Astronomy news
Stripped down: Hubble highlights two galaxies that are losing it
Sep 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Ram pressure is the drag force that results when something moves through a fluid -- much like the wind you feel in your face when bicycling, even on a still day -- and occurs in this context ...
Cloudy with a chance of pebble showers: Simulation suggests rocky exoplanet has bizarre atmosphere
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- So accustomed are we to the sunshine, rain, fog and snow of our home planet that we find it next to impossible to imagine a different atmosphere and other forms of precipitation.
Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.
Very High Energy Gamma Rays
Sep 25, 2009 |
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(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 ...
How to Make a Planet: Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling Planetary Material
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(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, ...
High-School Student Discovers Strange Astronomical Object
Sep 22, 2009 |
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(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.
New Vista of Milky Way Center Unveiled
Sep 22, 2009 |
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(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
Sep 21, 2009 |
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(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 ...
Invading black holes explain cosmic flashes
Sep 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Black holes are invading stars, providing a radical explanation to bright flashes in the universe that are one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy today.
Oddball stars explained
Sep 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New observations solve longstanding mystery of tipped rotation. In addition to shedding light on how binary stars form, the explanation knocks down a possible challenge to Einstein's theory ...
Spot discovered on dwarf planet Haumea shows up red and rich with organics
Sep 16, 2009 |
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A dark red area discovered on dwarf planet Haumea appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science ...
First Solid Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet (w/ Video)
Sep 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. ...
Astronomers unveil an amazing, interactive, 360-degree panoramic view of the entire night sky
Sep 14, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The first of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new magnificent 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO's observing sites in Chile — has just been released ...
XMM-Newton uncovers a celestial Rosetta stone
Sep 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered a celestial Rosetta stone: the first close-up of a white dwarf star, circling a companion star, that could explode into a particular ...
Will Kepler find habitable moons?
Sep 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the launch of the NASA Kepler Mission earlier this year, astronomers have been keenly awaiting the first detection of an Earth-like planet around another star. Now, in an echo of science ...
