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Raw Ingredients for Life Detected in Planetary Construction Zones

05/29/2004 07:00AM

Raw Ingredients for Life Detected in Planetary Construction Zones

NASA has announced new findings from the Spitzer Space Telescope, including the discovery of significant amounts of icy organic materials sprinkled throughout several "planetary construction zones," or dusty planet-forming discs, which circle infant stars.

Milky Way Churning Out New Stars at a Furious Pace

05/28/2004 07:00AM

Milky Way Churning Out New Stars at a Furious Pace

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found in RCW49 more than 300 newborn or 'protostars,' all with circumstellar disks of dust and gas. The discovery reveals that galaxies make new stars at a much more prolific rate than previously imagined. The stelar disks of dust and gas not only feed material onto the growing new stars, but can be the raw material for new planetary systems.

Saturn Seen From Far and Near

05/27/2004 07:00AM

Saturn Seen From Far and Near

Cassini vs. Hubble in a no-holds-barred battle for the Ringed Beauty.

Chandra reveals two faces of supernova power

05/26/2004 07:00AM

Chandra reveals two faces of supernova power

The NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory image of SNR 0540-69.3 clearly shows two aspects of the enormous power released when a massive star explodes. An implosion crushed material into an extremely dense (10 miles in diameter) neutron star, triggering an explosion that sent a shock wave rumbling through space at speeds in excess of 5 million mph.

Calling All Bounty Hunters!

05/25/2004 07:00AM

Calling All Bounty Hunters!

Amateur asteroid chasers could get paid. House passes bill calling for awards of $3,000...

Anacortes Telescope Wins the National Meade Dealer Astronomy Day Outreach Contest!

05/25/2004 07:00AM

Anacortes Telescope Wins the National Meade Dealer Astronomy Day Outreach Contest!

Dear Herb, Ray, and the entire Anacortes Telescope & Wild Bird Staff...

Gravity Probe B reaches one-month milestone

05/25/2004 07:00AM

Gravity Probe B reaches one-month milestone

One month into the Gravity Probe B mission — a NASA experiment to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity — all spacecraft subsystems continue to perform well, and the spacecraft orbit is stable. . Gravity Probe B is managed by the Marshall Center...

M87 in a whole new light

05/24/2004 07:00AM

M87 in a whole new light

Thanks to new images by the Chandra X-ray observatory, the giant galaxy's violent past comes into focus...

Chandra Opens New Line Of Investigation On Dark Energy

05/23/2004 07:00AM

Chandra Opens New Line Of Investigation On Dark Energy

Astronomers have detected and probed dark energy by applying a powerful, new method that uses images of galaxy clusters made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The results trace the transition of the expansion of the universe from a decelerating to an accelerating phase several billion years ago...

Rocky Chameleons

05/21/2004 07:00AM

Rocky Chameleons

University of Hawaii Astronomer and Colleagues Find Evidence That Asteroids Change Color as They Age

Theory proposes new view of sun and Earth's creation

05/21/2004 07:00AM

Theory proposes new view of sun and Earth's creation

Like most creation stories, this one is dramatic: we began, not as a mere glimmer buried in an obscure cloud, but instead amidst the glare and turmoil of restless giants...

Starship 2040

05/20/2004 07:00AM

Starship 2040

NASA's futuristic starship 2040 to visit Great Meadow, The Plains, Va., May 22, during world's largest model rocket competition

Published Paper Probes Pulsar Pair

05/19/2004 07:00AM

Published Paper Probes Pulsar Pair

A pulsar works like a lighthouse, in which the light may be on all the time, but it appears to blink on and off. Scientists were surprised to find that the B pulsar is on only at certain locations in its orbit. "It's as though something is turning B on and off...

NASA Spitzer Shares The Wealth

05/18/2004 07:00AM

NASA Spitzer Shares The Wealth

Sharpless 140 and NGC300 in all their glory

A 500 megapixel CCD Camera?

05/15/2004 07:00AM

A 500 megapixel CCD Camera?

If approved, the Dark Energy Survey would measure the history of the expansion rate of the universe more precisely than ever before, using the largest camera ever built with Charge Coupled Devices (CCD). The 500 megapixel Dark Energy Camera would be placed on an existing 4-meter telescope located in north-central Chile at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.