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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Hubble Sees the Force Awakening in a Newborn Star

    December 18, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Herbig-Haro Jet HH 24. Credit: NASA and ESA

    Herbig-Haro Jet HH 24. Credit: NASA and ESA

    Just in time for the release of the movie “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has photographed what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber. In the center of the image, partially obscured by a dark, Jedi-like cloak of dust, a newborn star shoots twin jets out into space as a sort of birth announcement to the universe. It does not lie in a galaxy far, far away, but inside our Milky Way. It’s inside a turbulent birthing ground for new stars known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex,1,350 light-years away.

    When stars form within giant clouds of cool molecular hydrogen, some of the surrounding material collapses under gravity to form a rotating, flattened disk encircling the newborn star...

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    Nearby Star Hosts Closest Alien Planet in the ‘Habitable Zone’

    December 17, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is a simulation of the orbital configuration of the Wolf 1061 system. Wolf 1061 is an inactive red dwarf star, smaller and cooler than our sun, 14 light years away. The orbits for the planets b, c and d (ordered from the inner planet to the outer) have periods of 4.9 days, 17.9 days and 67.2 days. In the simulation we show the planet orbits as all lying in a single plane. The planetary habitable zone around the star is marked in green -- the colors grade from red (where a planet would be too hot), through green (where the surface of a planet could sustain liquid water), through to blue (where a planet would be too cold). Credit: Made using Universe Sandbox 2 software from universesandbox.com

    This is a simulation of the orbital configuration of the Wolf 1061 system. Wolf 1061 is an inactive red dwarf star, smaller and cooler than our sun, 14 light years away. The orbits for the planets b, c and d (ordered from the inner planet to the outer) have periods of 4.9 days, 17.9 days and 67.2 days. In the simulation we show the planet orbits as all lying in a single plane. The planetary habitable zone around the star is marked in green — the colors grade from red (where a planet would be too hot), through green (where the surface of a planet could sustain liquid water), through to blue (where a planet would be too cold). Credit: Made using Universe Sandbox 2 software from universesandbox.com

    UNSW astronomers have discovered the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our sol...

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    Monster Planet is ‘Dancing with the Stars’

    December 17, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet "dancing" in between. The dwarf star and the planet have been gravitationally influencing each other for millions of years. Specifically, the planet's eccentricity (the amount it deviates from being perfectly circular) and orbital inclination, meaning its angle relative to the equatorial plane of the primary star, have been oscillating back and forth in a process known as Kozai oscillations -- and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Credit: Timothy Rodigas

    A team of scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet “dancing” in between. The dwarf star and the planet have been gravitationally influencing each other for millions of years. Specifically, the planet’s eccentricity (the amount it deviates from being perfectly circular) and orbital inclination, meaning its angle relative to the equatorial plane of the primary star, have been oscillating back and forth in a process known as Kozai oscillations — and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Credit: Timothy Rodigas

    A team of scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet sandwiched in between...

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    Hubble Captures 1st-ever Predicted Exploding Star

    December 17, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image composite shows the search for the supernova, nicknamed Refsdal, using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image to the left shows a part of the the deep field observation of the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 from the Frontier Fields program. The circle indicates the predicted position of the newest appearance of the supernova. To the lower right the Einstein cross event from late 2014 is visible. The image on the top right shows observations by Hubble from October 2015, taken at the beginning of observation program to detect the newest appearance of the supernova. The image on the lower right shows the discovery of the Refsdal Supernova on Dec. 11, 2015, as predicted by several different models. Credit: NASA & ESA and P. Kelly (University of California, Berkeley)

    This image composite shows the search for the supernova, nicknamed Refsdal, using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image to the left shows a part of the the deep field observation of the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 from the Frontier Fields program. The circle indicates the predicted position of the newest appearance of the supernova. To the lower right the Einstein cross event from late 2014 is visible. The image on the top right shows observations by Hubble from October 2015, taken at the beginning of observation program to detect the newest appearance of the supernova. The image on the lower right shows the discovery of the Refsdal Supernova on Dec. 11, 2015, as predicted by several different models. Credit: NASA & ESA and P. Kelly (University of California, Berkeley)

    The NA...

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