Astronomy news

A look into the hellish cradles of suns and solar systems

A Look into the Hellish Cradles of Suns and Solar Systems

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 19, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

The dense star cluster RCW 38 glistens about 5500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). Like the Orion Nebula Cluster, RCW 38 is an "embedded cluster", in that the nascent ...


Scientists make first discovery using revolutionary long wavelength demonstrator array

Scientists make first discovery using revolutionary long wavelength demonstrator array

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 18, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Scientists from NRL's Space Science and Remote Sensing Divisions, in collaboration with researchers from the University of New Mexico and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory located in Socorro, N.M., ...


The Edge of a Black Hole

The Edge of a Black Hole

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 18, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (27) | comments 14

The existence of black holes is one of the most amazing and bizarre predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity. Despite his original misgivings about their reality, massive black hole holes are today believed ...


The public's "right to starlight" is being eroded by urban illumination that is the bane of astronomers everywhere

We have a 'right to starlight,' astronomers say

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 15, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (31) | comments 38

The public's "right to starlight" is steadily being eroded by urban illumination that is the bane of astronomers everywhere, the International Astronomical Union said on Friday.


Tiny flares responsible for outsized heat of sun's atmosphere

Tiny Flares Responsible for Outsized Heat of Sun's Atmosphere

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 14, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar physicists at NASA have confirmed that small, sudden bursts of heat and energy, called nanoflares, cause temperatures in the thin, translucent gas of the sun's atmosphere to reach millions ...


Planck Sees Light Billions of Years Old

Planck Sees Light Billions of Years Old

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 2

The Planck space telescope has begun to collect light left over from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe.


Super Planetary Nebulae

Super Planetary Nebulae

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists in Australia and the United States, led by Associate Professor Miroslav Filipović from the University of Western Sydney, have discovered a new class of object which ...


Huge new planet tells of game of planetary billiards

Huge new planet tells of game of planetary billiards

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists has found a new planet which orbits the wrong way around its host star. The planet, named WASP-17, and orbiting a star 1000 light years away, was found by the UK's WASP ...


Trigger-Happy Star Formation

Trigger-Happy Star Formation

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

(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 ...


Variability of type 1a supernovae has implications for dark energy studies

Variability of type 1a supernovae has implications for dark energy studies

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 20

(PhysOrg.com) -- The stellar explosions known as type 1a supernovae have long been used as "standard candles," their uniform brightness giving astronomers a way to measure cosmic distances and the expansion ...


Caltech scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan

Scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 1

For all its similarities to Earth -- clouds that pour rain (albeit liquid methane not liquid water) onto the surface producing lakes and rivers, vast dune fields in desert-like regions, plus a smoggy orange ...


Particles as tracers for the most massive explosions in the Milky Way

Particles as tracers for the most massive explosions in the Milky Way

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 11, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 9

Astronomers recently observed a mysterious flux of particles in the universe, and the hope was born that this may be the first observation of the remnants of "dark matter". But scientists from the University ...


The violent youth of solar proxies steer course of genesis of life

The violent youth of solar proxies steer course of genesis of life

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 10, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 4

Just how rare life is in the Universe is one of the key questions in the natural sciences today. By pulling in multidisciplinary expertise from biology, geology, physics and astronomy, astrobiologists are ...


Planetary Smash-Up

Planet Smash-Up Sends Vaporized Rock, Hot Lava Flying (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 10, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence of a high-speed collision between two burgeoning planets around a young star.


First black holes born starving

First black holes born starving (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 10, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (17) | comments 13

The first black holes in the universe had dramatic effects on their surroundings despite the fact that they were small and grew very slowly, according to recent supercomputer simulations carried out by astrophysicists ...