Astronomy
- Astronomy
It’s Raining Stardust: Spacecraft measures record amount of stellar debris
Stardust is sneaking into our solar system at three times the rate that it had just 4 years ago, and the influx of dust could triple through 2010.
- Astronomy
Stellar speed limit
Ripples in the fabric of space-time may put the brakes on the fastest-spinning stars in the universe and prevent them from flying apart.
- Astronomy
Swallow Thy Neighbor: Strong evidence of galactic cannibalism
Astronomers have found a compelling case of a large galaxy caught in the act of eating a small fry.
- Astronomy
Repulsive Astronomy: Strengthening the case for dark energy
Astronomers have found new evidence that a mysterious substance, dubbed dark energy, is ripping the cosmos apart, causing the universe to expand at an ever-faster rate.
- Astronomy
Taking the Crab’s pulse
Simultaneous recordings of a pulsar's radio emissions and its visible beam shed new light on the seemingly chaotic variations in the intensities of those emissions.
- Astronomy
Sky Prospecting: Surveying the universe’s middle-aged galaxies
With a new sky survey, astronomers can tell the story of what happened during the universe’s middle years—about 7 billion years ago.
- Astronomy
Storms from the Sun
Interested in space weather and the effect of solar storms on Earth? The National Academies Press Web site offers the full text of the fascinating book Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather, written by Michael J. Carlowicz and Ramon E. Lopez. Learn more about bizarre events on Earth caused by solar […]
- Astronomy
Dusty times on Mars
On July 1, a dust cloud emerged from Mars' Hellas Basin, and 3 days later it had become 1,800 kilometers wide, roughly one-fourth the Red Planet’s diameter.
- Astronomy
A new receiver for alien broadcasts
A $12.5 million grant will help build the world's largest telescope designed to search for radio broadcasts from alien civilizations.
- Astronomy
Taking a census of brown dwarfs
Researchers have completed the most thorough census to date of brown dwarfs in stellar clusters and have confirmed earlier findings about these failed stars.
- Astronomy
Revved-up antics of a pulsar jet
Flailing like an out-of-control fire hose, a mammoth jet of charged particles gushing from a collapsed star is varying its shape and brightness more rapidly than any other jet known in the heavens.
- Astronomy
Supernova Spectacular
Studying starburst galaxies, relatively nearby galaxies that are undergoing a tremendous rate of star formation, may reveal how elliptical galaxies arose and black holes grew in the early universe.
