The stars move quickly because they are very close to each other, separated by only about one-fourth the distance from the Earth to the Moon. As a result, they share strong gravitational forces. They were once farther apart but have spiraled closer together over time. Billions of years from now, they will crash together and merge. [...more]
Finding this stellar relic wasn’t easy. It is 60,000 times dimmer than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye. The team also had to distinguish it from many surrounding stars that aren’t so old. Just like an archaeological dig, the hunt succeeded through a combination of patience and clever use of technology. [...more]
The results show mergers of two dense stellar remnants are the likely cause of many of the supernovae that have been used to measure the accelerated expansion of the universe. [...more]
Smithsonian astronomers have just discovered a rare example of a galaxy that appears to have a pair of giant black holes. Now they are trying to determine if those black holes are partners tied together by gravity, or if one of the two has been kicked out in a cosmic breakup. [...more]
For the first time, astronomers have found a supernova explosion with properties similar to a gamma-ray burst, but without seeing any gamma rays from it. [...more]
Koenig and his colleagues examined an area of space called W5, which lies about 6,500 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia—about 6 trillion miles. Their research indicates the prospects for hypothetical alien life there are disappointing. [...more]
Chi Cygni pulses once every 408 days. At its smallest diameter of 300 million miles, it becomes mottled with brilliant spots as massive plumes of hot plasma roil its surface. As it expands, Chi Cygni cools and dims, growing to a diameter of 480 million miles—large enough to engulf and cook our solar system out to the asteroid belt. [...more]
Dr. Bruce Campbell, a geophysicist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, is at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W. Va., to make a radar map of the Moon. In this video, made in September 2009, Dr. Campbell explains some of the work involved in putting together a detailed radar map of the Moon and why he finds the geology of the Moon so fascinating. [...more]
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