Astronomy news
Herschel first images promise bright future
Jul 10, 2009 |
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Herschel has carried out the first test observations with all its instruments, with spectacular results. Galaxies, star-forming regions and dying stars comprised the telescope's first targets. The instruments ...
New class of black holes discovered
Jul 01, 2009 |
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A new class of black hole, more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, has been discovered by an international team of astronomers.
Living fossils hold record of 'supermassive' kick
Jul 09, 2009 |
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The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object and a fossil record of the kick.
Kepler Detects Atmosphere of Hot World
Aug 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities. The discovery ...
Did 'Dark Gulping' Generate Black Holes in Early Universe?
Apr 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A process called ‘dark gulping’ may solve the mystery of the how supermassive black holes were able to form when the Universe was less than a billion years old.
Discovery poses challenge to galaxy formation theories
Apr 10, 2009 |
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A team led by an Indiana University astronomer has found a sample of massive galaxies with properties that suggest that they may have formed relatively recently. This would run counter to the widely-held belief ...
Scientists discover storms in the tropics of Titan
Aug 12, 2009 |
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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 ...
Hubble Image Showcases Star Birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The spectacular new camera installed on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during Servicing Mission 4 in May has delivered the most detailed view of star birth in the graceful, curving arms of ...
Warped debris disks around stars are blowin' in the wind (w/ Video)
Aug 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The dust-filled disks where new planets may be forming around other stars occasionally take on some difficult-to-understand shapes. Now, a team led by John Debes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight ...
Research gives new insights into 4 billion year-old meteorites
Nov 12, 2009 |
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(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 ...
Star crust 10 billion times stronger than steel, physicists find
May 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a theoretical physicist at Indiana University shows that the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other of the earth's strongest metal alloys.
Dirty stars make good solar system hosts (w/ Video)
Oct 06, 2009 |
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Some stars are lonely behemoths, with no surrounding planets or asteroids, while others sport a skirt of attendant planetary bodies. New research published this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters explains why the co ...
A 3-D view of remote galaxies
Mar 10, 2009 |
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For decades, distant galaxies that emitted their light six billion years ago were no more than small specks of light on the sky. With the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s, astronomers ...
Fermi telescope reveals best-ever view of the gamma-ray sky
Mar 11, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new map combining nearly three months of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is giving astronomers an unprecedented look at the high-energy cosmos. To Fermi's eyes, the universe ...
11-Billion-Year-Old Giant Supernovae Farthest Ever Detected
Jul 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- UC Irvine cosmologists have found two supernovae farther away than any previously detected by using a new technique that could help find other dying stars at the edge of the universe.
