Space

Weak Gravitational Lensing Finds Dark Matter Structures 270,000,000 Light Years In Size

A University of British Columbia astronomer with an international team has discovered the largest structures of dark matter ever seen. Measuring 270 million light-years across, these dark matter structures criss-cross the night sky, each spanning an area t ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 21 2008 - 1:23pm

Hubble Finds 67 New Gravitationally Lensed Galaxies

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have compiled a large catalog of gravitational lenses in the distant universe. The catalog contains 67 new gravitationally lensed galaxy images found around massive elliptical and lenticular-shaped galax ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2008 - 6:31am

Is A1689-zD1 The Youngest Galaxy Ever?

Detailed images from Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) reveal an infant galaxy, dubbed A1689-zD1, undergoing a firestorm of star birth as it comes out of the dark ages, a time shortly after the Big Bang, but before the fi ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 21 2008 - 6:35pm

Kink In The Sun's Corona- Astrophysics Gets Steamier

Astrophysicists are having a heated debate over the wave structure of the Sun’s Corona- a debate which may one day influence solar weather forecasting and the theory behind fusion reactors. The Sun’s core is about 6000 degrees C, but its outer layer, the C ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2008 - 5:51pm

NGC 2770 Is First "Binocular" Light Image Of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope

The Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Ariz., has taken celestial images using its twin side-by-side, 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) primary mirrors together, achieving first "binocular" light. U.S., Italian and German partners in the telescope, k ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2008 - 12:37pm

'Cloudshine' Lets Astronomers See In The Interstellar Dark

Astronomers using ESO's New Technology Telescope have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth, based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared lig ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 8 2008 - 2:27pm

The Planet In Planetary Nebulae: Vindicating A 300-Year-Old Astronomical 'Mistake'

Astronomers at the University of Rochester have announced that low-mass stars and possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking objects in the sky. The news is ironic because the name “planetary” ne ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2008 - 12:34pm

Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer- Seeing The Beginning Of The Universe

If participants in the Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer study have their way, a telescope on the moon will allow astronomers to see 'back in time' and study the young Universe during the first 100 million years of its existence. Although the night ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2008 - 12:13pm

Found: Sandy Particles Around A Newborn Solar System

In a find that sheds light on how Earth-like planets may form, astronomers this week reported finding the first evidence of small, sandy particles orbiting a newborn solar system at about the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun. "Precisely how a ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2008 - 12:45am

Primordial Soup With A Side Of Outer Space

Amino acids are organic molecules that are the backbone of the proteins that build many of the structures and drive many of the chemical reactions inside living cells. The production of proteins is believed to constitute one of the first steps in the emerg ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2008 - 9:48am