Herschel finds hot gas on menu for Milky Way's black hole

(Phys.org) —ESA's Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot molecular gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Herschel links Jupiter's water to comet impact

(Phys.org) —ESA's Herschel space observatory has solved a long-standing mystery as to the origin of water in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, finding conclusive evidence that it was delivered by the dramatic impact of comet ...

Black hole wakes up and has a light snack

(Phys.org) —Astronomers have watched as a black hole woke up from a decades-long slumber to feed on a low-mass object – either a brown dwarf or a giant planet – that strayed too close. A similar feeding event, albeit ...

Black hole-star pair orbiting at dizzying speed (w/ video)

(Phys.org) —ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every 2.4 hours, smashing the previous record by nearly an hour.

A curious cold layer in the atmosphere of Venus

(Phys.org)—Venus Express has spied a surprisingly cold region high in the planet's atmosphere that may be frigid enough for carbon dioxide to freeze out as ice or snow.

Planck mission steps closer to the cosmic blueprint

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Planck mission has revealed that our Galaxy contains previously undiscovered islands of cold gas and a mysterious haze of microwaves. These results give scientists new treasure to mine and take them ...

Water supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- New analysis of data sent back by the SPICAM spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has revealed for the first time that the planet's atmosphere is supersaturated with water vapour. This surprising ...

Enceladus rains water onto Saturn

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Herschel space observatory has shown that water expelled from the moon Enceladus forms a giant torus of water vapour around Saturn. The discovery solves a 14-year mystery by identifying the source of ...

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