Latest Observational astronomy Stories
Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Africa In the week that saw the release of the first results from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite, astronomers at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) near Johannesburg are working on a new radio telescope that will also shed new light on the very earliest moments of universe. The C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS) is a project to map the sky in microwave (short-wavelength radio) radiation. Like Planck, it will survey the whole...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers using ground and space telescopes around the world have revealed a black hole and a star, intertwined in a cosmic tango together. Astronomers writing in Astronomy & Astrophysics say they have observed a black hole, known as MAXI J1659-152, and a red dwarf with a mass only 20 percent that of the Sun orbiting each other every 2.4 hours. The two cosmic bodies sit over half a million miles away from each other, but are...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Using a state-of-the-art telescopic imaging system, astronomers are now able to see planets that orbit distant stars, known as exoplanets, more easily and in greater detail, according to a report in the Astrophysical Journal. Scientists gather information from distant planets via the light they radiate, referred to as their spectra, and previously, astronomers have only been able to analyze planets as they pass in front of, or...
ESO [ Watch The Video Scenes from the ALMA Inauguration day ] Today, in a remote part of the Chilean Andes, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), was inaugurated at an official ceremony. This event marks the completion of all the major systems of the giant telescope and the formal transition from a construction project to a fully fledged observatory. ALMA is a partnership between Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile....
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using data obtained from a NASA satellite, a Pennsylvania State University astronomer has identified the closest solar system to be found within the past 97 years. According to astronomer Kevin Luhman’s report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the newly identified system is a pair of brown dwarf stars and the third-closest system to the Sun. “The distance to this brown dwarf pair is 6.5 light years -- so close that Earth's...
ESO On 13 March 2013 the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest astronomical project in the world, will be inaugurated in Chile, celebrating ALMA’s transition from a construction project to a fully fledged observatory. For members of the media who cannot be present at the inaugural event, the ALMA partner organizations will host an online press meeting via Adobe Connect on 12 March 2013 at 12:00 CET. Presentations about the development, inauguration and...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New research from Carnegie Institution for Science looks at how gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn formed and evolved. Using theoretical modeling, lead researcher Alan Boss provides clues that gas giants may form in the presence of gas disks that surround stars in their infancy. The work was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal. By observing young stars that are surrounded by gas disks, Boss demonstrated that...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency said Tuesday that its Herschel Space Observatory is beginning to wrap up its mission. Famous for its ability to view the sky in the entire wavelength range from far-infrared to submillimeter, the space observatory is beginning to run out of its supply of liquid helium coolant. ESA says Herschel is running on its last fumes and will be running empty in the coming weeks. Herschel first launched on May 14, 2009...
W. M. Keck Observatory The W. M. Keck Observatory has successfully completed a $4 million campaign that will give astronomers the most detailed Adaptive Optics images of the cosmos ever created by mankind. Furthermore, the campaign was funded entirely by private philanthropy. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the W. M. Keck Foundation and The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation awarded three grants totaling $3.7 million to significantly upgrade the Keck II Laser Guide Star Adaptive...
Pioneering scientists redefine what influences movement in solar system and invite scientists, theorists and solar system experts to comment on the "More than Gravity" thesis LANCASTER, N.Y., Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A new theory on the forces that control planetary orbit refutes the 400-year old assumptions currently held by the scientific community. Scientific and engineering experts Gerhard and Kevin Neumaier have established a relationship between solar winds and a quantized...
Latest Observational astronomy Reference Libraries
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...
Radio telescopes, used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes, are a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. They operate on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they detect radio sources. Radio telescopes are large parabolic antennas used singly or in an array and are located far from major centers of population in order to avoid electromagnetic interference. Karl Guthe Jansky built the first radio antenna used to...
A telescope, designed to aid the observation of remote objects, collects some form of electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). The Netherlands developed the first known practical telescope in the 17th century. The term "telescope" was termed in order to describe Galileo's instruments in 1611. However, Galileo was not the inventor of the telescope. It was Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen, and Jacob Metius who are credited with the creation of the telescope. In 1668, Isaac Newton...
Sample Entry: Astronomy is the scientific study of stars, planets, comets, galaxies, and other phenomena that occur outside Earth's atmosphere (e.g. cosmic radiation). Astronomy deals with the evolution, physics, chemical makeup, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, and also the formation of the universe. The word Astronomy comes from the Greek words astron (meaning "star") and nomos (meaning "law"). Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Since the dawn of man, people always...
Sky -- Although almost everyone have seen it, sky is hard to be defined precisely. Generally, sky is the space seen when one looks upward from the surface of a planet. Some people define sky as the denser gaseous zone of a planet's atmosphere. Clouds, rainbows and weather all occur amongst a planet's sky. In astronomy, the sky is divided into many regions, called constellations. The blue colour of the daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays. When the sunlight...
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