Everyone wants gamma-ray eyes!
Even before ESA`s Integral gamma-ray observatory was launched, astronomers were competing to win time to use this state-of-the-art observatory. The Integral Science Operations Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, received hundreds of excellent proposals. ESA expects Integral to revolutionise the way we think about the violent Universe.... view more... (2002-10-29)
Cornell-led team detects dust around a primitive star, shedding new light on universe's origins
A Cornell-led team of astronomers has observed dust forming around a dying star in a nearby galaxy, giving a glimpse into the early universe and enlivening a debate about the origins of all cosmic dust. view more (2009-01-16)
A Tale of Two Populations
VLT FLAMES Finds Hints of Helium-Richest Stars Ever Seen view more (2005-03-15)
The Weirdest Type Ia Supernova Yet
A group of scientists affiliated with the SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS) have found startling evidence that there is more than one kind of Type Ia supernova, a class of exploding stars which until now has been regarded as essentially uniform in all important respects. view more (2006-09-21)
NC State Researchers
Researchers at North Carolina State University have used a mathematical model that allows them to get a clearer picture of the galaxy's youngest supernova remnant by correcting for the distortions caused by cosmic dust. view more (2009-04-23)
Stellar explosion displays massive carbon footprint
While humans are still struggling to get rid of unwanted carbon it appears that the heavens are really rather good at it. view more (2009-06-01)
Dark energy -- 10 years on
Three quarters of our universe is made up of some weird, gravitationally repulsive substance that was only discovered ten years ago - dark energy. view more (2007-11-30)
XMM-Newton uncovers a celestial Rosetta stone
ESA's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered a celestial Rosetta stone: 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. view more (2009-09-04)
Celebrating 5 years of the Very Large Telescope
From Sombreros to the Centre of the Milky Way Celebrating 5 years of the Very Large Telescope One of the world's most advanced telescope facilities, Very Large Telescope (VLT), situated in the Atacama Desert in Chile, celebrates its 5th birthday today (1st April 2004). During its short history the telescope has captured some breathtaking images... view more... (2004-03-31)
Exploding star takes astronomers by surprise
A partially exploding star, known as a nova, has recovered more quickly than expected, say scientists who have analysed new data from the ESA`s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite. Nova explosions are not completely destructive phenomena. In fact, after an explosion occurs, the star recovers and starts shining again. Until now, astronomers have not known... view more... (2002-10-11)
Scientists find 'pinwheels' in Quintuplet cluster
Discovery of pinwheel-shaped dust spirals around two of the mysterious cocoon stars in the Quintuplet cluster tells scientists for the first time that they contain a duo of stars instead of just one. view more (2006-08-21)
Cosmology's Best Standard Candles Get Even Better
Members of the international Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory), a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a consortium of French laboratories, and Yale University, have found a new technique that establishes the intrinsic brightness of Type Ia supernovae more accurately than ever before. view more (2009-05-19)
Observation of X-rays from birth of supernova leads to all-out effort to record stellar death
The lucky capture in January of an X-ray outburst from the very beginning of a supernova allowed astronomers around the world to quickly follow up with ground-based telescopes and collect a wealth of new information on early processes in stellar explosions, according to a paper newly submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. view more (2008-05-22)
CERN scientists predict supernova
A team of theoretical physicists working at CERN and the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel has developed a theory to account for the mysterious gamma ray bursts that come from the depths of the Universe. According to their ideas, gamma ray bursts are linked to supernovae, the cataclysmic explosions of massive stars at the end of their... view more... (2003-04-15)
Starburst galaxy sheds light on longstanding cosmic mystery
An international collaboration that includes scientists from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has discovered very-high-energy gamma rays in the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a bright galaxy filled with exploding stars 12 million light years from Earth. view more (2009-11-03)
Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen
In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. view more (2009-06-11)
Integral ready for launch
ESA's Integral has been given the green light and is all set for launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan in the early hours of tomorrow morning. More than 34 simulations for a total of 300 hours have been carried out at ESOC, ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC is responsible for Integral Mission Control and it is from... view more... (2002-10-16)
1843 stellar eruption may be new type of star explosion
Eta Carinae, the galaxy's biggest, brightest and perhaps most studied star after the sun, has been keeping a secret: Its giant outbursts appear to be driven by an entirely new type of stellar explosion that is fainter than a typical supernova and does not destroy the star. view more (2008-09-11)
Space X-ray telescope arrives for tests at RAL
An X-ray telescope weighing half a tonne, due for launch on a Russian spacecraft in 1998, arrived at CLRC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory today for thermal tests. With conditions in space so different from those on Earth (space is an icy-cold vacuum), it is vital to test any instrument before launch to make sure that it can work in a vacuum at... view more... (1996-12-10)
Young supernova remnants not dusty enough, according to UC Berkeley astronomers
One of the youngest supernova remnants known, a glowing red ball of dust created by the explosion 1,000 years ago of a supermassive star in a nearby galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, exhibits the same problem as exploding stars in our own galaxy: too little dust. view more (2006-06-07)
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