Latest Observational astronomy Stories
With its 2160 liters of liquid helium about to run out, the Herschel Space Observatory will, by the end of March, become just another piece of space junk. In January’s Physics World, Steve Eales, a University of Cardiff astronomer who leads one of the telescope’s largest surveys, explains how this space facility has advanced our understanding of star and galaxy formation. Submillimeter wavelength astronomy -- the kind of astronomy that the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space...
[ Watch the Video: ScienceCasts: Christmas Sky Show ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online What Christmas celebration could be complete without beautiful lights? This Christmas, the light show will not just be in your neighbor's yard, but in the sky as well. On the evening of December 25, Jupiter and the Moon are having a Christmas conjunction, which will be visible around the globe. Normally cut off from astronomical displays because of light pollution, even city...
[ Watch the Video: All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer ] Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online When one begins to search for the origins of the universe, it helps to be well-equipped and as close to the heavens as possible. Therefore, the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (or ALMA) has been built high up in the martian-esque landscape of the Atacama desert of northern Chile. Each of these 66 radio telescopes (or giant antennas) are used in...
SDSS-III Forget the restaurant at the end of the Universe — astronomers now have the clearest understanding yet of the bar at the center of the Milky Way. Scientists with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) have announced the discovery of hundreds of stars rapidly moving together in long, looping orbits around the center of our Galaxy. "The best explanation for their orbits is that these stars are part of the Milky Way bar," says David Nidever, a Dean B. McLaughin Fellow in...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online University of Southampton researchers reported in The Astrophysical Journal that they have observed bright X-ray flares in a nearby galaxy being produced by a white dwarf. The team made the discovery by detecting a dramatic, short-lived X-ray flare that was picked up by an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station (ISS). Astronomers used optical telescopes in South Africa and Chile to help observe the flare, called...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists are paving the way for future X-ray astrophysics research by explaining why observations from orbiting X-ray telescopes do not match theoretical predictions. The team used powerful X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to study and measure a key process at work in extreme plasmas like those found in stars, black holes and...
Dr. John Millis for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Mars, the subject of human fascination for millennia, is an amazing world with an interesting history. Here, we look at the five most amazing facts about the Red Planet. 1. Mars is only about half the diameter of Earth: We often think of Mars as being quite similar to Earth; a place to visit and potentially inhabit in the future. But while it does bear some similarity with Earth, it is much smaller. In fact… 2. The...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new study led by the University of Leicester has revealed new evidence suggesting X-ray detectors in space could be the first to witness new supernovae that signal the death of massive stars. An excess of X-ray radiation has been observed in the first few minutes of the collapse of massive stars. This excess may be the signature of the supernovae shock wave as it first escapes from the star. Dr. Rhaana Starling of the University...
NEWTON, N.C., Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The 25(th) and final 12-meter (40-foot) antenna manufactured by General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies has been formally accepted by the Joint Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory. Delivered to the Operations Support Facility in the Chilean Andes, the 115-ton, highly specialized radio-telescope antenna is completing final integration and testing before being moved up to the Array Operations Site which is...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The youngest still-forming solar system ever seen has been discovered by astronomers and reported about in the journal Nature. Astronomers found an infant star surrounded by a swirling disk of dust and gas more than 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The star has about one-fifth the mass of the Sun, but the scientists say it will likely pull in material from its surroundings to eventually match the Sun's mass....
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...
![NASA\](/media/gallery/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope/thumbs/thumbs_746305main_swift_xrt.jpg "NASA\")
![NASA\](/media/gallery/sofia-stratospheric-observatory-for-infrared-astronomy/thumbs/thumbs_741421main_ed13-0099-1_full.jpg "NASA\")
