A cosmic but too hot place to stand: Astronomers find first rocky planet outside solar systemSeptember 16th, 2009 Found: Firm place to stand outside solar systemWASHINGTON — Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot. As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system.
Astronomers find first rocky planet outside solar systemSeptember 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of European astronomers said Wednesday that they had found the first known rocky planet outside the solar system. The find by European Southern Observatory scientists in Garching, Germany, is an important step forward in answering the question of whether humans are alone in the universe, because it is the first of the more than 300 known exoplanets - as planets outside the solar system are known - that is not large and gaseous.
NASA unveils first images from revamped HubbleSeptember 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA scientists Wednesday unveiled the first images taken by a revamped Hubble telescope, providing even crisper pictures of distant stars and galaxies. The colourful images provide a taste of the Hubble's new capability after a servicing mission in May that installed new instruments and repaired broken ones that had hampered the world's most famous telescope.
Stars in early galaxies whizzed around at astonishingly high speedsAugust 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astronomers has measured the motions of stars in a very distant galaxy for the first time and discovered they are whizzing around at astonishingly high speeds. A team from Yale University, UK, spent an unprecedented 29 hours observing the galaxy with one of the largest telescopes on Earth-the Gemini South Telescope in Chile-to collect enough light to determine how fast its stars are moving.
Astronomers detect hyperactive galaxies by looking back 11 bln yrs into the pastAugust 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Looking almost 11 billion years into the past, astronomers have measured the motions of stars for the first time in a very distant galaxy and clocked speeds upwards of one million miles per hour, about twice the speed of our Sun through the Milky Way. The fast-moving stars shed new light on how these distant galaxies, which are a fraction the size of our Milky Way, may have evolved into the full-grown galaxies seen around us today.
Astronomers discover rare 'Green Pea' galaxiesJuly 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astronomers has discovered a group of rare galaxies called the "Green Peas", which could lend unique insights into how galaxies form stars in the early universe. The galaxies were discovered with the help of citizen scientists working through an online project called Galaxy Zoo.
Astronomers see death throes of stars from 11 billion years ago, spotting oldest supernovaeJuly 8th, 2009 New technique finds ancient star explosionsWASHINGTON — Astronomers have spotted the most distant and oldest star explosions yet in the universe. Scientists captured the fuzzy death throes of two supernovae (soo-per-noh-vee) that date back nearly 11 billion years.
Largest ever survey of very distant galaxy clusters completedJuly 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of researchers led by a UC (University of California) Riverside astronomer has completed the largest ever survey designed to find very distant clusters of galaxies. Named the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey, "SpARCS" detects galaxy clusters using deep ground-based optical observations from the CTIO 4m and CFHT 3.6m telescopes, combined with Spitzer Space Telescope infrared observations.
Unique sky survey to reveal new classes of astronomical objectsJune 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An innovative sky survey has begun returning images that will be used to detect unprecedented numbers of powerful cosmic explosions called supernovae in distant galaxies, variable brightness stars in our own Milky Way, and reveal new classes of astronomical objects. All of these discoveries will stem from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey, which combines, in a new way, the power of a wide-field telescope, a high-resolution camera, and high-performance networking and computing, with rapid follow-up by telescopes around the globe, to open windows of discovery for astronomers.
Astronomers propose new physical interpretation of a supernovaJune 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers from Queen's University Belfast have proposed a new physical interpretation of a supernova discovered on 7th November 2008. A group of researchers, led by Dr.
Radio astronomers demonstrate vital tool for unraveling mystery of dark energyJune 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Radio astronomers have directly measured the distance to a faraway galaxy, providing a valuable "yardstick" for calibrating large astronomical distances and demonstrating a vital method that could help determine the elusive nature of the mysterious Dark Energy that pervades the Universe. "We measured a direct, geometric distance to the galaxy, independent of the complications and assumptions inherent in other techniques," said James Braatz, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
Energy burst from dying star 13.1 billion years ago sets astronomy records for distance, ageApril 28th, 2009 Astronomers see oldest object in universe yetWASHINGTON — Astronomers have spotted a burst of energy from a dying star, setting a record for the oldest and most distant object seen by Earth yet. The 10-second blast was from when the universe was only 630 million years old.
Scientists discover mysterious 'space blob' at cosmic dawnApril 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using information from a suite of telescopes, astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant 'space blob' that existed at a time when the universe was only about 800 million years old. Dubbed extended Lyman-Alpha blobs, such objects are huge bodies of gas that may be precursors to galaxies.
The Blob: Astronomers marvel over mysterious giant object from nearly 13 billion years agoApril 22nd, 2009 2009: A space oddity; big blob in early universeWASHINGTON — A strange giant space "blob" spotted when the universe was relatively young has got astronomers puzzled. Using space and ground telescopes, astronomers looked back to when the universe was only 800 million years old and found something that was out of proportion and out of time.
Cosmic dust inteferes with astronomical observationsFebruary 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Space dust interferes with the observation of distant stars and annoys astronomers just as much as the household variety does. 'We not only do not know what the stuff is, but we do not know where it is made or how it gets into space,' said Donald York, professor in astronomy at the University of Chicago.
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