Diversas imagens e artigos sobre o espaço

As imagens acima foram retiradas da NASA - a última é de Neptuno e Tritão (podem clicar em cima para acederem a uma versão ampliada).

Leituras de Dezembro sobre o espaço - as notícias sobre os exo-planetas são cada vez mais magníficas:

Waterworld planet is more Earth-like than any discovered before | Science | guardian.co.uk: "Astronomers spotted the waterworld orbiting a star in our cosmic backyard, raising the chances that we will eventually discover planets suitable for life" .

'Zona habitável' terá de incluir planetas exteriores - Ciência - DN

Exoplanetary Thoughts for 2010 | Centauri Dreams 

Possible habitable zones around stars. Credit: Kepler mission

Kepler Discovers Planets-like Objects Hotter Than Stars | Universe Today: "The Kepler mission announced the discovery of 5 new extrasolar planets today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC, each with some very unusual properties. But additionally, the space telescope has spotted some Jupiter-sized objects orbiting stars, and these objects are hotter than the host star. The science team has no idea what these objects could be, but they are part of 100 planetary candidates Kepler has observed that are still being analyzed. The Kepler mission's objective is to search for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of other stars, and the planets announced today are comparable in size to Neptune, Jupiter and the other gas giants of our solar system but are substantially less dense. This first set of five new planets discovered by the Kepler mission was discovered in the first six weeks of the telescope's operation. 'The quick discovery indicates that Kepler is performing well,' said William Borucki, from NASA's Ames Research Center." 

Intergalactic Connection is Older, Longer than Thought | Universe Today
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PS: Faltou esta:

Dual Black Holes Spinning in a Cosmic Dance – Complete with Disco Ball | Universe Today: "Astronomers have discovered 33 pairs of merging black holes in cosmic dances around each other, a finding that was predicted or 'choreographed' by Isaac Newton. 'These results are significant because we now know that these 'waltzing' black holes are much more common than previously known,' said Dr. Julia Comerford of the University of California, Berkeley, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC. 'Galaxy mergers are causing the waltzing, can use this finding to determine how often mergers occur. The black holes dancing towards us are red-shifted with blue light, and those moving away from us are shifted toward the red. So it is like a cosmic disco ball showing us where the black holes are dancing.'"