Astronomy news

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 (21) | 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 ...


Exoplanets Clue to Sun's Curious Chemistry

Exoplanets Clue to Sun's Curious Chemistry

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (21) | comments 15

(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. ...


Rapid star formation spotted in 'stellar nurseries' of infant galaxies

Rapid star formation spotted in 'stellar nurseries' of infant galaxies

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 1

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.


NASA's Great Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

NASA's Great Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy is being unveiled by NASA on Nov. 10. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope ...


Swift, XMM-Newton satellites tune into a middleweight black hole

Swift, XMM-Newton satellites tune into a middleweight black hole

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(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 ...


'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies

'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (11) | comments 15

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 ...


In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 34

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have published the discovery of the farthest known object in the cosmos: a star that exploded when the universe was only 630 million years old -- only 4.6% of its current age. ...


Starring Intelligent Aliens

Starring Intelligent Aliens

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 7

The most probable place to find intelligent life in the galaxy is around stars very similar to our sun, a new study has found.