Astronomy news

Astronomers explore 'last blank space' on map of the Universe

Astronomers explore 'last blank space' on map of the Universe

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (30) | comments 71

(PhysOrg.com) -- The most distant object ever discovered is described in this week's edition of the science journal Nature. Two international teams of astronomers report their observations of a gamma-ray burst ...


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 ...


Shedding light on the cosmic skeleton

Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (22) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of 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 (20) | 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. ...


Carbon atmosphere discovered on neutron star

Carbon Atmosphere Discovered on Neutron Star

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year ...


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 ...


High-precision measurements confirm cosmologists' standard view of the universe

Precise picture of early Universe supports 'dark matter' theory

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 9

A detailed picture of the seeds of structures in the universe has been unveiled by an international team co-led by a Cardiff University scientist.


Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (17) | comments 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf ...


Dark Matter in a Galaxy

Dark Matter in a Galaxy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 30, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (19) | comments 19

(PhysOrg.com) -- Stars, the most familiar objects in the night sky, make up only a tiny percentage of the total amount of matter in the universe -- about 2%.


Physicist makes new high-res panorama of Milky Way

Physicist makes new high-res panorama of Milky Way

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 3

Cobbling together 3000 individual photographs, a physicist has made a new high-resolution panoramic image of the full night sky, with the Milky Way galaxy as its centerpiece. Axel Mellinger, a professor at ...


Fermi telescope caps its first year with a glimpse of space-time

Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 5

During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. It captured more than one thousand discrete sources of gamma ...


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 ...


The Explosive Disintegration of a Young Stellar System in Orion

The Explosive Disintegration of a Young Stellar System in Orion

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 23, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Orion Nebula is one of the most beautiful sights of the winter night sky, its gas and dust glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation of a cluster of massive young stars.


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 ...


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 ...