The Spooky Sun
Cambridge, MA
Just in time for Halloween, astronomers have taken a haunting new portrait of the sun. In this color-coded image from the Hinode spacecraft, the sun glows eerily orange as ...
Busted! Astronomers Nab Culprit in Galactic Hit-and-Run
Submitted by idfive
on
Cambridge, MA
The Andromeda galaxy, the closest large spiral to the Milky Way, appears calm and tranquil as it wheels through space. But appearances can be deceiving. Astronomers have ne...
Some Super-Earths Form in Super Snowstorms
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on
Cambridge, MA
The 200 known planets that orbit other stars exhibit incredible variety. Among them are a handful of worlds that weigh between 5 and 15 times Earth. Astronomers believe the...
Scientists Snap Images of First Brown Dwarf in Planetary System
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on
Cambridge, MA
Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered and directly imaged a small brown dwarf star, 50 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting with a planet around a ...
Astronomers Reveal First Alien I.D. Chart
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on
Washington, DC
It is only a matter of time before astronomers find an Earth-sized planet orbiting a distant star. When they do, the first questions people will ask are: Is it habitable? ...
Strange New Planet Baffles Astronomers
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on
Washington, DC
Using a network of small automated telescopes known as HAT, Smithsonian astronomers have discovered a planet unlike any other known world. This new planet, designated HAT-...
Massive Planet Found by Astronomers Using Novel Network of Tiny Telescopes
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on
Cambridge, MA
Our home solar system may be down by a planet with the recent demotion of Pluto, but the number of giant planets discovered in orbit around other stars continues to grow st...
NASA's Spitzer Reveals New Wonders in the Familiar Orion Nebula
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on
Cambridge, MA
The Orion nebula is one of the most famous and easily viewed deep-sky sights. Located in the sword of Orion the Hunter, this distant cloud of gas and dust holds hundreds of...
"Hourglass Figure" Points to Magnetic Field's Role in Star Formation
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on
Cambridge, MA
Long predicted by theory, the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array has found the first conclusive evidence of an hourglass-shaped magnetic field in a star formation region. Me...
Stellar Explosion Portends Bigger Blast To Come
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on
Cambridge, MA
On February 12, 2006, skygazers spotted a nova that appeared when a faint star brightened dramatically, becoming visible to the unaided eye. The cause of the brightening wa...