Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time found that the outer region of a dusty disk encircling a brown dwarf contains millimeter sized solid grains like those found in denser disks around newborn stars. The surprising finding challenges theories of how rocky, Earth-size planets form, and suggests that rocky planets [continue reading]

  A NASA spacecraft studying Mercury has provided compelling support for the long-held hypothesis the planet harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatiles within its permanently shadowed polar craters. Mercury’s North Polar Region Acquired By The Arecibo Observatory. Image Credit: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory  The new information comes from NASA’s MErcury [continue reading]

November 30, 2012 SNR 0509-67.5, a supernova remnant in the LMC Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Hughes et al, Optical: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) SNR 0509-67.5 (SNR 0509 for short) is the remnant of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, located some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. It is about 23 light-years across [continue reading]

  An international team of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the Japanese universities of Kobe, Hyogo, and Saitama used the Subaru Telescope to capture a clear image of the protoplanetary disk of the star UX Tauri A. The team’s subsequent, detailed study of the disk’s characteristics suggests that its dust [continue reading]

November 29, 2012 Galaxy Triplet NGC 6769-71, an interacting triplet of galaxies in Pavo Image Credit: ESO Galaxy Triplet NGC 6769-71 is a gravitational interacting triplet of galaxies, located about 190 million light years away in the southern constellation of Pavo (the Peacock). Most galaxies are members of clusters of galaxies. In these, they move [continue reading]

  An international team led by researchers from the University of Warwick and Oxford University is now dealing with unexpected results of an experiment with strongly heated graphite (up to 17,000 degrees Kelvin). The findings may pose a new problem for physicists working in laser-driven nuclear fusion and may also lead astrophysicists to revise our [continue reading]