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News articles tagged with 'astronomer'

[chronologically, reverse order]

Ticking stellar time bomb identified

— 18 Nov 2009 12:30 | Astronomy

'One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova,' says Patrick Woudt, from... — full story

Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns

— 17 Nov 2009 12:29 | Astronomy

The constellation of Orion is a hotbed of massive star formation, most prominently in the Great Nebula that sits in Orion's sword. The glowing gas of the Nebula is powered by a group... — full story

Artist's impression of a baby star still surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming. Using ESO's very successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that Sun-like stars which host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than planet-free stars. This finding does not only shed light on the low levels of this chemical element in the Sun, solving a long-standing mystery, but also provides astronomers with a very efficient way to pick out the stars most likely to host planets. It is not clear what causes the lithium to be destroyed. The general idea is that the planets or the presence of the protoplanetary disc disturb the interior of the star, bringing the lithium deeper down into the star than usual, into regions where the temperature is so hot that it is destroyed, (c) ESO/L. CalcadaExoplanets clue to sun's curious chemistry

— 12 Nov 2009 09:47 | Astronomy

'For almost 10 years we have tried to find out what distinguishes stars with planetary systems from their barren cousins,' says Garik Israelian, lead author of a paper appearing this... — full story

'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies

— 8 Nov 2009 12:13 | Astronomy

Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic... — full story

Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

— 6 Nov 2009 11:03 | Astronomy

An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white... — full story

Not surprisingly, interacting galaxies have a dramatic effect on each other. Studies have revealed that as galaxies approach one another massive amounts of gas are pulled from each galaxy towards the centre of the other, until ultimately, the two merge into one massive galaxy. NGC 2623 is in the late stages of the merging process, with the centres of the original galaxy pair now merged into one nucleus, but stretching out from the centre are two tidal tails of young stars, a strong indicator that a merger has taken place. During such a collision, the dramatic exchange of mass and gases initiates star formation, seen here in both the tails. The prominent lower tail is richly populated with bright star clusters - 100 of them have been found in these observations. These star clusters may have formed as part of a loop of stretched material associated with the northern tail, or they may have formed from debris falling back onto the nucleus. In addition to this active star-forming region, both galactic arms harbour very young stars in the early stages of their evolutionary journey, (c) NASA, ESA and A. Evans (Stony Brook University, New York)Sky merger yields sparkling dividends

— 13 Oct 2009 10:21 | Astronomy

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble... — full story

A new search for dark energy begins

— 2 Oct 2009 10:20 | Astronomy

The most ambitious attempt yet to trace the history of the universe has seen 'first light.' The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey... — full story

Sea level stargazing: Astronomers make key sighting with Florida telescope

— 29 Sep 2009 17:56 | Astronomy

This summer, University of Florida astronomers inaugurated the world's largest optical telescope on a nearly 8,000-foot mountaintop 3,480 miles away... — full story

This artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet-forming disk, (c) NASA, JPL-CaltechSpitzer spots clump of swirling planetary material

— 24 Sep 2009 09:01 | Astronomy

Astronomers have witnessed odd behaviour around a young star. Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing a clump of planet-forming material around. The observations,... — full story

Galilean Nights: Global astronomy event invites the world to discover our Universe

— 18 Sep 2009 13:39 | Astronomy

The Galilean Nights builds on the unprecedented success of April's 100 Hours of Astronomy, another IYA2009 Cornerstone project. Over three nights amateur and professional astronomers,... — full story

News articles tagged with 'astronomer' — 27
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