Recent Astronomy Articles

November 20th, 2009 by Steve Evans

Recent astronomy articles appear all over the Internet and in magazines dedicated to the science and the hobby. People write when new images are taken. New space missions result in articles. Every new discovery and piece of information generates a tremendous amount of discussion. This article relates a few of them.

There were many recent astronomy articles on space dust that was bumpy. Why is that? Scientists have long known that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. However, larger molecules require that hydrogen bonds. In the cold of space it takes the right medium to complete the bond. Bumpy molecules provide that medium, so now scientists have verified a theory on how hydrogen forms molecules in space. Bumpy dusty, who would have thought it.

One of Saturn’s moons is called the “Death Star.” It looks like the Star Wars space station, with a huge crater on one side. Recent astronomy articles focused on Cassini’s mission to this moon, called Mimas. New photos and information were gathered. And, of course, many people read all about it. This information will help shed light on the number of impact objects that pass through Saturn’s orbit. There’s still a lot to learn about traffic through the solar system, and how the giants Jupiter and Saturn help keep things clear.

It’s long been known that dark matter exists in the universe. It’s not well understood how it helps the universe expand. In 2008 a number of the recent astronomy articles were dedicated to the search for and analysis of dark matter. SNAP, the SuperNova/Acceleration Probe, was planned to help solve dark matter by examining many distant supernovae. Dark matter makes up about 70% of the matter in the universe, so learning about it is important.

Before becoming a sun, our little yellow sun was just a proto-sun. But scientists wondered if this protosun emitted any heat or light or a solar wind enough to effect the formation of life on Earth. Recent astronomy articles answer this question with a resounding yes. New techniques have revealed that the proto-sun had a particle rich solar wind along with light and heat. These emissions helped form life on Earth even before the sun was a sun.

The Internet is a great source for learning about Recent astronomy articles.