Fermi's latest gamma-ray census highlights cosmic mysteries
(PhysOrg.com) -- Every three hours, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scans the entire sky and deepens its portrait of the high-energy universe. Every year, the satellite's scientists reanalyze...
View ArticleNASA's Dawn collects a bounty of beauty from Vesta
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new video from NASA's Dawn spacecraft takes us on a flyover journey above the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta.
View ArticleBeacons in space
Pulsars are among the most exotic objects in the universe. They resemble gigantic atomic nuclei and rotate around their own axis at an incredible speed. These cosmic beacons mark the end of massive...
View ArticleNew 2013 phases of the Moon animation released
(Phys.org)—A new animation highlighting the phases of the Moon has been released by the Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
View ArticleOpportunity rover finishes walkabout on Mars crater rim
(Phys.org)—The latest work assignment for NASA's long-lived Mars rover Opportunity is a further examination of an area where the robot just completed a walkabout.
View ArticleStanford researchers develop acrobatic space rovers to explore moons, asteroids
(Phys.org)—Stanford researchers, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have designed a robotic platform that could take space exploration...
View ArticlePulsar jackpot scours old data for new discoveries
Chalk another one up for Citizen Science. Earlier this month, researchers announced the discovery of 24 new pulsars. To date, thousands of pulsars have been discovered, but what's truly fascinating...
View ArticleA naked-eye comet invites itself to the March sky, 2013
It will appear in the West at sunset, from around the 8th to the 13th of March 2013, and will be visible to the naked eye up to the end of the month. Comet Pan-Starrs C/2011 L4 will traverse Cetus,...
View ArticleHow many planets are in the solar system?
I'm just going to warn you, this is a controversial topic. Some people get pretty grumpy when you ask: how many planets are in the Solar System? Is it eight, ten, or more?
View ArticleMusic of the spheres: Star Songs
(Phys.org) —Plato, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, described music and astronomy as "sister sciences" that both encompass harmonious motions, whether of instrument strings or celestial...
View ArticleThe sun also flips: 11-year solar cycle wimpy, but peaking
(Phys.org) —In a 3-meter diameter hollow aluminum sphere, Cary Forest, a UW-Madison physics professor, is stirring and heating plasmas to 500,000 degrees Fahrenheit to experimentally mimic the magnetic...
View ArticleTriple millisecond pulsar laboratory challenges theory
(Phys.org) —Millisecond pulsars are old neutron stars, which rotate several hundred times per second. They are often found in binary systems and their existence can be explained by mass transfer from a...
View ArticleHubble images become tactile 3-D experience for the blind
(Phys.org) —Three-dimensional printers are transforming the business, medical, and consumer landscape by creating a vast variety of objects, including airplane parts, football cleats, lamps, jewelry,...
View ArticleSwift catches X-ray action at Milky Way's center
(Phys.org) —Recent observations by NASA's Swift spacecraft have provided scientists a unique glimpse into the activity at the center of our galaxy and led to the discovery of a rare celestial entity...
View ArticleExplainer: What makes the spring equinox?
It's the time of the equinox or more specifically the spring equinox for us in the southern hemisphere.
View ArticleEurope set to make space history with comet landing
One of the biggest gambles in space history comes to a climax on Wednesday when Europe attempts to make the first-ever landing on a comet.
View ArticleHow a giant impact formed asteroid Vesta's 'belt'
When NASA's Dawn spacecraft visited the asteroid Vesta in 2011, it showed that deep grooves that circle the asteroid's equator like a cosmic belt were probably caused by a massive impact on Vesta's...
View ArticleThe cosmos is green: Researchers catch nature in the act of 'recycling' a...
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, researchers have observed a singular cosmic act of rebirth: the transformation of an ordinary, slow-rotating pulsar into a superfast millisecond pulsar with an...
View ArticleAstronomers unveil an amazing, interactive, 360-degree panoramic view of the...
(PhysOrg.com) -- The first of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new magnificent 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO's observing sites in Chile — has just been...
View Articlee-Infrastructures give real boost to virtual observatories
(PhysOrg.com) -- New tools and systems developed by European researchers are helping astronomers access data centres from anywhere in the world. From charting new stars to finding new meaning in old...
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