Astronomy news

Suzaku Finds 'Fossil' Fireballs from Supernovae

Space & Earth / Astronomy

6 hours ago | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Studies of two supernova remnants using the Japan-U.S. Suzaku observatory have revealed never-before-seen embers of the high-temperature fireballs that immediately followed the explosions. ...

Keck Telescopes Take Deeper Look at Planetary Nurseries

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 23, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (13) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory have peered far into a young planetary system, giving an unprecedented view of dust and gas that might eventually form planets similar to Jupiter, ...

Vampires and collisions rejuvenate stars

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 23, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (9) | 2

Stars in globular clusters are generally extremely old, with ages of 12-13 billion years. However, a small fraction of them appear to be significantly younger than the average population and, because they ...

Supernova explosions stay in shape

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (8) | 2

At a very early age, children learn how to classify objects according to their shape. Now, new research suggests studying the shape of the aftermath of supernovas may allow astronomers to do the same.

How water forms where Earth-like planets are born

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (10) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops ...

Astronomers Find Super-Earth Using Amateur, Off-the-Shelf Technology (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (28) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. They found the distant planet with a small fleet of ground-based ...

Black Holes in Star Clusters stir up Time and Space (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (16) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Within a decade scientists could be able to detect the merger of tens of pairs of black holes every year, according to a team of astronomers at the University of Bonn’s Argelander-Institut ...

Giant Planet Set for a Cataclysmic Show

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (16) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent ...

Inside the dark heart of the Eagle

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (8) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching ...

Herschel Space Telescope uncovers the sources of the Cosmic Infrared Background

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 16, 2009 | 5 / 5 (12) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using first observations with the PACS Instrument on board ESA’s Herschel Space Telescope, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions have ...

Close-up photos of dying star show our sun's fate (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 15, 2009 | 5 / 5 (21) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet ...

First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (17) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other universities have captured the first direct image of a young ...

Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (16) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. ...

Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest ...

New planet discoveries suggest low-mass planets are common around nearby stars (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (19) | 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of ...

Born in beauty: Proplyds in the Orion Nebula (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (9) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to ...

VISTA: Pioneering new survey telescope starts work

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (11) | 1

VISTA is the latest telescope to be added to ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) and shares ...

A New View of Coronal Waves

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 11, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The corona is the hot outer region of the sun's atmosphere. The corona is threaded by magnetic fields that loop and twist upwards from the sun's surface, driven by motions of its dense atmosphere.