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    Category Astronomy/Space

    First detection of Gases at Super-Earth show a light-weight, dry atmosphere – with a hint of Carbon too?

    February 16, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's impression shows the super-Earth 55 Cancri e in front of its parent star. Using observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analytic software scientists were able to analyse the composition of its atmosphere. It was the first time this was possible for a super-Earth. 55 Cancri e is about 40 light-years away and orbits a star slightly smaller, cooler and less bright than our Sun. As the planet is so close to its parent star, one year lasts only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

    This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth 55 Cancri e in front of its parent star. Using observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analytic software scientists were able to analyse the composition of its atmosphere. It was the first time this was possible for a super-Earth. 55 Cancri e is about 40 light-years away and orbits a star slightly smaller, cooler and less bright than our Sun. As the planet is so close to its parent star, one year lasts only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

    The first successful detection of gases in the atmosphere of a super-Earth reveals the presence of hydrogen and helium, but no water vapour...

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    The mystery about the Chelyabinsk superbolide continues 3 years later

    February 16, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Chelyabinsk superbolide flew over the Urals early on the morning of February 15, 2013. Credit: Alex Alishevskikh

    The Chelyabinsk superbolide flew over the Urals early on the morning of February 15, 2013. Credit: Alex AlishevskikhThe Chelyabinsk superbolide flew over the Urals early on the morning of February 15, 2013. Credit: Alex Alishevskikh

    Hundreds of webcams recorded the historic event: In 2013 February 15, the approach of asteroid (367943) Duende to our planet was being closely monitored by both the public and the scientific community worldwide when suddenly a superbolide entered the atmosphere above the region of Chelyabinsk in Russia. 3 years and hundreds of published scientific studies later, we are still looking for the origin of such unexpected visitor, that caused damage to hundreds of buildings and injuries to nearly 1,500 people.

    In 2013 February 15, the approach of asteroid (367943) Du...

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    Star Formation in Distant Galaxy Clusters

    February 15, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Star formation in distant galaxy clusters

    The galaxy cluster Abell 1689 as seen by Hubble. The mass in the cluster acts as a gravitational lens, distorting the light from background galaxies into blueish arcs of light. Abell 1689 is relatively close by, but astronomers have now spotted clusters in the early universe via their lensing of even more remote, luminous galaxies, and have studied the star formation underway in their outer regions. Credit: NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics/The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA

    The first stars appeared ~100 million years after the big bang, and ever since then stars and star formation processes have lit up the cosmos, producing heavy elements, planets,...

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    Hubble watches the Icy Blue Wings of Hen 2-437

    February 15, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Hubble image of planetary nebula Hen 2-437

    In this cosmic snapshot, the spectacularly symmetrical wings of Hen 2-437 show up in a magnificent icy blue hue. Hen 2-437 is a planetary nebula, one of around 3,000 such objects known to reside within the Milky Way. Credit: ESA (European Space Agency)/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

    Located in the faint northern constellation of Vulpecula (The Fox), Hen 2-437 was first identified in 1946 by Rudolph Minkowski, who later also discovered the famous and equally beautiful M2-9 (otherwise known as the Twin Jet Nebula). Hen 2-437 was added to a catalog of planetary nebula over 2 decades later by astronomer and NASA astronaut Karl Gordon Henize.

    Planetary nebulae such as Hen 2-437 form when an aging low-mass star—such as the sun—reaches the final stages of life...

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