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) —The supernova, designated SN UDS10Wil, belongs to a special class of exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae. These bright beacons are prized by astronomers because they can be used as a yardstick for measuring cosmic distances, thereby yielding clues to the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the rate of expansion of the Universe. http://phys.org/news284293714.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:28:41 EST news284293714 (Phys.org)—Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of extremely old stars, and around 150 of them are scattered around our galaxy. Hubble is one of the best telescopes for studying these, as its extremely high resolution lets astronomers see individual stars, even in the crowded core. The clusters all look very similar, and in Hubble's images it can be quite hard to tell them apart – and they all look much like NGC 411, pictured here. http://phys.org/news278577978.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:50:47 EST news278577978 (Phys.org)—'Tis the season for holiday decorating and tree-trimming. Not to be left out, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have photographed a festive-looking nearby planetary nebula called NGC 5189. The intricate structure of this bright gaseous nebula resembles a glass-blown holiday ornament with a glowing ribbon entwined. http://phys.org/news275051175.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:06:29 EST news275051175 (Phys.org)—Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a super massive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's cutting-edge tools, the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and the recently upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico. http://phys.org/news273430669.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:58:09 EST news273430669 (Phys.org)—Luminous galaxies glow like fireflies on a dark night in this image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The upper central galaxy in this image is a gigantic elliptical galaxy designated 4C 73.08. A prominent spiral galaxy seen from "above" shines in the lower part of the image, while examples of galaxies viewed edge-on also populate the cosmic landscape. http://phys.org/news272445703.html Space & Earth Sun, 18 Nov 2012 07:21:51 EST news272445703 Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy, with a core bigger than any seen before. There are two intriguing explanations for the puffed up core, both related to the action of one or more black holes, and the researchers have not yet been able to determine which is correct. http://phys.org/news270400757.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:30:01 EST news270400757 (Phys.org)—Dust is an annoyance in everyday life, but an important building block of stars and planets. As such, astronomers need to understand how cosmic dust forms over time—it's an integral step in figuring out the evolution of galaxies, and the stars and planets within them. http://phys.org/news269013434.html Space & Earth Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:01:40 EST news269013434 (Phys.org) -- A team of astronomers have used the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on Hawaii to discover four pairs of stars that orbit each other in less than 4 hours. Until now it was thought that such close-in binary stars could not exist. The new discoveries come from the telescope's Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) Transit Survey, and appear in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news260691999.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:26:51 EST news260691999 This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our moon. Astronomers didn't aim NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the sun's face on June 5-6. http://phys.org/news255365640.html Space & Earth Fri, 04 May 2012 15:54:28 EST news255365640 (Phys.org) -- Several million stars are vying for attention in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula nebula. http://phys.org/news253878297.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:45:04 EST news253878297 (Phys.org) -- In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of the compact center of Messier 70, a globular cluster. Quarters are always tight in globular clusters, where the mutual hold of gravity binds together hundreds of thousands of stars in a small region of space. Having this many shining stars piled on top of one another from our perspective makes globular clusters a popular target for amateur skywatchers and scientists alike. http://phys.org/news253551953.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:06:22 EST news253551953 (PhysOrg.com) -- This massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in the Milky Way Galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. http://phys.org/news250505573.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:53:15 EST news250505573 (PhysOrg.com) -- Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. http://phys.org/news250416191.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:30:02 EST news250416191 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers led by Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) made the observations of the planet GJ 1214b. http://phys.org/news249047835.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:57:38 EST news249047835 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many of the Universe's galaxies are like our own, displaying beautiful spiral arms wrapping around a bright nucleus. Examples in this stunning image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, include the tilted galaxy at the bottom of the frame, shining behind a Milky Way star, and the small spiral at the top center. http://phys.org/news248342567.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:03:05 EST news248342567 (PhysOrg.com) -- The center of just about every galaxy is thought to host a black hole, some with masses of thousands of millions of Suns and consequently strong gravitational pulls that disrupt material around them. They had been thought to hinder the birth of stars, but now an international team of astronomers studying the nearby galaxy Centaurus A has found quite the opposite: a black hole that seems to be helping stars to form. The team, led by Dr. Stanislav Shabala of the University of Tasmania, Dr. Mark Crockett of the University of Oxford, and Dr. Sugata Kaviraj of Imperial College, London, publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news247478317.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:58:53 EST news247478317 (PhysOrg.com) -- Peering deep inside the hub of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a large, rare population of hot, bright stars. http://phys.org/news245508311.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:45:45 EST news245508311 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of development, making it the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early Universe. http://phys.org/news245419771.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:10:45 EST news245419771 (PhysOrg.com) -- Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. http://phys.org/news244890991.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:16:48 EST news244890991 (PhysOrg.com) -- In celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment in April 2011, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute pointed Hubble's eye to an especially photogenic group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. http://phys.org/news243683958.html Space & Earth Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:10:05 EST news243683958 Despite the celestial colours of this picture, there is nothing peaceful about star forming region Sh 2-106, or S106 for short. A devilish young star, named S106 IR, lies in it and ejects material at high speed, which disrupts the gas and dust around it. The star has a mass about 15 times that of the Sun and is in the final stages of its formation. It will soon quieten down by entering the main sequence, the adult stage of stellar life. http://phys.org/news242993877.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:18:04 EST news242993877 (PhysOrg.com) -- Today, Neptune has arrived at the same location in space where it was discovered nearly 165 years ago. To commemorate the event, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken these "anniversary pictures" of the blue-green giant planet. http://phys.org/news229708015.html Space & Earth Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:47:15 EST news229708015 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Michigan astronomers examined old galaxies and were surprised to discover that they are still making new stars. The results provide insights into how galaxies evolve with time. http://phys.org/news225971979.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 May 2011 11:50:04 EST news225971979 A strange, glowing green cloud of gas that has mystified astronomers since its discovery in 2007 has been studied by Hubble. The cloud of gas is lit up by the bright light of a nearby quasar, and shows signs of ongoing star formation. http://phys.org/news213898276.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:11:27 EST news213898276 (PhysOrg.com) -- The delicate shell, photographed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, appears to float serenely in the depths of space, but this apparent calm hides an inner turmoil. The gaseous envelope formed as the expanding blast wave and ejected material from a supernova tore through the nearby interstellar medium. Called SNR B0509-67.5 (or SNR 0509 for short), the bubble is the visible remnant of a powerful stellar explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small galaxy about 160 000 light-years from Earth. http://phys.org/news211545233.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:10:04 EST news211545233 (PhysOrg.com) -- Elliptical galaxies were once thought to be aging star cities whose star-making heyday was billions of years ago. http://phys.org/news209315718.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:15:34 EST news209315718 The historic Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, developed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, left JPL Wednesday morning, Oct. 13, for points east. Known informally as "The Camera That Saved Hubble," the baby-grand-piano-sized camera was on temporary loan from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington. http://phys.org/news206271409.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:37:26 EST news206271409 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of the large asteroid Vesta that will help scientists refine plans for the Dawn spacecraft's rendezvous with Vesta in July 2011. http://phys.org/news205767837.html Space & Earth Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:44:29 EST news205767837 At 22:31 (CEST) on 3 June 2010 Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley saw a two-second-long flash of light on the disc of Jupiter. He was watching a live video feed from his telescope. In the Philippines, amateur astronomer Chris Go confirmed that he had simultaneously recorded the transitory event on video. Wesley was the discoverer of the now world-famous July 2009 impact. http://phys.org/news195903339.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:36:07 EST news195903339 (PhysOrg.com) -- Without warning, a mystery object struck Jupiter on July 19, 2009, leaving a dark bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. The spot first caught the eye of an amateur astronomer in Australia, and soon, observatories around the world, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, were zeroing in on the unexpected blemish. http://phys.org/news194779433.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:24:35 EST news194779433