http://www.physorg.com/space-news/astronomy/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on astronomy, space, earth science and space exploration. A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find. http://www.physorg.com/news177874211.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:05 EST news177874211 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar tsunami." http://www.physorg.com/news177872248.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:58 EST news177872248 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research group at Kyoto University has discovered that shocks are the primary energy sources that excite the galactic wind region of starburst galaxy NGC 253. Their images of the center of this galaxy, bright with intense star formation, have generated findings that substantially increase our meager knowledge of the physical properties of galactic winds and move us closer to understanding galaxy evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news177783331.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:20:03 EST news177783331 Astronomers have found that the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit. Studying such planets is important in understanding the diversity of planetary systems and assessing current models of how planets migrate. The findings could help astrobiologists in the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system. http://www.physorg.com/news177783167.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:30:19 EST news177783167 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just as many people are surprised to find themselves packing on unexplained weight around the middle, astronomers find the evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzling. A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4710 is part of a survey that astronomers have conducted to learn more about the formation of bulges, which are a substantial component of most spiral galaxies. http://www.physorg.com/news177764242.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:58:27 EST news177764242 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is chilled out, sporting a sunshade and getting ready to roll. NASA's newest spacecraft is scheduled to roll to the pad on Friday, Nov. 20, its last stop before launching into space to survey the entire sky in infrared light. http://www.physorg.com/news177698029.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:20:01 EST news177698029 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova," says Patrick Woudt, from the University of Cape Town and lead author of the paper reporting the results. "As these supernovae play a crucial role in showing that the Universe's expansion is currently accelerating, pushed by a mysterious dark energy, it is rather embarrassing." http://www.physorg.com/news177676554.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:36:27 EST news177676554 (PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation of Orion is a hotbed of massive star formation, most prominently in the Great Nebula that sits in Orion's sword. The glowing gas of the Nebula is powered by a group of young massive stars, but behind it is a cluster of younger stars and clumps of gas. Still gathering together under gravity's pull, these gas clumps will eventually ignite into stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177602620.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:05:26 EST news177602620 (PhysOrg.com) -- The nucleus of an active galaxy, an AGN, contains a massive black hole that is vigorously accreting material. In the process it typically ejects jets of particles and radiates brightly at many wavelengths, in particular at X-ray wavelengths. http://www.physorg.com/news177337799.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:30:51 EST news177337799 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have gained new insight into the makeup of ancient meteorites called Carbonaceous Chondrites, in research published in the October edition of the journal Earth Science and Planetary Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news177264804.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:14:14 EST news177264804 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177258394.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27:33 EST news177258394 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two teams of astronomers have found a planet outside the solar system that might be orbiting backwards compared to its star's rotation, a discovery that could shed light on how unique the relatively perfect alignment of our solar system is compared to that of other planetary systems. http://www.physorg.com/news177231800.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:03:50 EST news177231800 (PhysOrg.com) -- A ground-breaking census of 500 stars, 70 of which are known to host planets, has successfully linked the long-standing "lithium mystery" observed in the Sun to the presence of planetary systems. Using ESO's successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that Sun-like stars that host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than "planet-free" stars. This finding does not only shed light on the lack of lithium in our star, but also provides astronomers with a very efficient way of finding stars with planetary systems. http://www.physorg.com/news177168122.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:22:39 EST news177168122 The Universe's infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University. http://www.physorg.com/news177138435.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:08:17 EST news177138435 (PhysOrg.com) -- While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by. Now, astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., find that an X-ray source in galaxy NGC 5408 represents one of the best cases for a middleweight black hole to date. http://www.physorg.com/news177073969.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:14:51 EST news177073969 Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang. The finding is the first age-confirmation of a so-called dropout galaxy at that distant time and pinpoints when an era called the reionization epoch likely began. The research will be published in a December issue of the Astrophysical Journal. http://www.physorg.com/news176737523.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:46:08 EST news176737523 The most probable place to find intelligent life in the galaxy is around stars very similar to our sun, a new study has found. http://www.physorg.com/news176661214.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:50:01 EST news176661214 (PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf onto another and detonates in a thermonuclear explosion. http://www.physorg.com/news176653360.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:33:57 EST news176653360 (PhysOrg.com) -- The spectacular new camera installed on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during Servicing Mission 4 in May has delivered the most detailed view of star birth in the graceful, curving arms of the nearby spiral galaxy M83. http://www.physorg.com/news176638796.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:20:24 EST news176638796 (PhysOrg.com) -- Before our planets found their way to the stable orbits they circle in today, they wiggled and jostled about like unsettled children. Now, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a young star with evidence for the same kind of orbital hyperactivity. Young planets circling the star are thought to be disturbing smaller comet-like bodies, causing them to collide and kick up a huge halo of dust. http://www.physorg.com/news176576185.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:56:58 EST news176576185 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object. http://www.physorg.com/news176567767.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:37:05 EST news176567767 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world, is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed. http://www.physorg.com/news176449128.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:40:02 EST news176449128 Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called "starburst" galaxies, plus a satellite of our own Milky Way galaxy, represent a new category of gamma-ray-emitting objects detected both by Fermi and ground-based observatories. http://www.physorg.com/news176396829.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:08:03 EST news176396829 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international collaboration that includes scientists from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has discovered very-high-energy gamma rays in the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a bright galaxy filled with exploding stars 12 million light years from Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news176391501.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:50:01 EST news176391501 A detailed picture of the seeds of structures in the universe has been unveiled by an international team co-led by a Cardiff University scientist. http://www.physorg.com/news176389334.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:02:40 EST news176389334 (PhysOrg.com) -- Solar wind generated by the sun is probably driven by a process involving powerful magnetic fields, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers based on the latest observations from the Hinode satellite. http://www.physorg.com/news176369111.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:01 EST news176369111 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stars, the most familiar objects in the night sky, make up only a tiny percentage of the total amount of matter in the universe -- about 2%. http://www.physorg.com/news176122887.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:02:34 EST news176122887 (PhysOrg.com) -- Star clusters are among the most visually alluring and astrophysically fascinating objects in the sky. One of the most spectacular nestles deep in the southern skies near the Southern Cross in the constellation of Crux. http://www.physorg.com/news176014385.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:54:01 EST news176014385 (PhysOrg.com) -- The most distant object ever discovered is described in this week's edition of the science journal Nature. Two international teams of astronomers report their observations of a gamma-ray burst from a star that died when the Universe was 640 million years old, or less than 5 percent of its present age. http://www.physorg.com/news175969717.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:30:09 EST news175969717 During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. It captured more than one thousand discrete sources of gamma rays -- the highest-energy form of light. Capping these achievements was a measurement that provided rare experimental evidence about the very structure of space and time, unified as space-time in Einstein's theories. http://www.physorg.com/news175961092.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:06:24 EST news175961092