Swift XMM-Newton Satellites Tune Into a Middleweight Black Hole
While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by. view more (2009-11-11)
Magnetic Fields Play Larger Role in Star Formation than Previously Thought
he simple picture of star formation calls for giant clouds of gas and dust to collapse inward due to gravity, growing denser and hotter until igniting nuclear fusion. In reality, forces other than gravity also influence the birth of stars. New research shows that cosmic magnetic fields play a more important role in star formation than previously... view more... (2009-09-10)
NASA celebrates Chandra X-Ray Observatory's 10th anniversary
Ten years ago, on July 23, 1999, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia and deployed into orbit. view more (2009-07-24)
MU Scientist Discovers 'Firework' Display in Helix Nebula
A star does not die without getting noticed and may even leave the universe with "fireworks." At the end of its life cycle, a star begins to collapse in the middle and throws new material into space. view more (2009-07-21)
NASA's Fermi Finds Gamma-ray Galaxy Surprises
Back in June 1991, just before the launch of NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, astronomers knew of gamma rays from exactly one galaxy beyond our own. view more (2009-07-15)
Herschel Space Telescope's SPIRE instrument package makes first-light observations
A scientific instrument package developed in part by the University of Colorado at Boulder for the $2.2 billion orbiting Herschel Space Observatory that was launched in May by the European Space Agency has made its first successful observations, targeting two star-forming galaxies near the Milky Way. view more (2009-07-13)
IU astronomer's discovery poses challenge to galaxy formation theories
A team led by an Indiana University astronomer has found a sample of massive galaxies with properties that suggest they may have formed relatively recently. view more (2009-04-13)
Finding Twin Earths: Harder Than We Thought!
Does a twin Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? Astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit. NASA's Kepler spacecraft just launched to find such worlds. view more (2009-03-23)
Colors of Quasars Reveal a Dusty Universe
The vast expanses of intergalactic space appear to be filled with a haze of tiny, smoke-like "dust" particles that dim the light from distant objects and subtly change their colors, according to a team of astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II). view more (2009-02-26)
Turbulence May Promote the Birth of Massive Stars
On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars are young but powerful, each one shining with the brilliance of 100,000 Suns. They are also massive, containing 15 to 30 times as much material as... view more... (2009-02-24)
First Laboratory Experiment to Accurately Model Stellar Jets Explains Mysterious 'Knots'
Some of the most breathtaking objects in the cosmos are the jets of matter streaming out of stars, but astrophysicists have long been at a loss to explain how these jets achieve their varied shapes. Now, laboratory research detailed in the current issue of Astrophysical Review Letters shows how magnetic forces shape these stellar jets. view more (2009-02-10)
Astronomers discover link between supermassive black holes and galaxy formation
A pair of astronomers from Texas and Germany have used a telescope at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory together with Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes around the world to uncover new evidence that the largest, most massive galaxies in the universe and the supermassive black holes at their hearts grew together... view more... (2009-02-03)
Solar System's Young Twin Has Two Asteroid Belts
Astronomers have discovered that the nearby star Epsilon Eridani has two rocky asteroid belts and an outer icy ring, making it a triple-ring system. The inner asteroid belt is a virtual twin of the belt in our solar system, while the outer asteroid belt holds 20 times more material. Moreover, the presence of these three rings of material implies... view more... (2008-10-28)
Secrets from within planets pave way for cleaner energy
Research that has provided a deeper understanding into the centre of planets could also provide the way forward in the world's quest for cleaner energy. view more (2008-10-23)
Powerful Nearby Supernova Caught By Web
One of the nearest supernovas in the last 25 years has been identified over a decade after it exploded. This result was made possible by combining data from the vast online archives from many of the world's premier telescopes. view more (2008-09-26)
Worlds in collision
Two terrestrial planets orbiting a mature sun-like star some 300 light-years from Earth recently suffered a violent collision, astronomers at UCLA, Tennessee State University and the California Institute of Technology will report in a December issue of the Astrophysical Journal, the premier journal of astronomy and astrophysics. view more (2008-09-24)
Clash of clusters provides new dark matter clue
A powerful collision between galaxy clusters has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This clash of clusters provides striking evidence for dark matter and insight into its properties. view more (2008-08-28)
A new method to weigh giant black holes
How do you weigh the biggest black holes in the universe? One answer now comes from a new and independent technique that UC Irvine scientists and other astronomers have developed using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. view more (2008-07-17)
Discovery of most recent supernova in our galaxy
The most recent supernova in our Galaxy has been discovered by tracking the rapid expansion of its remains. This result, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and NRAO's Very Large Array (VLA), has implications for understanding how often supernovas explode in the Milky Way galaxy. view more (2008-05-15)
Searching the heavens
A new space mission, due to launch this month, is going to shed light on some of the most extreme astrophysical processes in nature - including pulsars, remnants of supernovae, and supermassive black holes. view more (2008-05-01)
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