http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/space_telescopes/ Space Telescopes. Astronomy articles and pictures from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Telescope and many other leading astronomy institutes from around the world. en-us Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:05:01 EDT Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:05:01 EDT 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/space_telescopes/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904145102.htm Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope of a new calibration system for precise spectrographs. The method uses a Nobel Prize-winning technology called a "laser frequency comb," and is published in Science. Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904145102.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903172415.htm Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way. By combining telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California, they detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds -- the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles distant. These observations are among the highest resolution ever done in astronomy. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903172415.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904151635.htm Astronomers have found an unusual object whose backward and tilted orbit around the Sun may clarify the origins of certain comets. In the first discovery of its kind, researchers from Canada, France and the United States have discovered an object that orbits around the Sun backwards, and tilted at an angle of 104 degrees -- almost perpendicular to the orbits of the planets. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904151635.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903134313.htm Astronomers have obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of seeing details more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903134313.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080902214750.htm The single-piece primary and tertiary mirror blank cast for the LSST is "perfect", say project astronomers and engineers. The LSST, or Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a large survey telescope being built in northern Chile, requires three large mirrors to give crisp images over a record large field of view. The two largest of these mirrors are concentric and fit neatly onto a single mirror blank. Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080902214750.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828172835.htm Another piece of the jigsaw in understanding how neutron stars work has been put in place following the discovery by scientists of the origin of the high energy emission from rotation-powered pulsars. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828172835.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826080808.htm Astronomers have caught multiple massive galaxies in the act of merging about 4 billion years ago. This discovery, made possible by combining the power of the best ground- and space-based telescopes, uniquely supports the favoured theory of how galaxies form. Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826080808.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826144850.htm NASA's Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope has revealed its first all-sky map in gamma rays. The onboard Large Area Telescope's all-sky image -- which shows the glowing gas of the Milky Way, blinking pulsars and a flaring galaxy billions of light-years away -- was created using only 95 hours of "first light" observations, compared with past missions which took years to produce a similar image. Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826144850.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820210740.htm Black holes are sometimes huge cosmic beasts, billions of times the mass of our sun, and sometimes petite with just a few times the sun's mass. But do black holes also come in size medium? A new study suggests that, for the most part, the answer is no. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820210740.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820162958.htm The Hubble Space Telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking example of the influence of these immense tentacles of extragalactic magnetic fields, say researchers. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820162958.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807072800.htm When astronauts visit the Hubble Space Telescope in October 2008 for its final servicing mission, they will be facing a task that has no precedence – performing on-orbit 'surgery' on two ailing science instruments that reside inside the telescope – the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807072800.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124054.htm The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has identified thousands of globular clusters -- more than 5 billion years old -- in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. One of the results of these discoveries led astronomers to understand more about the life and evolution of cannibal galaxies. Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124054.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124001.htm When astronomers enlisted public support in cataloging galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky. The Dutch school teacher discovered a mysterious and unique object some observers are calling a "cosmic ghost" -- a gaseous object with a hole in the center. Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124001.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724150345.htm Astronomers were able for the first time to witness the appearance of a shell of dusty gas around a star that had just erupted, and follow its evolution for more than 100 days. This provides the astronomers with a new way to estimate the distance of this object and obtain invaluable information on the operating mode of stellar vampires, dense stars that suck material from a companion. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724150345.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724150339.htm Astronomers are providing hints that a recent supernova may not be as normal as initially thought. Instead, the star that exploded is now understood to have collapsed into a black hole, producing a weak jet, typical of much more violent events, the so-called gamma-ray bursts. This discovery represents a crucial milestone in the understanding of the most violent phenomena observed in the Universe. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724150339.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724113045.htm New Hubble Space Telescope observations of six spectacular galaxy clusters acting as gravitational lenses have given significant insights into the early stages of the Universe. Scientists have found the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date: ten promising candidates thought to lie at a distance of 13 billion light-years. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724113045.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723142119.htm For the first time, researchers have found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers have long predicted they would be. A black hole and its bright accretion disk have been thought to form a quasar, the powerful light source at the center of some distant galaxies. Using a polarizing filter, astronomers isolated the light emitted by the accretion disk from that produced by other matter in the vicinity of the black hole. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723142119.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080721153148.htm The Pinwheel galaxy is gussied up in infrared light in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The fluffy-looking galaxy, officially named Messier 101, is dominated by a mishmash of spiral arms. In Spitzer's new view, in which infrared light is color coded, the galaxy sports a swirling blue center and a unique, coral-red outer ring. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080721153148.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717134854.htm A new sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images offers an unprecedented view of a planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's atmosphere. The images were taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, developed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717134854.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715131623.htm A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center. Nicknamed the "Peony nebula star," the bright stellar bulb was revealed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground-based telescopes. It blazes with the light of an estimated 3.2 million suns. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715131623.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710094031.htm The researchers have stopped holding their breath. The $690 million observatory they sent into orbit June 11 has awoken to begin its observation of the gamma-ray light from celestial mystery object such as black holes, spinning neutron stars and dark matter. Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710094031.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710200523.htm Imagine having three clocks in your house, each chiming at a different time. Astronomers have found the equivalent of three out-of-sync "clocks" in the ancient open star cluster NGC 6791. The dilemma may fundamentally challenge the way astronomers estimate cluster ages, researchers said. Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710200523.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080709212745.htm New measurements have shown that the universe is more transparent to high-energy radiation than previously assumed. These measurements of high-energy gamma radiation from 5.3 billion light years away are yielding new knowledge about the nature of the universe. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080709212745.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710142942.htm Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710142942.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080703153412.htm Scientists are prospecting in a rich molecular cloud in our Milky Way Galaxy. They seek to discover new, complex molecules in interstellar space that may be precursors to life. As molecules rotate and vibrate, they emit radio waves at specific frequencies. Each molecule has a unique pattern of such frequencies, called spectral lines, that constitutes a "fingerprint" identifying that molecule. Laboratory tests can determine the pattern of spectral lines that identifies a specific molecule. Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080703153412.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701194002.htm A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701194002.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080628224224.htm Astronomers recently announced that they have found a novel explanation for a rare type of super-luminous stellar explosion that may have produced a new type of object known as a quark star. Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080628224224.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626125818.htm Canada is building the world's first space telescope designed to detect and track asteroids as well as satellites. Called NEOSSat, this spacecraft will provide a significant improvement in surveillance of asteroids that pose a collision hazard with Earth and innovative technologies for tracking satellites in orbit high above our planet. Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626125818.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080623113718.htm Using radio telescopes, astronomers have solved a mystery of how the gigantic black holes at the cores of active galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies get their "food." While visible-light images showed little evidence that these galaxies had any interaction with their neighbors, the radio-telescope images revealed that the galaxies are snacking on their neighbors, and the "meal" ultimately reaches the black hole. Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080623113718.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619105513.htm Researchers have discovered a secondary aurora sparkling on Saturn and also started to unravel the mechanisms that drive the process. Their results show that Saturn's secondary aurora is much more like Jupiter's in origin than it is the Earth's. Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619105513.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618160914.htm The Milky Way Galaxy has lost weight. A lot of weight. About a trillion Suns' worth, according to an international team of scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II), whose discovery has broad implications for our understanding of the Milky Way. Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618160914.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618133708.htm The biggest black holes may feed just like the smallest ones, according to data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based telescopes. This discovery supports the implication of Einstein's relativity theory that black holes of all sizes have similar properties, and will be useful for predicting the properties of a conjectured new class of black holes. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618133708.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616081723.htm European astronomers have announced a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets. Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, they have found a triple system of super-Earths around the star HD 40307. Moreover, looking at their entire sample studied with HARPS, the astronomers count a total of 45 candidate planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses and an orbital period shorter than 50 days. This implies that one solar-like star out of three harbours such planets. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616081723.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613134315.htm Scientists have, for the first time, observed a flash of ultraviolet light from within a dying star giving vital evidence of how stars turn into supernovae. combined data from ground-bound telescopes observing visible light from supernovae with data from a space telescope looking for an earlier peak in ultraviolet light from an associated dying star. They were able to spot telltale signs of the shockwave that forms within a star before it explodes into a supernova. Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613134315.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610092427.htm The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the magnificent starry population of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies, one of the densest known galaxy collections in the Universe. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys has observed a large portion of the Coma Cluster, stretching across several million light-years. The entire cluster is more than 20 million light-years in diameter, is nearly spherical in shape and contains thousands of galaxies. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610092427.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610154805.htm On May 22, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico joined other telescopes in North America, South America, Europe and Africa in simultaneously observing the same targets, simulating a telescope more than 6,800 miles (almost 11,000 kilometers) in diameter. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610154805.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611143818.htm NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket June 11. The spacecraft will study the highest-energy form of light, helping scientists to answer questions about supermassive black hole systems, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611143818.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080609124551.htm The sun has been lying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites. Periods of inactivity are normal, but this one has gone on longer than usual, scientists said recently. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080609124551.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604143416.htm Scientists working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have concocted an innovative recipe for giant telescope mirrors on the Moon. To make a mirror that dwarfs anything on Earth, just take a little bit of carbon, throw in some epoxy, and add lots of lunar dust. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604143416.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602153630.htm Astronomers have used ultrasharp images obtained with the Keck Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope to determine for the first time the masses of the coldest class of "failed stars," a.k.a. brown dwarfs. Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602153630.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603183811.htm Call it the case of the missing dwarf. A team of stellar astronomers is engaged in an interstellar CSI (crime scene investigation). They have two suspects, traces of assault and battery, but no corpse. The southern planetary nebula SuWt 2 is the scene of the crime, some 6,500 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Centaurus. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603183811.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604114644.htm Scientists are taking advantage of promising new ideas on where to search for possible extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy. They propose using the new Allen Telescope Array, made up of hundreds of specially produced small dishes to search for possible signals from technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in our galaxy. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604114644.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602230155.htm A new, simple method to learn about black holes up to eight billion light years away -- thousands of times farther away than black holes can be measured today -- has been developed. Astronomers and physicists have concluded that the larger the black hole at the center of a spiral galaxy, the tighter the galaxy's arms wrap around itself. If correct, the simple relationship would give researchers an easy way to learn about black holes. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602230155.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080529140048.htm GLAST will explore the universe's most extreme environments, searching for answers to long-standing questions about dark matter, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts. Scientists expect the orbiting telescope to detect thousands of hitherto unknown gamma-ray sources. With its extraordinary sensitivity and wide field-of-view, it is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory capable of scanning the entire sky every three hours on a daily basis. Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080529140048.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603160535.htm More than 800,000 snapshots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have been stitched together to create a new 'coming of age' portrait of stars in our inner Milky Way galaxy. Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603160535.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603160245.htm For decades, astronomers have been blind to what our galaxy, the Milky Way, really looks like. Now, new images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are shedding light on the true structure of the Milky Way, revealing that it has just two major arms of stars instead of the four it was previously thought to possess. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603160245.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602131105.htm Astronomers have discovered an extra-solar planet of about three earth masses orbiting a star with a mass so low that its core may not be massive enough to maintain nuclear reactions. The planet, referred to as MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, establishes a record for the lowest mass planet to orbit a normal star. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080602131105.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080530074246.htm NASA has selected six candidate mission proposals for further evaluation as part of the agency's Small Explorer (SMEX) Program. The proposals will study the far reaches of the universe, including the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere, the sun, black holes, the first stars, and Earthlike planets around nearby stars. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080530074246.htm