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Astronomy News and Research - December 2008 Archives
 | Landsat and Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Get Unique Technology ...> Full Article |
 | New book 'The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto' just published ...> Full Article |
 | A research team led by Brown University has found evidence of a long-sought mineral that shows Mars was home to a variety of watery environments, including regional pockets of neutral or alkaline water. The finding, detailed in the Dec. 19 edition of Science, bolsters the chances that primitive life sprang up in those benign spots. ...> Full Article |
 | Seeing the shape of material around black holes for first time ...> Full Article |
Venus Express has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. Last year, the spacecraft revealed that most of the lost atmosphere escapes from the night-side. Together, these discoveries bring planetary scientists closer to understanding what happened to the water on Venus, which is suspected to have once been as abundant as on Earth.
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 | The festive season has arrived for astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in the form of this dramatic new image. It shows the swirling gas around the region known as NGC 2264 -- an area of sky that includes the sparkling blue baubles of the Christmas Tree star cluster. ...> Full Article |
 | Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. ...> Full Article |
 | For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of 'dark energy' on the most massive collapsed objects in the Universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues ever about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be. ...> Full Article |
 | The Big Bang is widely considered to have obliterated any trace of what came before. Now, astrophysicists at the California Institute of Technology think that their new theoretical interpretation of an imprint from the earliest stages of the universe may also shed light on what came before. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have discovered where they believe would be the best place to find ice on the moon. ...> Full Article |
 | Water detected at record distance with the Effelsberg 100 m radio telescope. ...> Full Article |
CU-Boulder findings should help satellite tracking, communication forecasting
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A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates a moving, shell-like plate encapsulating Mars may explain explains the volcanic activity in the Tharsis Rise region of the 'red planet.'
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 | Reader-friendly 'How Spacecraft Fly' provides straightforward explanation without the mathematical or technical jargon ...> Full Article |
 | Combining a double natural "magnifying glass" with the power of ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have scrutinized the inner parts of the disc around a supermassive black hole 10 billion light-years away. They were able to study the disc with a level of detail a thousand times better than that of the best telescopes in the world, providing the first observational confirmation of the prevalent theoretical models of such discs. ...> Full Article |
Scientists are expanding the search for extraterrestrial life -- and they've set their sights on some very unearthly planets. Cold 'super-Earths' -- giant, "snowball" planets that astronomers have spied on the outskirts of faraway solar systems -- could potentially support some kind of life, they have found. Such planets are plentiful; experts estimate that one-third of all solar systems contain super-Earths.
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 | Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system. Packing a punch equal to a hundred million hydrogen bombs, they obliterate everything in their immediate vicinity. Not a single atom should remain intact. At least that's how it's supposed to work. ...> Full Article |
A team of German and American astronomers present far-ultraviolet observations of white dwarf KPD 0005+5106 and reveal that it is among the hottest stars ever known with a temperature of 200 000 K at its surface. Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing this discovery, which was made through spectroscopic observations with NASA's space-based Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer.
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One of the moons in our solar system that scientists think has the potential to harbor life may have a far more dynamic ocean than previously thought. If the moon Europa is tilted on its axis even slightly as it orbits the giant planet Jupiter, then Jupiter's gravitational pull could be creating powerful waves in Europa's ocean, according to an oceanographer with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.
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 | New research suggests that turbulence plays a critical role in creating ripe conditions for the birth of planets. The study, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, challenges the prevailing theory of planet formation. Using three-dimensional simulations of the dust and gas that orbits young stars, the study demonstrates that turbulence is a significant obstacle to gravitational instability, the process that scientists have used since the 1970s to explain the early stage of planet formation. ...> Full Article |
 | A team of astronomers led by John Johnson of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy has used a new technique to measure the precise size of a planet around a distant star. They used a camera so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles. ...> Full Article |
Greater understanding of energetic processes in stars could accelerate development of clean energy from nuclear fusion: ESF project brings together astronomical theory, observation and experiment
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Moons outside our solar system with the potential to support life have just become much easier to detect, thanks to research by an astronomer at University College London.
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Data and images from Mars Express suggest that several light toned deposits, some of the least understood features on Mars, were formed when large amounts of groundwater burst on to the surface. Scientists propose that groundwater had a greater role in shaping the martian surface than previously believed and may have sheltered primitive life forms as the planet started drying up.
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 | In a 16-year long study, using several of ESO's flagship telescopes, a team of German astronomers has produced the most detailed view ever of the surroundings of the monster lurking at our galaxy's heart -- a supermassive black hole. The research has unravelled the hidden secrets of this tumultuous region by mapping the orbits of almost 30 stars, a five-fold increase over previous studies. One of the stars has now completed a full orbit around the black hole. ...> Full Article |
 | It's 40 degrees F below zero (with the wind chill) at the South Pole today. Yet a research team from the University of Delaware is taking it all in stride.The physicists, engineers and technicians from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute are part of an international team working to build the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice, far beneath the continent's snow-covered surface. ...> Full Article |
 | The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This is an important step along the trail of finding the chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life, as we know it. ...> Full Article |
 | Three undergraduate students, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have discovered an extrasolar planet. The extraordinary find, which turned up during their research project, is about five times as massive as Jupiter. This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star. ...> Full Article |
In 2006, astronomer Alice Quillen of the University of Rochester predicted that a planet of a particular size and orbit must lie within the dust of a nearby star. That planet has now been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, making it only the second planet ever imaged after an accurate prediction. The only other planet seen after an accurate prediction was Neptune, discovered more than 160 years ago.
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New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide a unique insight into the windy atmosphere of our neighboring planet and reveal that global patterns at the Venus cloud tops are the result of variable temperatures and cloud heights.
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 | Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and their colleagues have found evidence of ancient climate change on Mars caused by regular variation in the planet's tilt, or obliquity. On Earth, similar "astronomical forcing" of climate drives ice-age cycles. ...> Full Article |
 | NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite rocketed into space in 2004 on a mission to study some of the highest-energy events in the universe. The spacecraft has detected more than 380 gamma-ray bursts, fleeting flares that likely signal the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. In that time, Swift also has observed 80 exploding stars and studied six comets. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers have uncovered strong evidence that brown dwarfs form like stars. Using the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array, they detected molecules of carbon monoxide shooting outward from the object known as ISO-Oph 102. Such molecular outflows typically are seen coming from young stars or protostars. However, this object has an estimated mass of 60 Jupiters, meaning it is too small to be a star. Astronomers have classified it as a brown dwarf. ...> Full Article |
 | Omega Centauri is one of the finest jewels of the southern hemisphere night sky, as ESO's latest stunning image beautifully illustrates. Containing millions of stars, this globular cluster is located roughly 17,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. ...> Full Article |
 | Tel Aviv University studies the makeup of asteroids to save earth from sci-fi disaster. ...> Full Article |
A pale yellow-green dot to the human eye, Earth's twin planet comes to life in the ultraviolet and the infrared. New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide insight into the turbulent atmosphere of our neighbouring planet.
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Astronomers at the University of Nottingham have identified a type of galaxy that could be the missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution.
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 | Two of our galaxy's most massive stars have been scrutinized in an impressive view by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. They have, until recently, been shrouded in mystery, but the new image shows them in greater detail than ever before. ...> Full Article |
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Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone
Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
Tracking down the human 'odorprint'
Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
Most extreme white dwarf binary system found with orbit of just 5 minutes
Lava likely made river-like channel on Mars
Biggest, deepest crater exposes hidden, ancient moon
Phobos flyby success
The cosmic bat
First signal received by future telescope
NASA's Fermi probes 'dragons' of the gamma-ray sky
Astronomically large lenses measure the age and size of the universe
First of missing primitive stars discovered
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos
First measurement of the age of cometary material
Light, wind and fire