Latest Observatory Stories

NASA has selected a science instrument upgrade to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory. The instrument, the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), will provide a sensitive, versatile and reliable imaging capability to the SOFIA user community. The upgrade involves two proposals that will allow the observatory to measure the structure and strength of magnetic fields in diverse objects throughout the universe, such as star-forming clouds...

New research suggests that billions of stars in our galaxy have captured rogue planets that once roamed interstellar space. The nomad worlds, which were kicked out of the star systems in which they formed, occasionally find a new home with a different sun. This finding could explain the existence of some planets that orbit surprisingly far from their stars, and even the existence of a double-planet system. "Stars trade planets just like baseball teams trade players," said Hagai Perets of...

The following is a statement from NASA's Chief Scientist, Waleed Abdalati, on the Space Telescope Science Institute naming its astronomical database the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). MAST holds science data from the Hubble Space Telescope and 14 other NASA missions. "The Space Telescope Science Institute's decision to name its database for Senator Mikulski is an honor very much deserved. She is a tremendous advocate and supporter for science, NASA and the...

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from NASA's Chief Scientist, Waleed Abdalati, on the Space Telescope Science Institute naming its astronomical database the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). MAST holds science data from the Hubble Space Telescope and 14 other NASA missions. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "The Space Telescope Science Institute's decision to name its database for...

China and India are moving forward to join as partners to help build the world's largest telescope in Hawaii. The two countries plan to share the cost of the construction for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) at the summit of Mauna Kea volcano. "This will represent a quantum leap for the Chinese community," Shude Mao, professor of astrophysics at National Astronomical Observatories of China, told The Associated Press (AP). The telescope's mirror will be nearly 100 feet long, giving...

[ Watch the Video ] Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception An international team, including three astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. After a six-year search that surveyed millions of stars, the team concludes that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The results will appear in the journal Nature on 12 January 2012....

WAIMEA, Hawai'i, Dec. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), led by American businessman / educator Steve Durst, plans to place an astronomical observatory on the Moon by 2014 that will capture never before seen images of the Galaxy, Stars, Moon and Earth. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111220/SF25939) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110723/SF40417LOGO) On December 18th-20th, a Global Demonstration of the...

[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Astronomers have obtained the best images ever of a star that has lost most of its material to a vampire companion. By combining the light captured by four telescopes at ESO’s Paranal Observatory they created a virtual telescope 130 meters across with vision 50 times sharper than the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Surprisingly, the new results show that the transfer of mass from one star to the other in this double system is gentler than expected. “We can...

A Russian radio telescope intended to be the largest of its kind in space, has started its stellar orbit around planet Earth for the first time since being launched, reports BBC News. The radio telescope, named RadioAstron, part of the Russian space observatory -- Spectrum-R -- will travel in an elliptical orbit that at its farthest point from Earth will take it close to the Moon. It was carried into orbit by the Zenith-3M rocket, taking off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday...

Molecules of hydrogen peroxide have been found for the first time in interstellar space. The discovery gives clues about the chemical link between two molecules critical for life: water and oxygen. On Earth, hydrogen peroxide plays a key role in the chemistry of water and ozone in our planet's atmosphere, and is familiar for its use as a disinfectant or to bleach hair blonde. Now it has been detected in space by astronomers using the ESO-operated APEX telescope in Chile.An international team...