Astronomy

Astronomy

Web Special: Hubble Repair Mission Is a Go

After several years of uncertainty following the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA this week gave the go-ahead for a shuttle crew to replace and repair parts on the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomy

Galactic spider

A Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a large galaxy in the early universe assembling from the merger of smaller ones.

Astronomy

Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet

Astronomers have measured the temperature variation between the lit and unlit sides of a planet outside the solar system.

Astronomy

Assault on Andromeda: Nearby galaxy had recent collision

New findings suggest that a small galaxy recently plunged into Andromeda, opening a new window on collisions that are rare today but were common in the early universe.

Astronomy

Record-breaking galaxy

Looking ever deeper into space and farther back in time, astronomers have found a galaxy more distant than any other known in the universe.

Astronomy

Enigmatic Eruption

An erupting star near the outskirts of the Milky Way has become one of the most puzzling objects in the galaxy.

Astronomy

Jet Set: Astronomers identify the makeup of quasar streams

Astronomers have identified the particles in jets emanating from supermassive black holes as electrons and protons, which carry much more energy than some computer models had suggested.

Astronomy

Oversize supernova

Researchers have found a supernova so luminous that it must have been produced by a much heavier star than the standard theory allows.

Astronomy

Enigmatic Eruptions: Gamma-ray bursts lack supernova fireworks

The most powerful bursts in the universe may have gotten more mysterious.

Astronomy

Temperamental Monsters

A new theory suggests that many huge stars undergo outbursts during which they shed most of their mass late in life rather than doing it gradually over their 3-to-4-million-year lifetimes.

Astronomy

Too Much Deuterium?

A new study appears to solve a 35-year-old puzzle about the distribution of deuterium in the Milky Way, but poses new questions about how stars and galaxies are formed.

Astronomy

Spiral galaxy in the young universe

Astronomers have identified a galaxy that had already begun to resemble the modern Milky Way when the universe was only 3 billion years old, one-fifth of its current age.