Latest Astronomy Stories
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online When scientists began seeking out planets outside of our solar system, they anticipated seeing systems much like our own. Small, rocky worlds orbiting a couple of astronomical units from the host star, with the gas giant planets orbiting farther out. After all, much effort had been given to explaining how a solar system such as ours would form. Only, this is not what has been found. Many solar systems are constructed with...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Besides our own Sun, the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to Earth. As such, astronomers have sought to determine if planets orbit the tiny object. But because of its low brightness, and other issues, previous attempts to find planets using traditional methods have failed. But researchers have now determined that two unique opportunities -- one in October 2014, another in February 2016 -- will allow...
University of Delaware Astronomer John Gizis of the University of Delaware, working with data obtained by the Kepler mission, is studying a highly unusual dwarf star and its powerful flares that may hold clues to the likelihood of life on other planets as well as to the behavior of our Sun. Known as an L dwarf, this coolest type of star is about 53 light-years from Earth. Gizis, who discovered it two years ago using a ground-based telescope, has now conducted additional research using...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Using NASA’s Swift satellite, astronomers from NASA and Pennsylvania State University have created the most detailed ultraviolet surveys to-date of the two closest major galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. "We took thousands of images and assembled them into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy, resulting in the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths," said...
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State University have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed ultraviolet light surveys ever of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "We took thousands of images and assembled them into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy, resulting in the highest-resolution surveys of...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online New research using the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) has determined that we live in a more upscale neighborhood in our galaxy than previously thought. Considering we reside inside the Milky Way, it is tough for scientists to predict exactly where in our galaxy we sit. Astronomers are able to get a bird's-eye view of other galaxies, but we must use different methods...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) was recently awarded a grant from the Uwingu Fund in support of the organization's new program called "Save Our Stars." According to IDA, Save Our Stars (SOS) is a program aimed to work with amateur astronomers and other groups to educate about light pollution, provide information about how it can be diminished, and educate about the importance of limiting sky pollution to protect the dark...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers announced at the 222nd American Astronomical Society meeting in Indianapolis that they have observed the first clear example of a galaxy in the act of dying. The team says they saw a bright dwarf galaxy relatively close to Earth's Milky Way that was "trailing fireballs." They said until now, there has been no clear example of this transformation happening. “We think we’re witnessing a critical stage in the...
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using the new wide-field camera at the WIYN Observatory’s 3.5-meter telescope, astronomers at the facility have discovered that asteroid P/2010 A2's recently-formed tail is much longer than previously believed. The astronomers said the tail is about 620,000 miles long, or about triple the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The scientists were able to see the complete tail using the new One Degree Imager (ODI) -- a wide-field camera...
Latest Astronomy Reference Libraries
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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