3801–3820 of 6,715 results

Astronomy & Observing News

Titan's Exterior Offers Stiff Resistance

Saturn's big moon appears to have an icy crust that's far more rigid — and more worn down by erosion — than expected.

Black Holes

Astronomers Discover Black Hole's Dieting Strategy

The Milky Way's central supermassive black hole eats only a fraction of the gas available to it. New X-ray observations suggest how the beast manages to stay so trim when faced with a feast.

Professional Telescopes

Green Bank Telescope's $1,000,000 Boost

Threatened by NSF cuts, the Green Bank Telescope signed a deal with West Virginia University to receive $1 million over the next two years. But the radio antenna will need more than that to survive long-term.

Galaxies

Source Found for Magellanic Stream

New observations solve the origins of a long rivulet of gas encircling the Milky Way.

Solar System

WISE Revived for Asteroid Hunt

NASA officials thought they'd switched off the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for good 2½ years ago. But soon it'll be revived for three years to hunt for small asteroids in Earth's vicinity.

Celestial News & Events

Tour September's Sky! | August 21st, 2013

Dazzling Venus, low in the west after sunset, has close encounters with a moon, a planet, and a star. Meanwhile, the Summer Triangle is high overhead.

Sunspot and granulation from Hinode

Stellar Science

Old, Fat Stars Flicker

Observing the pattern of flickers in a star’s light offers a new way for astronomers to measure one of the basic properties of stars — and any exoplanets they might host.

People, Places, and Events

An Observing Mecca in the Sierras

Who would have thought that, just 30 miles from a California city of 500,000+, you'd find some of the best stargazing in all of North America?

Exoplanets

Kepler KO'd; NASA Ponders New Purpose

The disabled space telescope's prolific planet-hunting run is officially over, as the team abandons efforts to salvage its full pointing ability and focuses on data analysis. Its next mission? Hunting for a job.

Solar System

Martian Moon Occults Little Brother

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity watched the larger Martian moon, Phobos, pass right in front of the planet's smaller moon, Deimos.

Pulsar and supermassive black hole

Black Holes

New Pulsar Explores Heart of Milky Way

A pulsar discovered last April is helping astronomers measure the magnetic field surrounding our galaxy’s central black hole.

Galaxies

"Smoking Gun" from Galactic Smashup?

Observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that something has slammed into the spiral galaxy NGC 1232. But you'd never know it from the galaxy's unperturbed appearance

Celestial News & Events

Nova Delphini 2013

Nova Delphini 2013 was discovered on August 14th, peaked two days later at magnitude 4.4, and by early November was down to magnitude 11.

Solar System

Comet ISON Spotted Again, Faintly

Comet ISON has been imaged low in the dawn at only 14th magnitude. This suggests a modest showing late this year for the supposed "comet of the century."

People, Places, and Events

Friends, Clear Skies at Summer Star Party

The Summer Star Party in western Massachusetts, held just before Stellafane, had fine clear nights, more than 150 good folks, and lots of scopes at its new location.

Astronomy and Society

Wanted: More Young Stargazers

The Astronomical League is tackling a serious threat to the future of organized amateur astronomy: a dearth of stargazers in their teens, 20s, and 30s.

Solar System

Under Stress, Asteroids May Be Fragile

A new microgravity experiment demonstrates the weird, unstable fluidity of asteroid surfaces, with potential consequences for visiting craft.

Curiosity's self portrait

Astronomy & Observing News

Curiosity's Views of Gale Crater

Since its arrival in August 2012, NASA's newest robotic rover has been taking snapshots of the flat Martian plain on which it landed and the tantalizing topography that looms in the distance.

Stellar Science

Dead Stars Caught Colliding

Astronomers have detected a signal that looks like it's from two neutron stars crashing together. The observations could be solid evidence for the hypothesized culprits of short gamma-ray bursts.

Exoplanets

Subaru Sees New "Planet" Directly

A new companion found by direct imaging reveals a potentially cloudless gas giant oddly far from a young sun.