News

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

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...

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

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...

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

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...

Sharpless 140 and NGC300 in all their glory

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.

Looking for a very cool astronomical education site for kids? One that even adults will be mesmerized by? The recently unveiled “Cool Cosmos” portal is involving students in science with multi-disciplinary educational materials produced with the goal of engaging the young minds of future generations of scientists.

Author, observer and imager Chris Schur made the Astronomical Picture of the Day for May 12th, 2004 with a beautiful shot of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)

Scientists to persuade reluctant fermions to bury the hatchet.

Astronomers may not have observed the fabled "Stairway to Heaven," but they have photographed something almost as intriguing: ladder-like structures surrounding a dying star. A new image, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals startling new details of one of the most unusual nebulae known in our Milky Way. Cataloged as HD 44179, this nebula is more commonly called the "Red Rectangle" because of its unique shape and color as seen with ground-based telescopes.