A Superbright Supernova That’s the First of Its Kind

A Superbright Supernova That’s the First of Its Kind

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (24) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- An extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, snagged in a search by a robotic telescope, turns out to be the first example of the kind of stars that first ...


A picture shows Tel Aviv's sea front promenade on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline

Mediterranean Sea filled in less than two years: study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (23) | comments 2

The Mediterranean Sea was mostly filled in less than two years in a dramatic flood around 5.33 million years ago in which water poured in from the Atlantic, according to a study published Wednesday.


Aussie galaxy survey to lead to 'new physics'

Aussie galaxy survey to lead to 'new physics'

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (23) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Australian astronomers have released the first set of data from the first project to look at the effects of "dark energy" halfway back in the Universe's lifetime.


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 4

(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 ...


Team using Subaru Telescope makes major discovery

Team using Subaru Telescope makes major discovery

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 2

An international team of scientists that includes an astronomer from Princeton University has made the first direct observation of a planet-like object orbiting a star similar to the sun.


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 5 / 5 (20) | 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 ...


Cosmic 'dig' reveals vestiges of the Milky Way's building blocks

Cosmic 'Dig' Reveals Vestiges of the Milky Way's Building Blocks

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxy's "bulge" (the myriads of stars surrounding its center), a team of astronomers has unveiled an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping ...


Newly discovered star one of hottest in Galaxy

Newly discovered star one of hottest in Galaxy (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics have discovered one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy with a surface temperature of around 200,000 degrees ...


Monster Waves on the Sun are Real

Monster Waves on the Sun are Real (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (20) | comments 2

Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft are telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar ...


The Energy Sources of Ultraluminous Galaxies

The Energy Sources of Ultraluminous Galaxies

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (20) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ultraluminous infrared galaxies ((ULIRGs) are galaxies whose luminosity exceeds that of a trillion suns; for comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has a typical (and much more modest) luminosity ...


Arctic ice

Study: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 2.8 / 5 (30) | comments 19

A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth's sea level, carried out by scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities and published in the Dec. 16 issue of Nature, employs a novel statistical approa ...


First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons, says CU-Boulder study

First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (20) | comments 22

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first large black holes in the universe likely formed and grew deep inside gigantic, starlike cocoons that smothered their powerful x-ray radiation and prevented surrounding gases from ...


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 ...


Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system ...


Humanity would need five Earths to create the resources needed if everyone lived as like Americans, a report has stated

Mankind using Earth's resources at alarming rate

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (24) | comments 74

Humanity would need five Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as profligately as Americans, according to a report issued Tuesday.