News articles tagged with 'astronomer'
Newly merged black hole eagerly shreds stars
— 9 Apr 2011 11:52 | AstronomyA galaxy's core is a busy place, crowded with stars swarming around an enormous black hole. When galaxies collide, it gets even messier as the two black holes spiral toward each other,…
The dusty disc of NGC 247
— 3 Mar 2011 12:35 | AstronomyThe spiral galaxy NGC 247 is one of the closest spiral galaxies of the southern sky. In this new view from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in Chile large numbers…
Planet formation in action?
— 24 Feb 2011 20:11 | AstronomyUsing ESO's Very Large Telescope an international team of astronomers has been able to study the short-lived disc of material around a young star that is in the early stages of making…
Super-sharp radio 'eye' remeasuring the universe
— 20 Feb 2011 16:06 | AstronomyUsing the super-sharp radio 'vision' of astronomy's most precise telescope, scientists have extended a directly-measured 'yardstick' three times farther into the cosmos than ever before,…
Improving microscopy by following the astronomers' guide star
— 18 Feb 2011 18:02 | AstronomyA corrective strategy used by astronomers to sharpen images of celestial bodies can now help scientists see with more depth and clarity into the living brain of a mouse. Eric Betzig,…
Herschel finds less dark matter but more stars
— 17 Feb 2011 17:12 | AstronomyESA's Herschel space observatory has discovered a population of dust-enshrouded galaxies that do not need as much dark matter as previously thought to collect gas and burst into star…
A picture-perfect pure-disc galaxy
— 2 Feb 2011 16:34 | AstronomyNGC 3621 is a spiral galaxy about 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Snake). It is comparatively bright and can be seen well in moderate-sized telescopes.…
Swift survey finds 'missing' active galaxies
— 21 Jan 2011 20:17 | AstronomySeen in X-rays, the entire sky is aglow. Even far away from bright sources, X-rays originating from beyond our galaxy provide a steady glow in every direction. Astronomers have long…
Cosmology standard candle not so standard after all
— 18 Jan 2011 16:14 | AstronomyAstronomers have turned up the first direct proof that 'standard candles' used to illuminate the size of the universe, termed Cepheids, shrink in mass, making them not quite as standard…
The best way to measure dark energy just got better
— 14 Jan 2011 16:02 | AstronomyDark energy is a mysterious force that pervades all space, acting as a 'push' to accelerate the Universe's expansion. Despite being 70 percent of the Universe, dark energy was only…