http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. At this early stage in the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system and beyond, the emphasis is on liquid water. Where it can exist on a planet's or moon's surface, so the thinking goes, life as we know it has a chance. Much of the observational and theoretical work in astrobiology therefore concerns the "habitable zone," the orbital band around stars where a rocky world's water neither freezes away nor boils off. http://phys.org/news286782360.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 May 2013 07:10:01 EST news286782360 The first truly global telescope came a significant step closer to completion this month with the installation and first light on three new 1-meter telescopes at the South Africa Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) near Sutherland, South Africa. A team of five Las Cumbres engineers, technicians, and a postdoc, convened at Sutherland for three weeks during late February and early March to achieve this feat. http://phys.org/news282845157.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:06:35 EST news282845157 An asteroid measuring up to 20km across hit South Australia up to 360 million years ago and left behind the one of the largest asteroid impact zones on Earth, according to new research published today. http://phys.org/news280142558.html Space & Earth Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:22:51 EST news280142558 Astronomers have used the Subaru Telescope to show that the HAT-P-7 planetary system, which is about 1040 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, includes at least two giant planets and one companion star (Figure 1). The discovery of a previously unknown companion (HAT-P-7B) to the central star (HAT-P-7) as well as confirmation of another giant planet (HAT-P-7c) orbiting outside of the retrograde planet HAT-P-7b offer new insights into how retrograde planets may form and endure. http://phys.org/news278318517.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:42:05 EST news278318517 Four buildings containing telescopes at Australia's largest astronomical observatory have suffered smoke damage in a bushfire, the Australian National University said today. http://phys.org/news277554381.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:26:26 EST news277554381 Australia's biggest astronomical observatory was burned in a bushfire near Coonabarabran in Western NSW overnight, threatening over $100 million worth of research infrastructure and the largest optical telescope in the country. http://phys.org/news277378414.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:33:40 EST news277378414 (Phys.org)—One of the most powerful calculating machines known to the civilian world has been installed and tested in a remote, high-altitude site in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile, marking one of the major remaining milestones toward completion of the most elaborate ground-based telescope in history, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). http://phys.org/news275324786.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:06:33 EST news275324786 A team of Italian astronomers performed a very difficult measurement for which it was necessary to use the most advanced instrumentation in combination with an unusual technique, so as to involve even the Moon as a natural astronomical mirror. The challenge was the observation of effect occurred during the transit of Venus across the Sun on June 6th, dubbed "Rossiter-McLaughlin effect". This is a phenomenon that occurs when a celestial body passes in front of a star, hiding a part of its rotating surface and that produces a temporary distortion in the profiles of the spectral lines of light coming from the eclipsed star. Astronomers led by Paolo Molaro, from INAF Astronomical Observatory of Trieste succeeded in this ambitious task, observing and measurirng the magnitude of this tiny effect. Their findings are published online today in a paper of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news274382743.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:00:02 EST news274382743 (Phys.org)—An international team of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the Japanese universities of Kobe, Hyogo, and Saitama used the Subaru Telescope to capture a clear image of the protoplanetary disk of the star UX Tauri A. The team's subsequent, detailed study of the disk's characteristics suggests that its dust particles are large in size and non-spherical in shape. This exciting result shows that these dust grains are colliding with and adhering to each other, a process that will lead to their eventual formation into planets. http://phys.org/news273315818.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:03:47 EST news273315818 Russian writer Boris Strugatsky, famous for co-authoring Soviet-era science-fiction novels critical of the authorities with his late brother Arkady, passed away on Monday at 79, his foundation said. http://phys.org/news272554150.html Other Sciences Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:29:22 EST news272554150 Astronomers using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have discovered a "super-Jupiter" around the bright star Kappa Andromedae, which now holds the record for the most massive star known to host a directly imaged planet or lightweight brown dwarf companion. http://phys.org/news272537770.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:56:22 EST news272537770 A large international team of astronomers led by Jun Hashimoto (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) and Ruobing Dong (Princeton University) has used the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) to observe and examine PDS 70, a young star about 10 million years old with a mass similar to that of the Sun. Images captured from the observations clearly show a giant gap inside the protoplanetary disk, the largest ever found among lower mass stars similar to the Sun. A protoplanetary disk is where planets form, and the gravitational force of newborn planets may account for the huge gap between the inner edge of the disk and the central star. No single planet, regardless of how heavy or efficient it is in its formation, is sufficient to create such a giant gap. The researchers think that the gap in PDS 70's protoplanetary disk may have resulted from the birth of multiple planets. The high contrast images from the observations allowed the researchers to study the details of the disk, which then enabled them to directly reveal the site of formation of one and possibly more planets. The research team is now attempting to detect those planets. http://phys.org/news271870054.html Space & Earth Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:27:50 EST news271870054 The super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy has a healthy appetite, frequently snacking on asteroids and comets. Now, a cloud of gas and dust called G2 is on a dangerous course to become its next meal. http://phys.org/news270725013.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:40:01 EST news270725013 This small satellite of primarily Swiss design was chosen above twenty-five other projects. Named CHEOPS for "CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite," the selection of this device was just announced by the European Space Agency (ESA). This satellite, which will be put in orbit in 2017, is the result of collaboration between the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, EPFL, and ETHZ. It will also receive technical support from institutes in Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and possibly other European countries that demonstrate interest. In terms of EPFL, the Swiss Space Center will work on the design of the device. http://phys.org/news270382388.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:40:08 EST news270382388 In a quest to learn more about our own galaxy, a Sydney astronomer has identified dozens of previously unknown galaxies in a distant cluster. http://phys.org/news270197978.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:10:02 EST news270197978 (Phys.org)—Most big galaxies fit into one of two camps: pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxies and blobby elliptical galaxies. Spirals like the Milky Way are hip and happening places, with plenty of gas and dust to birth new stars. Ellipticals are like cosmic retirement villages, full of aging residents in the form of red giant stars. Now, astronomers have discovered that one well-known elliptical has a split personality. Centaurus A is hiding a gassy spiral in its center. http://phys.org/news270123656.html Space & Earth Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:24:01 EST news270123656 (Phys.org)—Jupiter, the mythical god of sky and thunder, would certainly be pleased at all the changes afoot at his namesake planet. As the planet gets peppered continually with small space rocks, wide belts of the atmosphere are changing color, hotspots are vanishing and reappearing, and clouds are gathering over one part of Jupiter, while dissipating over another. The results were presented today by Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Reno, Nev. http://phys.org/news269714974.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:49:53 EST news269714974 A research team, led by Associate Professor Mareki Honma from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), has succeeded in precisely determining the astronomical yardstick for the Galaxy based upon the precise distance measurements with VERA from NAOJ and other advanced radio telescopes. The new findings are that the distance from the sun to the Galactic center is 26,100 light-years, and that the Galactic rotation velocity in the solar system is 240km/s. http://phys.org/news268662948.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:36:02 EST news268662948 (Phys.org)—Four decades of active research and debate by the solar physics community have failed to bring consensus on what drives the sun's powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can have profound "space weather" effects on Earth-based power grids and satellites in near-Earth geospace. http://phys.org/news267709493.html Physics Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:45:03 EST news267709493 Using the Multi-Object Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (MOIRCS) mounted on the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Masao Hayashi (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan or NAOJ) and Dr. Tadayuki Kodama (Subaru Telescope, NAOJ) has discovered a protocluster of galaxies in the midst of a vigorous process of formation. It is the densest and most active protocluster ever identified at so great a distance, 11 billion light years away from Earth. The star formation rate in the protocluster is intense, sometimes reaching a rate over 100 times greater than that of the Milky Way Galaxy. Although old, inactive elliptical galaxies dominate present-day galaxy clusters, the recently discovered protocluster is a site where progenitors of clusters of current elliptical galaxies were just forming and growing rapidly. It will serve as an ideal laboratory for investigating how a cluster develops and how a special, dense environment can influence the formation and evolution of galaxies. http://phys.org/news267694780.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:39:53 EST news267694780 The installation of Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) onto the Subaru Telescope took place on August 16-17, 2012. The availability of this extraordinary new instrument marks the beginning of a new era in observational astronomy and is a testament to the fruits of international collaboration. The 3-ton, 3-meter (9 feet) high instrument mounted at prime focus contains 116 innovative, highly sensitive CCDs. HSC's 1.5 degree wide field of view (FOV) substantially increases the Subaru Telescope's FOV beyond that available with the present instrument (the Subaru Prime Focus Camera, Suprime-Cam) by seven times. http://phys.org/news266743055.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:17:58 EST news266743055 A research team of the Department of Physics, Keio University, has discovered a molecular cloud with a peculiar helical structure by observation with the NRO 45m Telescope at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The team named it a "pigtail" molecular cloud from its morphology. The "pigtail" molecular cloud is located in the Galactic center, approximately 30,000 light years away from the solar system.  Giant molecular clouds in this region orbit around the Galactic center along two closed orbits.  At the bottom of the pigtail molecular cloud, these two orbits intersect.  The research team analyzed multiple molecular spectral lines in detail. The researchers have revealed that the two giant molecular clouds collide with one another at exactly the bottom of the "pigtail" molecular cloud. These findings suggest that the helical structure of the "pigtail" molecular cloud formed when the two molecular clouds with different orbits frictionally collided and the magnetic tube was twisted. http://phys.org/news266485260.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:43:24 EST news266485260 A research group led by Dr. Masaomi Tanaka (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Dr. Koji Kawabata (Hiroshima University), Dr. Takashi Hattori (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), and Dr. Keiichi Maeda (University of Tokyo, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe) used the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the Subaru Telescope to conduct observations that revealed a clumpy 3D structure of supernovae (Figure 1). This finding supports a clumpy 3D scenario of supernovae explosions rather than the widely accepted bipolar explosion scenario. It advances our understanding of how supernovae explode, a process that has been a persistent mystery. http://phys.org/news263201817.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:38:22 EST news263201817 New Yorkers gathered at dusk to witness "Manhattanhenge" -- a rare alignment of the sun with the east-west street grid in which it appears to set between skyscrapers. http://phys.org/news261285937.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Jul 2012 05:00:01 EST news261285937 A team of Japanese astronomers using telescopes on Hawaii say they've seen the oldest galaxy, a discovery that's competing with other "earliest galaxy" claims. http://phys.org/news258646105.html Space & Earth Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:34:57 EST news258646105 A team of astronomers led by Takatoshi Shibuya, Dr. Nobunari Kashikawa, Dr. Kazuaki Ota, and Dr. Masanori Iye (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) has used the Subaru and Keck Telescopes to discover the most distant galaxy ever found, SXDF-NB1006-2, at a distance of 12.91 billion light years from the Earth. This galaxy is slightly farther away than GN-108036, which Subaru Telescope discovered last year and was the most distant galaxy discovered at the time. In addition, the team's research verified that the proportion of neutral hydrogen gas in the 750-million-year-old early Universe was higher than it is today. These findings help us to understand the nature of the early Universe during the "cosmic dawn", when the light of ancient celestial objects and structures appeared from obscurity. http://phys.org/news258016857.html Space & Earth Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:21:29 EST news258016857 Japanese astronomers said Wednesday they had found a cluster of galaxies 12.72 billion light-years away from Earth, which they claim is the most distant cluster ever discovered. http://phys.org/news254548001.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:48:51 EST news254548001 Phobos is the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. Despite decades of Martian exploration, we still know very little about Phobos. Many fundamental properties of this small potato-shaped body stay vague, for example, its gravitational field. SHI Xian and coauthors from Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and Technical University Berlin recently updated working models for the gravitational field of Phobos. Their work, entitled "Working models for the gravitational field of Phobos", was published in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, 2012, Vol 55(2). http://phys.org/news250141356.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:43:47 EST news250141356 (PhysOrg.com) -- The SEEDS (Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope/HiCIAO) project, a five-year international collaboration launched in 2009 and led by Motohide Tamura of NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) has yielded another impressive image that contributes to our understanding of the link between disks and planet formation. http://phys.org/news244449890.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:45:08 EST news244449890 (PhysOrg.com) -- A peculiar cosmic explosion first detected by NASA's Swift observatory on Christmas Day 2010 was caused either by a novel type of supernova located billions of light-years away or an unusual collision much closer to home, within our own galaxy. Papers describing both interpretations appear in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news241882251.html Space & Earth Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:30:57 EST news241882251