Astronomy
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AstronomyTelescope unveils a stellar deception
A heavenly masquerade may shed light on the nature of astrophysical jets—the beams of material spewed by a wide variety of celestial objects.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomySolar Terrain: Revealing the sun’s complex topography
The sharpest images of the sun ever taken, released last week, show our stellar neighbor’s rugged surface in new and surprising detail.
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AstronomyStellar Top: Astronomers find a squashed star
Astronomers have found a rapidly spinning, squashed star that is more than 1.5 times as wide as it is tall.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyTelescope spies a galactic satellite
A huge gas cloud once considered a remnant from when the Milky Way or nearby galaxies formed is, in fact, a satellite of our galaxy.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyMystery in the Middle
The Milky Way's core is loaded with seemingly young stars, which have no business being there.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyNeutron stars twist Einstein’s theory
Astronomers may finally have found evidence of a key prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity—that a spinning object drags space-time along with it.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomySharpening a Heavenly Image: Clear view of globular cluster’s crowded core
Using innovative optics to take the twinkle out of starlight, the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea has recorded the sharpest infrared images ever of a crowded grouping of Milky Way stars.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyLucky shot
To protect its sensitive optics, the Hubble Space Telescope had to turn its back on last November’s Leonid meteor storm, and that fortuitously put the luminous Helix nebula directly in the telescope’s sightline.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyGalactic RAVE
A new study of thousands of Milky Way stars and their motion toward and away from Earth should provide new clues about how our galaxy formed.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyFinding a nearby star
Astronomers have discovered a star that may be among the very closest known to us.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomySatellite begins its ultraviolet survey
NASA last month released the first images taken by the recently launched Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyRed Team, Blue Team: Galaxy survey shows that color matters
Using the largest survey of galaxies ever compiled, astronomers have found that the cosmos divides sharply along color lines.
By Ron Cowen