Astronomy is the scientific study of all celestial objects– in other words, the study of all planets, stars, and galaxies. Astronomy also includes the study of everything else that occurs outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomy attempts to answer questions about how the universe was formed and how it has evolved over the years into the way it is now. Astronomy observations are done through many specific scientific processes and disciplines, such as evolution, physics and chemistry.

Telescopes on the Ground Begin Searching for Extraterrestrial Life:
Astronomy news makes scientific headlines every day as techniques for observing objects in the universe become increasingly more advanced. Recently, astronomy news has reported images from powerful telescopes on the Earth’s surface in Hawaii. This is significant news because this is a rare moment where significant findings have been made from the Earth’s surface rather than from telescopes on satellites orbiting the Earth or traveling through space, such as the Hubble or Spitzer space telescopes.

The first major finding using this ground-based telescope has yielded some promising news in the astronomy news community. A large distant planet was observed from the Infrared Telescope Facility called HD 189733b, located about 63 light years from the constellation of Vulpecula. The telescope that picked up these observations is located on a volcanic island in Hawaii and showed signs that the planet contains methane in its atmosphere. It was found that the methane in the atmosphere was absorbing radiation nearby and reflecting it as light. According to researchers, the methane found is very similar to traces of methane found within the atmospheres of both Jupiter and Saturn.

This is a significant finding within the astronomy community because methane is a gas that is generated by living organisms on Earth. This contrasts the way that methane is produced on such planets as Jupiter and Saturn, in which methane is produced by light converging with other chemicals within their atmosphere. Researchers and astronomers will soon better understand how these two ways of creating methane contrast from each other.

Collision of Asteroids Leaves Astronomy Community Baffled:
In further recent astronomy news, the Hubble Space Telescope has found an X-shaped pattern of debris and a trail of dust accompanying it. Many astronomers believe this has been caused by a collision of asteroids, but an observation such as this has never been made before. According to astronomy researchers, asteroid impacts are generally very violent, as they may be traveling more than 10,000 mph at the moment of impact. This is a contrast from the relatively evenly dispersed set of debris that follows a collision. The trail has been theorized to be caused by a debris falling off the surface following the impact between two objects, and it is not caused by ice melting away like in normal cases of traveling comets.

According to one astronomy theory, the asteroid belt contains significant evidence of ancient collisions, causing fragments to scatter across the solar system. One of those fragments is thought to have possibly hit the Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.