Ganymede's magnetosphere cause auroral bright spots on JupiterSeptember 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have found that auroral bright spots on the planet Jupiter are caused by the magnetosphere of its innermost moon - Ganymede. As Ganymede and Io orbit Jupiter, they interact with regions of plasma and generate electromagnetic waves that are projected along Jupiter's magnetic field lines towards Jupiter's poles where they cause auroral bright spots.
XMM-Newton telescope uncovers celestial 'Rosetta stone'September 4th, 2009 PARIS - The ESA's (European Space agency's) XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered a celestial Rosetta stone, in the form of the first close-up of a white dwarf star, circling a companion star, that could explode into a particular kind of supernova in a few million years. These supernovae are used as beacons to measure cosmic distances and ultimately understand the expansion of our Universe.
Magnetic monopoles detected in a real material for the first timeSeptember 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of scientists has for the first time observed magnetic monopoles and how they emerge in a real material. The research was done by scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie, Germany, in cooperation with colleagues from Dresden, St.
"Citizen Sky" project to study bright star that will transform after 27 yearsAugust 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have launched a new citizen science project called "Citizen Sky" to help study a bright star that will soon begin a puzzling transformation that only happens every 27 years. Epsilon Aurigae is a bright star that can be seen with the unaided eye even in bright urban areas of the Northern Hemisphere from fall to spring.
Star's nebula may be fuelled by double engineAugust 6th, 2009 MUNICH - Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have determined that interactions in a star that has a companion may be the engine fuelling its remarkable nebula. The astronomers found the star in a stunning new image of a field of stars towards the constellation of Carina.
Astronomers obtain sharpest ever views of supergiant star BetelgeuseJuly 30th, 2009 MUNICH - Using different state-of-the-art techniques on ESO's (European Southern Observatory's) Very Large Telescope, two independent teams of astronomers have obtained the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse. They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface.
'Invisibility cloaks' come closer to realityJuly 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) have come up with a device called a dc metamaterial, which makes objects invisible under certain light. The device does so, according to the researchers, under very low frequency electromagnetic waves by making the inside of the magnetic field zero, but not altering the exterior field.
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.
Astronomers discover new class of black holesJuly 2nd, 2009 LONDON - An international team of astronomers has discovered a new class of black hole, more than 500 times the mass of the Sun. Astronomers made the finding in a distant galaxy approximately 290 million light years from Earth.
Homing pigeons' inbuilt 'satnav' that uses Earth's magnetic field helps them return homeJune 24th, 2009 LONDON - Homing pigeons have fascinated humans for many years through their uncanny ability to find their way home from thousands of miles away. Now, researchers claim to have found the reason behind it.
Earth's magnetic poles may wander due to ocean currentsJune 20th, 2009 LONDON - A controversial new hypothesis has proposed that oceans' currents are responsible for the slow wandering of the Earth's magnetic poles. According to a report in New Scientist, the theory has been put forward by physicist Gregory Ryskin of Northwestern University in the US.
Enormous eruption reveals dead star in deep spaceJune 17th, 2009 PARIS - Astronomers, using ESA's (European Space Agency's) XMM-Newton and Integral space observatories, have observed an enormous eruption, which after careful analysis, has revealed a dead star belonging to a rare group: the magnetars. X-Rays from the giant outburst arrived on Earth on August 22, 2008, and triggered an automatic sensor on the NASA-led, international Swift satellite.
Mysterious supernova remnant puzzles astronomersJune 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have been puzzled about the origin of a supernova remnant in space, which has a very different look. This object, known as SNR 0104-72.3 (SNR 0104 for short), is in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way, and was found by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
World's largest solar telescope offers better understanding of Sun's magnetic fieldMay 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The world's largest solar telescope, which can capture the Sun's magnetic field better than other telescopes, is now operational. The new 1.6-meter clear aperture solar telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, is housed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, US.
Astronomers dissect a giant stellar explosionApril 4th, 2009 PARIS - A meticulous analysis of data has allowed astronomers to investigate the initial phases of a giant stellar explosion, which led to the ejection of matter at velocities close to the speed of light. On 19 December 2004, the blast from an exploding star arrived at Earth.
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