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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.
Watching a cannibal galaxy dineA new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT), allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail -- a smaller spiral galax …
Has Fermi Seen New Evidence for Dark Matter?In English: if the dark matter is a weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP), individual WIMPs should occsasionally annihilate with other WIMPs, giving off a bunch of particles, including electron/positron pairs as well as high-energy photons (gamma rays).
Western fireball may have been small asteroid"Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid.
ISS transits the Moon!That's the International Space Station crossing the face of the Moon, what astronomers call a transit (like an eclipse, but when something small goes in front of something big).
Rocket Lab primed to launch New Zealand's first rocket into spacePrivate New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab completed its final ground-based test today and is now ready to launch New Zealand into the space race with its Atea-1 launch vehicle
A faraway planet intrigues - which way does it go round it's star?Two teams of astronomers have found a planet outside the solar system that might be orbiting backwards compared to its star's rotation, a discovery that could shed light on how unique the relatively perfect alignment of our solar system is compared to that of other planetary sy …
Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universeSomething big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That's the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds.
Lithium clue for planet-hunters - stars with planets have less lithiumAstronomers may have found a way to identify those Sun-like stars most likely to harbour orbiting planets. A survey of stars known to possess planets shows the vast majority to be severely depleted in lithium.
Mining the Giant Molecular Cloud at Milky Way Core for Origins of LifeScientists are using the giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to prospect in Sagittarius B2(N), a giant molecular cloud near the center of our Galaxy, some 25,000 light-years from Earth for new, complex molecules in interstellar space that may be precursors to life.
NASA finds water on moonNASA says it has found a significant amount of frozen water on the moon.
An estimate of the chemical composition of Titan's lakesHundreds of radar-dark patches interpreted as lakes have been discovered in the north and south polar regions of Titan.
The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower"We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Our forecast is in good accord with independent theoretical work by other astronomers."
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.
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