News

The peculiar orbits of three planets looping around a faraway star can be explained only if an unseen fourth planet blundered through and knocked them out of their circular orbits, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern University. (sorry - body text too long for international translations - Ed.)

Many of us have observed M87 visually through our scopes. Here's a chance to peek a little deeper into what's actually going on... <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

The review is great but how does the scope stack up?

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 14, 2005 -- A University of California scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory working with astronomers from around the world recently validated a computer model that predicts the rebirth and stellar burning and mixing processes of evolved stars. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a completely new type of star cluster around a neighboring galaxy. The new-found clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, a similar number to the so-called globular star clusters which have long been familiar to astronomers. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope have tracked the motion of a violent region where the powerful winds of two giant stars slam into each other. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

This week's review contest winner takes a peek through the Orion F/6 Astroview 100mm EQ...

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates Earth in its infancy probably had substantial quantities of hydrogen in its atmosphere, a surprising finding that may alter the way many scientists think about how life began on the planet. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

Scientists at NASA and the University of Kansas say that a mass extinction on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago could have been triggered by a star explosion called a gamma-ray burst. The scientists do not have direct evidence that such a burst activated the ancient extinction. The strength of their work is their atmospheric modeling -- essentially a "what if" scenario. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope are taking advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch an old star suddenly stir back into new activity after coming to the end of its normal life. Their surprising results have forced them to change their ideas of how such an old, white dwarf star can re-ignite its nuclear furnace for one final blast of energy. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

Distant galaxies undergoing intense bursts of star formation have been shown by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to be fertile growing grounds for the largest black holes in the Universe. Collisions between galaxies in the early Universe may be the ultimate cause for both the accelerated star formation and black hole growth. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

The Celestron C130 5.1 inch Maksutov OTA makes a debut here in the AstroMart reviews and the author takes this week's prize.

The University of Maryland has posted a web page asking for amateur support on this mission. If you are an imager, you might want to give this a look. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

NASA and its partner, the Spaceward Foundation, today announced prizes totaling $400,000 for four prize competitions, the first under the agency's Centennial Challenges program. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

From time to time, we like to alert AstroMart members to interesting product releases and we are thrilled to announce an exciting newcomer to the ranks of telescope manufacturers...