Astronomy

Supernovae, that is, the explosions produced by the collapse of massive stars, only leave us a flash of light in the sky: small amounts of matter from these phenomena also reach Earth.

In the Solar System there could be at least two planets located beyond Pluto whose existence has gone unnoticed until now.

An asteroid of a considerable size, since it is estimated to be half a kilometer in diameter, will pass quite close to Earth on January 26. In fact, it is the first space rock of this size to come closest to our planet since it has been recorded. The asteroid has been christened 2004 BL86 and will pass three times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It will be a unique event that will not be repeated for at least 200 years.

The construction of the LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) or Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, will finally see the light after decades of planning and fundraising. The new telescope, with both public and private funding (Bill Gates contributed $ 10 million to the project and Charles Simonyi - a former Microsoft executive and well-known philanthropist - $ 20 million), will be made up of scientists from the University of Washington (USA). .UU.) And other institutions.

A team of astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA) has located a total of eight new planets in the area known as "Goldilocks" (Goldilocks) within the stellar habitable space, of which two of them are very similar to Earth; in fact, these are the exoplanets that currently most resemble the Earth of all those identified so far.

During his stay on the International Space Station, the German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took thousands of beautiful photographs of the Earth from his privileged position. Now this video combines more than 12,000 of these shots to create an absolutely mesmerizing timelapse.

2014 will be remembered as the year of the "Rosetta mission." His arrival at comet 67 / P Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been designated by the most prestigious scientific journals in the world such as Science or Nature as the most outstanding scientific advance of 2014.

A team of scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center has devised a novel exploration program aimed at sending manned missions to Venus, the closest planet to Earth.