star Archives

The TRAPPIST-1 system contains a total of seven planets, all around the size of Earth. Three of them -- TRAPPIST-1e, f and g -- dwell in their star's so-called "habitable zone." The habitable zone, or Goldilocks zone, is a band around every star (shown here in green) where astronomers have calculated that temperatures are just right -- not too hot, not too cold -- for liquid water to pool on the surface of an Earth-like world. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA Telescope Reveals Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star

February 23, 2017 Kay Whatley

By Elizabeth Landau (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Felicia Chou and Sean Potter (NASA Headquarters) NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are […]

This four-panel graphic illustrates how the binary-star system V Hydrae is launching balls of plasma into space. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI).

Hubble Detects Giant “Cannonballs” Shooting from Star

October 6, 2016 Kay Whatley

Released by Elizabeth Landau (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Donna Weaver / Ray Villard (Space Telescope Science Institute), and Felicia Chou (NASA Headquarters) Great balls of fire! NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected superhot blobs of gas, each twice […]

national

UFO Sightings by US State: February 2019

March 12, 2019

By Kay Whatley, Editor Across the United States each year, thousands of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are reported. UFO reports cover close encounters of various types, range from blinking lights in the sky to […]

feature

The Strange-ness: Lightning Kills Reindeer Herd in Norway

August 29, 2016

According to the Norwegian Environmental Agency, lightning killed several hundred reindeer. The herd on Hardangervidda — a mountain plateau — was hit by lightning Friday, August 23, 2016. The herd included males and females, including seventy calves. […]

editorial

It Might be Bigfoot

June 1, 2021

By Donna Campbell Smith I believe in the existence of bigfoot. My interest is rooted in stories Daddy told when I was a young person. He listened to ‘talk radio” at night and he’d relate […]