Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    Runaway Stars leave Infrared Waves in Space

    January 6, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Bow shocks thought to mark the paths of massive, speeding stars are highlighted in these images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wyoming

    Bow shocks thought to mark the paths of massive, speeding stars are highlighted in these images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wyoming

    Astronomers are finding dozens of the fastest stars in our galaxy with the help of images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. When some speedy, massive stars plow through space, they can cause material to stack up in front of them in the same way that water piles up ahead of a ship. Called bow shocks, these dramatic, arc-shaped features in space are leading researchers to uncover massive, so-called runaway stars.

    “Some stars get the boot when their companion star explodes in a supernova, and others can get kicked ou...

    Read More

    Andromeda Galaxy Scanned with High-energy X-ray Vision

    January 6, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA's Nuclear Spectroscope Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has imaged a swath of the Andromeda galaxy -- the nearest large galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC

    NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscope Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has imaged a swath of the Andromeda galaxy — the nearest large galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC

    NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured the best high-energy X-ray view yet of a portion of our nearest large, neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The space mission has observed 40 “X-ray binaries” – intense sources of X-rays composed of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion.

    The results will ultimately help researchers better understand the role of X-ray binaries in the evolution of our universe. According to astronomers, these energetic objects may play a critical role in heating the intergalactic bath of gas in which the very first galaxies formed...

    Read More

    Curiosity Rover rounds Martian Dune to get to the other side

    January 6, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This Dec. 18, 2015, view of the downwind face of "Namib Dune" on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    This Dec. 18, 2015, view of the downwind face of “Namib Dune” on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    Dramatic closeup views of a dune’s steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune’s windward slope. Researchers are using Curiosity to examine examples of the Bagnold Dunes, a band of dark sand dunes lining the northwestern flank of Mt. Sharp, the layered mountain the rover is climbing.

    A characteristic that sets true dunes apart from other wind-shaped bodies of sand, such as drifts and ripples previously visited by Mars rovers, is a steep, downwind slope known as the slip face...

    Read More

    Strong Magnetic fields discovered in Majority of Stars

    January 5, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Stars like the Sun puff up and become red giants towards the end of their lives. The red giants ('old' Suns) of the same mass as the Sun do not show strong magnetic fields in their interior, but for stars slightly more massive, up to 60 percent host strong magnetic fields. Credit: University of Sydney

    Stars like the Sun puff up and become red giants towards the end of their lives. The red giants (‘old’ Suns) of the same mass as the Sun do not show strong magnetic fields in their interior, but for stars slightly more massive, up to 60 percent host strong magnetic fields. Credit: University of Sydney

    Finding to impact understanding of stellar evolution and potentially lead to a better understanding of the sun’s 22-year magnetic cycle – known to affect communication systems and cloud cover on Earth. Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, the team found that stars only slightly more massive than the Sun have internal magnetic fields up to 10 million times that of Earth, with important implications for evolution and the ultimate fate of stars.

    “This is tremendously exciting, and totally unex...

    Read More