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Sun block for the 'Big Dog'
An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and from the University of Cologne, successfully identified two titanium oxides in the extended atmosphere around a giant star. The object VY Canis Major is one of the largest stars in the known universe and close to the end of its life.
Posted: Mar 27th, 2013
Read moreYoung, hot and blue - Stars in the cluster NGC 2547
The Universe is an old neighbourhood - roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient- some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed.
Posted: Mar 27th, 2013
Read moreHow to build a very large star
Stars ten times as massive as the Sun, or more, should not exist: as they grow, they tend to push away the gas they feed on, starving their own growth. Scientists have been struggling to figure out how some stars overcome this hurdle.
Posted: Mar 27th, 2013
Read moreMeasuring Mars: The MAVEN magnetometer (w/video)
When the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission begins its journey to the Red Planet in 2013, it will carry a sensitive magnetic-field instrument built and tested by a team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Posted: Mar 26th, 2013
Read moreAstronomers discover new kind of supernova
Supernovae were always thought to occur in two main varieties. But a team of astronomers including Carnegie's Wendy Freedman, Mark Phillips and Eric Persson is reporting the discovery of a new type of supernova called Type Iax.
Posted: Mar 26th, 2013
Read moreLRO's LAMP ultraviolet spectrograph observes mercury and hydrogen in GRAIL impact plumes
NASA intentionally crashed the GRAIL twins onto the Moon on Dec. 17, 2012, following successful prime and extended science missions. Both spacecraft hit a mountain near the lunar north pole, which was shrouded in shadow at the time. Developed by Southwest Research Institute, LAMP uses a novel method to peer into the darkness of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions, making it ideal for observations of the Moon's night-side and its tenuous atmospheric constituents.
Posted: Mar 26th, 2013
Read moreEphemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations
New research shows that the speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates.
Posted: Mar 25th, 2013
Read moreSurprises in the South polar vortex in Venus' atmosphere
The astronomers in the UPV/EHU's Planetary Science Group have published a study of the atmospheric vortex of the south pole of Venus, a huge whirlwind the size of Europe.
Posted: Mar 25th, 2013
Read moreElectric solar wind sailing spacecraft an important step closer
A little more than a year ago a research team started to develop a vital part of a Finnish invention - an electric solar wind sail for interplanetary journeys. Now, a prototype has been successfully manufactured and tested.
Posted: Mar 25th, 2013
Read moreRemoving orbital debris with less risk
A new article compares in-orbit debris removal options regarding their potential risk of creating new orbital debris or disabling working satellites during deorbit operation.
Posted: Mar 22nd, 2013
Read more'Sideline quasars' helped to stifle early galaxy formation
University of Colorado Boulder astronomers targeting one of the brightest quasars glowing in the universe some 11 billion years ago say "sideline quasars" likely teamed up with it to heat abundant helium gas billions of years ago, preventing small galaxy formation.
Posted: Mar 21st, 2013
Read morePlanck reveals an almost perfect Universe
Planck measures the Universe - detailed all-sky map of the cosmic background radiation confirms standard cosmological model but also finds deviations
Posted: Mar 21st, 2013
Read moreSpiral beauty graced by fading supernova
About 35 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Eridanus (The River), lies the spiral galaxy NGC 1637. Back in 1999 the serene appearance of this galaxy was shattered by the appearance of a very bright supernova. Astronomers studying the aftermath of this explosion with ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile have provided us with a stunning view of this relatively nearby galaxy.
Posted: Mar 20th, 2013
Read moreVoyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate
Thirty-five years after its launch, Voyager 1 appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere, according to a new study appearing online today.
Posted: Mar 20th, 2013
Read moreSearching for solar systems like our own
Josh Winn's hunt for exoplanets may someday reveal habitable, Earth-like worlds.
Posted: Mar 20th, 2013
Read moreFirst light at SAAO for third 1-meter node of global telescope
The first truly global telescope came a significant step closer to completion this month with the installation and first light on three new 1-meter telescopes at the South Africa Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) near Sutherland, South Africa.
Posted: Mar 19th, 2013
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