Space

'Sigmoids' are S-shaped structures found in the outer atmosphere of the Sun (the corona), seen with X-ray telescopes and thought to be a crucial part of explosive events like solar flares. Now a group of astronomers have developed the first model ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2009 - 9:10pm

Wolf 940B- One Of The Coolest Sub-Stellar Bodies Ever Found Outside Our Solar System

An international team have discovered one of the coolest sub-stellar bodies ever found outside our own solar system, orbiting the red dwarf star Wolf 940, some 40 light years from Earth. The object is thought to have formed like a star, but has ended up l ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2009 - 9:17pm

Great Nebula Of Orion- An Overcrowded Stellar Nursery Gets A Spectacular Look

Astronomers using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, the IRAM Millimetre-wave Telescope in Spain, and the Spitzer Space Telescope in orbit above the Earth, have completed the most wide-ranging census ever produced of dynamical star fo ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2009 - 9:27pm

Around HD 80606, London Students Find Jupiter-Sized Oddball Planet

A team of astronomers from University College London (UCL) have discovered that an exotic world passes directly in front of the Sun-like star it orbits, revealing for the first time that it is about the same size as Jupiter. The team were alerted by the ex ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2009 - 12:48am

Kepler To Her Eyes

"Kepler is like Field of Dreams meets Cosmos" says Padi Boyd, a scientist with the Kepler planet-hunting mission. This set the stage for an enjoyable short interview. Earlier I wrote why Kepler is awesomeness squared, and now we look at how the m ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Apr 23 2009 - 11:45am

Gliese 581 E Is The Lightest Exoplanet Discovered So Far

Exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, Gliese 581 e, in the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth. The team also refined the orbit of the planet Glie ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2009 - 9:46am

Spectacular Saturn Views- Waves From Daphnis And Spokes At Sunrise (And More)

Waves from Daphnis Undulations mark both sides of the path of Saturn's moon Daphnis through the A ring. Daphnis may be small at only 8 kilometers (5 miles) across, but the moon's gravity is great enough, and the Keeler gap in which it resides i ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2009 - 11:44pm

SPF 10 Million- Asteroids Get A Rapid Tan, Thanks To The Solar Wind

A new study reveals that asteroid surfaces age and redden much faster than previously thought — in less than a million years, the blink of an eye for an asteroid. The solar wind is the likely culprit in very rapid space weathering, they say, and this know ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2009 - 12:32pm

Himiko- Identify This Mystery Blob At The Cosmic Dawn And Win A Prize

Using information from a suite of telescopes, astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed at a time when the universe was only about 800 million years old. Objects such as this one are dubbed extended Lyman-Alpha blobs; they are hug ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2009 - 2:51pm

Fermi Active Galaxies, It's Time For Your Close Up

An international team of astronomers has used the world's biggest radio telescope to look deep into the brightest galaxies that NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope can see. The study solidifies the link between an active galaxy's gamma-ra ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2009 - 5:06pm