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Argonne supercomputer to simulate extreme physics of exploding stars NEW May 02, 2008 A better understanding of Type Ia supernovas is critical to solving the mystery of dark energy, one of the grandest challenges facing today’s cosmologists. Dark energy is somehow causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Cosmologists discovered dark energy by using Type Ia supernovas as cosmic measuring devices. All Type Ia supernovas display approximately the same brightness, so scientists could assess the distance of the exploding stars’ home galaxies accordingly. |
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Astronomers Discover New Type of Pulsating White Dwarf Star NEW May 01, 2008 University of Texas at Austin astronomers Michael H. Montgomery and Kurtis A. Williams, along with graduate student Steven DeGennaro, have predicted and confirmed the existence of a new type of variable star. Called a "pulsating carbon white dwarf," this is the first new class of variable white dwarf star discovered in more than 25 years. Because the overwhelming majority of stars in the universe--including the sun--will end their lives as white dwarfs... | |
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The Second Stellar Baby Boom NEW Apr. 30, 2008 When it comes to giving birth, galaxies don't seem to have a "ticking biological clock." In fact, observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that old galaxies were the biggest producers of new stars when our universe was half of its current age of 13.6 billion years. "The idea that galaxies might form their stars in different generations at different times is an old one... What our work proves is that this is the 'typical' behavior of the most luminous infrared galaxies between five and eight billion years ago | |
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Compact
galaxies in early Universe pack a big punch
Apr. 29, 2008 Using the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer onboard of the Hubble NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have made observations of young, surprisingly compact galaxies, each only 5,000 light-years across, but weighing 200 billion times the mass of the Sun. Imagine receiving an announcement touting the birth of a baby 50 centimeters long and weighing 80 kilograms. After reading this puzzling message, you would immediately think the baby’s weight was a misprint. |
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Hubble’s
18th Anniversary
Apr. 24, 2008 Fifty nine new images of colliding galaxies make up the largest collection of Hubble images ever released together. As this astonishing Hubble atlas of interacting galaxies illustrates, galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures. Interacting galaxies are found throughout the Universe, sometimes as dramatic collisions that trigger bursts of star formation, on other occasions as stealthy mergers that result in new galaxies. |
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Radio
Telescope Reveals Secrets of Massive Black Hole
Apr. 24, 2008 At the cores of many galaxies, supermassive black holes expel powerful jets of particles at nearly the speed of light. Just how they perform this feat has long been one of the mysteries of astrophysics. The leading theory says the particles are accelerated by tightly-twisted magnetic fields close to the black hole, but confirming that idea required an elusive close-up view of the jet's inner throat. |
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Stellar
Birth in the Galactic Wilderness
Apr. 16, 2008 A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more than 100,000 light-years from the galaxy's bustling center. The striking image, a composite of ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array in New Mexico, shows the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, also known simply as M83. |
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Milky
Way's giant black hole awoke from slumber 300 years ago
Apr. 15, 2008 A team of Japanese astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton, along with NASA and Japanese X-ray satellites, has discovered that our galaxy’s central black hole let loose a powerful flare three centuries ago. The finding helps resolve a long-standing mystery: why is the Milky Way’s black hole so quiescent? The black hole, known as Sagittarius A-star (A*), is a certified monster, containing about 4 million times the mass of our Sun. |
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The
Drifting Star
Apr. 15, 2008 By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harboring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way. The yellow-orange star Iota Horologii, located 56 light-years away towards the southern Horologium ("The Clock") constellation, belongs to the so-called "Hyades stream" |
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Spitzer
Sees Shining Stellar Sphere
Apr. 10, 2008 Millions of clustered stars glisten like an iridescent opal in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called Omega Centauri, this sparkling orb of stars is like a miniature galaxy. It is the biggest and brightest of the more than 150 similar objects, called globular clusters, that orbit around the outside of our Milky Way galaxy. Stargazers at southern latitudes can spot the stellar gem with the naked eye in the constellation Centaurus. |
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Black
hole found in enigmatic Omega Centauri
Apr. 02, 2008 Omega Centauri has been known as an unusual globular cluster for a long time. A new result obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the explanation behind Omega Centauri’s peculiarities may be a black hole hidden in its center. One implication of the discovery is that it is very likely that Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars, as some scientists have suspected for a few years. |
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NASA
Scientists Identify Smallest Known Black Hole
Apr. 01, 2008 Using a new technique, two NASA scientists have identified the lightest known black hole. With a mass only about 3.8 times greater than our Sun and a diameter of only 15 miles, the black hole lies very close to the minimum size predicted for black holes that originate from dying stars. |
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Exploding
star in NGC 2397
Mar. 31, 2008 The latest image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a sharp view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2397. This image also shows a rare Hubble view of the early stages of a supernova - SN 2006bc, discovered in March 2006. NGC 2397, pictured in this image from Hubble, is a classic spiral galaxy with long prominent dust lanes along the edges of its arms, seen as dark patches and streaks silhouetted against the starlight. Hubble’s exquisite resolution allows the study of individual stars in nearby galaxies. |
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A
Planet in Progress?
Mar. 26, 2008 Scientists are one step closer to understanding how new planets form, thanks to research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and carried out by a team of astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. Ben R. Oppenheimer, assistant curator in the museum's Department of Astrophysics, and his colleagues have used the Lyot Project coronograph attached to a U.S. Air Force telescope on Maui, Hawaii, to construct an image of material that seems to be coalescing into a body from the gas and dust cloud.... |
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Cosmic
Searchlights Reveal "Lost" Galaxies
Mar. 24, 2008 Millions of faint galaxies are hovering near the edge of our universe, too dim to be detected by most telescopes -- but some huge cosmic explosions and the supersensitive infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are bringing many of these muted galaxies to light. Located approximately 12.5 billion light-years away from Earth, the distant galaxies exist in an era when our universe was just one billion years old. |
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NASA
Satellite Detects Naked-Eye Explosion Halfway Across Universe
Mar. 20, 2008 A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. The explosion was a gamma ray burst. Most gamma ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. Their cores collapse to form black holes or neutron stars, releasing an intense burst of high-energy gamma rays and ejecting particle jets that rip through space at nearly the speed of light like turbocharged cosmic blowtorches. |
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Action
Replay Of Powerful Stellar Explosion
Mar. 20, 2008 Astronomers have made the best ever determination of the power of a supernova explosion that was visible from Earth long ago. By observing the remnant of a supernova and a light echo from the initial outburst, they have established the validity of a powerful new method for studying supernovas. Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory, and the Gemini Observatory, two teams of researchers studied the supernova remnant and its light echo, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. |
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Hubble
Finds First Organic Molecule on Extrasolar Planet
Mar. 19, 2008 The tell-tale signature of the molecule methane in the atmosphere of the Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet HD 189733b has been found with the Hubble Space Telescope. Under the right circumstances methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry – the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it. Although methane has been detected on most of the planets in our Solar System, this is the first time any organic molecule has been detected on a world orbiting another star. |
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Spitzer
Finds Organics and Water Where New Planets May Grow
Mar. 13, 2008 Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered large amounts of simple organic gases and water vapor in a possible planet-forming region around an infant star, along with evidence that these molecules were created there. They've also found water in the same zone around two other young stars. |
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Seeing
through the Dark
Mar. 07, 2008 Astronomers have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth. The measurement is based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared light or 'cloudshine' and was made with ESO's New Technology Telescope. Associated with the forthcoming VISTA telescope, this new technique will allow astronomers to better understand the cradles of newborn stars. |
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Mars
And Venus Are Surprisingly Similar
Mar. 05, 2008 Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space. The simultaneous observations by Mars Express and Venus Express give scientists the data they need to investigate the evolution of the two planets’ atmospheres |
