Space

Mystery Links Between Quasars And Active Galactic Nuclei Get Some Answers

A study of active and inactive galaxies by Paul Westoby, Carole Mundell and Ivan Baldry from the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University has given new insights into the complex interaction between super-massive black holes at th ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 12 2008 - 9:39am

Looking Back In Time 10 Billion Years To See The Birth Of Galaxies

UK astronomers have produced the most sensitive infrared map of the distant Universe ever undertaken. Combining data over a period of three years, they have produced an image containing over 100,000 galaxies over an area four times the size of the full Moo ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 13 2008 - 8:32am

It Pays To Listen- A Close Ear To Exoplanet Finds Its Birthplace

By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theori ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2008 - 8:50am

Ghosts Of Galaxies Point To Cold Dark Matter

Huge star streams in the outskirts of two nearby spiral galaxies have allowed astronomers to obtain a panoramic overview of ' galactic cannibalism' similar to that involving the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in the vicinity of the Milky Way. The detec ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2008 - 9:37am

Sagittarius A* Black Hole Awoke From Slumber Just 300 Years Ago

Using NASA, Japanese, and European X-ray satellites, a team of Japanese astronomers has discovered that our galaxy’s central black hole let loose a powerful flare three centuries ago. The finding helps resolve a long-standing mystery: why is the Milky Way’ ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2008 - 6:02pm

Starquakes- Solar Flares Exploding On The Sun

Data from the ESA/NASA spacecraft SOHO shows clearly that powerful starquakes ripple around the Sun in the wake of mighty solar flares that explode above its surface. The observations give solar physicists new insight into a long-running solar mystery and ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2008 - 9:40am

BL Lacertae 'Blazar' Gives Us A Look At A Supermassive Black Hole

At the cores of many galaxies, supermassive black holes expel powerful jets of particles at nearly the speed of light. Just how they perform this feat has long been one of the mysteries of astrophysics. The leading theory says the particles are accelerated ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2008 - 2:24am

Galactic Flambé- Big Black Holes Cook Up Stellar Pancakes

It makes sense that massive black holes lurking in galactic nuclei and weighing millions of Suns can disrupt stars that come too close. Astrophysicists say that the black hole’s gravity pulls harder on the nearest part of the star, an imbalance that pulls ...

Article - News Staff - May 2 2008 - 11:34am

Paranal Shines In Both 'Gegenschein' And Zodiacal Light

The Earth's atmosphere is a gigantic prism that disperses sunlight. In the most ideal atmospheric conditions, such as those found regularly above Cerro Paranal, this will lead to the appearance of so-called green and blue flashes at sunset. The phenom ...

Article - News Staff - May 3 2008 - 1:22am

Mercury's Mysterious Magnetic Field Due To 'Iron Snow' In Its Core?

A group of researchers writing in Geophysical Research Letters have a new theory about Mercury’s mysterious magnetic field- iron “snow” inside the planet that forms and falls toward the center, much like snowflakes form in Earth’s atmosphere and fall to th ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2008 - 10:25am