Astronomy

The first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), begins its journey at 11.56 a.m. from the Vandenberg base, California (USA), aboard a Delta II rocket.

NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission has discovered that the Sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, is much larger than previously thought, reaching up to 8 million kilometers above the surface of the astro. The results of the study have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The list of planets located outside our solar system that are potentially habitable continues to grow. The new member of the list is Gliese 832 c, a super-earth that orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 832, already known to the astronomical world for hosting a planet similar to a cold Jupiter, Gliese 832 b.

The search for dark matter, that mysterious and invisible substance that makes up most of the material universe and that neither absorbs nor emits light, could have taken a new step. Two observatories, NASA's Chandra X-ray and the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton have detected what appears to be a dark matter signal. The discovery has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

A team of astronomers has detected the faintest known white dwarf, an ancient stellar remnant so cold that the carbon it contains has crystallized and given rise to a kind of immense diamond.

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious and brilliant geological object never seen before in Ligeia Mare, the second largest sea on Titan, the moon of Saturn.

According to the calculations of the National Astronomical Observatory, the summer of 2014 will begin exactly at 12:51 (peninsular time) on Saturday, June 21.

An international team of scientists has designed a tool that will make it possible to locate life on planets outside our solar system. This new form is based on the search for methane, a gas considered one of the pillars of life.