Space

Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant May Have A Clue To Origin Of Interstellar Dust

Interstellar space dust from a dead star identified by a research team led by The University of Nottingham could unlock some of the mysteries of the early universe. Dr Loretta Dunne and her team have found new evidence of huge dust production in the Cassio ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2009 - 2:46pm

What probably happens inside a black hole

I have read many works about black holes and one thing is possible to say for sure: nobody knows what really happens inside a black hole. There is a lot of theories about that. But they don’t have any scientific corroboration once nobody can see what happ ...

Blog Post - Felipe Pugliesi Jr. - Mar 6 2009 - 1:55pm

The Daytime Astronomer on Hyper-Specialization

Astronomy as a profession is hyper-specialized.  What do you study-- planets, stars, galaxies, clusters, cosmology? Oh, if only it were that simple.  Say you study stars.  It doesn't stop there! If stars, what wavelength?  There's radio, IR, opti ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Feb 27 2009 - 7:29am

The Strange Temperature Inversion Of Pluto

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained new insights about the atmosphere of Pluto- (it's a dwarf now, get over it.) What stands out?   Large amounts of methane in the atmosphere and it's hotter than the surface by about 40 ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 5:28pm

Baby Burst- GRB 081203A Gets An Early Stage Look

Astronomers using a telescope aboard the NASA Swift Satellite have captured information from the early stages of a gamma ray burst- the most violent and luminous explosions occurring in the Universe since the Big Bang. Swift is able to both locate and poin ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 3 2009 - 2:01pm

A Gravitational Tug Of War In Piscis Austrinus

A new Hubble image shows three galaxies locked in a gravitational tug-of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them. About 100 million light-years away, in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), three galaxies are playing ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 3 2009 - 10:52am

The Daytime Astronomer on Morphological Humor

An Algol type star system is an eclipsing spectroscopic binary consisting of two close, interacting stars. Their X-ray emission is due to slow mass transfer due to Roche lobe overflow. Algol-type systems named after the first discovery of this type, the Al ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Mar 3 2009 - 11:20am

Olympus Mons- A Martian Volcano May Hold Secrets Of Ancient Life

The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about whether the Red Planet ever had life. Using ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2009 - 1:08pm

Saturn's G-Ring May Be Primarily Caused By A Tiny Moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found within Saturn's G ring an embedded moonlet that appears as a faint, moving pinprick of light. Scientists now believe it is a main source of the G ring and its single ring arc.  ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2009 - 1:42pm

The Daytime Astronomer on Pluto the Planet

Is Pluto a planet? On Tuesday I talked about how 'Algol' isn't technically an Algol-type star system. This raised the interesting case of "is Pluto a planet". To a large degree, that's a non-argument. Pluto hasn't changed ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Mar 6 2009 - 12:28pm