Astronomy News and Research Archives Page 18

Mystery Comet Explodes into Brightness (10/26/2007)

A once-faint comet has made a sudden leap from obscurity to center stage. Comet 17P/Holmes, now visible to northern hemisphere residents, increased its brightness by a factor of one million this week, going from magnitude 17 to 2. This makes it visible to the unaided eye as well as binoculars and telescopes, offering a unique viewing opportunity for sky watchers. ...> Full Article

Possible Cosmic Defect May Be a Window into the Early Universe (10/26/2007)

An unusual cold spot in the oldest radiation in the universe, the cosmic microwave background, may be caused by a cosmic defect created just after the Big Bang, a Spanish and U.K. research team reports in Science Express. ...> Full Article

Dwarf galaxies need dark matter too, astronomers say (10/25/2007)

Stars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies behave in a way that suggests the galaxies are utterly dominated by dark matter, astronomers have found. ...> Full Article

Massive Star's Afterlife: A Supernova Seeds New Planets (10/25/2007)

A spectacular new image shows how complex a star's afterlife can be. ...> Full Article

Solar Telescope Reaches 120,000 Feet on Jumbo-Jet-Sized Balloon (10/24/2007)

In a landmark test flight a team of research partners this month successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet, borne by a balloon larger than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The test clears the way for long-duration polar balloon flights beginning in 2009 that will capture unprecedented details of the Sun's surface. ...> Full Article

Boosting the accuracy of Rosetta's Earth approach (10/23/2007)

Space craft lines up for 2nd Earth flyby to help gain speed for trip to comet. ...> Full Article

Columbus hatch closed for last time (10/22/2007)

Preparations of the European Columbus laboratory took an important step earlier this week with the final closure of the module's hatch ahead of the December launch to the International Space Station. ...> Full Article

Double Star TC-1 Completes Its Mission (10/21/2007)

TC-1, one of the two satellites of the CNSA/ESA Double Star mission, was decommissioned on 14 October as its designed orbit lifetime came to an end. The satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere and turned to dust during its descent. ...> Full Article

Heaviest Stellar Black Hole Discovered In Nearby Galaxy (10/20/2007)

Astronomers have located an exceptionally massive black hole in orbit around a huge companion star. This result has intriguing implications for the evolution and ultimate fate of massive stars. ...> Full Article

Scientists Uncover First Evidence of Water Still On Mars (10/19/2007)

Physicists have detected the first "on-the-spot" evidence of significant amounts of water still existing on Mars. ...> Full Article

Making tracks towards understanding exploding stars and the origin of the elements (10/18/2007)

Scientists have helped to design and create a pioneering instrument that will provide clues that could help to understand the origins of the elements in the Universe. ...> Full Article

$1 Million in Funding for Construction of Innovative POLARBEAR Telescope (10/18/2007)

Telescope will allow scientists to get a first look back at the birth of the universe ...> Full Article

Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Allen Telescope Array Begins Scientific Observations (10/18/2007)

Astronomers have announced that the first 42 radio dishes of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) have been activated and collecting scientific data from the far reaches of the universe. This is the first phase of a planned 350 radio dishes that will advance the capabilities of radio astronomy research. ...> Full Article

Long-lost, Dangerous Asteroid Is Found Again (10/17/2007)

Echoing the re-discovery of America by the Spanish long after an earlier Viking reconnaissance, astronomers have learned that a recently observed asteroid - one that could potentially hit the Earth - was actually first observed nearly a half-century ago. Researchers at the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA have confirmed work by SETI Institute astronomer Peter Jenniskens that the recently discovered asteroid 2007 RR9 is in fact the long-lost object 6344 P-L. ...> Full Article

Drizzly Mornings On Xanadu -- Saturn's Moon Titan (10/15/2007)

Noted for its bizarre hydrocarbon lakes and frozen methane clouds, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, also appears to have widespread drizzles of methane, according to a team of astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley. ...> Full Article

Dark Matter Of The Universe Has A Long Lifetime (10/15/2007)

New research from the Niels Bohr Institute presents new information that adds another piece of knowledge to the jigsaw puzzle of the dark mystery of the universe -- dark matter. ...> Full Article

Astronomers get their hands dirty as they lift the veil on galactic dust (10/13/2007)

There is more to a grain of dust than meets the eye, at least for astronomers as they attempt to probe deeper into distant galaxies. Until now dust has been a nuisance because it has obscured galaxies, and the stars within them, by absorbing the radiation they emit. But more recently dust has started to present opportunities because it emits radiation itself as a consequence of being heated up by nearby stars. Aided by new observing instruments and sophisticated computer software, this radiation enables astronomers to reconstruct what lies behind the dust. Furthermore the dust itself plays a vital role in star formation within galaxies. ...> Full Article

Astronomers help locate obscure galaxies (10/12/2007)

Researchers helped to locate what they call the 'Lego building blocks of galaxies.' They did so by looking in a place that other astronomers already had looked, but with fresh eyes. ...> Full Article

Cassini's new view of land of lakes and seas (10/12/2007)

The best views of the hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft are being released today. ...> Full Article

Testing Einstein: Is Dark Energy Constant? (10/12/2007)

Nearly a decade ago, astronomers discovered the surprising existence of dark energy-a mysterious force that pushes galaxies apart and accelerates the expansion of the universe. Also known as the energy density of the vacuum, dark energy is a property of space itself. Scientists have many questions about the nature of dark energy. One question that soon may be answered: Is the energy density of the vacuum constant over cosmic time? ...> Full Article

New isotope molecule may add to Venus' greenhouse effect (10/11/2007)

New isotope molecule may add to Venus' greenhouse effect ...> Full Article

Pluto-bound Spacecraft Sees Changes In Jupiter System (10/11/2007)

The voyage of NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft through the Jupiter system earlier this year provided a bird's-eye view of a dynamic planet that has changed since the last close-up looks by NASA spacecraft. ...> Full Article

Origin Of Cosmic Rays Illuminated (10/11/2007)

Recent observations from NASA and Japanese X-ray observatories have helped clarify one of the long-standing mysteries in astronomy -- the origin of cosmic rays. ...> Full Article

Cassini on the trail of a runaway mystery (10/10/2007)

Scientists are on the trail of Iapetus' mysterious dark side, which seems to be home to a bizarre 'runaway' process that is transporting vaporised water ice from the dark areas to the white areas of the Saturnian moon. ...> Full Article

Undergrads discover more than 1,300 asteroids (10/9/2007)

Undergraduate astronomy students at the University of Washington combing through images from a specialized telescope have discovered more than 1,300 asteroids that had never before been observed. That is about one out of every 250 known objects in the solar system. ...> Full Article

New deep space images of distant strip of sky to be available on Google Sky (10/7/2007)

A global project to map a distant strip of the universe is releasing its data today to scientists and the public to be used as part of Google Sky, a new feature of Google Earth. ...> Full Article

Sign Of 'Embryonic Planets' Forming In Nearby Stellar Systems (10/6/2007)

Astronomers are pointing to three nearby stars they say may hold "embryonic planets"—a missing link in planet-formation theories. ...> Full Article

Scientists study tiny galaxy halfway across the universe (10/5/2007)

A tiny galaxy nearly halfway across the universe, the smallest in size and mass known to exist at that distance, has been identified and studied by an international team of over a dozen scientists. ...> Full Article

Supernovae not what they used to be (10/5/2007)

Distant supernovae an average of 12 per cent brighter ...> Full Article

Small Explorer Mission to Detect Black Holes Scheduled for 2011 Launch (10/4/2007)

NASA has given the go-ahead to restart an astrophysics mission that will provide a greater capability for using high-energy Xrays to detect black holes than any existing instrument has. ...> Full Article