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The anatomy of a stellar outflow

(Phys.org) -- Astronomers used to think that star formation simply involved the gradual coalescence of material under the influence of gravity. No longer. Making a new star is a complex process, among other ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created 11 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Hubble sees a spiral within a spiral

(Phys.org) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the spiral galaxy known as ESO 498-G5. One interesting feature of this galaxy is that its spiral arms wind all the way into the center, so ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created 13 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Dark matter makes a comeback

Recent reports of dark matter’s demise may be greatly exaggerated, according to a new paper from researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (12) | comments 19

The older we get, the less we know (cosmologically)

(Phys.org) -- The universe is a marvelously complex place, filled with galaxies and larger-scale structures that have evolved over its 13.7-billion-year history. Those began as small perturbations of matter ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (16) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Nomads of the galaxy

A recent study proposes the galaxy is crowded with nomad planets adrift in space. If this is the case, nomad planets may play a dynamic role in the universe.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 7

SKA super telescope to be built in Australia, South Africa (Update 2)

A long-running joust to host a radio telescope that would give mankind its farthest peek into the Universe ended on Friday with a Solomon-like judgement to split the site between Australia and South Africa.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4

Capturing planets

(Phys.org) -- The discovery of planets around other stars has led to the realization that alien solar systems often have bizarre features - at least they seem bizarre to us because they were so unexpected. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Australia hails surprise super-telescope decision

Australia has hailed a surprise decision giving it a role in a radio telescope project aimed at revolutionising astronomy, vowing to draw on its decades of experience in space science.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3

Astronomers seize last chance in lifetime for Venus Transit

Astronomers are gearing for one the rarest events in the Solar System: an alignment of Earth, Venus and the Sun that will not be seen for another 105 years.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 3

Colliding galaxy cluster unravelled

An international team of astronomers has used the International LOFAR Telescope from ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, to study the formation of the galaxy cluster Abell 2256.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 2

A new way to discover pulsars

(Phys.org) -- The Large Area Telescope (LAT), built by SLAC for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, collects information on high-energy gamma rays from numerous sources in the sky. Among these are small, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dust

Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star. The scientists infer that a ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Hubble spies edge-on beauty

(Phys.org) -- Visible in the constellation of Andromeda, NGC 891 is located approximately 30 million light-years away from Earth. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope turned its powerful wide field Advanced ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Extremely rare transit of Venus to occur on June 5, 2012

A few hours before sunset on June 5th, 2012 residents of the Washington, DC metropolitan area will have a chance to witness one of the rarest celestial phenomena known: a “Transit of Venus”.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Galaxies in the young cosmos

(Phys.org) -- The universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in the big bang. The Sun and its system of planets formed about five billion years ago. What happened, then, during that long, intervening stretch ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 9 | with audio podcast