01.06.10: Do Primordial Magnetic Fields Roam the Cosmos?

 
   NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have uncovered a new high energy mystery. Like our own Earth, galaxies and even large scale galaxy clusters have magnetic fields shrouding them. The fields of mature galaxies such as our own Milky Way should have been seeded during the early formation of their weaker ancient counterparts. Perhaps [...]

23.05.10-Are Black Holes the Key to Dark Matter?

An artist’s conception of a gas torus surrounding a super-massive black hole. (Credit: V.Beckmann/NASA).
   For the past few decades, astronomers have been hot on the trail of the “missing” part of our universe. About 23 percent of our universe appears to be comprised of dark matter, non-luminous material that gives itself away only via gravitational interaction. [...]

12.05.10- White Dwarf Lite?

 
 
   The Kepler space telescope may have bagged an unexpected prize during its hunt for exo-planets. Along with five published exoplanets illustrated above, Kepler snared two potentially bizarre objects. Dubbed KOI (Kepler Objects of Interest) -81 and 74, these companions actually appear dimmer passing behind the parent star rather than in front of it. This suggests a [...]

02.05.10- Star-birth in the Early Universe.

A comparision of an ancient spiral galaxy in visible (left) and Infrared (right).
   Astronomers are shedding new light across the spectrum on an old cosmological mystery. It’s well documented that the rate of star formation today is much less than what it was early on in the history of the universe; what isn’t completely understood is [...]

24.04.10-Our Existence: Justified.

 Earth: Safe & Sound?
   The formation of the Earth poses a key dilemma to planetary accretionary theory; namely, why are we here at all? Standard models would say that the Earth and other planets coalesced out of the proto-solar nebula to form. However, spiral density waves within the same nebula should have drawn down orbital [...]

23.04.10-SDO Unveiled.

An SDO Original!
    Cool images Alert: NASA’s recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has released some fairly mind-blowing pics and videos this week. The video below is but a small sampling of the capabilities showcased by this Sun-monitoring spacecraft. “We’ve seen prominences before, but not like this!” states Alan Title of Lockheed Martin. SDO was launched [...]

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