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Rudimentary telescopes, celestial globes and original manuscripts by Galileo are going on view at the Vatican Museums as part of an exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of the astronomer's first celestial observations.
Pope Benedict XVI is marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope.
Astronomers are scratching their heads over what produced SN 2006gy, which is two to three times brighter than the previous record holder for the brightest supernova (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M Weiss)
YOU would think that right after the big bang, the universe would have been pretty hot. In fact it looks like things were a lot cooler than you might imagine.
The galaxy cluster Abell 520 has a massive dark core filled with hot gas (red) and dark matter (blue) but empty of bright galaxies (yellow and orange), suggesting that when the original clusters collided, their dark matter was stripped out (Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UVic./A.Mahdavi et al. Optical/Lensing: CFHT/UVic./A.Mahdavi et al.)
TrES-4 orbits a star bigger and hotter than the Sun. The planet's large size and low density suggests its atmosphere may be escaping into space, leaving a comet-like tail around the planet (Illustration: Jeffrey Hall/Lowell Observatory)
Dark energy is so befuddling that it's causing some physicists to do their science backwards.
Over time, matter pulls together into a web-like structure of 'superclusters' of galaxies, leaving ever larger voids behind. The greater rate of expansion in the voids – which make up a larger fraction of the universe's volume – may account for the observations usually attributed to dark energy (Illustration: Center for Cosmological Physics/U Chicago)
When nuclear reactions of carbon in the core of the white dwarf star become increasingly vigorous, the nuclear burning spikes towards the surface of the star in one second 'like one of those lava lamps from the 1970s', say the researchers (Illustration: Lamb group/U of Chicago)
The LIGO project's two observatories, including this one in Hanford, Washington, US, will join forces with the Virgo observatory in Italy and Germany's GEO 600 to hunt for gravitational waves (Image: LIGO Laboratory)
A map of the cosmic microwave background made by NASA's WMAP satellite shows density fluctuations in the early universe – regions of higher density were slightly warmer than voids. Similar maps by Planck may reveal the existence and shape of extra spatial dimensions (Image: NASA/WMAP Science Team)
Protons accelerated by our black hole's magnetic fields slam into nearby hot gas (red), producing high-energy gamma rays (Image: NASA/CXC/MIT/F K Baganoff et al)
The 6-light-year-wide Crab Nebula was created by a star that blew up nearly 1000 years ago, leaving behind an unusual neutron star that may boast four magnetic poles (Image: NASA/ESA/J Hester/A Loll/ASU)
The brightest supernova ever seen appears as a dark spot (arrow) in this negative infrared image taken by the Palomar 5-metre telescope. The other dark spot at centre is the host galaxy’s core (Image: E Ofek et al/Caltech/Palomar Observatory)
Saturn’s rings glow especially bright in this enhanced-colour mosaic from the Cassini spacecraft, assembled from images taken while the Sun was hidden behind Saturn itself (Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
Jets emerge from the vicinity of a black hole or neutron star, which orbits a massive regular star in the LS 5039 system. Some of the gamma rays produced in the system are transformed into particles of matter and antimatter through collisions with ultraviolet photons (Illustration: HESS Collaboration/R Hynes)
The moon has very little atmosphere, and lots of dust. Those are some of the things being considered this week at the home of the Hubble Space Telescope, where astronomers are discussing the opportunities offered by NASA's plan to return to the moon, including the possibility of a telescope on the lunar surface.
The large bright glow in this simulation represents the colossal halo of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way as it was about 3.4 billion years ago. Smaller clumps of dark matter are also visible because they do not merge into larger structures. Curiously, many of these small clumps do not seed dwarf galaxies. The image shows a region of space about 2.6 million light years across (Illustration: J Diemand/M Kuhlen/P Madau/UCSC)
Matter can stably orbit closer to a spinning black hole, right, than a non-spinning one, left (Illustration: NASA/CXC/M Weiss)
Some of the most distant galaxies ever seen appear in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field North, a portion of which is shown here. If a new servicing mission is approved, a new instrument called the Wide Field Camera 3 would spot galaxies even more distant, and therefore further back in time (Image: NASA/ESA/S Beckwith/HUDF team)
The star V838 Monocerotis brightened in a peculiar outburst in 2002. An expanding "light echo" illuminates dust surrounding the star, highlighting more distant regions as time goes on. This latest view from Hubble was taken on 9 September (Image: NASA/ESA/H Bond/STScI)
The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.
A NASA spacecraft bound for Mars is nearing the end of its seven-month journey but still faces a white-knuckle arrival at a planet known for swallowing scientific probes, mission managers said Friday.
Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet.
Leonid meteor shower set to punctuate night skies, including Sacramento'sA cosmic light show is expected this week with the return of the annual Leonid meteor shower in the night sky.
Unusual meteorite found by time-lapse camera observatoryAn unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs traveling across the sky.
Happy Carl Sagan Day!Welcome to the home of Carl Sagan Day. This November 7, 2009, we will celebrate the life and contributions of the great astronomer, author, and philosopher, Carl Sagan, on the 75th anniversary of his birth.
Shedding Light On The Cosmic SkeletonAstronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us.
WirelessTech Taking a Toll on Earth Science and AstronomyNearly lost amidst the breathless anticipation of all things wireless...is the potential impact these gadgets may have on scientific instruments that likewise need access to the electromagnetic spectrum.
Sacred studiesJim Krehbiel was up past midnight making a piece of art by layering maps and field notes onto photos he had taken of an ancient ritual site high on a cliff ledge in the desert Southwest.
GRB Burst Tests Special RelativityGamma ray bursts (GRBs) are much in the news. GRB 090423 turns out to be the most distant explosion ever observed, an event that occurred a scant 630 million years after the Big Bang.
Pope: faith and reason complementaryVATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI said Friday that faith and science are both necessary for the full understanding of mankind and its place in the universe.
GREENBELT, MD - A new skymap has been produced that allows astronomers a powerful tool to study and more accurately juxtapose the various celestial objects that comprise the known universe.
Although the title and advance news of this latest book by Andrew Collins promotes the discovery of a vast cave network beneath the Giza plain, in fact that part of the book is just one section of the volume.
Saturn at equinox - The Big PictureChecking in with NASA's Cassini spacecraft, our current emissary to Saturn, some 1.5 billion kilometers (932 million miles) distant from Earth, we find it recently gathering images of the Saturnian system at equinox.
Buzz Aldrin: Mr. President, will you lead us to greatness in space?The roadmap is now complete. Today the commission formed to provide President Barack Obama with a series of potential pathways to America's future in space has delivered its final report.
Scientists announce planet bountyAstronomers find 32 new planets outside our Solar System, taking the number of known "exoplanets" to more than 400.
Jupiter Moon's Ocean Could Be Rich in OxygenResearchers hunting for signs of life beyond Earth have long been drawn to Europa because several features of the moon's icy surface — including its bright color, networks of long fractures and crater-free terrain — suggest that the moon contains a vast ocean buried under t …
Mysterious 'star-like luminary' amazes onlookers worldwideSomething is being spotted in the sky, and it defies conventional logic.
Saturn's moon is new Lord of the RingsStunned astronomers have discovered that a small, distant moon of Saturn has the largest ring in the solar system.
Astronomy magazine celebrates its new observatory"With the completion of its observatory in the mountains of New Mexico, Astronomy magazine takes a step forward in its ability to remotely observe and image the sky."
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | The 'first true scientist'By Professor Jim Al-Khalili University of Surrey Isaac Newton is, as most will agree, the greatest physicist of all time.
17th-century Brueghel paintings trace the early, mysterious history of the telescopeThanks to the much-heralded International Year of Astronomy, this much we know: Galileo used a telescope to observe the moon in 1609.
Seeing Stars: A New Observatory at Primland ResortFrom the post: "Standing in the dome, as it whirred and moved around us and as the telescope rotated, looking for a spot in the sky, I felt at once the small and massive scale of me and the universe.
Rare Space Object Discovered by High Schooler Major breakthroughs in astronomy aren't only reserved for professional scientists, as proven by a high school student who recently helped discover a new astronomical object. In March 2009, West Virginia student Lucas Bolyard came across the signature of the object while working …
Rare Space Object Discovered by High School StudentMajor breakthroughs in astronomy aren't only reserved for professional scientists, as proven by a high school student who recently helped discover a new astronomical object.
Stream of Evidence from 3 Spacecraft Indicates That the Moon Has WaterA hotly anticipated experiment will test the theory next month that the moon's permanently shadowed polar craters harbor pockets of water ice.
Scientists track meteor from sky to Australian desertWest Australian scientists have used photos of 'fireballs' in the night sky to track down a rare meteorite which is expected to provide clues into the turbulent origins of the universe.
Why is Mars Red? New Study Offers SurprisesIs Mars red due to rocks being rusted by the water that once flooded the red planet? And is the only explanation for the hematite found by Mars orbiters and studied by the Mars Exploration rovers is that water once was present in volumes on Mars? Not necessarily, says a new study.
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