Scientists who study black holes and the supernova events leading to them have, for the first time been able to observe a supernova explosion as it occurs. Their achievement has confirmed a theoretical model proposed by Prof. Eli Waxman of the Weizmann Institute.
A new image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way. The new Hubble image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star's shattered fragments.
Several Johns Hopkins University astronomers describe the decision to strip Pluto of its planetary status as a "muddled" ruling that is unlikely to settle ongoing debates over how to define a planet and whether the term should apply to Pluto. In an informal poll, only one astronomer was pleased to hear about Pluto's new status.
David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, is the author of the upcoming book Is Pluto a Planet?, to be released in the fall by Princeton University Press. In the book, Weintraub argues that Pluto, and many other celestial objects, should be considered planets, contrary to the International Astronomical Union's vote Aug. 24 in Prague.
Super-hot atoms in space hold the key to an astronomical mystery, and an Ohio State University astronomer is leading an effort to study those atoms here on Earth. As a result, astronomers -- in particular, those hunting black holes -- will have a better idea of what they are looking at when they examine faraway space matter using X-ray telescopes.
This active region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, unveils wispy clouds of hydrogen and oxygen that swirl and mix with dust on a canvas of astronomical size. The LMC is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This particular region within the LMC, referred to as N 180B, contains some of the brightest known star clusters.
Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies, providing the strongest support yet for the existence of dark matter "” the mysterious stuff said to comprise most of the universe yet only so far inferred based on its gravitational effect.
Astronomers have finally learned the identity of a mysterious "Quintuplet Cluster" of stars situated near the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's core: At least two of the objects are not individual stars, but binary pairs that live fast and die young, forming fiery pinwheels as they spin around one another.
Two nearly identical spacecraft, destined to capture the first-ever 3-D views of the sun, are scheduled for launch on Aug. 31 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
As the International Astronomical Union prepares to vote on a definition of "planet," we've taken a straw poll among astronomers at Johns Hopkins. Here's what they think and why.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered what astronomers are reporting as the dimmest stars ever seen in any globular star cluster. Globular clusters are spherical concentrations of hundreds of thousands of stars. These clusters formed early in the 13.7-billion-year-old universe. The cluster NGC 6397 is one of the closest globular star clusters to Earth.
Don't be scared, if you think you'll have to memorize the potentially growing number of planets.
Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer satellite have learned that far more "heavy" hydrogen remains in our Milky Way galaxy than expected, a finding that could radically alter theories about star and galaxy formation.
Combining computer and communications skills, experts at the University of California San Diego are helping colleagues at the California Institute of Technology share the massive amounts of data produced by astronomers' investigations of the cosmos.
A critically important number that specifies the expansion rate of the Universe, the so-called Hubble constant, has been independently determined using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This new value matches recent measurements using other methods and extends their validity to greater distances, thus allowing astronomers to probe earlier epochs in the evolution of the Universe.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has for the first time identified the characteristics of the parent star of a distant planet discovered through gravitational microlensing.
Astronomers have determined that the Triangulum Galaxy, otherwise known as M33, is actually about 15 percent farther away from our galaxy than previously measured. That means that the universe could be 15 percent bigger and 15 percent older than any previous calculations suggested.
A recent grant from NASA will enable the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arkansas to continue its work creating missions to asteroids and exploring the possibilities and chemistry of water on Mars as part of the nation's space effort.
Newmerix Corp. Web programmer and amateur physicist David Ring has developed a new model for evaporating black holes. He explains this model in his article " A Linear Approximation to Black Hole Evaporation," which will appear in the August 7 issue of the Institute of Physics' journal, Classical and Quantum Gravity and is available online.
Researchers running computer simulations for four nearby systems that contain giant planets about the size of Jupiter have found one that could have formed an Earth-like planet with the right conditions to support life.
At the 18th World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia, Douglas R. Cobos, Ph.D. will be presenting "New Frontiers in Soil Science". The focus is the icy layer of soil underneath Mars' surface being explored during NASA's lander mission; scientists will better understand about life on Mars.
Detailed images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, confirm the existence of not one but two dust disks encircling the star. The images offer tantalizing new evidence for at least one Jupiter-size planet orbiting Beta Pictoris.
The most true-to-life computer simulation ever made of our sun's multimillion-degree outer atmosphere, the corona, successfully predicted its actual appearance during the March 29, 2006, solar eclipse, scientists have announced.
Team of astronomers led by the University of Michigan may know how black holes are lighting up the Universe. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show, for the first time, that powerful magnetic fields are the key to these brilliant and startling light shows.
Black holes light up the universe and astronomers may finally know how. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show for the first time powerful magnetic fields are the key to these brilliant and startling light shows.
Staring into the crowded, dusty core of two merging galaxies, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a region where star formation has gone wild.
This is a unique view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight. Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo.
Astronomers have found the largest number of the most distant, youngest galaxy clusters yet, a feat that will help them observe the developing universe when it was less than half its current age and still in its formative stages.
Scientists at the University of Chicago have used supercomputer simulations to bolster the case for a popular scenario of the big bang theory that neatly explain the arrangement of galaxies throughout the universe.
Using massive clusters of galaxies as "cosmic telescopes," a research team has found what may be infant galaxies born in the first billion years after the beginning of the universe.
A long observation with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed important new details of a neutron star that is spewing out a wake of high-energy particles as it races through space. The deduced location of the neutron star on the edge of a supernova remnant, and the peculiar orientation of the neutron star wake, pose mysteries that remain unresolved.
A wispy collection of atoms and molecules fuels the vast cosmic maelstroms produced by colliding galaxies and merging supermassive black holes, according to some of the most advanced supercomputer simulations ever conducted on this topic.
"Despite differences in the chemical compositions and densities of Earth's and Mars' atmospheres, we now have a definitive example showing that both planets' atmospheres react similarly to varying levels of solar energy impacting them during the sun's 25-day rotation," says Elsayed Talaat, a space scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.
Since its launch in 2001, NASA's TIMED spacecraft, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), has been exploring one of Earth's last atmospheric frontiers. The TIMED community will now have the opportunity to further its studies of Earth's atmosphere when the mission begins an extended campaign in October 2006 with operations and data analysis continuing through 2010.
Space scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., got a first-hand look at what happens to Earth's atmosphere when the sun was abruptly "turned off" during the March 29, 2006, total solar eclipse.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., will develop and operate twin NASA spacecraft to study how the sun interacts with Earth's radiation belts.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a group of five star-like images of a single distant quasar. The multiple-image effect seen in the Hubble picture is produced by a process called gravitational lensing, in which the gravitational field of a massive object -- in this case, a cluster of galaxies -- bends and amplifies light from an object -- in this case, a quasar -- farther behind it.
Compact jets that shoot matter into space in a continuous stream at near the speed of light have long been assumed to be a unique feature of black holes. But these odd features of the universe may be more common than once thought.
An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, using simple off-the-shelf equipment to trawl the skies for planets outside our solar system, has hauled in its first "catch." The astronomers discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Sun-like star 600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis.
Explore the world of black holes in an award-winning Web site created by a team led by Roeland van der Marel, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. The interactive Web site, called "Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull" rescues black holes from the realm of science fiction and puts them back into the domain of science.
Designing complex systems such as nuclear reactors for space applications is a daunting task, but Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have made it less so by borrowing from nature.
Homeowners may have to worry about floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes destroying their homes, but at least they can remove long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from their list of potential natural disasters, according to recent findings by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are powerful flashes of high-energy radiation that are sometimes seen coming from certain types of supernovae (the explosions of extremely massive stars).
In isolated environments, astronauts, flight crews, offshore workers and military forces must maintain vigilance and work together to ensure a safe and successful mission. Participants in the NASA NEEMO 9 project helped researchers study performance ability, problem-solving and team cohesion issues that could affect long-duration space flights.
Two physicists collaborating on studies of a membrane-like behavior of black holes have found that by endowing the membrane with surface tension "“ the force that holds soap bubbles together "“ one can reproduce many phenomena, which up to now could be studied only through series of complex computations.
Astronomers from the University of Maryland, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the California Institute of Technology will dedicate the world's most powerful millimeter-wave-length radio telescope on Friday, May 5, 2006.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers their most detailed view yet of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter. For the first time in history, astronomers have witnessed the birth of a new red spot on the giant planet, which is located half a billion miles away. The storm is roughly one-half the diameter of its bigger and legendary cousin, the Great Red Spot.
An enterprising team of North Dakota college students is set to unveil a brand new space suit -- the result of a NASA-funded project to design a space suit for the exploration of Mars -- at a rugged, Mars-like North Dakota Badlands test site this week. The multi-institution group comprises students and their faculty advisors from the University of North Dakota, the North Dakota State College of Science, Turtle Mountain Community College, North Dakota State University, and Dickinson State University.
The University of Illinois at Chicago has completed construction of the first fully public "skyspace," a structure designed by internationally acclaimed artist James Turrell to offer rare perceptions of the sky.
Scientists from around the world will gather June 2 and 3 at Cornell University for the Bethe Centennial Symposium on Astrophysics to explore the future of those areas in physics that captivated Bethe most during the last four decades of his life, including supernovae theory, neutrinos and high energy astrophysics.
Black holes are the most fuel efficient engines in the universe, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By making the first direct estimate of how efficient or "green" black holes are, this work gives insight into how black holes generate energy and affect their environment.
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