Latest Space dust Stories

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using observations from an airborne observatory, NASA researchers have discovered new details on how massive stars form within a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. An emerging star known as G35 has been observed forming in an orderly process similar to the one undergone by smaller stars like our sun, according to the scientists’ report in the Astrophysical Journal. Lead author Yichen Zhang said the observations of G35 made with...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to an aeronautics and astronautics professor at Stanford University, "space dust" is the likely culprit behind why satellites fail. Satellites are threatened by both asteroids and "space junk," which are particles of man-made debris that orbit Earth. However, the threat from these impacts is actually relatively low, and most satellites that have died in space were knocked out by something entirely different. Space dust,...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new image released by the European Space Observatory (ESO) shows off a great view of clouds of cosmic dust in Orion. ESO's Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile helps bring out the heat glow of the dust, revealing places where new stars are being formed. Dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust in space are the birthplaces of new stars. When viewing these in visible light, the dust is dark and obscuring, which helps...

[Watch Videos: 1 - Zooming in on Lupus 3 / 2 - Panning Over Lupus 3] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Southern Observatory (ESO) released a stunning new image of a dark cloud where new stars are forming, along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from the stellar nursery. The new image, taken with MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile, is one of the finest and clearest ever taken in visible light of...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers are reaching out to the public and asking for a little help in a study to find holes in dust clouds that are threaded throughout our galaxy. By looking at images from the Herschel Space Observatory, combined with those from NASA’s Spitzer satellite, members of the public can join the scientists by helping to distinguish between dense clumps of cold dust and possible holes in these dusty clouds. Dust clouds do not...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers using a telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have discovered a molecular cloud that has a peculiar helical structure. The team, led by Shinji Matsumura, a second year Ph. D. candidate, named it a "pigtail" molecular cloud due to its morphology. The pigtail molecular cloud is located in the galactic center, about 30,000 light years away from the solar system. Giant molecular clouds found in this...