Next Stop: Shooting Stars
- By Jason McCracken
- July 3, 2013
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Last time, we set ourselves up with a nice place to cool off and had a drink or two. And as the evening rolls up, we can lay back with our drinks, dipping our feet in the distant APM 08279+5255 quasar, and watch the universe set. Maybe we can catch a shooting star or … Continue Reading →
Light Echoes around a Mysterious Nova
- By Koji Mukai
- June 24, 2013
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“In 1890 T Pyxidis had appeared, brightened, and disappeared. When I first came to Harvard they were still telling how it was found again during a routine survey of plates taken in 1919, and how Miss Leavitt exclaimed: ‘That star hasn’t been seen for almost thirty years!’ – the first … Continue Reading →
American Astronomical Society wrap-up
- By Jason McCracken
- June 14, 2013
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Well, it happened again, guys! The 222nd biannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held at the Indiana Convention Center, that’s what. For those of you not in the loop, the American Astronomical Society is a professional society for astronomers devoted to promoting astronomy and like sciences as well … Continue Reading →
Awww! Cosmic baby pictures!
- By Sara Mitchell
- March 22, 2013
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Protostars in Messier 78, as seen by multiple observatories Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/JPL-Caltech/Max-Planck The side-by-side images above depict protostars found in Messier 78, a reflection nebula found within the constellation Orion (but not the Orion Nebula, which is Messier 42). These are some of the youngest stars that astronomers have ever seen … Continue Reading →
Try It At Home: Life Cycle of a Massive Star Activity
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 13, 2012
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Stars and planets form in the dark, inside vast, cold clouds of gas and dust. The James Webb Space Telescope’s large mirror and infrared sensitivity will let astronomers peer inside dusty knots where the youngest stars and planets are forming. The Webb telescope project has developed a bookmark and an … Continue Reading →
Exoplanets, Tech, and Space Travel
- By Jillian Brown
- July 24, 2012
- 3 Comments
Fomalhaut + Fomalhaut b; courtesy of NASA, ESA, UC Berkeley, NASA GSFC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and NASA JPL-Caltech) For a lot of people, exoplanets are some of the most exciting discoveries in current astronomy. The first exoplanets were detected in 1992 orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, all three of … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 5/8/2012
- By Maggie Masetti
- May 8, 2012
- 1 Comment
We posted once about NuSTAR, a new X-ray telescope. It was due to be launched in March, but that launch date is now scheduled for June. Below is a great new image of NuSTAR in the nose cone of the Pegasus rocket it will be launched on. Credit: NASA Using … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 4/20/2012
- By Sara Mitchell
- April 20, 2012
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Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 2/13/2012
- By Maggie Masetti
- February 13, 2012
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Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium This beautiful, infrared image shows a new view of the Eagle nebula captured by the European Herschel Space Observatory. In 1995, Hubble famously captured a visble-light image of the “Pillars of Creation,” a region of star-formation. That image is below – in the … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 1/31/2012
- By Sara Mitchell
- January 31, 2012
- 12 Comments
This is a doozy of a round-up, thanks to the American Astronomical Society meeting mid-month! Maggie already blogged about some of the interesting exoplanet news that came out at the meeting. Here, we’ll cover some of the other big astrophysics releases at AAS! But first… a gorgeous image from the … Continue Reading →
