Astronomy news

A New Method of Estimating Stellar Distances

A New Method of Estimating Stellar Distances

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created 23 hours ago | popularity 4.4 / 5 (13) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The star Chi Cygni is located about 550 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. It is a notable star because, unlike the sun which still burns hydrogen ...


Avatar's moon Pandora could be real

Avatar's moon Pandora could be real

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (27) | comments 10

In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. ...


Supernova explosions stay in shape

Supernova explosions stay in shape

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1

At a very early age, children learn how to classify objects according to their shape. Now, new research suggests studying the shape of the aftermath of supernovas may allow astronomers to do the same.


Astronomers find super-Earth using amateur, off-the-shelf technology

Astronomers Find Super-Earth Using Amateur, Off-the-Shelf Technology (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (24) | comments 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. They found the distant planet with a small fleet of ground-based ...


Black Holes in Star Clusters stir up Time and Space

Black Holes in Star Clusters stir up Time and Space (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Within a decade scientists could be able to detect the merger of tens of pairs of black holes every year, according to a team of astronomers at the University of Bonn’s Argelander-Institut ...


Close-up photos of dying star show our sun's fate

Close-up photos of dying star show our sun's fate (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (21) | comments 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet ...


Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created 23 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international ...


A star is born? Herschel space observatory captures the birth of stars

A star is born? Herschel space observatory captures the birth of stars

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (9) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The European Space Agency has released a preview of the first science results from the Herschel Space Observatory, including the UK-led SPIRE instrument. The new data which include images ...


How water forms where Earth-like planets are born

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops ...


Giant Planet Set for a Cataclysmic Show

Giant Planet Set for a Cataclysmic Show

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (16) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent ...


Inside the dark heart of the Eagle

Inside the dark heart of the Eagle

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching ...


Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life

Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. ...


First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other universities have captured the first direct image of a young ...


Herschel Space Telescope uncovers the sources of the Cosmic Infrared Background

Herschel Space Telescope uncovers the sources of the Cosmic Infrared Background

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using first observations with the PACS Instrument on board ESA’s Herschel Space Telescope, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions have ...


Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest ...



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