Tag Archive | "astronomy"

X-ray flares observed by Chandra are asteroids being torn to pieces in a black hole

X-ray flares observed by Chandra are asteroids being torn to pieces in a black hole

A new study provides a possible explanation for the mysterious flares. The suggestion is that there is a cloud around Sgr A* containing hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets, which have been stripped from their parent stars. [...more]

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Chandra X-ray Observatory clocks stellar wind at 20 million mph

Chandra X-ray Observatory clocks stellar wind at 20 million mph

The fastest wind ever discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole has been observed by a team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. [...more]

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Waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere is new class of planet

Waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere is new class of planet

Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It’s smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth. [...more]

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Black hole came from a shredded galaxy

Black hole came from a shredded galaxy

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a cluster of young, blue stars encircling the first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered. The presence of the star cluster suggests that the black hole was once at the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy. [...more]

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New Spitzer Space Telescope image shows space nursery

New Spitzer Space Telescope image shows space nursery

The image shows one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our galaxy, a region called Cygnus X. [...more]

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Two Earth-sized planets discovered orbiting a distant Sun-like star

Two Earth-sized planets discovered orbiting a distant Sun-like star

Astronomers using NASA's Kepler mission have detected two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star. This discovery marks a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds, since it brings scientists one step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin Earth. [...more]

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New details on birth of black hole Cygnus X-1 revealed by Chandra X-ray Observatory

New details on birth of black hole Cygnus X-1 revealed by Chandra X-ray Observatory

Astronomers are confident the Cygnus X-1 system contains a black hole, and with these latest studies they have remarkably precise values of its mass, spin, and distance from Earth. [...more]

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City lights could reveal E.T. civilization

City lights could reveal E.T. civilization

In a new paper, Avi Loeb, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Edwin Turner, Princeton University, suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights. [...more]

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Meet our Scientists—Videos!

Science Spotlight

Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)

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