http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Ultraluminous infrared galaxies ((ULIRGs) are galaxies whose luminosity exceeds that of a trillion suns; for comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has a typical (and much more modest) luminosity of only about ten billion suns. ULIRGs were discovered by an all-sky infrared survey satellite in the 1980's, and since then the origin(s) of their huge infrared emission has been widely debated. Extreme infrared activity is known to be associated with interacting galaxies, and optical imaging indeed shows that many ULIRGs are in collision, but this fact does not answer the question of what physical mechanism powers the luminosity. Might the same process be underway at a low level in our galaxy? http://www.physorg.com/news178544948.html Space & Earth Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:55:01 EST news178544948 (PhysOrg.com) -- Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxy's "bulge" (the myriads of stars surrounding its center), a team of astronomers has unveiled an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar "cocktail" of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days. http://www.physorg.com/news178377940.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:28:26 EST news178377940 (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 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:05:26 EST news177602620 (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 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:03:50 EST news177231800 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 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:08:17 EST news177138435 (PhysOrg.com) -- Not surprisingly, interacting galaxies have a dramatic effect on each other. Studies have revealed that as galaxies approach one another massive amounts of gas are pulled from each galaxy towards the centre of the other, until ultimately, the two merge into one massive galaxy. The object in the image, NGC 2623, is in the late stages of the merging process with the centres of the original galaxy pair now merged into one nucleus. However, stretching out from the centre are two tidal tails of young stars showing that a merger has taken place. During such a collision, the dramatic exchange of mass and gases initiates star formation, seen here in both the tails. http://www.physorg.com/news174649432.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:20:41 EST news174649432 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ram pressure is the drag force that results when something moves through a fluid -- much like the wind you feel in your face when bicycling, even on a still day -- and occurs in this context as galaxies orbiting about the centre of the cluster move through the intra-cluster medium, which then sweeps out gas from within the galaxies. http://www.physorg.com/news173529292.html Space & Earth Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:36:07 EST news173529292 (PhysOrg.com) -- Our understanding of star formation leans heavily on observations of stars like the sun, namely, those that are modest in mass and that are born and evolve at a relatively leisurely pace. http://www.physorg.com/news172237617.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:50:14 EST news172237617 The simple picture of star formation calls for giant clouds of gas and dust to collapse inward due to gravity, growing denser and hotter until igniting nuclear fusion. In reality, forces other than gravity also influence the birth of stars. New research shows that cosmic magnetic fields play a more important role in star formation than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news171720091.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:02:11 EST news171720091 The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of our galaxy is a giant complex of molecular gas and dust situated in the innermost 700 light-years of the Milky Way. Although the galaxy is over 100,000 light-years in size, nearly 10% of all of its molecular gas lies in the CMZ. Astronomers know that regions of dense gas and dust tend to produce new stars as the material coalesces and heats up under the influence of gravity. http://www.physorg.com/news170687664.html Space & Earth Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:15:25 EST news170687664 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study from two of NASA's Great Observatories provides fresh insight into how some stars are born, along with a beautiful new image of a stellar nursery in our Galaxy. The research shows that radiation from massive stars may trigger the formation of many more stars than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news169310097.html Space & Earth Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:36:56 EST news169310097 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark -- a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center. http://www.physorg.com/news167583105.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:40:01 EST news167583105 The "coming of age" of galaxies and black holes has been pinpointed, thanks to new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This discovery helps resolve the true nature of gigantic blobs of gas observed around very young galaxies. http://www.physorg.com/news165071424.html Space & Earth Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:11:01 EST news165071424 The interstellar stuff that became incorporated into the planets and life on Earth has younger cosmic roots than theories predict, according to the University of Chicago postdoctoral scholar Philipp Heck and his international team of colleagues. http://www.physorg.com/news164304081.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:50:01 EST news164304081 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bursts of star making in a galaxy have been compared to a Fourth of July fireworks display: They occur at a fast and furious pace, lighting up a region for a short time before winking out. http://www.physorg.com/news160318098.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:48:50 EST news160318098 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission marks its sixth anniversary studying galaxies beyond our Milky Way through its sensitive ultraviolet telescope, the only such far-ultraviolet detector in space. http://www.physorg.com/news160161119.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:12:47 EST news160161119 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers, led by Carnegie's Masami Ouchi, have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed when the universe was only 800 million years old. Dubbed an extended "Lyman-Alpha blob," it is a huge body of gas. It is named Himiko for a legendary Japanese queen and stretches for 55 thousand light years, a record for that early point in time. Its length is comparable to the radius of the Milky Way's disk. http://www.physorg.com/news159634614.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:57:41 EST news159634614 Over the past 19 years Hubble has taken dozens of exotic pictures of galaxies going "bump in the night" as they collide with each other and have a variety of close encounters of the galactic kind. Just when you thought these interactions couldn't look any stranger, this image of a trio of galaxies, called Arp 194, looks as if of the galaxies has sprung a leak. The bright blue streamer is really a stretched spiral arm full of newborn blue stars. This typically happens when two galaxies interact and gravitationally tug at each other gravitationally. http://www.physorg.com/news159546382.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:26:52 EST news159546382 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia have helped unveil the birthplaces of ancient stars using a two-tonne telescope carried by a balloon the size of a 33-storey building. http://www.physorg.com/news158416076.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:28:31 EST news158416076 This composite image of the Medusa galaxy (also known as NGC 4194) shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue and optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope in orange. Located above the center of the galaxy and seen in the optical data, the "hair" of the Medusa -- made of snakes in the Greek myth -- is a tidal tail formed by a collision between galaxies. The bright X-ray source found towards the left side of Medusa's hair is a black hole. http://www.physorg.com/news156014933.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:29:45 EST news156014933 (PhysOrg.com) -- On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars are young but powerful, each one shining with the brilliance of 100,000 Suns. They are also massive, containing 15 to 30 times as much material as the Sun. http://www.physorg.com/news154631619.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:15:02 EST news154631619 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence of star birth within a cloud of primordial gas has given astronomers a glimpse of a previously unknown mode of galaxy formation. The cloud, known as the Leo Ring, appears to lack the dark matter and heavy elements normally found in galaxies today. The unexpected discovery comes thanks to instruments aboard NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft which are sensitive to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by newly formed stars. http://www.physorg.com/news154186484.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:35:40 EST news154186484 Galaxies, including our own Milky Way, consist of hundreds of billions of stars. How did such gigantic galactic systems come into being? Did a central region with stars first form then with time grow? Or did the stars form at the same time throughout the entire galaxy? An international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy is now much closer to being able to answer these questions. http://www.physorg.com/news153054280.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:05:07 EST news153054280 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Yale University astronomers has discovered that galaxies stop forming stars long before their central supermassive black holes reach their most powerful stage, meaning the black holes can't be responsible for shutting down star formation. http://www.physorg.com/news151838307.html Space & Earth Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:18:47 EST news151838307 New computer visualization technology developed by the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing has helped astrophysicists understand that gravity plays a larger role than previously thought in deep space's vast, star-forming molecular clouds. http://www.physorg.com/news149951713.html Space & Earth Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:15:13 EST news149951713 Astronomers at The University of Nottingham have identified a type of galaxy that could be the missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news146828652.html Space & Earth Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:44:12 EST news146828652 Telescopes on the ground and in space have teamed up to compose a colourful image that offers a fresh look at the history of the star-studded region NGC 346. This new, ethereal portrait, in which different wavelengths of light swirl together like watercolours, reveals new information about how stars form. http://www.physorg.com/news142677511.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:38:31 EST news142677511 Using a powerful radio telescope to peer into the early universe, a team of California astronomers has obtained the first direct measurement of a nascent galaxy's magnetic field as it appeared 6.5 billion years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news142084508.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:55:08 EST news142084508 (PhysOrg.com) -- There's an old saying in astronomy: "Galaxies are like people. They're only normal until you get to know them." That view is supported by a group of astronomers after using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study a large number of galaxies in our cosmic backyard. http://www.physorg.com/news141998974.html Space & Earth Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:09:34 EST news141998974 Globular star clusters, dense bunches of hundreds of thousands of stars, contain some of the oldest surviving stars in the Universe. A new international study of globular clusters outside our Milky Way Galaxy has found evidence that these hardy pioneers are more likely to form in dense areas, where star birth occurs at a rapid rate, instead of uniformly from galaxy to galaxy. http://www.physorg.com/news137154249.html Space & Earth Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:24:09 EST news137154249