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July 25, 2008 6:02:24 PM CDT

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Stories related to: astronomy

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Stories 1 - 20 of 39

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  • July 2008

    • Scientists Explain Northern Lights

      newser  |  Wired  |  Jul 24, 08 7:01 PM CDT

      Scientists Explain Northern Lights

      Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what causes the dazzling northern lights to seemingly dance across the sky, Wired reports. The light show, also known as aurora borealis, is triggered by explosions of magnetic energy about 80,000 miles away. The findings—drawn from five NASA satellites working in tandem with ground observers—might help scientists better predict geomagnetic storms that take out satellites. More »

      Tags

      astronomy  • northern lights  • night sky  • aurora borealis

    • Dwarf Planet Gets a Name

      newser  |  USA Today  |  Jul 22, 08 10:17 AM CDT

      Dwarf Planet Gets a Name

      The neighborhood of the solar system beyond Neptune has a new resident—or rather, an old resident with a new name. The dwarf planet originally dubbed Easterbunny will now be known as Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh), reports USA Today. More »

      Tags

      astronomy  • planet  • outer space

    • How to Take a Solar Eclipse Road Trip

      newser  |  Wired  |  Jul 12, 08 9:28 AM CDT

      How to Take a Solar Eclipse Road Trip

      Thousands of people will trek to the hinterlands on August 1 just to stand in the dark for three minutes. The reason: a total solar eclipse is set to sweep over a path spanning from China to Canada. Wired clues would-be eclipse chasers in on ways to maximize each sunless second. Maximum shadow time: This year the Russian city of Nadym will see the longest total eclipse, set to click in at 2 minutes, 27 seconds. Don't waste your time traveling to a partial eclipse. More »

      Tags

      travel  • tourism  • astronomy  • travel tips  • sun  • eclipse  • solar eclipse  • road trip ideas

  • June 2008

    • New Planets Yield Hopes of Life Beyond

      newser  |  New York Times  |  Jun 24, 08 1:43 PM CDT

      New Planets Yield Hopes of Life Beyond

      The discovery, announced last week, that rocky, Earth-sized planets appear to be circling sun-sized stars in our own galaxy should thrill the closet Star Trek geek in all of us, Natalie Angier writes in the New York Times. "If planets abound, scientists suspect that life abounds, too, at least of the microbial kind," she writes—exciting stuff, given previous news of unfriendly gas giants. More »

      Tags

      astronomy  • space exploration  • planet  • extraterrestrial life  • deep space  • Milky Way  • galaxy

    • Astronomers Trace Homer's Wandering Hero

      newser  |  New York Times  |  Jun 24, 08 9:39 AM CDT

      Astronomers Trace Homer's Wandering Hero

      Homer's Odyssey is 2,700 years old, and the events it describes happened centuries earlier. But two scientists claim in a new paper that they've traced one line in the epic poem—a possible reference to an eclipse—to a real astronomical event. Classicists might take issue, writes the New York Times , but the astronomers say that Odysseus' return to Ithaca coincided with a solar eclipse on April 16, 1178 BC. More »

      Tags

      astronomy  • Greece  • poetry  • eclipse  • solar eclipse

    • There's a Huge Moon on the Rise

      newser  |  LiveScience  |  Jun 17, 08 4:59 PM CDT

      There's a Huge Moon on the Rise

      Northern Hemisphere residents, check out the night sky tomorrow for an extra-large-looking moon. The moon illusion—a trick our brain plays on us—is enhanced by the summer solstice, and when Earth's satellite rises close to the horizon, conditions are perfect, LiveScience notes. More »

      Tags

      space  • astronomy  • Earth  • moon  • solar system  • illusion

  • May 2008

    • Odds of Cataclysmic Space-Rock Crash: 1 in 10

      newser  |  Atlantic Monthly  |  May 25, 08 6:19 AM CDT

      Odds of Cataclysmic Space-Rock Crash: 1 in 10

      Chicken Little may have been smarter than we thought. A growing body of evidence reveals that the sky is falling, or at least gigantic space rocks are—and the Earth is at far greater risk of a catastrophic strike than previously thought, reports Atlantic . Despite the danger—an impact could make a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker—NASA is expending little effort to protect the planet. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • astronomy  • extinction  • asteroid  • space program  • crater  • comet

    • Stargazers Witness Birth of Supernova

      newser  |  Space.com  |  May 22, 08 3:43 AM CDT

      Stargazers Witness Birth of Supernova

      A  pair of Princeton astronomers have become the first people ever to witness the explosive death of a star, Space.com reports. The pair were observing another supernova in its later stages when they happened to spot a huge burst of X-rays 90 million light years away. Astronomers believe their observations will fill in some blanks in knowledge about this cosmic phenomenon. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • astronomy  • stars  • star  • supernova  • galaxy

    • Youngest Supernova Discovered

      newser  |  National Geographic  |  May 15, 08 3:55 AM CDT

      Youngest Supernova Discovered

      Scientists have discovered the remains of the youngest exploding star, or supernova, ever seen in the Milky Way, shedding new light on the life cycles of stars. The baby supernova G1.9+0.3 is a mere 140 years old, reports National Geographic . Supernovas are a vital component of galaxy development because the exploding stars disperse high-energy particles and minerals, fueling the creation of new stars. More »

      Tags

      astronomy  • stars  • astrophysics  • Milky Way  • galaxies

    • Vatican: OK to Believe in Aliens

      newser  |  Times (UK)  |  May 14, 08 10:04 AM CDT

      Vatican: OK to Believe in Aliens

      Believing in God doesn’t mean you can’t believe in aliens, the Vatican’s chief astronomer told L’Osservatore Romano . God may well have created other creatures, including intelligent ones. “We cannot place limits on God’s creative freedom,” he noted. More »

      Tags

      religion  • Vatican  • Christianity  • astronomy  • extraterrestrial life  • aliens

    • Microsoft Puts Universe on Your Desktop

      newser  |  New York Times  |  May 13, 08 2:55 PM CDT

      Microsoft Puts Universe on Your Desktop

      Stargazers got a new toy today, when Microsoft unveiled WorldWide Telescope, a free new program that gives armchair astronomers an unprecedented look at the stars. The program brings Internet space programs to new heights, rendering complete 3D models of thousands of galactic destinations, the New York Times reports. More »

      Tags

      Google  • Microsoft  • space  • astronomy  • telescope

  • April 2008

    • Black Mini Still Has Hole Lotta Power

      newser  |  Reuters  |  Apr 2, 08 10:10 AM CDT

      Black Mini Still Has Hole Lotta Power

      Astronomers have spotted the smallest black hole ever discovered, Reuters reports. It is just 15 miles across—the size of a city—but still has a pull strong enough to "stretch your body into a strand of spaghetti," said a NASA researcher. The relative pipsqueak weighs about as much as four suns, while black holes often weigh billions of times more. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • space  • astronomy  • star  • black hole  • Milky Way

  • March 2008

    • Exploding Star Brightest Object Ever Seen

      newser  |  Space.com  |  Mar 22, 08 9:26 AM CDT

      Exploding Star Brightest Object Ever Seen

      Light from a star that exploded billions of years before the Earth was formed have been spotted by terrestrial astronomers, Space.com reports. The gamma-ray burst from halfway across the universe was the most distant object ever seen by the naked eye, and the brightest object ever observed by humans. The burst formed as a massive star collapsed into a black hole, briefly burning as bright as billions of stars. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • astronomy  • star  • universe  • Arthur C. Clarke  • gamma rays

    • Laws of Physics May Need an Overhaul

      newser  |  Economist  |  Mar 14, 08 6:04 PM CDT

      Laws of Physics May Need an Overhaul

      The laws of physics just might be broken. Scientists have detected gravity-defying behavior from spacecrafts flung around the Earth, the Economist reports. Five different spacecrafts picked up speed at a pace deviating,ever so slightly, from the laws created by Newton and Einstein. After laborious calculations, astronomers have created a formula to predict the phenomenon. If it holds up, it means that our laws of gravity need major revision. More »

      Tags

      science  • astronomy  • spacecraft  • Albert Einstein  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory  • Galileo  • gravity

  • February 2008

    • Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life

      newser  |  Christian Science Monitor  |  Feb 21, 08 4:27 AM CST

      Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life

      Powerful new instruments will help scientists in their search for extra-terrestrial life, the Christian Science Monitor writes. New telescopes will make it possible for the SETI Institute to scan millions of star systems for alien radio signals. Only a thousand have been analyzed in detail so far, but the institute hopes to get more new data in the next two years than it has collected in the last half-century.  More »

      Tags

      space  • astronomy  • extraterrestrial life  • aliens  • exoplanet  • radio telescope  • telescopes  • SETI

    • New Solar System Sparks Hope for Other Life

      newser  |  Daily Telegraph (UK)  |  Feb 15, 08 4:10 AM CST

      New Solar System Sparks Hope for Other Life

      Excited astronomers say that the discovery of a solar system with strong similarities to our own raises the chances of other life out there. The system has two gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn orbiting at a similar distance from the alien sun 5,000 light years away, and rocky, Earth-like planets may exist in closer orbits, reseachers write in the journal Science. More »

      Tags

      space  • astronomy  • planet  • extraterrestrial life  • solar system

    • Solar Lull May Trigger Ice Age

      newser  |  Popular Mechanics  |  Feb 14, 08 2:56 PM CST

      Solar Lull May Trigger Ice Age

      Solar activity, which usually runs in 11-year cycles, has been so sluggish of late that space weathermen are worried we might be entering a mini-ice age. They expected to see sunspot activity pick up about last March, to peak in 2012; if the sun stays this sluggish for another year or two, it could trigger a prolonged period of massive snowfall and severe cold across the Northern Hemisphere, Popular Mechanics reports. More »

      Tags

      climate change  • global warming  • space  • greenhouse gases  • weather  • astronomy  • sun  • magnetic field

    • Total Eclipse Coming Feb. 20

      newser  |  LiveScience  |  Feb 7, 08 6:02 PM CST

      Total Eclipse Coming Feb. 20

      Nearly half the world's population will find themselves really in the dark Feb. 20 as Earth's shadow totally eclipses the moon, LiveScience reports. Visible to 3 billion residents of North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, the eclipsed moon will create a celestial triangle in the night sky, joining the planet Saturn and the bright star Regulus. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • astronomy  • moon  • Saturn  • telescope  • lunar eclipse

  • January 2008

    • Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers

      newser  |  Space.com  |  Jan 26, 08 2:58 PM CST

      Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers

      Sky gazers have an exceptional show awaiting them over the next couple of weeks, Space.com reports, and the most striking celestial sights will be in the early morning. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will converge, forming a spectacular "double planet" low in the dawn light, and a few mornings later, the moon will drop by to join them. More »

      Tags

      space  • astronomy  • moon  • planet  • Jupiter  • Venus

    • Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth

      newser  |  LiveScience  |  Jan 25, 08 9:49 AM CST

      Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth

      A big asteroid is set to speed past Earth on Tuesday night, and those with amateur telescopes will get a peek. NASA discovered the object in October, and scientists believe it's between 500 and 2,000 feet in diameter, LiveScience reports. It won't come closer than 334,000 miles to Earth; the impact of an asteroid of its size would be disastrous. More »

      Tags

      NASA  • Mars  • astronomy  • Earth  • asteroid  • orbit

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