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CSI: Milky Way

There is growing evidence that several million years ago the center of the Milky Way galaxy was site of all manner of celestial fireworks and a pair of astronomers from Vanderbilt and Georgia Institute of Technology propose that a single event - a black hole collision - can explain all the "forensic" clues.

Mar 1st, 2013

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Young protoplanet discovered?

Exoplanet researchers and cosmologists from ETH Zurich have discovered an object that could be a planet in the making. It would be the first time that scientists have succeeded in observing this process.

Feb 28th, 2013

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Impact craters may have been cradles of life

Even comparatively small meteorite impact craters may have played a key role in the origin and evolution of early life on Earth, according to a researcher at The University of Western Australia.

Feb 26th, 2013

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Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars

Even dying stars could host planets with life - and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarf stars. Researchers found that we could detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf's planet much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star.

Feb 26th, 2013

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Journey to the limits of spacetime (w/video)

Black holes shape the growth and death of the stars around them through their powerful gravitational pull and explosive ejections of energy. In a recent Science paper, researchers predicted the formation of accretion disks and relativistic jets that warp and bend more than previously thought, shaped by the extreme gravity of the black hole and by powerful magnetic forces generated by its spin.

Feb 21st, 2013

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Asteroids no match for paint gun, says Prof (w/video)

There is research that is off the wall, some off the charts and some off the planet, such as what an aerospace and physics professor is exploring. It's a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint, and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid, so to speak, so much so that NASA is getting involved and wants to know much more.

Feb 21st, 2013

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Discovering the birth of an asteroid trail

Unlike comets, asteroids are not characterised by exhibiting a trail, but there are now ten exceptions. Spanish researchers have observed one of these rare asteroids from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (Spain) and have discovered that something happened around the 1st July 2011 causing its trail to appear: maybe internal rupture or collision with another asteroid.

Feb 21st, 2013

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A cool discovery about out Sun's next-door twin

ESA's Herschel space observatory has detected a cool layer in the atmosphere of Alpha Centauri A, the first time this has been seen in a star beyond our own Sun. The finding is not only important for understanding the Sun's activity, but could also help in the quest to discover proto-planetary systems around other stars.

Feb 21st, 2013

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