Astronomy

Astronomy

Mini Solar Systems? Astronomers find disks around planet-size objects

Disks with the potential to form planets, or at least moons, have been found orbiting objects outside the solar system that themselves are no heftier than planets.

Astronomy

Safe from a Heavenly Doom: Gamma-ray bursts not a threat to Earth

Gamma-ray bursts are likely to occur in the Milky Way.

Astronomy

Crust on a star

By analyzing X rays generated by the rumblings of a neutron star 40,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers have estimated the thickness of the dense star's crust.

Astronomy

Big Breakup: That’s the way the comet crumbles

Scores of telescopes are watching the continuing breakup of a comet as it nears the sun.

Astronomy

Energy-Saving Space Engines: Black holes can be green

Some seemingly quiet black holes are actually efficient engines that emit jets of high-energy particles.

Astronomy

Crash: Ripples of space-time debut in black hole simulations

Two teams have for the first time successfully simulated the merger of two black holes and the event's production of gravitational waves.

Astronomy

Ring around the Pulsar: Planets may form in a harsh environment

Astronomers have found a disk that has the potential to make planets in the harsh environment surrounding the ultradense remains of an exploded star.

Astronomy

Twin history

The Milky Way and its nearest large galactic neighbor, Andromeda, are more alike than earlier evidence had indicated.

Astronomy

Comet Sampler: Fire meets ice

The first study of comet dust brought to Earth by a spacecraft has revealed several minerals that could have formed only at the fiery temperatures close to the sun or another star.

Astronomy

Glassy galaxies

Astronomers have found clouds of sand crystals resembling crushed glass around 21 infrared-bright galaxies.

Astronomy

Cosmic Triumph: Satellite confirms birth theory of universe

The most detailed portrait ever taken of the radiation left over from the Big Bang provides fresh evidence that the universe began with a tremendous growth spurt, expanding from subatomic scales to the size of a grapefruit in less than a trillionth of a second.

Astronomy

Magnetic Memory: New model forecasts solar storms

A new computer model predicts that the next solar-activity cycle won't begin until late 2008, a year later than the sun's standard cycle would forecast.