The Well Balanced Universe

 

Astronomy News

2010

The Hubble imageDeepest Hubble image surprises astronomers
The Hubble Space Telescope has made the deepest image of the universe ever by using near-infrared light. The light from the furthest objects in the image has taken an incredible 13.1 billion years to reach us, a mere 600 million years after the Big Bang. 15 Feb 2010

Millions of hours of expensive supercomputer time used to prop up big bang model.
By making computer simulations of cosmic explosions big enough and frequent enough it was possible to generate galaxies with substantially lower densities at their cores, closely matching the observed properties of dwarf galaxies. 12 Feb 2010

SaturnHubble captures stunning images of double aurora on Saturn.
Stunning new images taken by the Hubble space telescope have given a once in a lifetime view of the fluttering aurorae that light up both of Saturn's poles. The observations have allowed researchers to monitor the behaviour of both Saturn's poles in the same shot over a sustained period of time. 12 Feb 2010

New views of Orion Nebula
New images taken by the world's largest infrared telescope have revealed new details of the Orion Nebula. The images taken by the European Southern Observatory's new VISTA survey telescope reveal many of its hidden secrets.

An artists impression of the black holeFurthest stellar mass black hole ever found
Astronomers have detected a stellar-mass black hole much farther away than any other previously known — 6 million light years. With a mass above fifteen times that of the Sun, this is also the second most massive stellar-mass black hole ever found. 12 Feb 2010

2009

Go out and see Comet Lulin!
Comet Lulin is currently moving past the bright star Spica in Virgo and is just about visible with the unaided eye from a dark-sky site. Its brightness will peak on 24 February. 17 February 2009

Cosmologists simulate early universe
Scientists have used a computer simulation to predict what the very early Universe could have appeared like 500 million years after a big bang. 
The images, produced by scientists at Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology, show the formation of the first big galaxies in the Universe. 12 February 2009

Astronomers discover cosmic dust fountain
Astronomers at the University of Toledo have observed a double-star system that displays all the characteristics that astronomers suspect are associated with dust production. 12 Feb 2009

NASA's great observatories celebrate International Year of Astronomy
In conjunction with Galileo's birthday on Feb. 15, NASA is releasing images from its Great Observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory — to more than 100 planetariums, museums, nature centres, and schools across the US. 12 February 2009

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