Supermassive black hole spins super-fast

In this artist's conception a supermassive black hole is surrounded by a hot accretion disk, while some inspiraling material is funneled into a wispy blue jet. New measurements show that the black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1365 is spinning at close to the maximum possible rate. This suggests that it grew via "ordered accretion" rather than by swallowing random blobs of gas and stars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across - eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon - spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such an object exists: the supermassive black hole at the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 1365. 

Pristine moon crater could help unlock secrets of impacts

Scientists trying to understand the evolution of impact craters on Earth and other rocky bodies have found a good case study on the moon.

Researchers are focusing on Linne Crater, which lies in the moon's Mare Serenitatis region. Linne is just 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) wide, but it's extremely young — having formed just 10 million years or so ago — and beautifully preserved.

Total Solar Eclipse - Australia 14 November 2012

A total eclipse of the Sun is arguably nature's most spectacular and awe-inspiring phenomenon. Australia will play host to such an event next week and all eyes will be on the horizon overlooking the Coral Sea in Tropical North Queensland as the total solar eclipse casts an incredible shadow across the region on November 14.

Port Douglas and Cairns will be the best places in the world to witness this natural phenomenon and well known Australian astronomer Dave Reneke, writer and publicist for Australasian Science magazine, will be on hand to record it all.

New research eclipses existing theories on the Moon formation

The Moon is believed to have formed from a collision, 4.5 billion years ago, between Earth and an impactor the size of Mars, known as "Theia."

Over the past decades scientists have simulated this process and reproduced many of the properties of the Earth-Moon system; however, these simulations have also given rise to a problem known as the Lunar Paradox: the Moon appears to be made up of material that would not be expected if the current collision theory is correct. A recent study published in Icarus proposes a new perspective on the theory in answer to the paradox.

Teotihuacan: Ancient City of Pyramids

Located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of modern-day Mexico City, Teotihuacan was one of the largest urban centers in the ancient world. No one knows who built it. The city flourished between 2,100 years ago, when construction began, and about 1,400 years ago, when it went into a period of decline, including a fire that caused great damage. However, even with the decline, the city was never truly “lost” — the Aztecs made regular pilgrimages to the site in later periods.

New impact crater in the Canadian arctic revealed

Last week, NASA’s Curiosity Rover made its historic landing on Mars. And while scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California get ready to examine the environs of Gale crater, a new impact feature was revealed by researchers right here on Earth.

Two years ago, surveyors for the Natural Resources Canada Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals program noted an unusual geological feature on Victoria Island in the high Canadian Arctic. This 25 km-wide circular feature displayed signs of tilted strata, shatter cones, and fractured radial lines atypical of the region, but typical of a meteorite impact.