ScienceDaily: Space & Time News

Scientists predict Earth-like planets around most stars Posted: 04 Feb 2015 03:44 PM PST Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life, by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope.

VISTA stares right through the Milky Way, sees Trifid Nebula in a new light Posted: 04 Feb 2015 04:53 AM PST A new image taken with ESO's VISTA survey telescope reveals the Trifid Nebula in a new light. By observing in infrared light, astronomers can see right through the central parts of the Milky Way and spot many previously hidden objects. In one of the VISTA surveys, astronomers have discovered very distant Cepheid variable stars. They are the first such stars found that lie in the central plane of the Milky Way beyond its central bulge.

Progress toward the understanding of the galactic structure Posted: 04 Feb 2015 04:52 AM PST Researchers are studying the evolution and formation of hundreds of near galaxies. Galaxies are made up of millions of stars and their structures depend on the evolving process in which they have been subjected, including interactions with other nearby galaxies. Galaxies are a key element on cosmology, since the understanding of their structure is an approach to the phenomena that govern the formation of the universe.