Astronomy news

World's most sensitive astronomical camera developed

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 2

A team of Université de Montréal researchers, led by physics PhD student Olivier Daigle, has developed the world's most sensitive astronomical camera. Marketed by Photon etc., a young Quebec firm, the camera ...


Planet Imager will enable telescopes to image extrasolar planets directly

Planet Imager will enable telescopes to image extrasolar planets directly

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 14

The best way to observe objects in solar systems is simply to look -- but distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere drown out much of the spectacle of space. To address this problem, Berkeley astronomer James ...


The discovery of new Earths is imminent, UD astronomer says

The discovery of new Earths is imminent, UD astronomer says

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 28, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (16) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harry Shipman, Annie Jump Cannon Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, told the audience for his lecture, “Seeking New Planets,” on Saturday evening, Sept. 26, ...


Sea level stargazing: Astronomers make key sighting with Florida telescope

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 28, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- This summer, University of Florida astronomers inaugurated the world's largest optical telescope on a nearly 8,000-foot mountaintop 3,480 miles away. But it was a far more modest observatory, located just ...


Astrophysicists Move Closer to Understanding the Beauty Behind Stellar Jets

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 28, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Certain stars stream vast amounts of matter into space, creating some of the most beautiful objects in astronomers' telescopes. But while the astronomers can enjoy the beauty, they can't explain it. Adam ...


The trilogy is complete -- GigaGalaxy Zoom Phase 3

The trilogy is complete -- GigaGalaxy Zoom Phase 3

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 28, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 1

The newly released image extends across a field of view of more than one and a half square degree — an area eight times larger than that of the full Moon — and was obtained with the Wide Field Imager attached ...


Very High Energy Gamma Rays

Very High Energy Gamma Rays

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 25, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Gamma-rays are the most energetic known form of electromagnetic radiation, with each gamma ray being at least one hundred thousand times more energetic than an optical light photon. The most ...


Twin Keck telescopes probe dual dust disks

Twin Keck telescopes probe dual dust disks

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Astronomers using the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have explored one of the most compact dust disks ever resolved around another star. If placed in our own solar system, ...


Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling Planetary Material

How to Make a Planet: Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling Planetary Material

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 23, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have witnessed odd behavior around a young star. Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing a clump of planet-forming material around. The observations, ...


ALMA telescope takes another step forwards -- and upwards

ALMA telescope reaches new heights

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 23, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) astronomical observatory took another step forward and upward, as one of its state-of-the-art antennas was carried for the first time to Chile's 16,500-foot-high ...


High-School Student Discovers Strange Astronomical Object

High-School Student Discovers Strange Astronomical Object

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- A West Virginia high-school student analyzing data from a giant radio telescope has discovered a new astronomical object -- a strange type of neutron star called a rotating radio transient.


Fermi Large Area Telescope Reveals Pulsing Gamma-Ray Sources

Fermi Large Area Telescope Reveals Pulsing Gamma-Ray Sources

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory Space Science Division and a team of international researchers have positively identified cosmic sources of gamma-ray emissions through the discovery ...


Computer code gives astrophysicists first full simulation of star's final hours

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (11) | comments 2

The precise conditions inside a white dwarf star in the hours leading up to its explosive end as a Type Ia supernova are one of the mysteries confronting astrophysicists studying these massive stellar explosions. But now, ...


New vista of Milky Way center unveiled

New Vista of Milky Way Center Unveiled

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A dramatic new vista of the center of the Milky Way galaxy from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory exposes new levels of the complexity and intrigue in the Galactic center. The mosaic of ...


Zooming to the centre of the Milky Way -- GigaGalaxy Zoom phase 2

Zooming to the centre of the Milky Way -- GigaGalaxy Zoom phase 2

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 21, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The second of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project has just been released online. It is a new and wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our home galaxy as seen ...