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Space & Earth science / Astronomy news 1234

Could hadron collider devour the Earth?

June 28, 2008 | User rating: 3.9 / 5 after 48 vote(s) | User comments: 34

Particle colliders creating black holes that could devour the Earth. Sounds like a great Hollywood script. But, according to UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Steve Giddings, it's pure fiction.


100 years on, mystery shrouds massive 'cosmic impact' in Russia

June 29, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 68 vote(s) | User comments: 13

A hundred years ago this week, a gigantic explosion ripped open the dawn sky above the swampy taiga forest of western Siberia, leaving a scientific riddle that endures to this day.


Ancient Galactic Magnetic Fields Stronger than Expected

July 23, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 21 vote(s) | User comments: 11

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mining the far reaches of the universe for clues about its past, a team of scientists including Philipp Kronberg of Los Alamos National Laboratory has proposed that magnetic fields of ancient galaxies like ...


The Pole star comes to life again

July 21, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 46 vote(s) | User comments: 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Northern Star, whose vibrations were thought to be dying away, appears to have come to life again.


Not a Quirk But a Quark ... a Quark Star!

June 27, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 40 vote(s) | User comments: 7

Astronomers recently announced that they have found a novel explanation for a rare type of super-luminous stellar explosion that may have produced a new type of object known as a quark star.


Proposed NASA Mission Could Explore Twisted Space Around Black Holes

July 01, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 21 vote(s) | User comments: 5

A new NASA mission could discover the shape of space that has been distorted by a spinning black hole's crushing gravity, and explore the structure and effects of the formidable magnetic field around magnetars, ...


A new way to weigh giant black holes

July 16, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 22 vote(s) | User comments: 4

How do you weigh the biggest black holes in the universe? One answer now comes from a completely new and independent technique that astronomers have developed using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.


Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

July 21, 2008 | User rating: 3.9 / 5 after 14 vote(s) | User comments: 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Pinwheel galaxy is gussied up in infrared light in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.


Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe

July 10, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 26 vote(s) | User comments: 3

Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy turns out ...


World's first space telescope to discover near-Earth objects

June 26, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 17 vote(s) | User comments: 2

Canada is building the world's first space telescope designed to detect and track asteroids as well as satellites. Called NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite), this spacecraft will provide a significant improvement ...


Seeing the universe through gamma-ray eyes

July 09, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 14 vote(s) | User comments: 2

The scientists have stopped holding their breath. Three weeks after the launch of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), researchers from Stanford University, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and elsewhere ...


What's My Age? Mystery Star Cluster Has 3 Different Birthdays

July 10, 2008 | User rating: 4 / 5 after 11 vote(s) | User comments: 2

Imagine having three clocks in your house, each chiming at a different time. Astronomers have found the equivalent of three out-of-sync "clocks" in the ancient open star cluster NGC 6791. The dilemma may fundamentally ...


Makemake -- or Easter bunny -- enters book of space names

July 15, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 7 vote(s) | User comments: 2

Pluto -- downgraded two years ago to the status of a dwarf planet -- has an exotically-named chum on the fringes of the Solar System.


Polarizing filter allows astronomers to see disks surrounding black holes

July 23, 2008 | User rating: 4.1 / 5 after 19 vote(s) | User comments: 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers ...


Lenses galore -- Hubble finds large sample of very distant galaxies

20 hours ago | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 8 vote(s) | User comments: 2

By using the gravitational magnification from six massive lensing galaxy clusters, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided scientists with the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date. ...


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