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Astronomy
In addition to its rivers, oceans, mountains, sand dunes and winds, Saturn’s moon Titan may someday share another similarity with Earth: airplanes.

Whether on their own or orbiting as a pair, black holes don’t typically sit still. Not only do they spin, they can also move laterally across their host galaxy. And according to astrophysicists at Brigham Young University, both types of movement power massive jets of energy known as quasars.

BYU's West Mountain Observatory captured images of the expanding gasses of an exploded star some 2000 light years away that create some interesting visuals -- a few of which look a little like Halloween characters.

BYU geologist Jani Radebaugh is part of a team that mapped the vast sand dunes of Titan with four years of radar data collected by the Cassini spacecraft.

Thirty-seven miles apart, twin stars orbit each other on a high-speed collision course. In a matter of milliseconds, the stars collide in spectacular fashion, spewing out radiation and forming an object so massive it collapses under its own weight and becomes a black hole.

By analyzing images from NASA’s Cassini Radar instrument, a Brigham Young University professor helped discover and analyze mountains on Saturn’s largest moon, additional evidence that it has some of the most earthlike processes of any celestial body in the solar system.

One and a half years after a mirror created by Brigham Young University students left Earth onboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, a second mirror – this one on the Venus Express – will be launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

With a specialized 3-D projector and state-of-the-art acoustics, the completely rebuilt Brigham Young University planetarium was unveiled by physics and astronomy department officials in March.

Brigham Young University students under the direction of physics professor David D. Allred have been asked by the Mars Society to maintain its Mars Desert Research Station. The cramped, two-story habitat in the desert of Southern Utah is part of an effort to prepare humans for exploration and possible settlement of the red planet. Students only leave the station dressed in custom-made space suits to better simulate the experience.