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Space & Earth science / Astronomy news 1234

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.


The Quiet Explosion: Object intermediate between normal supernovae and gamma-ray bursts found

18 hours ago | User rating: 4.3 / 5 after 6 vote(s) | User comments: 1

A European-led team of astronomers are providing hints that a recent supernova may not be as normal as initially thought. Instead, the star that exploded is now understood to have collapsed into a black hole, producing a ...


COROT's new find orbits Sun-like star

19 hours ago | User rating: not shown ( 4 vote(s) ) | No comments yet

A team of European scientists working with COROT have discovered an exoplanet orbiting a star slightly more massive than the Sun. After just 555 days in orbit, the mission has now observed more than 50 000 ...


Watching a 'New Star' Make the Universe Dusty

19 hours ago | User rating: not shown ( 3 vote(s) ) | No comments yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, and its remarkable acuity, astronomers were able for the first time to witness the appearance of a shell of dusty gas around a star that had just erupted, ...


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. ...


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 ...


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 ...


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.


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.


Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter

July 17, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 14 vote(s) | No comments yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images offers an unprecedented view of a planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's atmosphere.


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.


Brightest Star in the Galaxy Has New Competition

July 15, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 16 vote(s) | No comments yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center.


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.


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 ...


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 ...


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