Space

Astronomy Delight- New Stars From Leo Ring's Primordial Gas

Evidence of star birth within a cloud of primordial gas has given astronomers a glimpse of a previously unknown mode of galaxy formation. The cloud, known as the Leo Ring, appears to lack the dark matter and heavy elements normally found in galaxies today. ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 18 2009 - 3:01pm

GRB 080916C- The Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Ever (That We Know About)

Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's most luminous explosions. Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star's core collapses into a black hole, jets of material-- powered by processes not yet fully un ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2009 - 5:56pm

Earth-killing asteroids and satellite collisions

My Satellite will either save or destroy the Earth. I work as a Daytime Astronomer on the STEREO mission, a pair of identical satellites sent into an Earth-sized solar orbit to stare at the Sun. Apparently, we also kill satellites. Our PI-- Principal Inve ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Feb 20 2009 - 7:52am

The Quest For The First Moments Of The Universe

During the next decade, some cosmologists say a delicate measurement of primordial light could reveal evidence for the cosmic inflation hypothesis, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of space gave birth to the unive ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2009 - 2:50pm

Going Green Cosmic Style- The Lulin Comet

We hear a lot about 'going green' these days and it seems even the Universe can't endure one more moment of Al Gore putting his hands together, as if in prayer, and guilting us into investing in carbon trading companies, one of which he hap ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2009 - 7:19pm

311 days left in the IYA

We're 54 days into the International Year of Astronomy, and what better way to celebrate than to peer at the heavens through your very own Galileoscope? Orders begin shipping in April. Until your telescope arrives, grab a pair of binocs and check out ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Feb 23 2009 - 5:16pm

Turbulent Births And Trapezium Stars In Orion

On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars are young but powerful, each one shining with the b ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2009 - 6:55pm

The iPhone versus Pluto

Sending stuff into space requires it be lightweight and functional. And people seem to really like their lightweight, functional iPhones. But if we just sent an iPhone to Pluto, it wouldn't be able to do stuff. It hasn't the range or survivabili ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Feb 23 2009 - 9:12pm

Poor OCO, and Launching Flight Spares

Sadly, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) had a launch failure, and is now spread out on Antarctica somewhere. Ironically, I'd written earlier today about the economics of the New Horizons mission. For New Horizons, well, that launched successfully ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Feb 24 2009 - 2:57pm

NGC 7293- Into The Eye Of The Helix

A deep new image of the magnificent Helix planetary nebula has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows a rich background of distant galaxies, usually not seen in other images of this object. ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2009 - 12:00pm