http://www.physorg.com/space-news/astronomy/ en-us PhysOrg Team PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on astronomy, space, earth science and space exploration. (PhysOrg.com) -- The European Space Agency has today released spectacular new observations from the Herschel Space Observatory, including the UK-led SPIRE instrument. Spectrometers on board all three Hershel instruments have been used to analyse the light from objects inside our galaxy and from other galaxies, producing some of the best measurements yet of atoms and molecules involved in the birth and death of stars. http://www.physorg.com/news178551842.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-27T13:45:21-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has made the first unambiguous detection of high-energy gamma-rays from an enigmatic binary system known as Cygnus X-3. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a compact object -- either a neutron star or a black hole -- that blasts twin radio-emitting jets of matter into space at more than half the speed of light. http://www.physorg.com/news178547547.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-27T12:34:14-07:00 (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 of only about ten billion suns. ULIRGs were discovered by an all-sky infrared survey satellite in the 1980's, and since then the origin(s) of their huge infrared emission has been widely debated. Extreme infrared activity is known to be associated with interacting galaxies, and optical imaging indeed shows that many ULIRGs are in collision, but this fact does not answer the question of what physical mechanism powers the luminosity. Might the same process be underway at a low level in our galaxy? http://www.physorg.com/news178544948.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-27T11:55:01-07:00 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 tsunami." http://www.physorg.com/news178395416.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-25T18:17:45-07:00 (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 known as Terzan 5. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar "cocktail" of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days. http://www.physorg.com/news178377940.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-25T13:28:26-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from Ibaraki University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa University, University of Tokyo, Academica Sinica, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have used the Subaru Telescope`s Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) to capture the first direct, well-resolved infrared images of a circumstellar disk around a young massive star -- HD200775. Their findings contribute to understanding the role of circumstellar disks in massive star formation in particular and to the birth of stars in general. http://www.physorg.com/news178310192.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-24T18:37:50-07:00 (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 being blown away, says a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. http://www.physorg.com/news178293451.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-24T13:58:28-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new website will give everyone the chance to contribute to science by playing a 'cosmic fruit machine' and compare images of colliding galaxies with millions of simulated images of galactic pile-ups. http://www.physorg.com/news178264605.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-24T05:57:19-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager has been studying exoplanets - planets circling stars other than the sun - for many years. http://www.physorg.com/news178220229.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-23T18:20:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has contributed to the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf ever observed -- a finding that, if confirmed, may solve an astronomical mystery about how these cosmic misfits are formed. http://www.physorg.com/news178221292.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-23T17:55:42-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D. http://www.physorg.com/news178220365.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-23T17:40:06-07:00 NJIT researchers are at work on many scientific and technological frontiers. The National Science Foundation has recently provided support that totals nearly $4.3 million for the diverse efforts of the following investigators under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news177955106.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-20T16:30:05-07:00 A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find. http://www.physorg.com/news177874211.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-19T18:00:05-07:00 (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 the "solar tsunami." http://www.physorg.com/news177872248.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-19T17:00:58-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research group at Kyoto University has discovered that shocks are the primary energy sources that excite the galactic wind region of starburst galaxy NGC 253. Their images of the center of this galaxy, bright with intense star formation, have generated findings that substantially increase our meager knowledge of the physical properties of galactic winds and move us closer to understanding galaxy evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news177783331.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-18T19:20:03-07:00 Astronomers have found that the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit. Studying such planets is important in understanding the diversity of planetary systems and assessing current models of how planets migrate. The findings could help astrobiologists in the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system. http://www.physorg.com/news177783167.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-18T16:30:19-07:00 (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 recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4710 is part of a survey that astronomers have conducted to learn more about the formation of bulges, which are a substantial component of most spiral galaxies. http://www.physorg.com/news177764242.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-18T10:58:27-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has joined the Thirty Meter Telescope Project (TMT). As an Observer, China will participate in planning the development of what will be the world's most advanced and capable astronomical observatory. http://www.physorg.com/news177701830.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-17T21:40:01-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is chilled out, sporting a sunshade and getting ready to roll. NASA's newest spacecraft is scheduled to roll to the pad on Friday, Nov. 20, its last stop before launching into space to survey the entire sky in infrared light. http://www.physorg.com/news177698029.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-17T17:20:01-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova," says Patrick Woudt, from the University of Cape Town and lead author of the paper reporting the results. "As these supernovae play a crucial role in showing that the Universe's expansion is currently accelerating, pushed by a mysterious dark energy, it is rather embarrassing." http://www.physorg.com/news177676554.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-17T10:36:27-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers will tie together the largest collection of the world's radio telescopes ever assembled to work as a single observing tool in a project aimed at improving the precision of the reference frame scientists use to measure positions in the sky. The National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) will be a key part of the project. http://www.physorg.com/news177616748.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-16T18:10:01-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation of Orion is a hotbed of massive star formation, most prominently in the Great Nebula that sits in Orion's sword. The glowing gas of the Nebula is powered by a group of young massive stars, but behind it is a cluster of younger stars and clumps of gas. Still gathering together under gravity's pull, these gas clumps will eventually ignite into stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177602620.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-16T14:05:26-07:00 (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 many wavelengths, in particular at X-ray wavelengths. http://www.physorg.com/news177337799.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-13T12:30:51-07:00 (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 Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news177264804.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-12T16:14:14-07:00 (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 looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177258394.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-12T14:27:33-07:00 (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 relatively perfect alignment of our solar system is compared to that of other planetary systems. http://www.physorg.com/news177231800.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-12T07:03:50-07:00 (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. Using ESO's successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that Sun-like stars that host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than "planet-free" stars. This finding does not only shed light on the lack of lithium in our star, but also provides astronomers with a very efficient way of finding stars with planetary systems. http://www.physorg.com/news177168122.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-11T13:22:39-07:00 The Universe's infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University. http://www.physorg.com/news177138435.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-11T05:08:17-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy is being unveiled by NASA on Nov. 10. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609. http://www.physorg.com/news177092798.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-10T16:50:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by. Now, astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., find that an X-ray source in galaxy NGC 5408 represents one of the best cases for a middleweight black hole to date. http://www.physorg.com/news177073969.html Space & Earth - Astronomy 2009-11-10T11:14:51-07:00