Astronomy News and Research - September 2008 Archives

Mercury's 'Spider' Pantheon Fossae Formation Linked To Asteroid Impact (9/30/2008)

The Pantheon Fossae, a radiating web of troughs located in the giant Caloris Basin of Mercury, is directly linked to an impact crater at the centre of the web. ...> Full Article

Scientist proposes explanation for puzzling property of night-shining clouds at the edge of space (9/29/2008)

Collaborative project may lead to revolutionary changes ...> Full Article

Comet dust reveals unexpected mixing of solar system (9/28/2008)

Chemical clues from a comet's halo are challenging common views about the history and evolution of the solar system and showing it may be more mixed-up than previously thought. ...> Full Article

Solar Wind Loses Power, Hits 50-year Low (9/27/2008)

Solar physicists announce that the solar wind is losing power ...> Full Article

A 'wild cousin' emerges from family tree of exploding stars (9/26/2008)

Astronomers may have discovered the relative of a freakishly behaving exploding star once thought to be the only one of its kind. ...> Full Article

The Hibernating Stellar Magnet (9/25/2008)

First Optically Active Magnetar-Candidate Discovered ...> Full Article

Scientists Detect Cosmic 'Dark Flow' Across Billions of Light Years (9/24/2008)

Scientists have identified an unexpected motion in distant galaxy clusters ...> Full Article

Worlds in collision (9/24/2008)

Two terrestrial planets orbiting a mature sun-like star some 300 light-years from Earth recently suffered a violent collision ...> Full Article

NASA's Swift Catches Farthest Ever Gamma-Ray Burst (9/23/2008)

NASA's Swift satellite has found the most distant gamma-ray burst ever detected ...> Full Article

Pinning down the Milky Way's spin (9/22/2008)

Pulsating stars enable a new precise determination of the rotation of our Galaxy ...> Full Article

Astrophysicists 'weigh' galaxy's most massive star (9/21/2008)

Theoretical models of stellar formation propose the existence of very massive stars that can attain up to 150 times the mass of our Sun. ...> Full Article

Water Hit With Young Star's Best Shot (9/21/2008)

Water is being blasted to pieces by a young star's laser-like jets ...> Full Article

Astronomers Discover Most Dark Matter-Dominated Galaxy in Universe (9/20/2008)

An astronomer has discovered the least luminous, most dark matter-filled galaxy known to exist ...> Full Article

Polar Crown Prominences (9/19/2008)

Warning: Material contained in this story may make you wish to become a solar physicist. ...> Full Article

Scientists find black hole 'missing link' (9/18/2008)

Scientists have found the 'missing link' between small and super-massive black holes ...> Full Article

Immigrant Sun: Our star could be far from where it started in Milky Way (9/17/2008)

New simulations show that, at least in galaxies similar to our own Milky Way, stars such as the sun can migrate great distances. ...> Full Article

Astronomer Discovers Upper Mass Limit for Black Holes (9/16/2008)

There appears to be an upper limit to how big the universe’s most massive black holes can get ...> Full Article

Next Mars Soil Scoop Slated for Last of Lander's Wet Lab Cells (9/15/2008)

The Phoenix team also plans to fill the final four of TEGA's eight ovens. ...> Full Article

A Comet's Tale at Diamond (9/15/2008)

A new picture of the composition of comets is emerging with the help of 21st century technology available at Diamond, the UK's national synchrotron light source, in Oxfordshire. ...> Full Article

Valley networks on Mars formed during long period of episodic flooding (9/14/2008)

According to new simulations, water was stable at the surface of Mars for prolonged periods in the past ...> Full Article

Brightest stellar explosion heralds new type of long-distance astronomy (9/13/2008)

March 19 gamma-ray burst was first with optical component visible to naked eye ...> Full Article

Space: The not-so-final frontier (9/12/2008)

Tardigrades or 'water-bears'- are able to do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation. ...> Full Article

'Naked-eye' gamma-ray burst was aimed squarely at Earth (9/11/2008)

Unparalleled data from satellites and observatories around the globe show that the jet from a powerful stellar explosion was aimed almost directly at Earth. The event, called a gamma-ray burst, became bright enough for human eyes to see ...> Full Article

1843 stellar eruption may be new type of star explosion (9/11/2008)

Supermassive stars may undergo periodic explosions before their final supernova ...> Full Article

Mind The Gap (9/10/2008)

VLT instrument hints at the presence of planets in young gas discs ...> Full Article

Astronomers Discover Missing Link for Origin of Comets (9/9/2008)

An international team of scientists has found an unusual object whose backward and tilted orbit around the Sun may clarify the origins of certain comets. ...> Full Article

Encounter Of A Different Kind: Rosetta Observes Asteroid At Close Quarters (9/8/2008)

Rosetta, has flown by a small body in the main asteroid belt, asteroid Steins, collecting a wealth of information about this rare type of minor Solar System body. ...> Full Article

Cassini detects arcs of material at Saturn moons (9/7/2008)

Cameras on NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn have detected faint arcs of material in the orbits of the small Saturnian moons Anthe and Methone, providing further evidence that most of the planet's small, inner moons orbit within partial or complete rings. ...> Full Article

A fine-tooth comb to measure the accelerating universe (9/7/2008)

Developing a precise ruler for the future ...> Full Article

Analysis Begins on Phoenix Lander's Deepest Soil Sample (9/6/2008)

Scientists have begun to analyze a sample of soil delivered to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's wet chemistry experiment from the deepest trench dug so far in the Martian arctic plains. ...> Full Article

Rosetta Steins fly-by confirmed (9/6/2008)

The Rosetta control room at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, ESOC, received the first radio signal after closest approach to asteroid (2867) Steins at 22:14 CEST, confirming a smooth fly-by. ...> Full Article

XMM-Newton's massive discovery (9/5/2008)

X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has discovered the most massive cluster of galaxies seen in the distant Universe until now. The galaxy cluster is so big that there can only be a handful of them at that distance, making this a rare catch indeed. The discovery confirms the existence of dark energy. ...> Full Article

Theory of the sun's role in formation of the solar system questioned (9/5/2008)

Results critical to interpretation of GENESIS spacecraft samples of the sun ...> Full Article

The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy (9/4/2008)

A prodigious pinwheel shines in the darkness ...> Full Article

Closest Look Ever at the Edge of a Black Hole (9/4/2008)

Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way ...> Full Article

Cosmic connections: Scientist locates the origin of cosmic dust (9/3/2008)

The origin of the microscopic meteorites that make up cosmic dust has been revealed for the first time ...> Full Article

Integral locates origin of high-energy emission from Crab Nebula (9/2/2008)

Scientists have been able to locate where particles in the vicinity of the rotating neutron-star in the Crab Nebula are accelerated to immense energies ...> Full Article

Antarctic research helps shed light on climate change on Mars (9/1/2008)

Researchers examining images of gullies on the flanks of craters on Mars say they formed as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago and in sites once occupied by glaciers ...> Full Article