astronomy

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Comet Far Brighter Than Moon on Its Way

ISON should be easy to spot in daylight

(Newser) - Peer at the night sky just over a year from now, and you may spot a comet that's 15 times brighter than the moon. Comet ISON, due to be at its brightest on Nov. 28, 2013, will be so luminous that you should be able to see it in...

Jupiter Takes New Hit for the Team

 Jupiter Takes New Hit 
 for the Team 
in case you missed it
Sep 15, 2012 12:43 PM CDT

Jupiter Takes New Hit for the Team

Flash believed to be collision with asteroid or comet

(Newser) - For the third time in four years, Jupiter appears to have been hit by something big enough to have done a lot of damage to our planet or any other unlucky enough to be in its way. A flash on Jupiter captured by amateur astronomers is believed to have been...

Don't Forget: Blue Moon Tonight

Sorry, it won't be blue, though

(Newser) - A reminder for those who missed it: A blue moon will grace the skies tonight, although Space.com has a primer for those who might be mistakenly expecting a change in the moon's color. While dust particles in the atmosphere can in fact make the moon at times appear...

Strange New Kind of Galaxy Spotted

Infrared survey uncovers 'menagerie of hidden objects'

(Newser) - After two years of scanning the night sky, NASA's WISE infrared telescope has spotted millions of supermassive black holes and a type of galaxy never seen before. The hot, dust-obscured galaxies—hot DOGs—are very rare. Each emits as much light as 100 trillion suns, hidden behind a vast...

Cosmic Mystery: Why Is the Sun So Round?

It's one of the roundest objects ever measured

(Newser) - The sun is round... too round, say scientists. The giant star that bathes us in light is one of the most perfectly round objects ever measured. If it were shrunk to the size of a beach ball, the difference between the sun's widest and thinnest diameters would be slighter...

Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

It should be a great show this year

(Newser) - It's time for the annual Perseid meteor shower, and this year's will be especially good. A waning crescent moon means that the moon won't block viewing, and the peak is on tonight—so go ahead and stay up late to watch. Between midnight and dawn, about 80...

Oldest Spiral Galaxy Shocks Astronomers

'Grand-design' spiral formed only 3B years after Big Bang

(Newser) - An ancient galaxy has flabbergasted astronomers. The perfectly formed spiral galaxy was born eons ago, a mere 3 billion years after the Big Bang. But this galaxy type was considered impossible so early on, when the cosmos was too chaotic to mold a "grand-design" spiral. How did it appear?...

Moon No. 5 Found for Pluto
 Moon No. 5 Found for Pluto 
Jul 12, 2012 5:33 AM CDT

Moon No. 5 Found for Pluto

Just 6 miles across, P5 is Pluto's smallest moon yet

(Newser) - It's not a chapter in the Twilight series, but it is a new moon: astronomers have discovered a tiny fifth satellite revolving around distant Pluto, reports Space.com . One year after P4 was announced, now the Hubble Telescope has spied a fifth moon. Pluto's biggest moon, Charon, is...

How to Watch Tonight's Asteroid Flyby

Huge near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1 is approaching

(Newser) - An unusually large and bright asteroid will fly by Earth tonight, and astronomers believe it will come close enough to be caught on camera, Space.com reports. 2012 LZ1, which was only discovered this week, is between 1,000 and 2,300 feet wide and, at its closest, is expected...

Japanese Team Spots 'Oldest Galaxy'

Astronomers believe galaxy is nearly 13 billion years old

(Newser) - A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, light was apparently emitted that has now been detected by Japanese astronomers using telescopes at the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano. The team says the galaxy is 12.91 billion light years away and is the oldest one...

Venus Making Its Sun Transit
 Venus Making Its Sun Transit 
Jun 5, 2012 7:53 PM CDT

Venus Making Its Sun Transit

It's the last time this century

(Newser) - Some nice images are coming in from the rare pass of Venus in front of the sun, and NASA TV is covering the event live here . MSNBC is rounding up other images here . If you missed the anticipatory buzz, know that this won't happen again for about 100 years.

What We Can Learn From Venus' Transit

Phenomenon could help us identify exoplanets

(Newser) - Astronomers have identified some 2,000 possible far-off worlds called exoplanets, and today could mark a milestone in the quest to confirm their findings. The transit of Venus across the sun could help us learn about the changes in light caused by a planet passing its star—and this knowledge...

How to Watch Today's Transit of Venus

Last time until 2117

(Newser) - Tuesday night Bingo will have to wait: Barring the discovery of some fountain of youth, today is the last chance you'll get to watch the second planet cross the sun in a simple, twice-a-century phenomenon called the transit of Venus. All the usual rules apply, notes the Wall Street ...

Venus to Cross Sun for Last Time This Century

 Venus to Cross 
 Sun for Last Time 
 This Century 
in case you missed it
Jun 2, 2012 12:43 PM CDT

Venus to Cross Sun for Last Time This Century

Transit occurs Tuesday; next one in 2117

(Newser) - This Tuesday, Venus will move between the Earth and the sun—and you may want to catch it now, because you probably won't be around when it happens again in 2117. The event will be visible throughout the US shortly before sunset. On the East Coast, you'll want...

Bye-Bye, Milky Way —in Just 4B Years

Andromeda galaxy will smash into it

(Newser) - Our Milky Way is on a crash course with the (relatively) nearby Andromeda galaxy, and the two are scheduled to smash into each other—in just 4 billion years, reports the Christian Science Monitor . Actually, the two galaxies will collide three times over the following 2 billion years, eventually forming...

White Dwarfs Yield Key to Age of Ancient Stars

Astronomer used white dwarfs to calculate age of Milky Way's inner halo

(Newser) - Accurately measuring the age of low-mass, hydrogen burning stars is notoriously difficult, but now astronomers say they have come up with a technique for measuring those difficult stars using white dwarfs, reports the LA Times . A white dwarf is a star that has burned through all of its hydrogen, shed...

Check Out Last Night's Supermoon

Biggest full moon of the year

(Newser) - Last night brought this year's "supermoon," the point in which the moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit. The moon was some 15,300 miles closer to us than usual, making it look about 14% bigger, an expert tells the AP . Unfortunately, "you'd...

&#39;Supermoon&#39; Coming Saturday

 Don't Forget:  
 'Supermoon' 
 Tonight 
in case you missed it
May 5, 2012 6:56 AM CDT

Don't Forget: 'Supermoon' Tonight

It occurs when the moon is nearest Earth in its orbit

(Newser) - The biggest and brightest full moon of the year will grace the skies tonight. The "supermoon," which occurs when the moon is nearest Earth in its orbit, will appear only slightly smaller than last year's, which was the brightest full moon in nearly 20 years. It will...

New California Gold Rush: Searching for Meteorite Bits

Ancient space rock can fetch $1K a gram

(Newser) - The fireball that exploded over California last week did more than just produce a window-shaking sonic boom—it also scattered pieces of meteorite over, fittingly enough, a 30-square-mile portion of the state's Gold Country region. News of the extremely rare type of space rock sent scientists and treasure hunters...

Astronomer Gets Cameron to Re-Shoot Titanic Scene

Stars were in wrong positions

(Newser) - Remember the scene in Titanic in which Kate Winslet clings to a piece of wood, promising Leonardo DiCaprio that she'll "never let go?" (And then she lets go?) Well, apparently, the stars shown in the night sky during that scene were all wrong. But never fear: James Cameron...

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