Sky around Eagle Nebula revealed in stunning new image

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that the role of a predator, before humans colonized New Zealand about 750 years ago, was filled by a giant, extinct raptor known as Haast's eagle. Although the bones of Haast's eagle have been known for well over a century, the behavior of these giants has been a point of debate.

September 11th, 2009 Extinct New Zealand eagle may have eaten humansBANGKOK — Sophisticated computer scans of fossils have helped solve a mystery over the nature of a giant, ancient raptor known as the Haast's eagle which became extinct about 500 years ago, researchers said Friday. The researchers say they have determined that the eagle — which lived in the mountains of New Zealand and weighed about 40 pounds (18 kilograms) — was a predator and not a mere scavenger as many thought.

September 9th, 2009 Newly fixed Hubble's deep space photos again amazeWASHINGTON — A refurbished Hubble Space Telescope is showing Earth the sharpest photos yet of cosmic beauty, complete with heavenly glows. NASA on Wednesday unveiled the first deep space photos taken by Hubble since its billion dollar repair mission last spring.

August 27th, 2009 MUNICH - A new image by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has captured the different regions of the Trifid Nebula, which is a rare combination of three nebula types, as seen in visible light. This massive star factory is so named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, revealing the fury of freshly formed stars and presaging more star birth.

August 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.

August 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is starting a second career and taking its first shots of the cosmos since warming up. The infrared telescope ran out of coolant May 15, 2009, more than five-and-one-half-years after launch.

July 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astronomers has found a new planetary nebula, which looks like a giant 'soap bubble' floating in space. Planetary nebulae, which got their name after being misidentified by early astronomers, are formed when an ageing star weighing up to eight times the mass of the sun ejects its outer layers as clouds of luminous gas.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - A new research says that asteroid-sized balls of magma hurtled through our infant solar system, and spray from their many collisions provided much of the raw material that formed Earth and its rocky siblings. According to a report in New Scientist, this is according to a new take on an old theory that challenges the notion that the solar system started out as a placid sea of dust motes which simply clumped together to form planets.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A University of Missouri professor has identified new features in the material that is being ejected from the dying star Helix Nebula, as previously unseen comet-shaped knots. The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula, and also is one of the closest nebulae to Earth.

July 8th, 2009 MUNICH - A new image captured by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has reveled the Omega Nebula, a stellar nursery where infant stars illuminate and sculpt a vast pastel fantasy of dust and gas, in all its glory. The Omega Nebula, sometimes called the Swan Nebula, is a dazzling stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer).

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new image, taken with an infrared camera on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, has revealed a cosmic fireworks display, in the form of tens of thousands of previously unseen comet-shaped knots inside the Helix Nebula. he sheer number of knots - more than have ever been seen before - looks like a massive fireworks display in space.

July 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Two University of Hawaii astronomers have found a binary star-disk system in which each star is surrounded by the kind of dust disk that is frequently the precursor of a planetary system, which makes them solar systems in the making. The astronomers in question are doctoral student Rita Mann and Dr.

June 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A pair of astrophysicists has predicted the birth of a star, by saying that "the inevitable future of the starless cloud Barnard 68" is to collapse and give rise to a new star. The astrophysicists are Joao Alves, director of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almeria, and his colleague Andreas Burkert, from the German observatory in the University of Munich.

May 21st, 2009 MUNICH - Using ESO's (European Southern Observatory's) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have succeeded in measuring the size of giant galaxy Messier 87 and were surprised to find that its outer parts have been stripped away by still unknown effects. The galaxy also appears to be on a collision course with another giant galaxy in this very dynamic cluster.

May 10th, 2009 Hubble: From cosmic joke to cherished eye in spaceWASHINGTON — Using the power of pictures, the Hubble Space Telescope has snapped away at the mystery of the universe. For 19 years, Hubble has shown the epic violence of crashing galaxies, spied on the birth and death of stars, taught cosmic lessons, and even provided comic relief.