News tagged with astronomical objects

'Cosmic mirages' confirm accelerated cosmic expansion

(Phys.org) -- An international team of researchers led by Masamune Oguri at Kavli IPMU and Naohisa Inada at Nara National College of Technology conduced an unprecedented survey of gravitationally lensed quasars, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 20 | with audio podcast

Mapping galaxy formation in dual mode

A team of astronomers led by David Sobral (Leiden Observatory and Royal Observatory of Edinburgh) has explored the synergies between the Subaru Telescope and the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 4

Neptune on tiptoes

(PhysOrg.com) -- The formation and development of the solar system, long a topic of study for philosophers and scientists, is today often used as a case study for the formation and development of planetary ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers say galaxy may swarm with 'nomad planets'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our galaxy may be awash in homeless planets, wandering through space instead of orbiting a star.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (23) | comments 31 | with audio podcast

2012 BX34: Behind the scenes in the discovery of a near Earth asteroid

Several blockbuster movies, television shows and commercials have depicted the discovery of an asteroid heading towards Earth and usually, somehow, impending doom is averted. But how do the discoveries of ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Earthly machine recreates star's sizzling-hot surface

Since we can't go to the stars yet, let's bring the stars to us. In a giant X-ray-producing facility, astronomers and plasma physicists have heated a cigar-sized sample of gas to over 17,000 degrees Fahrenheit ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Stellar discovery

On August 24, astrophysicist Peter Nugent was playing a little catch-up. Nugent, an adjunct professor at Berkeley and group leader of the Computational Cosmology Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 04, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3

Supernova alphabet soup

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the sole body responsible for the official naming of astronomical objects. So if you have a problem with the way things in the Universe are named, you now know ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 29, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 3

Amateur skywatchers help space hazards team

For the first time, observations coordinated by ESA's space hazards team have found an asteroid that comes close enough to Earth to pose an impact threat. The space rock was found by amateur astronomers, highlighting ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Spinning hourglass object may be the first of many to be discovered in the Kuiper belt

(PhysOrg.com) -- The bizarre, hourglass-shaped Kuiper belt object 2001QG298 spins round like a propeller as it orbits the Sun, according to an astronomer from Queens University Belfast. The discovery that ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

'Darkest' world enlightens astronomers about mysterious light-gobbling planet

(PhysOrg.com) -- A giant Jupiter-like gas planet has been revealed to be the most light-thirsty object in the known universe -- a finding that may help astronomers better understand a mysterious characteristic ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 27, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (18) | comments 53 | with audio podcast

Measuring the clumpiness of proto-planetary disks

(PhysOrg.com) -- The process of star formation, once thought to involve just the simple coalescence of material under the influence of gravity, actually entails a complex series of stages, with the youngest ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 14, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

An Exoplanet with a Potassium-Rich Atmosphere

(PhysOrg.com) -- A hot Jupiter - a type of celestial object unknown only fifteen years ago - is a Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbiting so close to its host star that its atmospheric temperature is thought to be ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 04, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

BigBOSS receives favorable review from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) research and development center for ground-based astronomy, has announced its conditional approval of the BigBOSS ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

NASA engineers develop 'blacker than black' nanotubes (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Black is black, right? Not so, according to a team of NASA engineers now developing a blacker-than pitch material that will help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements or ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Dec 03, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (17) | comments 3 | with audio podcast