Largest ring around Saturn discoveredOctober 7th, 2009 LONDON - An enormous ring around Saturn - by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings - has been discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane.
NASA's Spitzer telescope discovers gigantic never-before-seen ring around SaturnOctober 6th, 2009 NASA telescope discovers giant ring around SaturnPASADENA, Calif. — The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday.
NASA's Spitzer spots clump of planet-forming material around young starSeptember 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has witnessed a clump of planet-forming material around a young star. Planets form out of swirling disks of gas and dust.
Coiled galaxy has an "eye" staring from its centerJuly 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center. The galaxy, called NGC 1097, is located 50 million light-years away.
Herschel's first insight into space reveals spectacular resultsJuly 11th, 2009 PARIS - The Herschel Space Observatory has carried out the first test observations with all its instruments, revealing spectacular results, finding water and carbon and revealing dozens of distant galaxies. These observations show that Herschel's instruments are working beyond expectations.
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.
Herschel telescope obtains images of 'whirlpool galaxy' as first test observationJune 20th, 2009 PARIS - Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown, has obtained images of the famous 'whirlpool galaxy' for a first test observation. European Space Agency's (ESA's) Herschel opened its 'eyes' on June 14 and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, which is popularly dubbed the 'whirlpool galaxy'.
Clear images of starburst galaxies reveal new picture of early universeMay 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A telescope designed by a University of Miami physicist and an international team of collaborators has produced the clearest images of starburst galaxies, revealing a new picture of the universe in its early stages. The innovative new telescope, called BLAST (Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope), was built by an international research team, which included Joshua Gundersen, University of Miami professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Tiny crystals in frozen comets created by outbursts from starsMay 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to determine that outbursts from stars create tiny silicate crystals in frozen comets. Scientists have long wondered how tiny silicate crystals, which need sizzling high temperatures to form, have found their way into frozen comets, born in the deep freeze of the solar system's outer edges.
Mystery of Milky Way's X-ray glow solvedApril 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An image of a region near the center of our galaxy has resolved a long-standing mystery about an X-ray glow along the plane of the galaxy, attributing it to hundreds of point-like X-ray sources, implying that the glow is due to millions of such sources. The image shows an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope of the central region of the Milky Way, with a pullout showing a Chandra X-ray Observatory image of a region located only 1.4 degrees away from the center of the galaxy.
Telescopes reveal chaotic and overcrowded stellar nurseryApril 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers, using different telescopes, have found that the well-known Great Nebula of Orion, which is a stellar nursery of sorts, is a lively and overcrowded place, with young stars emitting gas jets in all directions, creating quite a chaotic picture. This was observed by astronomers using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, the IRAM Millimeter-wave Telescope in Spain, and the Spitzer Space Telescope in orbit above the Earth.
Ex-New York Guv Spitzer's return to public stage stirs talk of political comebackApril 13th, 2009 NEW YORK - Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's return to the public stage, with articles on Wall Street's role in the economic crisis and interviews on TV and radio, has led some observers to suggest conditions now are better than ever for him to return to the limelight -- if he wants to. "I don't think he's interested in a political comeback at this point.
Half of Universe's starlight comes from young star-forming galaxiesApril 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using a two-tonne telescope, scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have found that half of the starlight of the Universe comes from young, star-forming galaxies several billion light years away. The finding was a result of a two-year analysis of data from the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope (BLAST) project.
Cores of two merging galaxies prepare for final cataclysmic collisionMarch 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope offers a rare view of an imminent collision between the cores of two merging galaxies, each powered by a black hole with millions of times the mass of the sun. The galactic cores are in a single, tangled galaxy called NGC 6240, located 400-million light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.
NASA's Fermi Telescope obtains best ever view of gamma rays in spaceMarch 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have developed a new map combining nearly three months of data from NASA's Fermi Telescope to obtain the best-ever view of gamma rays in space. To Fermi's eyes, the universe is ablaze with gamma rays from sources ranging from within the solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away.
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