABC Australia reports that undergraduate Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, 22, was on a scholarship program at Melbourne's Monash University when she discovered that the universe has a greater mass than is currently visible. Astrophysicists have held...

Four Planets Align This Month
 Four Planets Align This Month 

Four Planets Align This Month

Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in rare convergences

(Newser) - This month, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter will take part in a series of what Space.com calls "celestial summit meetings." The four planets will converge twice to form a "trio," defined as an instance when three planets fit in a circle with a minimum 5-degree...

Secret UFO Military Tape Released

'It's coming this way!' shouts airman

(Newser) - Audiotape of a baffling UFO sighting has been released, featuring excited American military investigators discussing what they see. Airmen from Bentwaters US Air Force base in Britain talk breathlessly of a "strange red light" that vanishes then reappears, "some form of energy," and barnyard animals going crazy...

Expert Tracks Ancient UFO Reports

Alien encounters may be older than we think, says Close Encounters whiz

(Newser) - Maybe we were never alone. A French UFO expert believes our first experiences with aliens may have occurred centuries ago. Though 90% of ancient reports of baffling sky sightings can be explained away, several others are "provocative" enough to merit further study, says Jacques Valle, who inspired the character...

Use Your Computer to Find ET

SETI retooling Web site, publishing search program

(Newser) - The massive Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project headquartered in California is reconfiguring its Web site and revealing its detection program to make it far easier for amateur seekers everywhere to join the quest for alien life in the cosmos. "Soon it will be time for you to get involved,...

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