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Hubble finds a true blue planet

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have deduced the actual visible-light color of a planet orbiting another star 63 light-years away.

Jul 11th, 2013

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Sun's loops are displaying an optical illusion

To understand how the corona is heated, some astronomers study coronal loops. These structures are shaped like an upside-down U and show where magnetic field lines are funneling solar gases or plasma. Our best photos of the sun suggest that these loops are a constant width, like strands of rope. However, new work shows that this is an optical illusion; the loops are actually tapered, wider at the top and narrower at the ends. This finding has important implications for coronal heating.

Jul 9th, 2013

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Space-time is not the same for everyone

Before the Big Bang, space-time as we know it did not exist. So how was it born? The process of creating normal space-time from an earlier state dominated by quantum gravity has been studied for years by theorists at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. Recent analyses suggest a surprising conclusion: not all elementary particles are subject to the same space-time.

Jul 9th, 2013

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Detecting DNA in space

Researchers, in a step toward analyzing Mars for signs of life, find that gene-sequencing chip can survive space radiation.

Jul 9th, 2013

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Cosmic dust belts without dust

Six newly discovered debris disks not only are extremely cold, they also are lacking the characteristic dust which is always released when the rocks collide.

Jul 8th, 2013

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Feeding galaxy caught in distant searchlight by international research team

An international group of astronomers has spotted a distant galaxy hungrily snacking on nearby gas. The gas is seen to fall inward toward the galaxy, creating a flow that both fuels star formation and drives the galaxy's rotation. This is the best direct observational evidence so far supporting the theory that galaxies pull in and devour nearby material in order to grow and form stars.

Jul 5th, 2013

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At the foot of the Red Planet's giant volcano

Hundreds of individual lava flows are seen frozen in time on the flanks of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System. Images taken by ESA's Mars Express focus on the southeast segment of the giant volcano, which towers some 22 km above the surrounding plains.

Jul 4th, 2013

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New knowledge about early galaxies

The early galaxies of the universe were very different from today's galaxies. Using new detailed studies carried out with the ESO Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers, including members from the Niels Bohr Institute, have studied an early galaxy in unprecedented detail and determined a number of important properties such as size, mass, content of elements and have determined how quickly the galaxy forms new stars.

Jul 3rd, 2013

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