NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates 15th anniversary

To celebrate Chandra's 15th anniversary, four newly processed images of supernova remnants have been released. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO Fifteen years ago, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has helped revolutionize our understanding of the universe through its unrivaled X-ray vision. Chandra,

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Astronomers bring the third dimension to a doomed star's outburst

A new shape model of the Homunculus Nebula reveals protrusions, trenches, holes and irregularities in its molecular hydrogen emission. The protrusions appear near a dust skirt seen at the nebula's center in visible light (inset) but not found in this study, so they constitute different structures. Credit: NASA Goddard (inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team) In the middle of the 19th century,

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NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami wave' still flies through interstellar space

This artist's concept shows NASA's Voyager spacecraft against a backdrop of stars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The "tsunami wave" that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft began experiencing earlier this year is still propagating outward, according to new results. It is the longest-lasting shock wave that researchers have seen in interstellar space. "Most people would have thought the interstellar medi

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Astronomy: Debris-strewn exoplanetary construction yards

This is a set of images from a NASA Hubble Space Telescope survey of the architecture of debris systems around young stars. Ten previously discovered circumstellar debris systems, plus MP Mus (a mature protoplanetary disk of age comparable to the youngest of the debris disks), were studied. Hubble's sharp view uncovers an unexpected diversity and complexity in the structures. The disk-like str

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Physicists suggest new way to detect dark matter

This is associate professor Chris Kouvaris from the University of Southern Denmark. Credit: University of Southern Denmark For years physicists have been looking for the universe's elusive dark matter, but so far no one has seen any trace of it. Maybe we are looking in the wrong place? Now physicists from University of Southern Denmark propose a new technique to detect dark matter. The unive

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New revelations on dark matter and relic neutrinos

Temperature map of the relic radiation (bottom left), and close-ups showing, in relief, the polarisation of light in the 353 GHz channel (the colors correspond to the intensity of the thermal emission from galactic dust. Credit: © ESA - Planck collaboration The Planck collaboration, which notably includes the CNRS, CEA, CNES and several French universities, has disclosed, at a conference in F

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NASA-funded FOXSI to observe X-rays from Sun

The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, or FOXSI, mission launched for the first time in November 2012, as shown here. It will fly again on a sounding rocket for a 15-minute flight in December 2014 to observe hard X-rays from the sun. Credit: NASA/FOXSI An enormous spectrum of light streams from the sun. We're most familiar with the conventional visible white light we see with our eyes from E

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Researchers detect possible signal from dark matter

Could there finally be tangible evidence for the existence of dark matter in the Universe? After sifting through reams of X-ray data, scientists in EPFL's Laboratory of Particle Physics and Cosmology (LPPC) and Leiden University believe they could have identified the signal of a particle of dark matter. Credit: Image courtesy of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (screen shot from video)

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NASA's Swift mission probes an exotic object: 'Kicked' black hole or mega star?

Using the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, researchers obtained high-resolution images of Markarian 177 and SDSS1133 using a near-infrared filter. Twin bright spots in the galaxy's center are consistent with recent star formation, a disturbance that hints this galaxy may have merged with another. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/M. Koss (ETH Zurich) et al. An international team of researchers analy

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Unravelling the mystery of gamma-ray bursts with kilometer-scale microphones

This is an illustration of how a neutron star might orbit a black hole. Credit: NASA A team of scientists hopes to trace the origins of gamma-ray bursts with the aid of giant space 'microphones'. Researchers at Cardiff University are trying to work out the possible sounds scientists might expect to hear when the ultra-sensitive LIGO and Virgo detectors are switched on in 2015. It's hoped th

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'Eye of Sauron' provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4151. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/J.Wang et al.; Optical: Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma/Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA. A team of scientists, led by Dr Sebastian Hoenig from the University of Southampton, have developed a new way of measuring precise distances to galaxies tens of millions of light years away, using the W. M.

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Pulsars with black holes could hold the 'Holy Grail' of gravity

Discovering a pulsar orbiting a black hole could be the ‘holy grail’ for testing gravity. Credit: SKA Organisation/Swinburne Astronomy Productions The intermittent light emitted by pulsars, the most precise timekeepers in the universe, allows scientists to verify Einstein's theory of relativity, especially when these objects are paired up with another neutron star or white dwarf that interfer

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'Perfect storm' quenching star formation around a supermassive black hole

Artist impression of the central region of NGC 1266. The jets from the central black hole are creating turbulence in the surrounding molecular gas, suppressing star formation in an otherwise ideal environment to form new stars. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF) High-energy jets powered by supermassive black holes can blast away a galaxy's star-forming fuel, resulting in so-called "red and dead

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