Astronomy

Astronomy

Keeping Hubble from being hobbled

NASA late last month shut down one of the aging Hubble Space Telescope's three gyros in an effort to extend its life.

Astronomy

Farthest Bang: A burst that goes the distance

The most-distant gamma-ray burst ever found hails from 900 million years after the birth of the universe, around the time when stars and galaxies first flooded the universe with light.

Astronomy

Deep Impact

Data from the Deep Impact mission reveal that the bullet that slammed into Comet Tempel 1 on July 4 excavated material that likely hadn't seen the light of day since the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Astronomy

Recipe for a Heavyweight: Making a massive star

New findings strongly support the notion that at least some massive stars form much as their lighter-weight siblings do, by packing on material from a surrounding disk of gas and dust.

Astronomy

Hidden black holes

A new study has added to existing evidence that most of the monster black holes at the cores of galaxies are shrouded by dust.

Astronomy

First Supper: X rays may mark eating habits of baby black holes

Astronomers have evidence that just minutes after their tumultuous birth, baby black holes emit powerful burps of X rays that may be fueled by material left over from their first meal.

Astronomy

Big sky

The biggest survey of the heavens just got bigger when the Sloan Digital Sky Survey received a 3-year extension.

Astronomy

Three’s Company: Asteroid 87 Sylvia and her two moons

Astronomers have for the first time discovered an asteroid with two moons, an indication that the rock is highly porous.

Astronomy

Cosmic soot

Astronomers have found a group of complex organic compounds, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, from a time when the universe was less than one-third its current age.

Astronomy

Cosmic Computing

The largest computer simulation of the universe ever compiled uses dark matter to shed light on the formation of galaxies and on the visible structure of the universe.

Astronomy

Planet potential

Observations with the Submillimeter Array on Hawaii's Mauna Kea reveal that, despite their bombardment by a stellar bully, the disks in Orion have enough material to form planets.

Astronomy

A new X-ray eye on the cosmos

To study some of the hottest regions in the universe, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has launched the coldest instrument ever flown.