Alien Weather
The star HD 189733 is located about sixty light-years from Earth. Two years ago a planet was discovered orbiting this star -- a so-called "hot Jupiter" planet, one whose mass is similar...
Rebounding from the Ice Age
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The Earth is not a perfectly round sphere, nor is its internal composition exactly homogeneous. As a result, the Earth's gravitational field varies from place to place -- a ball dropped ...
When Galaxies Collide, our Solar System Will Go for a Ride
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Cambridge, MA
For decades, astronomers have known that the Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the neighboring Andromeda spiral galaxy. What was unknown until now: the fate of...
First Map of an Extrasolar Planet
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Cambridge, MA
For the first time, astronomers have created a rough map of a planet orbiting a distant sun-like star, employing a technique that may one day enable mapping of Earth-like w...
X-Rays from Young Stars
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The Sun typically emits about one-millionth of its total luminosity in the X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This radiation comes from the hot corona of the Sun (the extended...
GALEX Completes Four Star-Studded Years in Space
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Cambridge, MA
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer is celebrating its fourth year in space with some of M81's "hottest" stars.In a new ultraviolet image, the magnificent M81 spiral galaxy is...
Astronomers Find Super-massive Planet
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Cambridge, MA
Today, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) announced that they have found the most massive known transiting extrasolar planet. The gas gian...
Star Formation in the Distant Universe
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In the northern sky, not far from the handle of the Big Dipper, lies a patch of the heavens that is relatively dark, that is to say, free of bright stars and the diffuse glow of the Milky...
Spitzer Digs Up Hidden Stars
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Cambridge, MA
Two rambunctious young stars are destroying their natal dust cloud with powerful jets of radiation, in an infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The stars are ...
Luminous Infrared Galaxies
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Our Milky Way home galaxy, like most galaxies, shines brightly in visible light because its stars are hot and emit at optical wavelengths. But twenty years ago the Infrared Astronomy Sat...