astronomy

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NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous
NASA: Nearby Black Hole
Is Enormous
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jan 15, 2011 12:35 PM CST

NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous

M87 is bigger than six billion suns

(Newser) - NASA has taken new measurements of a black hole that’s just one galaxy over—and the results are staggering. The black hole, known as M87, is so big that you could fit roughly 6.6 billion of our suns inside it. Black holes that huge are a rare find,...

Bits of One Universe's First Stars Spotted

Remains of early star a 'Holy Grail' of astronomy

(Newser) - Astronomers believe they have spotted the remains of one of the universe's very first stars—a "missing link" between the Big Bang and today's universe. The gas cloud left behind when the star exploded more than 13 billion years ago was illuminated by light emitted from a quasar, the...

10-Year-Old Is Youngest to Find a Supernova

Canadian girl inherits dad's love of the stars

(Newser) - While most 4th-graders are playing with dolls, this little astronomer found something stellar 240 million light years away. Kathryn Aurora Gray of New Brunswick, Canada, pored over images of a galaxy made on New Year's Eve and—with the help of her astronomer father—made an excellent discovery: the remnants...

First in 456 Years: A Lunar Eclipse on Winter Solstice

Spiritualists see energy, but scientists say coincidence

(Newser) - The longest night of 2010 could well be the darkest winter solstice in 456 years: Tuesday's solstice falls on the same day as a full lunar eclipse, a rare celestial occurrence that for some signifies great cosmic energies, reports the Montreal Gazette . Many religions associate the solstice with the rebirth...

Death of a Moon Created Saturn's Rings
Death of a Moon Created Saturn's Rings
in case you missed it
Dec 18, 2010 1:45 PM CST

Death of a Moon Created Saturn's Rings

Space murder led to iconic shape: astronomer

(Newser) - How did Saturn get its distinctive rings? Through the destruction of one of its moons, new research suggests. It was “a case of cosmic murder,” reports the Daily Mail : A Colorado astronomer argues that a layer of hydrogen gas drove many moons toward the planet. In the process,...

Astronomers Triple Universe's Star Count

'Billions of Earths' may orbit vast number of newly spotted stars

(Newser) - The known universe just got a lot more crowded. Astronomers studying distant, elliptical galaxies say they spotted many more red dwarf stars than anticipated, suggesting that the number of stars in the universe is triple earlier estimates, the Daily Mail reports. The researchers now believe there are three septillion stars...

Alien Planet Discovered in Milky Way

HIP 13044B and its star originated in different galaxy

(Newser) - As planets go, HIP 13044B is one hell of a survivor. Astronomers say the planet—the first one originating from another galaxy ever found in the Milky Way—is part of a solar system that once belonged to a dwarf galaxy that was cannibalized by our own. The planet has...

Astronomers Spot Most Distant Galaxy

The stars are 13.1B light years

(Newser) - Astronomers in Chile have spotted the most distant galaxy in the universe—some 13.1 billion light years away. Its light has taken almost the whole life of the universe to get to us: The light photons detected by the astronomers started their journey when the universe was just 4%...

Tsunamis Spotted in Saturn's Rings

Rings may be remnants of smashed icy moon

(Newser) - Mile-high tsunamis of icy particles are endlessly rippling around Saturn's rings, scientists told the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science meeting this week. Astronomers, using data from NASA's Cassini probe, believe the waves, which move up to 800 feet per day, are caused when gravity from the colossal moon...

'Cannibal Star' Eats Neighbor
 'Cannibal Star' Eats Neighbor 
Sep 17, 2010 2:21 AM CDT

'Cannibal Star' Eats Neighbor

Hungry BP Piscium caught in the act

(Newser) - A "cannibal" star in the Pisces constellation appears to have gobbled up its neighbor and belched out a disc of dusty matter. X-Ray images revealed the remains of either a young star or a large planet inside BP Piscium, which has recently entered the expanding "red giant" phase...

Universe's Fate: Cold, Dead Wasteland

Amount of dark energy suggests it will expand forever

(Newser) - Scientists say they've learned "exactly what the fate of the universe will be," and it doesn't sound pleasant. A team led by a NASA astronomer predicts the universe will continue to expand forever and eventually will become a cold, dead wasteland, the BBC reports. How did they arrive...

'Citizen Scientists' Find Rare Star

Spare computing power donated to sift through observatory data

(Newser) - Three regular people who volunteered to put their idle home computers to work crunching scientific data in off-hours have been credited with making a major discovery in deep space. The "citizen scientists"—two in Iowa and one in Germany—downloaded and processed the data that found a disrupted...

Meteors Put On a Show Tonight

 Meteors Put On 
 a Show Tonight 
when to watch
Aug 12, 2010 4:30 PM CDT

Meteors Put On a Show Tonight

Annual Perseid shower should be dazzling

(Newser) - Your local weather permitting, the annual Perseid meteor shower should light up the skies in the wee hours tonight, reports the Christian Science Monitor . The usual caveats apply—like the further you can get from the lights of the big city, the better your show. Best bet is to start...

Northern Lights Head South—for 1 Night

Aurora borealis may be visible in northern US tonight

(Newser) - Thanks to a plasma eruption that roiled the surface of the sun, residents of the northern US and Canada may be able to enjoy a spectacular show tonight—the Northern Lights. "This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on...

Astronomers Discover Impossibly Huge Star

It's at least 265 times more massive than the sun

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a star so big and bright that it stretches the boundaries of what scientists believed was possible. The star, known so far only as R136a1, has an observed mass 265 times greater than our sun, and modeling suggests it was once 320 times bigger. “If it...

Total Solar Eclipse Tomorrow (But Few Will See It)

Only those in the Southern Hemisphere get a glimpse

(Newser) - A total eclipse of the sun occurs tomorrow, but don't be so quick to take out your special viewing glasses. Unlike recent solar eclipses, this year's complete blotting out of the sun will be visible only in a narrow slice of the Southern Hemisphere. The spectacle begins at sunrise some...

Black Hole 'Hurled' From Galaxy

Object with the mass of a billion suns spotted moving at high speed

(Newser) - Astronomers believe they have spotted a supermassive black hole being flung out of its galaxy. Supermassive black holes—which have a mass roughly a billion times that of the sun—are usually found at the center of galaxies, but this one is traveling away from the core of its galaxy...

Massive Saturn Storm Seen From Earth

Blizzard 5 times bigger than Snowmageddon

(Newser) - America's "Snowmageddon" winter storm this year would be no big deal on Saturn, where an ammonia-ice storm at least 5 times larger—so massive and turbulent that amateur astronomers can see it from earth —is currently raging. NASA's Cassini spacecraft, orbiting Saturn, is picking up data from the...

New Exoplanet Has Earth-Like Climate

Corot-9b a 'Rosetta Stone' in planetary research

(Newser) - For the first time, a planet with temperatures like earth's has been discovered orbiting a distant star. While hundreds of exoplanets—planets orbiting suns outside our solar system—are already known, this one, named Corot-9b, is the first with a temperate climate that can be studied in depth, leading the...

Pluto Turning Redder
 Pluto Turning Redder 
Feb 5, 2010 2:10 AM CST

Pluto Turning Redder

Hubble photos reveal major changes on ex-planet's surface

(Newser) - Astronomers haven't been ignoring Pluto since its demotion to "dwarf planet" in 2006, particularly now that it's putting on a color show for scientists. Newly processed images from the Hubble Space Telescope have given scientists their best view yet of Pluto, which is 20% redder than it used to...

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