New Planet Discovered

First Spotted Outside Our Galaxy

A new planet discovered orbiting a bloated red star is the first world we know of that was born in another galaxy.

Since the mid-1990s astronomers have been adding to the list of known exoplanets, planets that exist outside our solar system. The nearly 500 exoplanets found so far all formed in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

newfound baby black hole.

Baby Black Hole Found—Are You Older Than a Cosmic Monster?

Just 50 million light-years away there's a black hole that may appear younger than you .
This week astronomers announced the discovery of the youngest black hole yet spotted the light we're seeing today came from the black hole when the object was about 30 years old. The find is giving scientists a first glimpse into the early development of these cosmic predators.

It's thought most black holes are born when massive stars go supernova, leaving behind ultradense cores that either form small but extremely massive neutron stars or collapse into black holes.

Although new supernovae are being discovered across the universe almost every week, seeing any newborn black holes can be tricky.

How Hartley 2 Creates "Snowstorm"

Comet's Snowstorm

Sharpened Blizzard

Ice Particles, Near and Far

Yellow circles mark the relatively large ice chunks surrounding comet Hartley 2 in a picture taken earlier this month by NASA's EPOXI spacecraft.

Comet Collision Risk

Yellow circles highlight two streaks—larger particles inside the halo of comet Hartley 2.

The particles are streaking because they are near the EPOXI spacecraft, which hurtled through the comet's halo at about 27,000 miles (43,000 kilometers) an hour

Comet's Dry-Ice Jets

An illustration shows the likely way frozen carbon dioxide, aka dry ice, inside comet Hartley 2 drives the highly active jets at the surface of the nucleus.

When the comet nears the sun, heat causes the dry ice to sublimate, or turn directly from a solid to a gas. The gas then shoots out of the surface, carrying particles of dirt and water ice.

Space Pictures This Week

Cosmic Train Wreck

Spinning Stars

Runaway Star

Aurora, Interrupted

Comet Bites the Dust

Thanksgiving 2010 Myths and Facts

Thanksgiving Dinner: Recipe for Food Coma?

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and family tuck into Thanksgiving dinner in 1953.

Before the big dinner, debunk the myths—for starters, the first "real" U.S. Thanksgiving wasn't until the 1800s—and get to the roots of Thanksgiving 2010. Key to any Thanksgiving Day menu are a fat turkey and cranberry sauce.

Some 242 million turkeys were raised in the U.S. in 2010 for slaughter, down 2 percent from 2009's total, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service. Last year's birds were worth about U.S. $3.6 billion.

About 46 million turkeys will end up on U.S. dinner tables this Thanksgiving—or about 736 million pounds (334 million kilograms) of turkey meat, according to estimates from the National Turkey Federation.

These "big six" states produce two of every three U.S.-raised birds, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. farmers will also produce 735 million pounds (333 million kilograms) of cranberries, which, like turkeys, are native to the Americas. The top producers are Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

The U.S. will also grow 1.9 billion pounds (862 million kilograms) of sweet potatoes—many in North Carolina, California, and Louisiana—and will produce 931 million pounds (422 million kilograms) of pumpkins.

What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?

Little is known about the first Thanksgiving dinner in the Plimoth (also spelled Plymouth) Colony in October 1621, attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 Wampanoag American Indian men in what is now Massachusetts.

We do know that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast, and that the colonists shot wild fowl—which may have been geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form, or forms, of Indian corn were also served.