Astronomy News and Research - February 2010 Archives

Light, wind and fire (2/27/2010)

Today ESO has released a dramatic new image of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in our neighbouring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, 210 000 light-years away towards the constellation of Tucana (the Toucan). The light, wind and heat given off by massive stars have dispersed the glowing gas within and around this star cluster, forming a surrounding wispy nebular structure that looks like a cobweb. ...> Full Article

Torn apart by its own tides, massive planet is on a 'death march' (2/26/2010)

An international group of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star -- a finding that helps explain the unexpectedly large size of the planet, WASP-12b. It's a discovery that not only explains what's happening to WASP-12b; it also means scientists have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to observe how a planet enters this final stage of its life. ...> Full Article

NASA unveils new space-weather science tool (2/24/2010)

When NASA's satellite operators need accurate, real-time space-weather information, they turn to the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) of the Space Weather Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The CCMC's newest and most advanced space-weather science tool is the Integrated Space Weather Analysis system. ...> Full Article

Jurassic space: Ancient galaxies come together after billions of years (2/22/2010)

Using new images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a group of astronomers, led by Sarah Gallagher of the University of Western Ontario have found the astronomical equivalent of prehistoric life in our intergalactic backyard: a group of small, ancient galaxies that has waited 10 billion years to come together. These "late bloomers" are on their way to building a large elliptical galaxy. ...> Full Article

Extreme jets take new shape (2/21/2010)

Jets of particles streaming from black holes in far-away galaxies operate differently than previously thought, according to a study published today in Nature. The new study reveals that most of the jet's light -- gamma rays, the universe's most energetic form of light -- is created much farther from the black hole than expected and suggests a more complex shape for the jet. ...> Full Article

NASA's Fermi closes on source of cosmic rays (2/20/2010)

New images from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope show where supernova remnants emit radiation a billion times more energetic than visible light. The images bring astronomers a step closer to understanding the source of some of the universe's most energetic particles -- cosmic rays. ...> Full Article

No place to hide: Missing primitive stars outside Milky Way uncovered (2/19/2010)

After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations using ESO's Very Large Telescope have been used to solve an important astrophysical puzzle concerning the oldest stars in our galactic neighborhood -- which is crucial for our understanding of the earliest stars in the universe. ...> Full Article

Why today's galaxies don't make as many stars as they used to (2/18/2010)

As part of an international research team, University of Arizona scientists have found that fewer stars are born in present-day galaxies because interstellar raw materials have become sparse over time. ...> Full Article

Phobos flyby season starts again (2/17/2010)

Today Mars Express began a series of flybys of Phobos, the largest moon of Mars. The campaign will reach its crescendo on March 3, when the spacecraft will set a new record for the closest pass to Phobos, skimming the surface at just 50 km. The data collected could help untangle the origin of this mysterious moon. ...> Full Article

PCs around the world unite to map the Milky Way (2/15/2010)

At this very moment, tens of thousands of home computers around the world are quietly working together to solve the largest and most basic mysteries of our galaxy. Volunteers from Africa to Australia are donating their computing power to help researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute map the shape of our Milky Way galaxy. Now, just this month, the collected computing power of these humble home computers has surpassed one petaflop, a computing speed that surpasses the world's second fastest supercomputer. ...> Full Article

Orion in a new light (2/14/2010)

The Orion Nebula reveals many of its hidden secrets in a dramatic image taken by ESO's new VISTA survey telescope. The telescope's huge field of view can show the full splendor of the whole nebula and VISTA's infrared vision also allows it to peer deeply into dusty regions that are normally hidden and expose the curious behavior of the very active young stars buried there. ...> Full Article

Saturn's aurorae images 'unique to science' (2/12/2010)

University of Leicester team leads international programs using Hubble Space Telescope. ...> Full Article

A new 3-D map of the interstellar gas within 300 parsecs from the sun (2/10/2010)

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing new 3-D maps of the interstellar gas in the local area around our sun. A French-American team of astronomers presents new absorption measurements towards more than 1800 stars. They were able to characterize the properties of the interstellar gas within each sight line. ...> Full Article

Madly mapping the universe (2/8/2010)

It takes special software to map the universe from noisy data. Berkeley Lab scientists developed a code called MADmap to do just that for the cosmic microwave background, then posted it on the web for other interested sky mappers. Scientists probing the sky with the PACS instrument aboard the Herschel satellite have adapted MADmap to make spectacular images of the infrared universe. ...> Full Article

Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission (2/8/2010)

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), slated for liftoff on Feb. 9th, will make IMAX-quality movies of solar explosions, peer beneath the stellar surface to see the sun's inner dynamo, and--researchers hope--unravel the mysteries of solar variability. ...> Full Article

Merging galaxies create a binary quasar (2/7/2010)

Astronomers have found the first clear evidence of a binary quasar within a pair of actively merging galaxies. Binary quasars, like other quasars, are thought to be the product of galaxy mergers. Until now, however, binary quasars have not been seen in galaxies unambiguously in the act of merging. But images from the Carnegie Institution's Magellan telescope in Chile show two distinct galaxies with "tails" produced by their mutual gravitational attraction. ...> Full Article

Forming the present-day spiral galaxies (2/6/2010)

Using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created a demographic census of galaxy types and shapes from a time before the Earth and the sun existed, to the present day. The results show that more than half of the present-day spiral galaxies had peculiar shapes only six billion years ago, which, if confirmed, highlights the importance of collisions and mergers in the recent past of many galaxies. It also provides clues for the unique status of our own galaxy. ...> Full Article

The stars behind the curtain (2/5/2010)

ESO is releasing a magnificent VLT image of the giant stellar nursery surrounding NGC 3603, in which stars are continuously being born. Embedded in this scenic nebula is one of the most luminous and most compact clusters of young, massive stars in our Milky Way, which therefore serves as an excellent "local" analogue of very active star-forming regions in other galaxies. The cluster also hosts the most massive star to be "weighed" so far. ...> Full Article

Craters young and old in Sirenum Fossae (2/4/2010)

The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in this view of the Southern Highlands of Mars. ...> Full Article