May 31
A new stellar population in globulars
Globular cluster, enormous
groupings of hundreds of
thousands of stars, that
preferentially populate the
outer regions of our galaxy
and many others, are amongst
the most ancient structures
in the
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May 27
Mission over for Spirit
It was supposed to remain
operational for only 90
days, but instead it worked
for over 6 years, producing
a huge quantity of images
and data that will be the
subject of study for a long
time to come. An
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May 26
A solitary super-star in the
Tarantula
An enormous star, 150 times more massive than the Sun, has been discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it appears to be alone, with no other stars in its vicinity. This is very unusual, because
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May 25
Student finds some missing mass
By re-reducing data
contained in the ROSAT
All-Sky Survey, of an area
including the 2 degree Field
Galaxy Redshift Survey
(2dFGRS), Jasmina
Lazendic-Galloway, Amelia
Fraser-McKelvie and Kevin
Pimbblet
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May 24
V1, the star that enlarged the Universe
A collaboration between the
Space Telescope Science
Institute and the American
Association of Variable Star
Observers (AAVSO) has
produced a series of
observations of the variable
star "V1", that
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May 23
The Jets of Centaurus A in high resolution
Using a network of 9 radio
telescopes called TANAMI
(Tracking Active Galactic
Nuclei with Austral
Milliarcsecond
Interferometry) a group of
researchers, led by Cornelia
Mueller (University of
Erlangen
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May 19
A multitude of planets without stars
The existence of vagabond planets, that have lost the gravitational link with their host star after an interaction within the planetary system, now seems certain. What still remains very uncertain is how
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May 18
A new look at planet Gliese 581 d
The planetary system around
the star Gliese 581, just 20
light years away, finds
itself ever more at the
centre of attention of
astronomers in search of
planets that could support
life. In 2007 two planets
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May 17
The Anthropocene: really an epoch?
That a planet can conserve
traces of long extinct life
is clear from the presence
of fossils on the Earth.
Many have searched for
evidence of some kind of
fossil also on Mars, and in
the future we hope to
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May 16
Green Bank Telescope looks for ET
The impressive list of
planet candidates created by
NASA's Kepler space
telescope, 1235 to date, has
given new impetus to the
search for life in the
Cosmos. Recently, the Allen
Telescope Array (ATA),
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May 13
The crystalline surface of Haumea
Haumea is one of the four dwarf planets so far discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune; the others are Pluto, Eris and Makemake. There are other candidates, such as Quaoar, but it seems that this is too
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May 12
The first image of Vesta from Dawn
NASA's Dawn probe has
started "setting its sights"
for its forthcoming
rendez-vous with Vesta (the
second largest asteroid) set
for 16th July 2011, when
both objects will be 188
million km from the Earth.
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May 11
Unexpected isotopes in the solar wind
The first findings of NASA's Genesis probe have just been published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", and the results are surprising.
The mission involved the launch of a probe
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May 10
2010 SO16, a relic of the Earth
Observations continue of an unusual, small asteroid, 2010 SO16, discovered by the infrared satellite WISE. Because of its large proper motion (left), the magnitude 20.7 object was immediately classed
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May 9
The most ancient mineral
Once again a new mineral has
been discovered in a
meteorite. The last example
was "Wassonite", made up of
sulphur and titanium, found
in an Antarctic chondrite.
The new mineral, called
"Krotite" (in
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May 6
Comet Elenin: will it be spectacular?
Of all the comets that reach
naked eye visibility, the
most spectacular are the
long period comets, coming
from the remotest parts of
our solar system, well
beyond the orbit of the most
distant planet.
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May 5
Gravity Probe B confirms Einstein
"Imagine the Earth as if it
were immersed in honey. As
the planet rotated on its
axis and orbited the Sun,
the honey around it would
warp and swirl, and it's the
same with space and time."
This is how
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May 4
IceCube detects cosmic ray sources
As mentioned in a previous
news article, the neutrino
observatory IceCube,
situated in the
Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Station, has been fully
operational since last
December and its results are
being
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May 3
Hale-Bopp photographed at 30.7 AU!
Who doesn't remember that magnificent comet that lit up the skies during the first months of 1997, becoming one of the most spectacular of the last century? It was comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1), and
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May 2
Crater chains on Mercury
Images of Mercury's surface
continue to arrive from
NASA's MESSENGER probe
(MErcury Surface, Space
ENvironment, GEochemistry,
and Ranging), after reaching
stable orbit about
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