Astronomy news

NJIT receives funding to improve Big Bear Telescope, study solar energy

NJIT receives funding to improve Big Bear Telescope, study solar energy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

NJIT researchers are at work on many scientific and technological frontiers. The National Science Foundation has recently provided support that totals nearly $4.3 million for the diverse efforts of the following ...


Hunting for Planets in the Dark

Hunting for Planets in the Dark

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3

A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find.


Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved

Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (23) | comments 8

(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 ...


Maps Unveil the Source of Starburst Galaxy's Winds

Maps Unveil the Source of Starburst Galaxy's Winds

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(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 ...


Subaru Telescope Spots Strange Spin

Discovery of a Retrograde or Highly Tilted Extrasolar Planet

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1

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 ...


Baffling boxy bulge

NGC 4710 galaxy: Baffling boxy bulge (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (13) | comments 0

(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 ...


China Joins Thirty Meter Telescope Project

China Joins Thirty Meter Telescope Project

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has joined the Thirty Meter Telescope Project (TMT). As an Observer, China will participate in planning the ...


NASA's Wise Gets Ready to Survey the Whole Sky

NASA's Wise Gets Ready to Survey the Whole Sky (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(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. ...


Ticking stellar time bomb identified

Ticking stellar time bomb identified (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(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 ...


Record-Breaking Radio Astronomy Project to Measure Sky with Extreme Precision

Record-Breaking Radio Astronomy Project to Measure Sky with Extreme Precision

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers will tie together the largest collection of the world's radio telescopes ever assembled to work as a single observing tool in a project aimed at improving the precision of the ...


Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns

Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(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 ...


Mysterious X-rays from a Nearby Galaxy

Mysterious X-rays from a Nearby Galaxy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (15) | comments 8

(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 ...


Research gives new insights into 4 billion year-old meteorites

Research gives new insights into 4 billion year-old meteorites

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(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 Le ...


2 Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres found -- but they're stars not planets

Two Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres found -- but they're stars not planets

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (20) | comments 1

(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 ...


A faraway planet intrigues: Exoplanet with extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy

A faraway planet intrigues: Exoplanet with extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 6

(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 ...