Latest Astronomy Stories
John P. Millis, PhD for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The big bang theory is the leading theory to explain the origin of the Universe. While challengers exist, no other well-developed theory has substantiated itself as a serious contender. But this does not mean that the big bang is without its problems. One issue that has plagued our origins story is the relative abundance of lithium isotopes Li-6 and Li-7 in the oldest observed stars. These atoms would have been constructed...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers writing in the journal Science say they have captured an image of a comet factory around a young star. The team found a region around a young star where dust particles can grow by clumping together, giving the scientists the first clear observation of a long-standing mystery of how dust particles in disc grow to larger sizes that eventually form comets, planets and other rocky bodies. Scientists do not fully...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers said during a press conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that when our Sun was in its infancy, it was active and "feisty." The team said that when the Sun was young it was growing in fits and burping out bursts of X-rays. They came to this conclusion after studying another young star in our galaxy known as TW Hydrae, which sits about 190 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra the...
Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences New, fast and accurate algorithm from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, based on the mathematical formalism used to model processes accompanying interaction of light with gas planet atmospheres, is a major step towards better understanding of physical and chemical properties of materials' surfaces studied under laboratory conditions. Solar System's gas giants, Jupiter and...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope reveal blooming stars at the fringe of the Milky Way galaxy, far from its crowded core. The images were collected as part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (Glimpse 360) project. Glimpse 360 is mapping the celestial topography of our galaxy and will make the map and a full 360-degree view of the Milky Way plane that will be available later this year. The...
VANCOUVER, June 5, 2013 /CNW/ - Polaris Minerals Corporation (the "Company") (TSX:PLS): In accordance with Toronto Stock Exchange requirements, the Company is pleased to announce the voting results for the election of its Board of Directors at the Company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on June 4, 2013, in Vancouver, British Columbia. The director nominees, as listed in the Management Information Circular dated April 25, 2013, were elected as directors of the Company at the...
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show blooming stars in our Milky Way galaxy's more barren territories, far from its crowded core. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The images are part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (Glimpse 360) project, which is mapping the celestial topography of our galaxy. The map and a full, 360-degree view of the Milky Way plane will be...
University of Louisville A scientific team led by University of Louisville doctoral student Karen Collins has discovered a hot Saturn-like planet in another solar system 700 light-years away. Collins announced the discovery of exoplanet KELT-6b Tuesday, June 4, during the American Astronomical Society's national meeting in Indianapolis. Astronomers caught sight of the planet when it passed in front of, or "transited," its host star—and they've since discovered that the planet...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers discovered light echoing off of material surrounding a recent supernova explosion, supporting the theory that exploding white dwarfs become unstable from matter donated by large non-degenerate stars. The team detected the light echo coming off of SN 2009ig, making it the sixth and most luminous discovered from a type Ia supernova. A light echo works similarly in principle to the more familiar sound echoes heard on Earth....
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Stars are formed in massive clouds of gas that are being compressed by some nearby event. Over time, the region will be consumed by the forming stars, leaving a cluster that will eventually drift apart. But what starts this process in the first place? Often these regions of star formations -- known as starburst regions -- are found in distant galaxies where the activity level is very high. But this presents a problem:...
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The prominent feature that allows for the existence of life on Earth is the Sun. Radiation from our closest star provides heat and energy to our planet, driving biological processes and providing the necessary conditions for liquid water to naturally exist. But our Sun is only but one star in this vast Universe. And as it turns out, most stars are quite different than the one that illuminates our day. For this reason, scientists have, for hundreds of years, attempted to study the other...
Image Caption: Artistic concept of a planetary system. Credit: Wikipedia/NASA/JPL-Caltech The term Astronomy encompasses a broad range of topics, including the study of stars, galaxies, and planets. In order to focus on the different areas of study, many subfields of astronomy emerge. One such area is the study of planets known, appropriately, as Planetary Astronomy. Observational Planetary Astronomy Even within the field of Planetary Astronomy, there are several divisions to...
Image Caption: The Hubble Extreme Deep Field (XDF) was completed in September 2012 and shows the farthest galaxies ever photographed by humans. Each speck of light in the photo is an individual galaxy, some of them as old as 13.2 billion years; the observable universe is estimated to contain more than 200 billion galaxies. Credit: NASA/Wikipedia What is Cosmology? I once commented to an acquaintance that I was fascinated by the field of Cosmology, and mused that if I had more time, I...
Image Caption: NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 56,000 light-years in diameter and approximately 60 million light-years distant. Credit: NASA/ESA/Wikipedia What is Astrophysics? For much of the modern age the term Astrophysics has been used synonymously with Astronomy. This interchange is so common that many textbooks even offer the two as having the same meaning. However, from a strictly historical perspective there are differences...
The Tropic of Capricorn, alternately called the Southern Tropic, is a marker of the most southerly latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs at the December solstice, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun at its maximum degree. It is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It presently lies 23 degrees 26’ 16’’ south of the Equator. Currently, the Tropic of Capricorn is drifting towards the north at...
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