A System of Six
About 435 stars have so far been confirmed to have planets orbiting them. Until recently, only about fifty of these stars were known to host more than one planet, but the Kepler satellit...
CfA Astronomers Featured in New Planetarium Show, "Undiscovered Worlds"
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On February 13, 2011, the Boston Museum of Science will officially unveil New England’s most technologically advanced digital theater with the world premiere of "Undiscovered Worlds: The...
Water Vapor in Space
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Water is a critical molecule for human life, and, because it is abundant in the interstellar medium, it also plays an important role in the life of molecular clouds and the stars and plan...
Tour John Huchra's Universe with WorldWide Telescope
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Cambridge, MA
When astronomer John P. Huchra passed away in October 2010, his friends and colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) sought a way to honor his re...
Binary Planetesimals
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In fewer than ten million years, the material in the disk around a young star will either be accreted on to its star, dispersed into the interstellar medium, or converted into planets or ...
The Power of Spin
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Supermasssive black holes - objects with masses of millions or billions of suns - are found at the nuclei of dramatic galaxies like quasars where they are responsible for some of the most...
Robert Kirshner Awarded the 2011 Heineman Prize
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Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been awarded the 2011 Dannie Heineman prize of the of the American Institute of Physics and the American Astronomica...
The Best Way to Measure Dark Energy Just Got Better
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Seattle, WA
Dark energy is a mysterious force that pervades all space, acting as a "push" to accelerate the Universe's expansion. Despite being 70 percent of the Universe, dark energy wa...
Young Stellar Clusters
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Most stars are thought to form in clusters rather than in isolation, as the gas and dust in a molecular cloud coalesces under the influence of gravity until clumps develop that are dense ...
Dr. Gaspar Bakos Awarded 2011 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize
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Dr. Gaspar Bakos of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been awarded the 2011 Newton Lacy Pierce prize of the American Astronomical Society for "for outstanding achievemen...