Space

'Violent' Black Holes Linked To High Energy Cosmic Rays

Scientists using the largest cosmic ray observatory in the world, the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, have made an important discovery about the highest-energy cosmic rays that hit the Earth- and the discovery leads back to supermassive black holes. ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 8 2007 - 3:16pm

NGC 134: Island In The Universe

Known until now as a simple number in a catalogue, NGC 134, the 'Island in the Universe' that was observed by the European Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik on a visit to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal is replete wi ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 9 2007 - 11:21am

H1504+65- Dwarf Star With A Carbon Atmosphere

Astronomers have discovered white dwarf stars with pure carbon atmospheres. The discovery could offer a unique view into the hearts of dying stars. These stars possibly evolved in a sequence astronomers didn't know before. They may have evolved from s ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 22 2007 - 10:54am

UX Tau A And LkCa 15- Teenagers Among Solar Systems

Astronomers at the University of Michigan have found what are believed to be some of the youngest solar systems yet detected. The systems are around the young stars UX Tau A and LkCa 15, located in the Taurus star formation region just 450 light years away ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2007 - 12:17pm

Discovery In Cepheus: L1157 Reveals A 'Cradle' For Planets And Moons

Astronomers at the University of Illinois have found the first clear evidence for a cradle in space where planets and moons form. The cradle, revealed in photographs taken with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, consists of a flattened envelope of gas and dus ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2007 - 2:56pm

Theta1 Orionis C Looks Like A 'Santa Claus' In Space

Right in time for the festive season, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has discovered a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus. An early present for ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 30 2007 - 11:09am

Were The First Stars Dark?

Perhaps the first stars in the newborn universe did not shine, but instead were invisible “dark stars” 400 to 200,000 times wider than the sun and powered by the annihilation of mysterious dark matter, a University of Utah study concludes. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 3 2007 - 1:01am

NGC 6397 Shows The 'Natal Kick' Of White Dwarf Stars

University of British Columbia astronomer Harvey Richer and UBC graduate student Saul Davis have discovered that white dwarf stars are born with a natal kick, explaining why these smoldering embers of Sun-like stars are found on the edge rather than at the ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2007 - 11:49am

TVLM513-46546: The Ultra-Cool Low-Mass Star That Could

A dwarf star with a surprisingly magnetic personality and a huge hot spot covering half its surface area is showing astronomers that life as a cool dwarf is not necessarily as simple and quiet as they once assumed. Simultaneous observations made by four of ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 5 2007 - 11:27am

Searching For Galactic WHIMs

Much of the gaseous mass of the universe is bound up in a tangled web of cosmic filaments that stretch for hundreds of millions of light-years, according to a new supercomputer study by a team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The study indicat ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 6 2007 - 12:14pm