Astronomy
- Astronomy
Rendezvous gets more personal with Eros
Venturing closer to a space rock than any satellite has ever gone before, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission last week took the sharpest images ever recorded of an asteroid.
- Astronomy
Puzzle on the Edge: The moon that isn’t there
Contrary to predictions, Sedna, the most distant object known in the solar system, does not appear to have a moon.
- Astronomy
A galaxy that goes the distance?
Aided by a cosmic magnifying glass, astronomers may have found the most distant galaxy known, a body that appears to reside 13.2 billion light-years from Earth.
-
- Astronomy
Are most extrasolar planets hefty imposters?
A new study makes the startling claim that nearly half the objects reported to be extrasolar planets are something much more massive and mundane—either lightweight stars or stellar wannabes known as brown dwarfs.
- Astronomy
Rare Passage: Crab’s X rays probe Titan
Observing a rare celestial alignment, astronomers have made the first X-ray measurement of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
- Astronomy
Sizing up a black hole
Astronomers are closing in on the size of the supermassive black hole that lies at our galaxy's center.
- Astronomy
Shades of Venus
On June 8, for the first time in 122 years, the silhouette of Venus will move across the face of the sun.
- Astronomy
Foraging among the Galaxies: Andromeda’s dining habits are documented
A new survey is adding to the evidence that Andromeda, the Milky Way’s sister galaxy, has not only grown bigger in the past by feasting on smaller galaxies but is continuing to do so.
- Astronomy
Andromeda’s building blocks
A radio telescope has made the first conclusive observations of gas clouds that could be the leftover building blocks of the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way’s closest large spiral neighbor.
- Astronomy
Planetoid on the Fringe: Solar system record breaker
Lurking more than 13 billion kilometers from Earth in the coldest, remotest part of the solar system, a newly discovered body is the most distant object ever found to orbit the sun and the largest denizen of the solar system discovered since Pluto.
- Astronomy
Nudging asteroid fragments toward Earth
New computer simulations detail how fragments of asteroids travel to Earth and rain down as meteorites.
