Space

3,000 Light Years Away, Hope For A Habitable Planet

A newly discovered planet now named OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb in a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers' notions of where Earth-like—and even potentially habitable—planets can form. And how to find them. At twi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2014 - 3:30pm

Sunspots Might Be Fooling Us Into Seeing Distant Earth-like Planets

Astronomers search for exoplanets by measuring shifts in the pattern of a star's spectrum- the different wavelengths of radiation that it emits as light. These "Doppler shifts" result from subtle changes in the star's velocity caused b ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2014 - 10:02pm

Untrasound For Baby Stars- Determining Age By Sound Waves

Acoustic vibrations – sound waves – are produced by radiation pressure inside stars. While physicists have long posited that young stars vibrate differently than older stars, a new study says it is the first to confirm these predications using concrete da ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2014 - 12:12pm

Namibian Space Science: HESS-II Detects Its First Pulsar

The HESS-II (High Energy Stereoscopic System) telescope in Namibia has detected gamma rays of only 30 Giga electron volts (GeV) from the Vela pulsar, the first pulsar to be detected by HESS and the second to be spotted by ground-based gamma ray telescopes. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 4 2014 - 8:16am

Found: A Hotspot Of Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Rays In The Northern Sky

Astronomers have found a "hotspot" beneath the Big Dipper emitting a disproportionate number of the highest-energy cosmic rays, a discovery which may move physics toward identifying the mysterious sources of the most energetic particles in the u ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 8 2014 - 12:48am

IC 5063 Supermassive Black Hole Ejecting Hydrogen At 600,000 MPH

Supermassive black holes in the cores of some galaxies drive massive outflows of molecular hydrogen gas. As a result, most of the cold gas is expelled from the galaxies. Since cold gas is required to form new stars, this directly affects the galaxies' ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 8 2014 - 9:12am

Off By 400 Percent: Where Is All Of The Ultraviolet Light Coming From?

Olber's Paradox asks why the sky is not a sheet of white. Since just the galaxy we are in has 50 stars for every person currently on earth traveling to us at all time, how can it ever get dark when there are billions of galaxies all containing stars? ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 8:00am

Planet Mercury- A Victim And A Beneficiary Of A Hit-And-Run

Planet Mercury's metal-rich composition is a puzzle in planetary science. According to a new simulation, Mercury and other unusually metal-rich objects in the solar system may be relics left behind by collisions in the early solar system that built t ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 1:00am

Red And Dead- The Carbon Monoxide Future Of Galaxy ALESS65

Astronomers have studied the carbon monoxide in ALESS65, a galaxy over 12 billion light years away, and found that it's literally running out of gas. The future is not dark, it's 'red and dead'. ALESS65 was observed by the Atacama Larg ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 8 2014 - 5:28pm

Friction From Tides Could Help Distant Earths Thrive

As every Boy Scout knows, friction generates heat. A new study finds that friction could be the key to survival for some distant Earth-sized planets traveling in dangerous orbits. Earth-sized planets are becoming common in other star systems. Too close to ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 5:30pm