'Huge' Physics Finding Supports Big Bang Theory

Scientists announced today (March 17) that they had found the first direct evidence of the dramatic expansion that created the known universe, known as cosmic inflation, or the "bang" inthe Big Bang. This dramatic expansion is thought to have occurred in the first instants of existence, nearly 14 billion years ago, causing the universe to expand beyond the reach of the most powerful telescopes.

Full Moon, Partial Eclipse, and Jupiter

This week we are presented with a collection of celestial alignments that are quite visible in an urban setting.

Bridging Cities of Galaxies

Image credits: Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect: ESA Planck Collaboration; optical image: STScI Digitized Sky Survey

Planck has discovered a bridge of hot gas that connects galaxy clusters Abell 399 (lower center) and Abell 401 (top left). The galaxy pair is located about a billion light-years from Earth, and the gas bridge extends approximately 10 million light-years between them.

Exomoons may give us first glimpse of habitable worlds

That's no planet (Image: Frizaven/3D Space Simulator Celestia)

Moons, rather than planets, could star in the first images of habitable worlds outside our solar system. Once taken, such images would offer unprecedented clues to the moons' ability to support life by providing the chemical signatures carried in their light.

NASA's Chandra Shows Milky Way Is Surrounded by Halo of Hot Gas

This artist's illustration shows an enormous halo of hot gas (in blue) around the Milky Way galaxy. Also shown, to the lower left of the Milky Way, are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, two small neighboring galaxies (roll your mouse over the image for labels). The halo of gas is shown with a radius of about 300,000 light years, although it may extend significantly further.

 Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy.

Gravity waves spotted from white-dwarf pair

An artist's conception of the white dwarf pair shows how they would radiate spirals of gravitational waves

Researchers have spotted visible-light evidence for one of astronomy's most elusive targets - gravity waves - in the orbit of a pair of dead stars.

Building Blocks of Life Found Around Young Star

A team of astronomers has found molecules of glycolaldehyde — a simple form of sugar — in the gas surrounding a young binary star. This image shows the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in infrared light, as seen by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE). IRAS 16293-2422 is the red object in the centre of the small square. The inset image is an artist’s impression of glycolaldehyde molecules, showing glycolaldehyde’s molecular structure (C2H4O2). Carbon atoms are shown as grey, oxygen atoms as red, and hydrogen atoms as white. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/L. Calçada (ESO) & NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team)

A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has spotted sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a young Sun-like star. This is the first time sugar been found in space around such a star, and the discovery shows that the building blocks of life are in the right place, at the right time, to be included in planets forming around the star.

Pulsar timekeepers measure up to atomic clocks

Keeping time: using an array of pulsars to look for gravitational waves

An international team of astronomers has come up with a new way of keeping track of time by observing a collection of pulsars – rapidly rotating stars that emit radio pulses at very regular intervals. Although the ultimate goal of the research is to use pulsar timing to detect gravitational waves, the group has shown that the pulsar-based timescale can also be used to reveal inconsistencies in timescales based on atomic clocks.

Recreating a Slice of the Universe

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and their colleagues at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) have invented a new computational approach that can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over billions of years.

Astrophile: Red giant and the exploding dwarf

Supernovaes' multiple origins (Image: Romano Corradi and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias)

Once upon a time, in a faraway place, a white-bearded dwarf lived next to a red-haired giant.

Every so often the giant would belch a great wind through the land, which lifted his stray hairs into the air and plastered them all over the dwarf's small hovel. Blaming the giant for poor hygiene, the dwarf vowed revenge and set about brewing the hair into a potion, hoping that downing the draught would give him the giant's great stature.

Jupiter-like Planet Devoured By Its Own Star

Image Caption: An artist's impression of a red super giant engulfing a Jupiter-like planet as it expands. Credit: NASA

Astronomers say they’ve witnessed the death of a planet, which found its journey ended by way of its own star.

Milky Way Now Has a Twin (or Two): Astronomers Find First Group of Galaxies Just Like Ours

This image shows one of the two ‘exact matches’ to the Milky Way system found in the survey. The larger galaxy, denoted GAMA202627, which is similar to the Milky Way clearly has two large companions off to the bottom left of the image. In this image bluer colours indicate hotter, younger, stars like many of those that are found in our galaxy. (Credit: Dr. Aaron Robotham, ICRAR/St Andrews using GAMA data)

Research presented Aug. 23, 2012 at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe.

First Evidence Discovered of Planet's Destruction by Its Star

The first evidence of a planet's destruction by its aging star indicates that the missing planet was devoured as the star began expanding into a "red giant" — the stellar equivalent of advanced age. "A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the Sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth's orbit some five-billion years from now," said Alexander Wolszczan, Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State and the discoverer of the first planet ever found outside our solar system. (Credit: Marty Harris/McDonald Obs./UT-Austin)

The first evidence of a planet's destruction by its aging star has been discovered by an international team of astronomers. The evidence indicates that the missing planet was devoured as the star began expanding into a "red giant" -- the stellar equivalent of advanced age.