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. (Phys.org) —Astronomers are asking volunteers to help them search for "space warps." More commonly known as "gravitational lenses," these are rare systems with very massive galaxies or clusters of galaxies that bend light around them so that they act rather like giant lenses in space, creating beautiful mirages. http://phys.org/news287245556.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 May 2013 15:26:20 EST news287245556 (Phys.org)—This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters that is located about 2.4 billion light years from Earth. http://phys.org/news281263366.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:00:02 EST news281263366 (Phys.org)—A newly discovered form of circle dancing is perplexing astronomers; not due to its complex choreography, but because it's unclear why the dancers – dwarf galaxies – are dancing in a ring around the much larger Andromeda Galaxy. http://phys.org/news276362444.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:21:33 EST news276362444 (Phys.org)—A new galaxy class has been identified using observations from ESO's Very Large Telescope, the Gemini South telescope, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Nicknamed 'green bean galaxies' because of their unusual appearance, these galaxies glow in the intense light emitted from the surroundings of monster black holes and are amongst the rarest objects in the Universe. http://phys.org/news273914633.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:24:02 EST news273914633 (Phys.org)—A planet that is not orbiting a star, effectively making it homeless, has been discovered by a team of University of Montreal (UdeM) researchers working with European colleagues and data provided by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). "Although theorists had established the existence of this type of very cold and young planet, one had never been observed until today," said Étienne Artigau, an astrophysicist at UdeM. The absence of a shining star in the vicinity of this planet enabled the team to study its atmosphere in great detail. This information will in turn enable astronomers to better understand exoplanets that do orbit stars. http://phys.org/news272097166.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Nov 2012 06:33:27 EST news272097166 (Phys.org)—Using images from the 340 Mpx MegaCam camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) from the summit of Mauna Kea, astronomers identified the massive cluster of young stars NGC 1980 to be a clearly separate entity from the main cluster of the most studied star formation region in the Galaxy. A technique relying on the combination of optical, infrared, and mid-infrared data ensures astronomers are sampling only stars located in the foreground of the Orion nebula. This technique also led them to the discovery of a nearby small star cluster, baptized L1641W. http://phys.org/news272050464.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:35:11 EST news272050464 Combining observations from Mauna Kea with data taken by telescopes in space, astronomers at the Institute for Astronomy (UH Manoa) and their collaborators have developed a technique that allows them to map collisions of giant galaxy clusters in three dimensions.  http://phys.org/news270198908.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:00:05 EST news270198908 (Phys.org)—Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have studied a giant filament of dark matter in 3D for the first time. Extending 60 million light-years from one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, the filament is part of the cosmic web that constitutes the large-scale structure of the Universe, and is a leftover of the very first moments after the Big Bang. If the high mass measured for the filament is representative of the rest of the Universe, then these structures may contain more than half of all the mass in the Universe. http://phys.org/news269611432.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:04:05 EST news269611432 (Phys.org)—A group of astronomers led by Gregg Wade of the Royal Military College of Canada have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory and the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Hawaii's Mauna Kea to measure the most magnetic massive star yet. Their work is published in today's issue of the research journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news266594431.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:07:09 EST news266594431 It started with an offhand remark, an unusual characterization for astronomers talking about stars: "They're going off like popcorn." http://phys.org/news266571181.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:33:11 EST news266571181 The University of Central Florida has detected what could be its first planet, only two-thirds the size of Earth and located right around the corner, cosmically speaking, at a mere 33light- years away. http://phys.org/news261832883.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:21:32 EST news261832883 (Phys.org) -- At a measly 2 kilometres in diameter, the smallest of two moons recently discovered orbiting Jupiter may be the giant planet's smallest known satellite. http://phys.org/news258223725.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:49:22 EST news258223725 China and India are catapulting to the forefront of astronomy research with their decision to join as partners in a Hawaii telescope that will be the world's largest when it's built later this decade. http://phys.org/news245561041.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:40:01 EST news245561041 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, astronomers have mapped dark matter on the largest scale ever observed. The results, presented by Dr Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Associate Professor Ludovic Van Waerbeke of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, are being presented today to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. Their findings reveal a Universe comprised of an intricate cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies that spans more than one billion light years. http://phys.org/news245329722.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:09:02 EST news245329722 (PhysOrg.com) -- The standard model for elliptical galaxies formation is challenged by a new result uncovered by an international team of astronomers from the Atlas3D collaboration. Team members from CNRS, CEA, CFHT, and the Observatoire de Lyon published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society the first results from their study on two elliptical galaxies exhibiting features characteristic of a fairly recent merging, suggesting they are five times younger than commonly thought. http://phys.org/news230446682.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:58:24 EST news230446682 Astronomers from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Hawaii have discovered multiple fragments ejected during the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Images and animations showing fragments rapidly flying away from the nucleus of comet 17P/Holmes will be presented by Rachel Stevenson at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Wednesday 16 September. http://phys.org/news172306060.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:20:01 EST news172306060