-
40 Million Stars Mapped In New Night Sky Census | Space.com
Color-composite image of FSR 1735. The cluster is the circular regions of stars and enhanced brightness in the center of the image. North is up and East is to the left. CREDIT: Henri Boffin, ESO June 26, 2012 (Space.com) -- Astronomers are mapping more than 40 million stars in the sky, recording the brightness and location of many faint stars that will be catalogued accurately for the first time,...
Read more...
-
Scientists Closing in on Black Hole at Center of Our Galaxy | Clara Moskowitz
Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Large Magellanic Cloud. CREDIT: Alain R. | Wikimedia Commons Apr. 6, 2012 (SPACE.com) -- Though scientists have suspected for a while that a giant black hole lurks at the center of our galaxy, they still can't say for sure it's the explanation for the strange behavior observed there. Now researchers are closer than ever to being able to ima...
Read more... -
Record Arctic Ice Melt Threatens Global Security (Stephen Leahy)
This data visualisation from the Aqua satellite show the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09. Credit:NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio Sept. 15, 2011 (Inter Press Service) -- All the analysis and commentary about safety and security on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 ignored by far the biggest ongoing threat to global security: climate change. Just days before Sunday'...
Read more... -
NASA's Cassini orbiter snaps unbelievable picture of Saturn (Mike Wehner)
Sometimes reality is just as stunning as science fiction Sept. 8, 2011 (tecca.com)-- Science fiction movies have spoiled us on high definition views of our planetary neighbors, but real-life photographs with equal jaw-dropping potential are exceedingly rare. That's what makes NASA's awe-inspiring snapshot of Saturn (hi-res version here) such a stunning piece of eye candy. READ MORE...
Read more... -
Sun Unleashes X6.9 Class Flare (NASA)
An x-class flare began at 3:48 AM EDT on August 9, 2011 and peaked at 4:05 AM. The flare burst from sun spot region AR11263, before it rotated out of view. The image here was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in extreme ultraviolet light at 131 Angstroms.› Download/Play video› Download Hi-res video› Download still Aug. 9, 2011 (NASA) -- On August 9...
Read more... -
Summer Solstice Starts with Solar Storm (Tariq Malik)
This image taken by the sun-watching SOHO observatory. CREDIT: SOHO/NASA/ESA June 21, 2011 (SPACE.com) -- The sun unleashed a powerful solar flare and eruption Tuesday (June 21) just in time for the summer solstice: the first day of the summer in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The solstice solar storm occurred in the early hours of Tuesday and was spotted by the space-based Solar and ...
Read more... -
Powerful cosmic blast as black hole shreds star (Jennifer Carpenter)
Infalling star shown in an artist's conception; 10% of its mass is turned into energy and radiated as X-rays June 16, 2011 (BBC) -- Astronomers have spied a star's swan song as it is shredded by a black hole. Researchers suspect that the star wandered too close to the black hole and got sucked in by the huge gravitational forces. The star's final moments sent a flash of radia...
Read more... -
Sun's Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity (Denise Chow)
A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in terms of spatial resolution. CREDIT: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, V.M.J. Henriques (sunspot), NASA Apollo 17 (Earth) ...
Read more... -
Giant asteroid heading close to Earth (Martin Evans)
Asteroid YU55 will pass close to earth later this year Photo: ALAMY May 5, 2011 (Telegraph) -- A giant asteroid weighing 55 million tonnes will just miss the Earth later this year, Nasa experts have predicted. The rock, which is quarter of a mile across, will pass between our planet and the moon in November and will be visible with small telescopes. Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular ...
Read more... -
Some of Universe's First Stars May Still Be Visible (Nola Taylor Redd)
Birth of a primordial star, as seen through a supercomputer simulation which found that the first stars in the universe likely formed in groups instead of alone. Clark, Glover, Smith, Greif, Klessen, Bromm (Univ.of Heidelberg, UT Austin); Texas Advanced Computing Center View full size image Feb. 9, 2011 (Space.com) -- A new study that suggests the first stars in the universe formed in gr...
Read more...
