http://phys.org/space-news/astronomy/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on astronomy, space, earth science and space exploration. August, 2011, saw the dazzling appearance of the closest and brightest Type Ia supernova since Type Ia's were established as "standard candles" for measuring the expansion of the universe. The brilliant visitor, labeled SN 2011fe, was caught by the Palomar Transient Factory less than 12 hours after it exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy in the Big Dipper. http://phys.org/news290854941.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:10:01 EST news290854941 Astrophysicists from the Complutense University of Madrid have confirmed that Crantor, a large asteroid with a diameter of 70 km has an orbit similar to that of Uranus and takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that this and a further two objects of the group of the Centaurs are co-orbital with Uranus. http://phys.org/news290764261.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:51:45 EST news290764261 The deep-space telescope Herschel took its final bow on Monday, climaxing a successful four-year mission to observe the birth of stars and galaxies, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. http://phys.org/news290692260.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:51:17 EST news290692260 (Phys.org) —The contorted object captured by Hubble in this picture is IRAS 22491-1808, also known as the South America Galaxy. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) that emits a huge amount of light at infrared wavelengths. The reason for this intense infrared emission lies in an episode of strong star formation activity, which was set off by a collision between two interacting galaxies. http://phys.org/news290675229.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:07:21 EST news290675229 Astrophysicists at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and the Byurakan Observatory (Armenia) have detected a star of low luminosity which within a matter of moments gave off a flare so strong that it became almost 15 times brighter. The star in question is the flare star WX UMa. http://phys.org/news290437956.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:13:02 EST news290437956 (Phys.org) —A new study by astronomers at NASA, Johns Hopkins University and Rochester Institute of Technology confirms long-held suspicions about how stellar-mass black holes produce their highest-energy light. http://phys.org/news290429178.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:46:25 EST news290429178 A team of researchers has discovered evidence that an extrasolar planet may be forming quite far from its star—- about twice the distance Pluto is from our Sun. The planet lies inside a dusty, gaseous disk around a small red dwarf TW Hydrae, which is only about 55 percent of the mass of the Sun. The discovery adds to the ever-increasing variety of planetary systems in the Milky Way. The research is published in the Astrophysical Journal. http://phys.org/news290347099.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:58:30 EST news290347099 (Phys.org) —Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. http://phys.org/news290329260.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:01:07 EST news290329260 (Phys.org) —Astronomers at the University of Birmingham (UK), Academica Sinica in Taiwan, and the Kavli Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan, have found new evidence that the mysterious dark matter that pervades our universe behaves as predicted by the 'cold dark matter' theory known as 'CDM'. http://phys.org/news290321583.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:53:12 EST news290321583 (Phys.org) —An international team of researchers, including University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomer Brent Tully, has mapped the motions of structures of the nearby universe in greater detail than ever before. The maps are presented as a video, which provides a dynamic three-dimensional representation of the universe through the use of rotation, panning, and zooming. The video was announced last week at the conference "Cosmic Flows: Observations and Simulations" in Marseille, France, that honored the career and 70th birthday of Tully. http://phys.org/news290275329.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:02:59 EST news290275329 (Phys.org) —Researchers from NAOJ and the University of Tokyo have observed the atmosphere of super-Earth "GJ3470b" in Cancer for the first time in the world using two telescopes at OAO (Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, NAOJ). This super-Earth is an exoplanet, having only about 14 times the mass of our home planet, and it is the second lightest one among already-surveyed exoplanets. The observational data revealed that this planet is highly likely to NOT be covered by thick clouds. http://phys.org/news290245911.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:52:02 EST news290245911 Astronomers using the Swiss 1.2-metre Euler telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile have found a new type of variable star. The discovery was based on the detection of very tiny changes in brightness of stars in a cluster. The observations revealed previously unknown properties of these stars that defy current theories and raise questions about the origin of the variations. http://phys.org/news290194757.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2013 06:00:01 EST news290194757 (Phys.org) —Nearly a decade ago, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory caught signs of what appeared to be a black hole snacking on gas at the middle of the nearby Sculptor galaxy. Now, NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), which sees higher-energy X-ray light, has taken a peek and found the black hole asleep. http://phys.org/news290188656.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:10:03 EST news290188656 (Phys.org) —A survey from Herschel has revealed that the reservoir of molecular gas in the Milky Way is hugely underestimated - almost by one third - when it is traced with traditional methods. Monitoring the emission from ionised carbon, the new study identified molecular gas in the intermediate evolutionary stage between diffuse, atomic gas and the densest star-forming molecular clouds. The discovery not only indicates that there is more raw material for the formation of new stars in the Galaxy, but also that it extends farther than astronomers knew. http://phys.org/news290188462.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:54:44 EST news290188462 (Phys.org) —The least massive galaxy in the known universe has been measured by UC Irvine scientists, clocking in at just 1,000 or so stars with a bit of dark matter holding them together. http://phys.org/news290068677.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:50:01 EST news290068677 (Phys.org) —With the advent of powerful space infrared telescopes like the Spitzer Space Telescope and the (recently deceased) Herschel Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to study the properties of dust in galaxies so remote that their light has been traveling towards us for over ninety percent of the age of the universe. That these distant objects are detected at all is because they are very bright in the infrared, and they are bright because they are making huge numbers of stars whose light warms the dust that in turn radiates at infrared wavelengths. http://phys.org/news290066303.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:01:55 EST news290066303 (Phys.org) —Stars have an alluring pull on planets, especially those in a class called hot Jupiters, which are gas giants that form farther from their stars before migrating inward and heating up. http://phys.org/news289754569.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:22:55 EST news289754569 If one looks only for the shiniest pennies in the fountain, chances are one misses most of the coins because they shimmer less brightly. This, in a nutshell, is the conundrum astronomers face when searching for Earth-like planets outside our solar system. http://phys.org/news289753136.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:59:07 EST news289753136 Astronomers using the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have imaged a region around a young star where dust particles can grow by clumping together. This is the first time that such a dust trap has been clearly observed and modeled. It solves a long-standing mystery about how dust particles in discs grow to larger sizes so that they can eventually form comets, planets and other rocky bodies. http://phys.org/news289737881.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:00:10 EST news289737881 (Phys.org) —An international team of scientists using the most powerful telescope on Earth has discovered the moments just after the Big Bang happened more like the theory predicts, eliminating a significant discrepancy that troubled physicists for two decades. The discovery will be published in the international journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on June 6. http://phys.org/news289723377.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Thu, 06 Jun 2013 07:43:21 EST news289723377 (Phys.org) —By comparing infrared and X-ray background signals across the same stretch of sky, an international team of astronomers has discovered evidence of a significant number of black holes that accompanied the first stars in the universe. http://phys.org/news289667976.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:30:01 EST news289667976 (Phys.org) —Stars are known to form in dense clouds of gas and dust, but why do some regions show prodigious rates of star formation, while others barely produce any young stars at all? Many of the richest sites are found in distant galaxies: the name "starburst" is applied to them. Now, a team has identified a region in our own galaxy that may deserve this title, and help explain what leads to the furious production of new stars in a starburst region. http://phys.org/news289641570.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:50:02 EST news289641570 Most skygazers recognize the Orion Nebula, one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth. Although it makes for great views in backyard telescopes, the Orion Nebula is far from the most prolific star-forming region in our galaxy. That distinction may go to one of the more dramatic stellar nurseries like the Cat's Paw Nebula, otherwise known as NGC 6334, which is experiencing a "baby boom." http://phys.org/news289646570.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:40:05 EST news289646570 If you had a time machine that could take you anywhere in the past, what time would you choose? Most people would probably pick the era of the dinosaurs in hopes of spotting a T. rex. But many astronomers would choose the period, four and a half billion years ago, that our solar system formed. In lieu of a working time machine, we learn about the birth of our Sun and its planets by studying young stars in our galaxy. New work suggests that our Sun was both active and "feisty" in its infancy, growing in fits and starts while burping out bursts of X-rays. http://phys.org/news289646518.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:40:02 EST news289646518 (Phys.org) —In a new study using the NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory Mayall 4-meter telescope, observations of a large sample of stars with candidate planets identified by the NASA Kepler Mission have revealed that many of the stars, and hence their planets, are actually somewhat larger than originally thought. In addition, the researchers confirm that planets larger than Neptune are more likely to be found orbiting stars that contain more heavy elements (such as iron) than the Sun. Small planets, however, have been discovered around stars both rich and poor in metals. http://phys.org/news289641206.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:20:03 EST news289641206 (Phys.org) —The strangest class of exoplanets found to date might be even stranger than astronomers have thought. A new model suggests that they are partially heated by electric currents linked to their host stars. Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) astronomer Dr. Derek Buzasi has proposed a model in which electric currents arising from the interaction between the planet's magnetic field and the hot charged wind from the star flow through the interior of the planet, heating it like an electric toaster. http://phys.org/news289640640.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:44:25 EST news289640640 (Phys.org) —Astronomers have discovered light echoing off material surrounding a recent supernova explosion, SN 2009ig. The dust and gas that are reflecting the light are so close to the eruption center that it is likely related to the progenitor star. This discovery supports the theory that exploding white dwarfs become unstable from matter donated by large, non-degenerate stars. http://phys.org/news289588600.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:17:06 EST news289588600 (Phys.org) —A flash of light from a stellar outburst has provided a rare look at the 3-D structure of material ejected by an erupting nova. http://phys.org/news289583261.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:47:48 EST news289583261 A scientific team led by University of Louisville doctoral student Karen Collins has discovered a hot Saturn-like planet in another solar system 700 light-years away. http://phys.org/news289581631.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:20:38 EST news289581631 (Phys.org) —A bright dwarf galaxy relatively close to Earth's Milky Way and trailing fireballs is the first clear example of a galaxy in the act of dying, scientists argue in new research. http://phys.org/news289554234.html Space & Earth - Astronomy Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:44:00 EST news289554234