Latest Star Stories
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online As it turns out, studying our Sun can be rather difficult. It’s not the distance so much that keeps scientists guessing – although that certainly doesn’t help. The Sun’s intense heat also keeps scientists at bay, leaving them to make some of their observations and predictions based purely on context and far away measurements. One thing astronomers have been able to observe is a significant difference in temperatures...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online There are small subsets of stars among the hundred billion in the Milky Way called ultra-cool dwarfs, which have a temperature below 2500 Kelvin. Both ultra-cool dwarfs and brown dwarfs exist at these lower temperatures. The lower temperatures indicate that these are some of the most ancient objects in our Galaxy, leading scientists to examine them for information on primitive chemical composition. The Gaia mission, which will be...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A rare explosion from a rotating star may have created the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory claim that matter was ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star, creating a supernova remnant, W49B, which may contain a young black hole. "W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy," said Laura Lopez, who led the study at the...
NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - American Media, Inc. (AMI) today announced that it will hold an earnings conference call on February 14, 2013 at 11:00 am EST to discuss its fiscal 2013 third quarter results. The Company will release an earnings statement prior to the call. Conference call details are as follows:Date: Thursday, February 14, 2013Time: 11:00 am ESTCall-In Number: (877) 293-9442/ (630) 343-1248Reservation Number: 4419 A telephonic replay of the conference call...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online [ Watch the Video: Light echoes from LRLL 54361 ] A strange beacon of light has been captured, for the third time, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Far away, on a protostar called LRLL 54361, a flashing light takes place every 25.34 days, like fireworks. New images and video released by NASA and taken by the Hubble show the cause of these fireworks can bee seen hidden behind a dense disc and an envelope of dust....
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New observations have led to a better understanding of supernovae, which could one day lead to even better forecasts for the cosmic events. Type II supernovae form when a massive star collapses, sending off a giant explosion from the dying star. Having a better way to predict these events would allow astronomers to study them in their earliest stages. Astronomers wrote in the journal Nature this week that they have observed an...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online While solar wind is a common occurrence in our Solar System, a study of a new, more fierce wind has been completed using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space observatory. These massive stellar winds derive from rare, giant stars which burn their nuclear fuel more rapidly than stars like the Sun, and that live for millions of years before exploding into a supernova. Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their mass...
SHANGHAI, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In recent years, the rapid development of China's economy has not only improved people's quality of life on a grand scale, but has also led to a massive boom in domestic tourism. People are now looking to explore the country and see all its famous mountains and rivers, as well as appreciate the local conditions and customs of its ethnic groups. Internationally, with the strengthening of China's image and various international events...
NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media, Inc. (AMI), today announced the appointment of David R. Hughes to the Board of Directors, effective as of January 28, 2013. Mr. Hughes currently serves as Corporate Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. which he joined in November 2010. Mr. Hughes was previously employed by MTR Gaming Group, Inc. where he...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers recently reported in the journal Nature that they have determined the mass of the planetary nursery surrounding the star TW Hydrae with unprecedented accuracy. TW Hydrae lies roughly 176 light-years away from Earth and is one of the most frequently observed protoplanetary disks in space. The young star is surrounded with a disk of dense gas and dust, in which larger objects begin to turn into planets. Our Solar System...
Latest Star 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...
UV Astronomy -- UV astronomy is the branch of astronomy and astrophysics which deals with objects visible in ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV radiation ranges approximatively from 10nm (extreme UV) to 380nm (near UV). Ultraviolet line spectrum measurements are used to discern the chemical composition, densities, and temperatures of interstellar medium, and the temperature and composition of hot young stars. UV observations can also provide essential information about the evolution of...
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram -- In stellar astronomy, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R diagram) shows the relation between the absolute magnitude and the spectral types of stars. It was invented around 1910 by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell. There are two equivalent forms. One is the observer's form which plots the color of the star on one axis and the absolute magnitude on the other axis. The theoretician's form plots the temperature of the star on one axis and the...
X-ray Burster -- X-ray bursters are a class of binary stars which are luminous in X-rays. They contain a neutron star and a low-mass companion star. The companion fills its Roche lobe and therefore the neutron star is accreting matter from it. The inflowing gas forms an accretion disk around the neutron star. Sometimes X-ray bursters show a sudden increase in their X-ray luminosity, called X-ray burst. All properties of the X-ray bursts can be explained assuming that they result from...
Variable Star -- Most stars are of nearly constant luminosity. Our own Sun is a good example which goes through practically no measurable variation in brightness. There are, however, stars which do vary in brightness, called variable stars. They fall into two main groups: Intrinsic variables These are stars which have intrinsic variations in brightness, that is the star itself gets brighter and dimmer. There are many types of intrinsic variables, the main types being: --...
