The Magellanic Clouds Are First-Time Visitors
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What Determines the Intensity of Solar Flares?
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The solar corona is the extended, gaseous, outer atmosphere of the sun. The corona is very hot, over a million kelvin, and motions of this hot gas produce twisted magnetic fields that ext...
The Mysterious ULXs
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An ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) is an object (excluding a galactic nucleus) that is more luminous in its X-ray emission alone than one million suns are at all wavelengths. Most gala...
Bright Galaxies in the Early Universe
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A billion years or so after the creation of the universe, and about eight billion years before our own sun formed, the universe underwent a period of dramatic star formation. Recently st...
The Largest Galaxy Merger Ever Seen
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Astronomers suspect that most galaxies have been involved in collisional encounters during their lifetimes. Galaxy-galaxy interactions stimulate the vigorous formation of stars, as gravit...
The Orion Nebula Monster
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The Orion Nebula, shining brightly in the "sword" of the constellation Orion, is one of the most famous sights in the sky. The nebula is actually several clusters of hot young stars surr...
Astronomers Spot Brightest Galaxies in the Distant Universe
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By combining the capabilities of several telescopes, astronomers have spotted extremely bright galaxies hiding in the distant, young universe. The newfound galaxies are int...
Two Telescopes Combine to Probe Young "Family" of Stars
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Cambridge, MA
A spectacular new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope uncovers a small group of young stellar "siblings" in the southern portion of the Serpens cloud - located approx...
Hot News About Hot Jupiters
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A few years ago, astronomers discovered a new kind of planet -- a so-called "hot Jupiter," a planet whose mass is similar to that of Jupiter, but whose orbit is very close to its star an...
Spitzer Space Telescope Spies Monster Galaxy Pileup
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Cambridge, MA
Four galaxies are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed.The clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Sp...