Unaccounted high-speed cosmic matter migration may point to influence from other universes. Woah.

According to space.com, new studies reveal galaxy clusters that are zipping through our universe at an amazing 1 million mph--without any observable motivation. The really cool part of the story:

The researchers think dark flow may be caused by structures that lie beyond the horizon of our own universe. As odd as that may sound, some cosmologists think that our universe is actually only a bubble of space-time that was created during a period of rapid cosmic expansion, called inflation, after the Big Bang. Other bubbles may also have been created where inflation took place at a different rate, and perhaps something in one of the other bubbles is tugging at our universe.

That's almost mind-blowingly deep. So how do you go about verifying a force that resides outside the known universe? Beats me.

What Does a Supernova Look Like After 400 Years?

via nasa.gov

It looks awesome, that's what it looks like.

Global Warming Now Imperils...Saturn

I love astronomy news. Every new discovery and mission is like the convergence of fact and science fiction.

The latest news from Titan (Saturn's biggest moon) is no different. NASA has confirmed with the Cassini probe the presence of large liquid lakes on the surface. Titan is the only body (after Earth) in the solar system to have such a feature, and it's made mostly of liquid hydrocarbons and ethane.

But alas, mankind must be endangering these pristine lakes, as global warming seems to have infected Titan:

The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. It is ringed by a dark beach, where the black lake merges with the bright shoreline.

Book your Titan vacations now, before it's too late to enjoy the frigid, natural beauty of these incredible lakes.

Phoenix Has Landed

I love reading new stories about science and technology accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Earlier this year it was shooting down a falling satellite. Today it's the Mars Phoenix Lander touching down in the northern reaches of Mars. From the story,

Landing on Mars is a notoriously tricky business. There has been about a 50% failure rate on all Mars missions since Russia launched the first one in 1960.

Phoenix is an apt name for the current mission, as it rose from the ashes of two previous failures.

In September 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft crashed into the Red Planet following a navigation error caused when technicians mixed up "English" (imperial) and metric units.

A few months later, another Nasa spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander (MPL), was lost near the planet's South Pole.

The last time a Mars probe landed using its thrusters ("soft landing") was in 1976.

There's little that's more exciting than finding out new information about the final frontier.

Awesome Space Photo of the Day

Just thought I'd share a really need space photo. Galaxy NGC something something. Doesn't matter. It just looks cool.

Saturn Beauty

One of the new images from Cassini. Simply gorgeous. What would Galileo have to say about it, I wonder.

Thank you, NASA.