Space

Solved: Mystery Of How Young Stars Can Be Near Black Holes

The mystery of how young stars can form within the deep gravity of black holes has been solved by a team of astrophysicists at the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The team, partly funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), ma ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 21 2008 - 9:20pm

Not Stars, Not Planets: Brown Dwarfs Need To Be Their Own Class, Say Researchers

The systematics of celestial bodies needs to be revised, say researchers at the Argelander Institute of Astronomy of the University of Bonn. Brown dwarfs, to-date merely regarded as stars which were below normal size, may well be stellar ‘miscarriages' ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 10 2009 - 11:33pm

How Do Galaxies Form?

How do galaxies form? The most widely accepted answer to this fundamental question is the model of 'hierarchical formation', a step-wise process in which small galaxies merge to build larger ones. One can think of the galaxies forming in a simila ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 26 2008 - 10:27am

MACSJ0025.4-1222 Cluster Shows Clear Separation Between Dark Matter, Ordinary Matter

A powerful collision of galaxy clusters has been captured with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. Like its famous cousin, the so-called Bullet Cluster, this clash of clusters provides striking evidence for dark matter and ins ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 27 2008 - 11:50am

Origin Of High Energy Emission From The Crab Nebula Identified

Another piece of the jigsaw in understanding how neutron stars work has been put in place following the discovery by scientists of the origin of the high energy emission from rotation-powered pulsars. Pulsar systems containing neutron stars accelerate part ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2008 - 2:38pm

Messier 83, The Thousand Ruby Galaxy

ESO's Wide Field Imager has captured the intricate swirls of the spiral galaxy Messier 83, a smaller look-alike of our own Milky Way. Shining with the light of billions of stars and the ruby red glow of hydrogen gas, it is a beautiful example of a bar ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2008 - 9:41pm

Yes, You Can Look At The Sagittarius A* Black Hole- Just Don't Get Too Close

Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way. By combining telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California, they detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds- the equivalent of a bas ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 3 2008 - 5:10pm

Solar System Forensics- No Explosion In Earth's Creation, Just Symmetry

A strange mix of oxygen found in a stony meteorite that exploded February 8, 1969 over Pueblito de Allende, Mexico has puzzled scientists ever since. Small flecks of minerals lodged in the stone and thought to date from the beginning of the solar system ha ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2008 - 6:29pm

A 'Missing Link' In Space? Maybe Not, But A Backward-Orbiting Object May Provide A New Origin For Comets Anyway

When scientific terms become part of the cultural fabric they often lose their meaning. Biology has had its share of modern misunderstandings with 'evolution' becoming colloquial rather than scientific, along with the general term 'theory� ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 6 2008 - 5:29pm

Spectro-Astrometric Imaging Finds Young Planets In Gas Discs

Astronomers have been able to study planet-forming discs around young Sun-like stars in unsurpassed detail, clearly revealing the motion and distribution of the gas in the inner parts of the disc. This result, which possibly implies the presence of giant p ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2008 - 11:11am