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Astronomy News and Research - November 2007 Archives
 | Using a computer model simulation, Haruichi Washimi, a physicist at UC Riverside, has predicted when the interplanetary spacecraft Voyager 2 will cross the "termination shock," the spherical shell around the solar system that marks where the solar wind slows down to subsonic speed. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers have found what are believed to be some of the youngest solar systems yet detected. ...> Full Article |
 | ESA's Venus Express has revealed Venus as never before. For the first time, scientists are able to investigate from the top of its atmosphere, down nearly to the surface. They have shown it to be a planet of surprises that may once have been more Earth-like, and still is, to a certain extent. ...> Full Article |
 | In the early 1900s, Edwin Hubble made the startling discovery that our Milky Way galaxy is not alone. It is just one of many galaxies, or "island universes," as Hubble dubbed them, swimming in the sea of space. ...> Full Article |
 | VLT takes the search for young galaxies to new limits ...> Full Article |
 | Comet 17P/Holmes, which dazzled sky watchers with a dramatic outburst that made it visible to the unaided eye, now is fading from sight. However, before it returns to the obscurity from which it came, astronomers at the MMT Observatory took a final look. ...> Full Article |
New research led by a University of St Andrews astronomer has found evidence for what might be the raw material for the beginning of shrunken versions of our solar system - miniature worlds in the making.
...> Full Article
Mars was covered in an ocean of molten rock for about 100 million years after the planet formed, researchers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, UC Davis, and NASA's Johnson Space Center have found. The work is published in the journal Nature on Nov. 22.
...> Full Article
 | SRON astronomer Floris van der Tak is the first to have observed acidic particulate clouds outside of our own Milky Way galaxy. He did this by focusing the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, located on Hawaii, on two nearby Milky Way galaxies. Astronomers think that acidification inhibits the formation of stars and planets in the dust clouds. Now it is a case of waiting for precise measurements from the SRON-built HIFI space instrument that will be launched on the Herschel space telescope next year. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers have discovered white dwarf stars with pure carbon atmospheres. These stars possibly evolved in a sequence astronomers didn't know before. ...> Full Article |
 | The next time you take a moonlit stroll, or admire a full, bright-white moon looming in the night sky, you might count yourself lucky. New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that moons like Earth's - that formed out of tremendous collisions - are uncommon in the universe, arising at most in only five to 10 percent of planetary systems. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers are searching for gravitational waves in space, a feat that would literally change what we know about the cosmos. Using new tools to look at the universe, says Patrick Brady, often has led to discoveries that change the course of science. History is full of examples. ...> Full Article |
 | Hollywood thrillers such as "Deep Impact" helped to jump-start America's interest in knowing what our "deflection strategy" would be if a giant asteroid was on a potentially catastrophic collision course with Earth. ...> Full Article |
 | A supernova observed last year was so bright--about 100 times as luminous as a typical supernova--that it challenged the theoretical understanding of what causes supernovae. But Stan Woosley, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, had an idea that he thought could account for it--an extremely massive star that undergoes repeated explosions. When Woosley and two colleages worked out the detailed calculations for their model, the results matched the observations of the supernova known as SN 2006gy, the brightest ever recorded. ...> Full Article |
The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak early Sunday morning, Nov. 18. This reliable, but sparse, annual shower usually produces about five to 15 meteors per hour under dark skies.
...> Full Article
 | Rocky terrestrial planets, perhaps like Earth, Mars or Venus, appear to be forming or to have recently formed around a star in the Pleiades ("seven sisters") star cluster, the result of "monster collisions" of planets or planetary embryos. ...> Full Article |
 | Space scientists from UNSW and China have built an unmanned observatory destined for what they hope is the world's best place for stargazing in Antarctica. ...> Full Article |
 | Formerly, the Sun was the largest object in the Solar System. Now, comet 17P/Holmes holds that distinction. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronauts on board the International Space Station have relocated Harmony to its final position on the forward facing port of the US Destiny laboratory, preparing the way for the arrival of the European Columbus laboratory. ...> Full Article |
 | A NASA satellite designed, built and controlled by the University of Colorado at Boulder is expected to help scientists resolve wide-ranging predictions about the coming solar cycle peak in 2012 and its influence on Earth's warming climate, according to the chief scientist on the project. ...> Full Article |
UC Davis physics professor J. Anthony Tyson will testify before Congress on Thursday, Nov. 8, on near-Earth asteroids. Tyson will talk about the potential role of the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in surveying the sky for objects that might eventually strike our planet. The hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology will begin at 10 a.m. in room 2318 of the Rayburn Office Building.
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Most people have a few gigabytes of files on their PC. In the next decade, astronomers expect to be processing 10 million gigabytes of data every hour from the Square Kilometre Array telescope.
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 | ESA's comet chaser, Rosetta, is on its way to its second close encounter with Earth on 13 November. The spacecraft's operators are leaving no stones unturned to make sure Earth's gravity gives it the exact boost it needs en route to its destination. ...> Full Article |
 | On 25 September, students around the world watched with bated breath as their creation, the second Young Engineers Satellite (YES2) experiment, reached its dramatic conclusion. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have made an important discovery about the highest-energy cosmic rays that hit the Earth - and the discovery leads back to supermassive black holes. ...> Full Article |
A new astronomical study adds an unexpected twist to the complications: stars well-endowed with gold and other heavy elements have fewer stellar companions. Researchers believe their discovery could help track down Earth-like planets outside of our solar system.
...> Full Article
 | A team of American astronomers announced the discovery of a record-breaking fifth planet around the nearby star 55 Cancri, making it the only star aside from the sun known to have five planets. ...> Full Article |
 | Watching the stars set from the surface of the Earth may be a romantic pastime but when a spacecraft does it from orbit, it can reveal hidden details about a planet's atmosphere. ...> Full Article |
 | University of Leicester astrophysicist, Professor Martin Turner, is playing a major role in investigating the origins of the universe with the help of Xeus ...> Full Article |
 | As reservoirs of valuable information go, nothing beats the sun. This sphere of heat and energy holds 99.9 percent of the solar system, saved in all original proportions after planets and meteorites formed. Analyzing the mix of hydrogen, oxygen and noble gases found in the sun can answer one of the biggest questions of the universe: How did our solar system evolve? ...> Full Article |
 | The radar system on ESA's Mars Express has uncovered new details about some of the most mysterious deposits on Mars: The Medusae Fossae Formation. It has given the first direct measurement of the depth and electrical properties of these materials, providing new clues about their origin. ...> Full Article |
 | A researcher is part of the leading team of planet-hunting astronomers that have announced the discovery of three new planets today ...> Full Article |
Astronomers have created models for 14 different types of solid planets that might exist in our galaxy.
...> Full Article
 | Astronomers have found that a supernova discovered last year was caused by two colliding white dwarf stars. The white dwarfs were siblings orbiting each other. They slowly spiraled inward until they merged, touching off a titanic explosion. Observations show the strongest evidence yet of what was, until now, a purely theoretical mechanism for creating a supernova. ...> Full Article |
 | All five of the planets visible with the unaided eye will be on display during November nights, but the special attraction will be Mars. The red planet is approaching Earth in its orbit, and it won't appear as large again for another nine years. ...> Full Article |
 | Stars always evolve in the universe in large groups, known as clusters. Astronomers distinguish these formations by their age and size. The question of how star clusters are created from interstellar gas clouds and why they then develop in different ways has now been answered by researchers at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn with the aid of computer simulations. The scientists have solved -- at least at a theoretical level -- one of the oldest astronomical puzzles, namely the question of whether star clusters differ in their internal structure. ...> Full Article |
 | A pair of galaxies, known collectively as Arp 87, is one of hundreds of interacting and merging galaxies known in our nearby Universe. Arp 87 was originally discovered and catalogued by astronomer Halton Arp in the 1970s. Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a compilation of astronomical photographs using the Palomar 200-inch Hale and the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescopes. ...> Full Article |
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