New exoplanet too big for its stars

The Australian discovery of a strange exoplanet orbiting a small cool star 500 light years away is challenging ideas about how planets form.

New binocular nova discovered in Sagittarius

Looks like the Sagittarius Teapot's got a new whistle. On March 15, John Seach of Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia discovered a probable nova in the heart of the constellation using a DSLR camera and fast 50mm lens. Checks ...

Mars, Saturn and the claws of Scorpius

Look up at the night sky this week and you'll find Mars and Saturn together in the west. Mars stands out with its reddish colouring and you might just be able to detect a faint yellow tinge to Saturn.

Hubble sees J 900 masquerading as a double star

(Phys.org) —The object in this image is Jonckheere 900 or J 900, a planetary nebula—glowing shells of ionized gas pushed out by a dying star. Discovered in the early 1900s by astronomer Robert Jonckheere, the dusty nebula ...

Neutron star bites off more than it can chew

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory has watched a faint star flare up at X-ray wavelengths to almost 10 000 times its normal brightness. Astronomers believe the outburst was caused by the star trying to eat ...

Recent news on the debate over Pluto's planethood

Earlier this month, Eris -- the distant world first discovered by Caltech's Mike Brown and colleagues back in 2005, paving the way for the eventual demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet -- passed fortuitously in front ...

Researcher unravels one of geology's great mysteries

Danish researcher has solved one of the great mysteries of our geological past: Why the Earth's surface was not one big lump of ice four billion years ago when sun radiation was much weaker than today. Scientists have presumed ...

NGC 4710 galaxy: Baffling boxy bulge (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as many people are surprised to find themselves packing on unexplained weight around the middle, astronomers find the evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzling. A recent NASA/ESA ...

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