Scientific American

Antarctic Neutrino Observatory Detects Unexplained High-Energy Particles

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

Hot on the heels of detecting the two highest-energy neutrinos ever observed, scientists working with a mammoth particle detector buried in ice near the South Pole unveiled preliminary data showing that they also registered the signal of 26 additional high-energy neutrinos. The newfound neutrinos are somewhat less energetic than the two record-setters but nonetheless appear to carry more energy than would be expected if created by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere--a prodigious source of neutrinos raining down on Earth. The particles thus may point to unknown energetic astrophysical processes deeper in the cosmos .

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Milky Way Makes Small Massive Gain

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:46:08 EST

Weighing the Milky Way is no easy task. It’s not like you can just step outside the galaxy and place it on a humongous scale.

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A New NASA Mission Propels Detailed Investigations of Nearby Exoplanets

Thu, 02 May 2013 02:00:00 EST

NASA's Kepler mission has been a smash hit. It has discovered thousands of probable exoplanets--worlds orbiting stars other than the sun--more than 100 of which have already been vetted and confirmed. Many of those planets are among the most nearly Earth-size planets known: of the 25 smallest-diameter exoplanets discovered to date, all but one were spotted by Kepler. There is just one asterisk tacked to Kepler's immensely productive haul: the planets are hundreds or even thousands of light-years away, too distant to investigate in any detail.

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Astronomers Discover New Neighbor Galaxy to the Milky Way

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:20:00 EST

In recent years astronomers have extended their view almost to the very edge of the observable universe. With the venerable Hubble Space Telescope researchers have spotted a handful of galaxies so faraway that we see them as they appeared just 400 million years or so after the big bang.

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"Way Too Bright" Supernova Eludes Astronomers

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST

All supernovae are bright. When a star ends its life in a cataclysmic explosion, it emits a burst of energy and light that can outshine the rest of the galaxy in which it resides. But some supernovae are a little too bright --at least from the standpoint of the researchers trying to figure out what caused them.

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Dark Matter Signal Possibly Registered on International Space Station

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST

A $2-billion particle detector mounted on the International Space Station has registered an excess of antimatter particles in space, the experiment’s lead scientist announced April 3. That excess could come from fast-spinning stellar remnants known as pulsars and other exotic, but visible sources within the Milky Way galaxy. Or the antiparticles might have originated from the long-sought dark matter, the hypothetical massive particles that constitute some 27 percent of the universe.

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Star Performers: The Magellanic Clouds

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EST

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is more than just a giant barred spiral harboring hundreds of billions of stars. It's also the hub of a gargantuan empire that stretches over more than a million light-years and rules some two dozen lesser galaxies, which revolve around it the way moons orbit a giant planet.

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Unfinished Chile Observatory Makes Starry Discovery

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:37:08 EST

Billions of years ago the universe was a star-forming machine. Some galaxies were churning out a star every few hours. But today the Milky Way produces maybe a couple of stars annually. Now a study shows that the busy period of star formation was in full swing earlier than had been thought.

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Fly into the Depths of the Orion Nebula

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:00:00 EST

In the constellation of Orion, just south of Orion's "belt," lies a diffuse cloud of dust and gas that's one of the brightest and best-studied stellar nurseries in the night sky. On a clear night you can see the Orion Nebula with the naked eye--but this 50-second animation, based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, actually goes inside the nebula to show in vivid colors the young stars and protoplanets forming amidst the gas clouds as well as the massive Trapezium stars whose ionizing radiation is burning the clouds away. All stars form in clusters like the one near the Orion Nebula, but until recently the structure and evolution of these clusters received little scientific attention. "The Inner Life of Star Clusters" details the latest thinking on the various types of stellar groups.

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Theory Explains How Star Clusters Form and Evolve (preview)

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:02:00 EST

The night sky is a field of stars. In every direction, stars bright and dim fill the horizon to brimming. Some seem to form distinct patterns, which we recognize as constellations. Yet as beguiling as those patterns may be, most of them are no more than projections of the human mind. The vast majority of stars, in our own galaxy and in others, have no true physical connection to one another.

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Why Hasn't the Whole Universe Collapsed into an Enormous Black Hole? [Video]

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:30:00 EST

Questions answered in this episode:

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Cosmic Cliff: An Astrophysicist Searches for Exo-Earths, Black Holes and Funding

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:30:00 EST

Martin Still is an expert in endings. At 10,500 meters, onboard a Virgin Atlantic flight from San Francisco to London, he describes blasts that rip apart matter, explosions that destroy stellar systems and cataclysmic events that shake the cosmos. The NASA astrophysicist makes the prospect of astronomical obliteration sound exciting, although a conversation about any kind of destruction is not one most passengers prefer on a transatlantic trip.

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Solar System s Moons May Have Emerged from Long-Gone Rings

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:00:00 EST

As Carl Sagan once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” And if you wish to make a moon from scratch, according to new research, you must first create planets with rings (after inventing the universe, of course).

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Black Hole Firewalls Confound Theoretical Physicists

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:45:00 EST

From Simons Science News ( find original story here ).

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Shifty Sightings: Hubble Images Reveal 7 of the Most Distant Galaxies Ever Seen

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:49:00 EST

The title of most distant known galaxy has bounced around a bit in the past few years, as various teams of researchers have laid claim to progressively more remote objects in the early universe. Now a group of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope has tentatively identified a new record-holder: a galaxy so distant that its light has taken most of the 13.7-billion-year history of the universe to reach humankind’s telescopes.

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Galaxy Grande: Milky Way May Be More Massive Than Thought

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:00:00 EST

Although scientists know the masses of the sun and Earth, it's a different story for the galaxy. Mass estimates range widely: At the low end, some studies find that the galaxy is several hundred billion times as massive as the sun whereas the largest values exceed two trillion solar masses. Astronomers would have an easier task if the galaxy consisted solely of stars. But a huge halo of dark matter engulfs its starry disk and vastly outweighs it. Now remarkable observations of a small galaxy orbiting our own have led to a new number.

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Galaxy Might Be Most Distant Seen Object

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:30:08 EST

It was just a tiny galaxy, minding its own business shortly after the big bang. But a chance alignment has brought this ancient galaxy into view. It just might be the most distant object that astronomers have ever seen.

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Cluster Coexistence: Neighboring Black Holes Defy Predictions of Violent Interactions

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:01:00 EST

Around the cosmos, black holes aren't known for being the nicest neighbors. They tend to make their presence felt in unpleasant ways, pulling nearby matter inward even as they belch out violent blasts of plasma and radiation . Put two of them in the same neighborhood and the resulting tug-of-war can quickly turn ugly. But in a cluster of stars within the Milky Way, two black holes appear to have taken up residence in surprisingly close proximity.

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Off-Peek: Radio Telescopes Edge In on Plasma Jet Spewing from Massive Black Hole

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:50:00 EST

Black holes, by definition, emit no light. They are unseeable.

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No Star Left Behind: Fruitless Search for Supernova Survivor Hints at Unexpected Origins

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:00:00 EST

A type Ia supernova is perhaps the ultimate combination of insult and injury--a star steals material from a companion star, reaches critical mass, becomes unstable, and then unleashes a nuclear blast powerful enough to decimate or destroy its already diminished victim.

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