(Phys.org)—With its 2160 litres of liquid helium about to run out, the Herschel Space Observatory will, by the end of March, become just another piece of space junk.

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Jan 02, 2013 4.4 / 5 (7) 0

(Phys.org)—Astronomers have used the ALMA telescope to get their first glimpse of a fascinating stage of star formation in which planets forming around a young star are helping the star itself continue ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Jan 02, 2013 5 / 5 (9) 35 |

(Phys.org)—The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides us this week with a spectacular image of the bright star-forming ring that surrounds the heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097. In this image, ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Jan 02, 2013 4.3 / 5 (3) 15 |

(Phys.org)—Astronomers have come to realize that the process of star formation, once thought to consist essentially of just the simple coalescence of material by gravity, occurs in a complex series of stages. ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Dec 24, 2012 5 / 5 (3) 7 |

(Phys.org)—Ten billion years ago or so, at least according to the current picture, the youthful universe began to produce an abundance of new stars. The very first ones appeared in the young cosmos after ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Dec 10, 2012 5 / 5 (1) 0

Astronomers have found the youngest still-forming solar system yet seen, an infant star surrounded by a swirling disk of dust and gas more than 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Dec 05, 2012 4.9 / 5 (12) 4 |

(Phys.org)—The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured an impressive image of the irregular galaxy NGC 5253.

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Dec 03, 2012 4.7 / 5 (3) 0 |

(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 ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 28, 2012 5 / 5 (4) 0

(Phys.org)—The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the spiral galaxy ESO 499-G37, seen here against a backdrop of distant galaxies, scattered with nearby stars.

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 26, 2012 4.8 / 5 (10) 0 |

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 ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 19, 2012 5 / 5 (11) 7 |

(Phys.org)—Galaxies come in all shapes and sizes: from those with compact fuzzy bulges or central bars to galaxies with winding spiral arms. Astronomer Edwin Hubble classified these different breeds of ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 19, 2012 4.5 / 5 (2) 4

(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 ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 13, 2012 4.9 / 5 (9) 0 |

(Phys.org)—Hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe, making up 75% of all normal matter and the content of stars. Although stars themselves are hot, they can only form out of the coldest gas ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 09, 2012 4.7 / 5 (14) 57 |

(Phys.org)—While parts of the world experience economic hardship, a team of Portuguese, UK, Japanese, Italian and Dutch astronomers has found an even bigger slump happening on a cosmic scale.  In the largest ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Nov 06, 2012 4.8 / 5 (12) 37 |

(Phys.org)—An astronomical project led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has examined the earliest stages of star formation in unprecedented depth: Using the European Space ...

Space & Earth - Astronomy

Oct 30, 2012 4.9 / 5 (7) 5 |