Astronomy News and Research

Scientists chart high-precision map of Milky Way's magnetic fields

Friday, February 10, 2012 00:00 MST

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are part of an international team that has pooled their radio observations into a database, producing the highest precision map to date of the magnetic field within our own Milky Way galaxy.

Graduate finds 'cool' gas may form and strengthen sunspots

Friday, February 10, 2012 00:00 MST

Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists from Hawaii and New Mexico using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope.

Scientists see 'sloshing' galaxy cluster

Thursday, February 09, 2012 00:00 MST

A Naval Research Laboratory scientist is part of a team that has recently discovered that vast clouds of hot gas are "sloshing" in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth.

IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 00:00 MST

Using data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft, an international team of researchers has measured neutral "alien" particles entering our solar system from interstellar space. A suite of studies published in the Astrophysical Journal provide a first look at the constituents of the interstellar medium, the matter between star systems, and how they interact with our heliosphere.

Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 00:00 MST

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 helps astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

Astronomers solve mystery of vanishing electrons

Tuesday, February 07, 2012 00:00 MST

UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

Space Weather Center to add world's first 'ensemble forecasting' capability

Monday, February 06, 2012 00:00 MST

Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory recently received support under NASA's Space Technology Program Game Changing Program to implement "ensemble forecasting," a computer technique already used by meteorologists to track potential paths and impacts of hurricanes and other severe weather events.

RAD measures radiation from solar storm

Sunday, February 05, 2012 00:00 MST

The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft traveling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet.

Scientists help define structure of exoplanets

Sunday, February 05, 2012 00:00 MST

Using models similar to those used in weapons research, scientists may soon know more about exoplanets, those objects beyond the realm of our solar system. In a new study, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators came up with new methods for deriving and testing the equation of state of matter in exoplanets and figured out the mass-radius and mass-pressure relations for materials relevant to planetary interiors.

Vesta likely cold and dark enough for ice

Saturday, February 04, 2012 00:00 MST

Though generally thought to be quite dry, roughly half of the giant asteroid Vesta is expected to be so cold and to receive so little sunlight that water ice could have survived there for billions of years, according to the first published models of Vesta's average global temperatures and illumination by the sun.

Rice lab mimics Jupiter's Trojan asteroids inside a single atom

Friday, February 03, 2012 00:00 MST

Rice University physicists have built an accurate model of part of the solar system inside a single atom. In a new paper in Physical Review Letters, Rice's team and collaborators from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Vienna University of Technology showed they could make an electron orbit the atomic nucleus in the same way that Jupiter's Trojan asteroids orbit the sun. The findings uphold a 1920 prediction by physicist Niels Bohr.

SoloHI instrument selected for flight on Solar Orbiter mission

Thursday, February 02, 2012 00:00 MST

The Naval Research Laboratory's Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI), part of the Solar Orbiter mission, is headed for space. The European Space Agency has chosen the Solar Orbiter mission as the first mission in its Cosmic Vision Program, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has approved SoloHI to proceed to the next phase in the flight instrument development -- to develop the preliminary design and to finish the technology development.

Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth

Thursday, February 02, 2012 00:00 MST

A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Jan. 17, 2012) just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch to Earth's magnetic field despite the fact that it was aimed away from our planet.

The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies

Wednesday, February 01, 2012 00:00 MST

Using the APEX telescope, astronomers have found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today. The galaxies saw the birth of new stars abruptly cut short, leaving them as massive -- but passive -- galaxies of aging stars in the present day. Astronomers also have a likely culprit for the sudden end to the starbursts: the emergence of supermassive black holes.

Catching a comet death on camera

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 00:00 MST

On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise -- but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers.