Milky Way gas cloud causes multiple images of distant quasar
Multiple-imaging event will help astronomers learn new details about turbulent gas within our own Milky Way galaxy.
Aug 28th, 2013
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MOND predicts dwarf galaxy feature prior to observations
MOND, a modified law of gravity, correctly predicted in advance of observations the velocity dispersion - the average speed of stars within a galaxy relative to each other - in 10 dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way's giant neighbor Andromeda. MOND also detected subtle differences in gravity fields that dark matter theory says should be uniform.
Aug 28th, 2013
Read moreOldest Solar Twin Identified - ESO's VLT provides new clues to help solve lithium mystery
A team led by astronomers in Brazil has used ESO's Very Large Telescope to study the oldest solar twin known to date. Located 250 light-years away, the star HIP 102152 is more like the Sun than any other solar twin - except that it is nearly four billion years older. This older twin may be host to rocky planets and gives us an unprecedented chance to see how the Sun will look when it ages.
Aug 28th, 2013
Read moreScientists detect magmatic water on Moon's surface
Scientists have detected magmatic water - water that originates from deep within the Moon's interior - on the surface of the Moon. These findings represent the first such remote detection of this type of lunar water, and were arrived at using data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3).
Aug 27th, 2013
Read moreWorld Space Week 2013 'Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth' Analog Campaign, 4-10 October
From 4-10 October, more than twenty organizations spread across four continents will be exploring Mars - and discovering more about Earth in the process. A campaign of networked Mars analog activities is being launched to celebrate World Space Week (WSW) 2013.
Aug 27th, 2013
Read moreSpitzer telescope celebrates 10 years in space
Ten years after a Delta II rocket launched NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, lighting up the night sky over Cape Canaveral, Fla., the fourth of the agency's four Great Observatories continues to illuminate the dark side of the cosmos with its infrared eyes.
Aug 23rd, 2013
Read moreA fluffy disk around a baby star
An international team of astronomers that are members of the Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope (SEEDS) Project has observed a disk around the young star RY Tau (Tauri). The team's analysis of the disk shows that a 'fluffy' layer above it is responsible for the scattered light observed in the infrared image.
Aug 23rd, 2013
Read moreHubble takes movies of space slinky
Astronomers have assembled, from more than 13 years of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a series of time-lapse movies showing a jet of superheated gas - 5,000 light-years long - as it is ejected from a supermassive black hole.
Aug 22nd, 2013
Read moreNASA's Fermi enters extended mission (w/video)
On Aug. 11, Fermi entered an extended phase of its mission - a deeper study of the high-energy cosmos. This is a significant step toward the science team's planned goal of a decade of observations, ending in 2018.
Aug 22nd, 2013
Read moreWhat's for dinner on Mars?
Imagine finding freeze-dried meats and fruits, dehydrated vegetables, egg crystals, ghee-like anhydrous butter, powdered milk and chipotle peppers in your kitchen, but not a morsel of fresh food. That's what happened to six 'astronauts' who lived in a simulated Martian base on the slopes of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano from April 16 to Aug. 13 as part of a HI-SEAS mission.
Aug 21st, 2013
Read moreHighest-ever resolution photos of the night sky
A team of astronomers from three institutions has developed a new type of telescope camera that makes higher resolution images than ever before, the culmination of 20 years of effort.
Aug 21st, 2013
Read moreNew theory points to 'zombie vortices' as key step in star formation
Scientists have proposed a new model that elucidates a key step in star formation. They point to 'zombie vortices' as a destabilizing force needed to help protostars accumulate the mass needed to grow into stars.
Aug 20th, 2013
Read moreStarbirth surprisingly energetic: ALMA observations give new insights into protostars
While observing a newborn star, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope discovered twin jets of matter blasting out into space at record-breaking speed. These surprisingly forceful molecular 'winds' could help refine our understanding of how stars impact their cloudy nurseries and shape their emerging stellar systems.
Aug 20th, 2013
Read moreNewly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in 8.5 hours
In the time it takes you to complete a single workday, or get a full night's sleep, a small fireball of a planet 700 light-years away has already completed an entire year.
Aug 19th, 2013
Read moreRevealing dark energy's hold on the Universe
A new collaboration aims to learn how dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Aug 15th, 2013
Read morePulsars make a GPS for the cosmos
CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn't exist... and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.
Aug 15th, 2013
Read moreSpaceflight alters bacterial social networks
In two NASA-funded studies biofilms grown aboard the International Space Station bound space shuttle were compared with those grown on the ground. The study results show for the first time that spaceflight changes the behavior of bacterial communities.
Aug 15th, 2013
Read moreCosmic turbulences result in star and black hole formation
Just how stars and black holes in the Universe are able to form from rotating matter is one of the big questions of astrophysics. Now, a new publication by HZDR physicists in Physical Review Letters shows how magnetic fields can also cause turbulences within "dead zones," thus making an important contribution to our current understanding of just how compact objects form in the cosmos.
Aug 15th, 2013
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