http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/astronomy-news.html Astronomy news From Astronomy blog Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT en-us http://www.astronomy-blog.com/images/blogs/astronomy-news-34430.jpg http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/astronomy-news.html 178 92 http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2010/new-planet-in-planetary-system.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2010/new-planet-in-planetary-system.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT An international team of astronomers has discovered and imaged a fourth giant planet outside our solar system, a discovery that further strengthens the remarkable resemblances between a distant planetary system and our own. The research is published Dec. 8 in the advance online version of the journal Nature........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2010/giant-previously-unseen-structure-in-our-galaxy.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2010/giant-previously-unseen-structure-in-our-galaxy.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way -- a finding likened in terms of scale to the discovery of a new continent on Earth. The feature, which spans 50,000 light-years, appears to be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2010/nasa-extends-timed-mission-for-fourth-time.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2010/nasa-extends-timed-mission-for-fourth-time.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Nine years after beginning its unprecedented look at the gateway between Earth's environment and space, not to mention collecting more data on the upper atmosphere than any other satellite, NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has been extended again. Before the launch of TIMED, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere/ionosphere -- which help protect us from harmful solar radiation -- had been one of the least explored and understood regions of our environment........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2010/saturns-icy-moon-may-keep-oceans.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2010/saturns-icy-moon-may-keep-oceans.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Saturn's icy moon Enceladus should not be one of the most promising places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Instead, it should have frozen solid billions of years ago. Located in the frigid outer solar system, it's too far from the sun to have oceans of liquid water -- a necessary ingredient for known forms of life -- on its surface........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/to-catch-a-galactic-thief.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/to-catch-a-galactic-thief.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT On Earth, thieves steal everything from diamonds to art to bags full of money. In space, gas - fuel for making stars - is a commodity worth the price of theft. New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a distant, massive galaxy in the act of ripping off vast reservoirs of gas - the equivalent of one billion suns - from its smaller, neighbor galaxy. The stolen gas, which has become scorching hot during the heist, will likely cool down and get turned into new stars and planets........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/biggest-small-black-hole-discovered.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/biggest-small-black-hole-discovered.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT New Haven, Conn. Discovery of the largest example of a small black hole one formed from the collapse of a single massive star at the end of its lifetime has led researchers to revaluate of how black holes come into being, as per a report in Nature. The theory we operated with for the last decade was that single-star black holes are formed from the remnants of massive stars the more massive the star, the more massive the remnant. But, all of the stellar mass black holes were expected to be in the range of 10 times the mass of the sun or less, since only the core regions of the star would collapse, said Charles Bailyn, the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale, and a member of the research team........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/satellite-to-carry-nasa-experiments.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/satellite-to-carry-nasa-experiments.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are taking advantage of the opportunity to carry promising technologies into orbit for evaluation. For MidSTAR-2, midshipmen are in the process of developing a satellite bus, which is the main portion of the satellite. It is similar to the prior MidSTAR-1 satellite, which was launched earlier in 2007. The MidSTAR-1 satellite was a highly successful proof of design for the MidSTAR-2 satellite bus design concept........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2007/where-is-beagle-2.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2007/where-is-beagle-2.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft has used its onboard High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) to take a colour image of a region of Mars in the vicinity of the intended landing site of Beagle 2. H20 crater. Credit: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance OrbiterIncluded in the image is new coverage of the crater H2O which was considered by the Beagle 2 team as unique in the area that had been searched for evidence of the missing Lander. Beagle 2 was targeted to land in an ellipse approximately 50km x 10km in size........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/the-jet-stream-of-titan.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/the-jet-stream-of-titan.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT A pair of rare celestial alignments that occurred in November 2003 helped an international team of astronomers investigate the far-off world of Titan. In particular, the alignments helped validate the atmospheric model used to design the entry trajectory for ESA's Huygens probe. Now the unique results are helping to place the descent of Huygens in a global context, and to investigate the upper layers of Titan's atmosphere........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/research-to-solve-aurora-mystery.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/research-to-solve-aurora-mystery.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT The aurora is a bright glow observed in the night sky, usually in the polar zone. For this reason some scientists call it a "polar aurora" (or "aurora polaris"). In northern latitudes, it is known as the aurora borealis, which is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. Especially in Europe, it often appears as a reddish glow on the northern horizon, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis is also called the northern lights since it is only visible in the North sky from the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora borealis most often occurs from September to October and from March to April. Its southern counterpart, aurora australis, has similar properties........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/universes-oldest-objects.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2007/universes-oldest-objects.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT The deepest reaches of space are permeated by a cloak of infrared radiation, an uneven energy swath generated by long-dead objects from the early universe. Now, researchers have teased apart overlapping signals from that cosmic infrared background, building upon an earlier study to show that uneven patches of energy may actually be clusters of the first objects to emerge from the Big Bang........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2006/the-frozen-secrets-of-comet-wild-2.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2006/the-frozen-secrets-of-comet-wild-2.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Eleven months ago, NASA's Stardust mission touched down in the Utah desert with the first solid comet samples ever retrieved from space. Since then, nearly 200 researchers from around the globe have studied the minuscule grains, looking for clues to the physical and chemical history of our solar system. Eventhough years of work remain to fully decipher the secrets of comet Wild 2, scientists are sure that it contains some of the most primitive and exotic chemical structures ever studied in a laboratory........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2006/integral-catches-a-new-erupting-black-hole.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2006/integral-catches-a-new-erupting-black-hole.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT ESA's gamma-ray observatory, Integral, has spotted a rare kind of gamma-ray outburst. The vast explosion of energy allowed astronomers to pinpoint a possible black hole in our Galaxy. The outburst was discovered on 17 September 2006 by staff at the Integral Science Data Centre (ISDC), Versoix, Switzerland. Inside the ISDC, astronomers constantly monitor the data coming down from Integral because they know the sky at gamma-ray wavelengths can be a swiftly changing place........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2006/first-live-hdtv-broadcast-from-space.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2006/first-live-hdtv-broadcast-from-space.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Images from the world's first high definition television (HDTV) broadcast from space flashed across the screen on Nov 15th in Times Square. On Nov. 15, 2006, NASA made history with the first live HDTV broadcasts from space, in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater and Japanese broadcast network NHK........ ]]> http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2006/esperanza-fire.html http://www.astronomy-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2006/esperanza-fire.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:38:28 GMT Waves of gray-brown smoke washed over the mountains southeast of Los Angeles and out over the Pacific on Oct. 26, 2006, on the same day on which four firefighters were killed fighting the blaze. West of Palm Springs, Calif., the Esperanza Fire had ballooned under the influence of Santa Ana winds to encompass more than 19,000 acres as of the morning of Oct. 27, as per the daily report from the National Interagency Fire Center. Racing through grass, brush, and timber, the blaze had forced hundreds to evacuate, and it killed several firefighters who were working to protect homes. Fire officials are reporting the cause of the blaze as arson........ ]]>