Stellary Starry Universe

 

Milky Way panorama assembled from 3,000 individual photographs.

 

 

Source: Space.com – click here for full article

 

 

The extreme conditions found around black holes and other very dense objects can be recreated in the laboratory with powerful lasers, physicists say.

BRISBANE: The extreme conditions found around black holes and other very dense objects can be recreated in the laboratory with powerful lasers, physicists say.

The technique may allow them to validate the computer models they use to interpret black hole data collected by space-based telescopes, such as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, according to a study published this week in Nature Physics. [...]

 

Source: Cosmos Online – click here for full article

 

 

It took 13 billion years to reach Earth, but astronomers have seen the light of an exploding mega-star that is the most distant object ever detected, two studies report.

 

 

Source: Cosmos Online – click here for full article

 

 

October 30, 2009: If you found your grandmother’s diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, and foray into her lively and interesting past.

Dust cloaks some fascinating tales in other places, too. NASA scientists will soon brush the dust off some Martian rocks that are practically bursting their seams to give their lively account of the red planet’s past. The Mars Science Lab — aptly named “Curiosity” — is heading up there in 2011 to read the diary of Mars.

The small, car-sized rover will ramble about on the rocky surface, gizmos at full tilt, not only brushing dust off rocks but also vaporizing them with a laser beam, gathering samples to analyze on the spot, taking high resolution photographs, and more. [...]

 

 

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article

 

 

It might not be obvious to the naked eye, but the sun is a variable star. A sensor slated for launch onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory will probe the sun’s "sneaky variability" with better time and spectral resolution than ever before.

October 27, 2009: Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun’s surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. Clouds of gas big enough to swallow planets break away from the sun and billow into space. It’s a flamboyant display of stellar power.

So why can’t we see any of it? [...]

 

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article