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Astronomy News and Research - March 2009 Archives
Scientists from the University of Sheffield and Queen's University Belfast have made a unique discovery which will help us understand one of the most puzzling features of the sun. The research has helped explain why the outside atmosphere of the sun is actually hotter than the inner photosphere.
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 | Palomar's participation in Around the World in 80 Telescopes enabled by HRWREN's high speed, large bandwidth ...> Full Article |
More than 200,000 people have signed up for the project and donated time on their computers to search gravitational wave data for signals from unknown pulsars.
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 | New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have made a major advance in explaining how a special class of black holes may shut off the high-speed jets they produce. These results suggest that these black holes have a mechanism for regulating the rate at which they grow. ...> Full Article |
 | A Purdue University aerospace researcher helped shape plans to install a new experiment currently on the space shuttle Discovery to collect data for controlling deadly friction and heating in the design of future spacecraft. ...> Full Article |
New calibration expands Hubble's capability
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UK astronomers, using the Science and Technology Facilities Council's William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, observed a rare asteroid as it was hurtling towards our planet and have captured the only spectrum of it before it exploded in our atmosphere.
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Weizmann Institute scientists observe the largest exploding star yet seen
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 | Does a twin Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? Astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit. NASA's Kepler spacecraft just launched to find such worlds. Once the search succeeds, the next questions driving research will be: Is that planet habitable? Does it have an Earth-like atmosphere? Answering those questions will not be easy. ...> Full Article |
Scientists at Queen's University have made a finding that will help us to understand more about the turbulent solar weather and its affect on our planet. Along with scientists at the University of Sheffield and California State University, the researchers have detected giant twisting waves in the lower atmosphere of the Sun.
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 | Where do supernovae come from? Astronomers have long believed they were exploding stars, but by analyzing a series of images, researchers from the Dark Cosmology Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and from Queens University, Belfast have proven that two dying red supergiant stars produced supernovae. The results are published in the prestigious scientific journal, Science. ...> Full Article |
 | An international team of astrophysicists using telescopes on the ground and in space have uncovered surprising changes in radiation emitted by an active galaxy. The picture that emerges from these first-ever simultaneous observations with optical, X-ray and new-generation gamma-ray telescopes is much more complex than scientists expected and challenges current theories of how the radiation is generated. ...> Full Article |
 | A new Hubble image shows four of Saturn's moons circling the ringed planet. ...> Full Article |
 | The ESO Very Large Telescope has taken the best image ever of a strange and chaotic duo of interwoven galaxies. The images also contain some surprises -- interlopers both far and near. ...> Full Article |
 | The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a strong new line of evidence that galaxies are embedded in halos of dark matter. ...> Full Article |
Star Vistas captures dazzling images of the universe
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 | Astronomers have obtained exceptional 3-D views of distant galaxies, seen when the Universe was half its current age, by combining the twin strengths of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's acute eye, and the capacity of ESO's Very Large Telescope to probe the motions of gas in tiny objects. By looking at this unique "history book" of our Universe, scientists hope to solve the puzzle of how galaxies formed in the remote past. ...> Full Article |
The search for habitable planets continues with the March 6 launch of the Kepler spacecraft, the latest in NASA's series of low cost, highly focused Discovery missions. Kepler, built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., includes redundant avionics systems designed and built by Southwest Research Institute to help guide and control the spacecraft as it stares deep into space, watching for planets orbiting stars.
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 | Rice study hints at water -- and life -- under Olympus Mons ...> Full Article |
 | A new Hubble image shows three galaxies locked in a gravitational tug-of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them. ...> Full Article |
 | Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained valuable new insights about the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius. These properties of Pluto's atmosphere may be due to the presence of pure methane patches or of a methane-rich layer covering the dwarf planet's surface. ...> Full Article |
 | Brown planetary geologists have located a gully system that appears to have been carved by melt water that originated in nearby snow and ice deposits. The gullies, which the team determined to be about 1.25 million years old, may represent the most recent period when water flowed on the planet. The findings appear on the cover of the March issue of Geology. ...> Full Article |
UK astronomers, using a telescope aboard the NASA Swift Satellite, have captured information from the early stages of a gamma ray burst -- the most violent and luminous explosions occurring in the Universe since the Big Bang.
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 | A deep new image of the magnificent Helix planetary nebula has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows a rich background of distant galaxies, usually not seen in other images of this object. ...> Full Article |
 | The oldest isolated pulsar ever detected in X-rays has been found with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This very old and exotic object turns out to be surprisingly active. ...> Full Article |
Interstellar space dust from a dead star identified by a research team led by the University of Nottingham could unlock some of the mysteries of the early universe.
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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