Space

Video: Hubble Shows Dying Stars Going Out In Style

These NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveal how the glowing gas ejected by dying Sun-like stars evolves dramatically over time. These gaseous clouds, called planetary nebulae, are created when stars in the last stages of life cast off their outer layer ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2007 - 3:40pm

V 391 Pegasi B Gives Us A Clue Of Earth's Future

An international team of astronomers has announced the first discovery of a planet orbiting a star near the end of its life. The announcement, culminating seven years of research, will be published in the Sept. 13 issue of the journal Nature. The news prov ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 12 2007 - 3:48pm

Cannibals In Space: SWIFT J1756.9-2508 Is The Most Bizarre Planet-Mass Object Ever

Astronomers have discovered one of the most bizarre planet-mass objects ever found. The object’s minimum mass is only about 7 times the mass of Jupiter. But instead of orbiting a normal star, this low-mass body orbits a rapidly spinning pulsar. It orbits t ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 12 2007 - 4:32pm

Galaxy Hunting Made Easy

Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered in a single pass about a dozen otherwise invisible galaxies halfway across the Universe. The discovery, based on a technique that exploits a first-class instrument, represents a major breakt ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2007 - 11:17am

RX J0524+42 Is The Missing Link In The Evolution Of Magnetic CV Stars

An international team of astronomers might have discovered the missing link in the evolution of the so-called magnetic cataclysmic variable stars. They determined the spin and orbital periods of the binary star Paloma. They found that the Paloma system has ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2007 - 9:26am

Physics Upheaval: New Insight Into The Neutron's Electrical Properties

For two generations of physicists, it has been a standard belief that the neutron, an electrically neutral elementary particle and a primary component of an atom, actually carries a positive charge at its center and an offsetting negative charge at its out ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2007 - 12:49am

Tropical Vacation At The South Pole? Yes, As Long As It's On Neptune

An international team of astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope has discovered that the south pole of Neptune is much hotter than the rest of the planet. This is consistent with the fact that it is late southern summer and this region has been i ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2007 - 10:04am

Don Quijote- Preventing Asteroid Collisions Before We Need To Worry

Every now and then a space rock hits the world's media – sometimes almost literally. Threatening asteroids that zoom past the Earth, fireballs in the sky seen by hundreds of people and mysterious craters which may have been caused by impacting meteori ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 20 2007 - 12:00pm

XTE J1810-197 Magnetar's Magnetic Field Strength Is 600,000,000,000,000 Times That Of Earth

Magnetars are small neutron stars that occasionally suffer extraordinarily powerful outbursts which shine X-rays across the galaxy. In 2003, astronomers saw a neutron star brighten to around 100 times its usual faint luminosity. This outburst allowed them ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 21 2007 - 12:15am

ESO 137-001 Galaxy's Tail Contains 'Orphan' Stars Forming

Astronomers have found evidence that stars have been forming in a long tail of gas that extends well outside its parent galaxy. This discovery suggests that such "orphan" stars may be much more prevalent than previously thought. The comet-like ta ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 21 2007 - 1:02am