Astronomy

  1. Astronomy

    After a failure, a new craft to sail

    Despite the July 20 failure of its mission to test the unfurling of a solar sail in a suborbital trajectory, the Planetary Society announced plans in late August to conduct a second test of a sail-propelled craft.

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  2. Astronomy

    A meteorite’s pristine origins

    A rare, carbon-rich meteorite that fell into a frozen Canadian lake last year ranks as the most pristine of such specimens ever found.

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  3. Astronomy

    Gravity’s lens: Finding a sextet of images

    Astronomers have for the first time found a gravitational lens in which the image of a distant galaxy has been split into six distinct images.

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  4. Astronomy

    Gravity’s lens: Finding a dim cluster

    Relying solely on a gravitational mirage rather than visible images, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown cluster of galaxies and measured its distance from Earth.

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  5. Astronomy

    When Branes Collide

    A controversial new theory proposes that our universe existed as a cold, featureless void for eons, until a parallel universe floating through a hidden fifth dimension crashed into it, igniting the Big Bang.

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  6. Astronomy

    X rays trace fierce stellar winds

    A high-resolution X-ray view of the Rosette nebula, a nearby star-forming region, has revealed for the first time that the stellar winds from massive stars heat surrounding gas to a scorching 6 million kelvins.

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  7. Astronomy

    Galaxy’s Black Hole: X Rays Mark Spot

    An X-ray outburst from the center of our galaxy is providing compelling new evidence that a monster black hole lurks at the Milky Way's core.

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  8. Astronomy

    Shocks jolt jet set galaxy, X rays reveal

    A new image of the nearby galaxy Centaurus A reveals the first details of a phenomenon associated with the core of many galaxies: a huge jet of high-energy particles shooting out from a supermassive black hole.

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  9. Astronomy

    Astronomers spy familiar planetary system

    Studying a star in the Big Dipper, astronomers have for the first time found a planetary system that reminds them of home.

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  10. Astronomy

    Eros: The movie

    Close-up views of the asteroid 433 Eros, showing jagged rocks, fields of boulders, and debris-filled craters, are featured in a minute-long movie.

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  11. Astronomy

    Senior star may have comets

    Astronomers have found what could be the first evidence of water-bearing objects that orbit a star other than the sun.

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  12. Astronomy

    Light’s Debut: Good Morning, Starshine!

    Astronomers have at last detected signs of one of the earliest and least-understood eras in the universe: the murky time just before the first stars and quasars flooded the cosmos with light.

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