Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the discoveries made by the New Horizons spacecraft recently. In a news conference yesterday afternoon in america (translates to late night here), NASA announced the finding of an extended haze and flowing ice on Pluto's surface.Scientists were hoping for surprises with the New Horizons mission, and … Continue reading Pluto’s Haze →

Pluto dazzles in false color, a preview of what's coming up at 2pm EDT!

More Pluto photos are due today at 2 pm EDT.. Stay tuned for more!

The Solar Constant- a term which I was introduced to in one of my Physics classes this year. I had known how to calculate the Luminosity of stars at the time. Using my knowledge on the brightness of stars, I was able to figure out the way to calculate the Solar constant online. The Solar Constant … Continue reading The Solar Constant →

NASA has announced the discovery of an earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star, which is 10% brighter and older at almost the same distance as our Earth orbits the Sun! This announcement was made yesterday afternoon in America, which translates to nighttime here in Nepal. The planet is christened Kepler-452b and was discovered by the … Continue reading An Earth-like Planet Discovery →

Pluto's tiny moons, Nix and Hydra, are so tiny that they do not have enough gravity to force themselves into a spheroid shape. They are irregular, and have been photographed by the New Horizons spacecraft in its historic 14th July flyby.

New pictures that arrived in the wee hours of today morning here in Nepal (unfortunately, I have not been able to update recent happenings due to my busy schedule) depict the presence of a second mountain range on Pluto's now famous "Heart". It lies some 110 kilometers away from the Norgay montes.This region is thought … Continue reading More Mountains in Pluto’s Heart! →

On this faithful day, all those years ago in 1969, history of epic proportions was made. Two men, namely Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, descended to the Lunar surface, and planted the American flag. 20th July, 1969. It was the day of the lunar landing.The mission was so close to fatality. Had it not been … Continue reading In Memory.. →

Its right to say that it has been a jolly good week in science. First of all, there was the small matter of the first flyby of Pluto! Data is still being sent (will be continuously sent up till the last few months of next year). It was our first glimpse of the Dwarf planet's … Continue reading This Week in Science →

This is a post originally posted by the Planetary Society.As you can see, none of the artists, bar the top-right hand corner one, managed to get a decent adaptation of Pluto's surface before New Horizons stepped in and gave us our first real image. I think its fair to say this is why Astronomy is … Continue reading Pluto’s Artist Renderings →