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Vela Supernova Remnant in Visible Light
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey, ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator. Color Composite: Davide De Martin (Skyfactory)
The explosion is over but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago a star in the constellation of Vela could be seen to explode, creating a strange point of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history. The outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium, driving a shock wave that is still visible today.
Newfound Alien Planet is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say
A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.
The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface.
“It’s the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it’s not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,” Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said. “It’s right smack in the habitable zone — there’s no question or discussion about it. It’s not on the edge, it’s right in there.”
(Source: unicornsandglitt3r, via laughcentre)
Cosmic Explorers
A deep view of the Milky Way in the constellation Carina is photographed in this single-exposure image from Cerro Paranal observatory in Chile.
