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Complex Computer Code for 3D Simulations of Supernovae

Two University of Texas at Arlington researchers want to bridge the gap between what is known about exploding stars and the remnants left behind thousands of years later. So they're trying something new – using SNSPH, a complex computer code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

9 Jan 2013

Astronomers Identify New ‘Bone’ Structure in the Milky Way

Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy - a pinwheel-shaped collection of stars, gas and dust. It has a central bar and two major spiral arms that wrap around its disk. Since we view the Milky Way from the inside, its exact structure is difficult to determine.

9 Jan 2013

Wind-Driven, Planet-Sized Clouds Enshroud Brown Dwarfs

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have probed the stormy atmosphere of a brown dwarf, creating the most detailed "weather map" yet for this class of cool, star-like orbs. The forecast shows wind-driven, planet-sized clouds enshrouding these strange worlds.

9 Jan 2013

Mysterious Planet Circling Fomalhaut May Provide Evidence of Titanic Planetary Disruption

Newly released Hubble Space Telescope images of a vast debris disk encircling the nearby star Fomalhaut, and of a mysterious planet circling it, may provide forensic evidence of a titanic planetary disruption in the system.

9 Jan 2013

Big Bang’s Left Over Photons May Help Understand the Universe’s Beginning

Where do we come from? What is the universe made of? Will the universe exist only for a finite time or will it last forever? These are just some of the questions that University of California, San Diego physicists are working to answer in the high desert of northern Chile. Armed with a massive 3.5 meter (11.5 foot) diameter telescope designed to measure space-time fluctuations produced immediately after the Big Bang, the research team will soon be one step closer to understanding the origin of the universe. The Simons Foundation has recently awarded the team a $4.3 million grant to build and install two more telescopes. Together, the three telescopes will be known as the Simons Array.

9 Jan 2013

Fast Moving Particles Jet from Neutron Star Featured in NASA Movie

Unlike with some blockbuster films, the sequel to a movie from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is better than the first. This latest movie features a deeper look at a fast moving jet of particles produced by a rapidly rotating neutron star, and may provide new insight into the nature of some of the densest matter in the universe.

8 Jan 2013

Brilliant Glow of Black Holes Lurking Inside Spiral Galaxy Caught by NuSTAR

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, set its X-ray eyes on a spiral galaxy and caught the brilliant glow of two black holes lurking inside.

8 Jan 2013

Radio Wave Technique to Detect Dusty Clouds and Stars

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is a wondrous place full of huge star clusters, dust clouds, magnetic filaments and a supermassive black hole. But it can be a confusing place, too, posing challenges to astronomers trying to image these exotic features and learn more about where they are located in the galaxy.

8 Jan 2013

Enormous Black Hole behind Ancient Gamma-Ray Outburst

In 2011, a months-long blast of energy launched by an enormous black hole almost 11 billion years ago swept past Earth. Using a combination of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the world's largest radio telescope, astronomers have zeroed in on the source of this ancient outburst.

8 Jan 2013

Progress in Resolving Dirac Equation on Particles

In 1928 the British physicist Paul Dirac put forward one of the fundamental equations that we use today to mathematically describe a spin ½ particle from a relativistic point of view.The mathematical representation that Dirac came up with enables certain particles, including the electron, to be better understood.Nevertheless, much more remains to be discovered.

8 Jan 2013