rhamphotheca:

Composite view of Earth’s Sun (094, 335 and 193 angstroms), 10/29/12

(Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory)

Astronomers Uncover a Surprising Trend in Galaxy Evolution

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2012) — A comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe.

rhamphotheca:

Impostors in the Orion Nebula?

by Ken Crosswell

The Orion Nebula, 1350 light-years from Earth, appears to the naked eye as a fuzzy star in the sword of Orion. The nebula is spawning stars large and small, so observers often study it to learn about star birth. Now, however, astronomers say that at least 10% to 20% of the thousands of stars ascribed to the 1-million-year-old Orion Nebula cluster actually belong to the Iota Orionis cluster, which lies just in front of the Orion Nebula and is four to five times older.

The finding means astronomers must revisit earlier conclusions about young stars, the researchers write in a future issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. For example, planet-forming disks tend to disperse with time, so if some of the Orion stars are older than thought, a greater percentage of the youngest ones sport protoplanetary disks. And that means there could be an even greater abundance of strange new worlds for astronomers to discover.

(via: Science NOW)          

(image: NASA/ ESA/ M. Robberto (STSCI/ESA), and the HST Orion Treasury Project Team)

‘Impossible’ Binary Stars Discovered

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) — A team of astronomers have used the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on Hawaii to discover four pairs of stars that orbit each other in less than 4 hours. Until now it was thought that such close-in binary stars could not exist. The new discoveries come from the telescope’s Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) Transit Survey, and appear in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Life’s Molecules Could Lie Within Reach of Mars Curiosity Rover

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) — Stick a shovel in the ground and scoop. That’s about how deep scientists need to go in order to find evidence for ancient life on Mars, if there is any to be found, a new study suggests. That’s within reach of Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover expected to land on the Red Planet next month.

thebabyboomgalaxy:

Dedicated to SETI, In hopes that life exists somewhere out there…

(via thescienceofreality)

NASA’s Spitzer Finds First Objects Burned Furiously

ScienceDaily (June 7, 2012) — The faint, lumpy glow given off by the very first objects in the universe may have been detected with the best precision yet, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. These faint objects might be wildly massive stars or voracious black holes. They are too far away to be seen individually, but Spitzer has captured new, convincing evidence of what appears to be the collective pattern of their infrared light.

Hubble Spots a Bright Spark in a Nearby Spiral Galaxy

Astronomers Discover Faintest Distant Galaxy

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2012) — Astronomers at Arizona State University have found an exceptionally distant galaxy, ranked among the top 10 most distant objects currently known in space. Light from the recently detected galaxy left the object about 800 million years after the beginning of the universe, when the universe was in its infancy.

X-Ray ‘Echoes’ Map a Supermassive Black Hole’s Environs in Distant Galaxies

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2012) — An international team of astronomers using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) XMM-Newton satellite has identified a long-sought X-ray “echo” that promises a new way to probe supersized black holes in distant galaxies.